Temporary Phone Number: Burner & Disposable Options (2026)

"Temporary phone number", "burner number" and "disposable phone number" all mean the same thing: a number that isn't your main one and that you can walk away from. The name doesn't tell you much. What matters is who else can read the messages, whether the number can take a phone call, and what happens to it after you stop paying or stop using it.

Search for a temporary phone number and the first page is full of free SMS sites. They solve one narrow problem. This guide covers all four ways to get a short-term number, what each costs, and the cases where each one goes wrong.

The four kinds of temporary number, compared

Pick by what the number has to do. A code you'll never need again can go to a public inbox. A Marketplace listing, a dating profile or a short project needs a number that only you can read and that people can actually call.

The prepaid SIM is the only option on this list that gets you a mobile number, which is what the strictest apps insist on. It is also the slowest to set up and usually needs you to be in the country. Everything else gives you an internet (VoIP) number.

Free receive-SMS websites: fine for throwaway sign-ups only

A free temporary phone number site shows you a list of numbers and a public inbox for each. You type one of the numbers into a sign-up form, refresh the page, and the code appears. There is no account and no cost, which is why these sites own the top of the search results.

The trade-offs are serious, and they're built into how the sites work:

• Every message is public. Anyone browsing the page sees your code at the same moment you do, and can use it first.
• Thousands of people share each number. If you sign up for an account with it, anyone can later request a password reset to the same number and read the link.
• Big services block them. The numbers are listed publicly, so apps that care about fake sign-ups add them to blocklists quickly. A code that never arrives is the normal outcome.
• No calls. They only show incoming texts, so a service that verifies by voice call won't work.

Use one for a newsletter, a coupon or a forum you'll visit once. Don't use one for email, social media, shopping accounts with a saved card, or anything with your real name on it.

Burner apps and free texting apps

A burner app gives you a private second number on your phone for calls and texts, and lets you delete it later. Burner and Hushed are the best-known names, and both charge for the number through a subscription or prepaid credit. Unlike public SMS sites, nobody else sees your messages.

Free texting apps such as Google Voice and TextNow also give you a private number, with two limits. Both are for people in the US (TextNow also covers Canada), and both take back numbers that go unused. That suits a free long-term number better than a throwaway one. We compare the full list of apps, free and paid, in our guide to the best second phone number apps.

If you're outside the US or Canada, most burner apps and both free apps won't sign you up. That's the most common reason people end up buying a number instead.

A paid number you cancel when you're done

A paid virtual number is the closest thing to a real burner phone without buying a phone. It's private, it rings, it takes texts, and it stops existing for you the day you release it. With BubblyPhone you pick a US number by state or area code and it works as soon as you buy it.

• Cost: $6 up front ($3 setup plus the first $3 month), then $3 a month from your balance. Or $9.99/month by card with no setup fee and $6 of calling credit added each month.
• Calls: ring in your browser or the iPhone and Android apps, forward to your own mobile, or go to voicemail, which we transcribe.
• Texts: you receive them and can reply. Replies to a few carriers can fail, and you can't send bulk or first-contact texts.
• Caller ID: calls you make to US numbers show the temporary number, so your personal one stays hidden.
• Ending it: release the number from your dashboard whenever you want. There's no contract. Card subscriptions run to the end of the paid month.

Where a short-term BubblyPhone number makes sense:

• Selling a car, a sofa or concert tickets on Marketplace or Craigslist.
• Renting out a room or listing a property for a few weeks.
• Online dating, before you're ready to share your real number.
• A trip, a temporary job or a short project where people in the US need to reach you.
• Testing a product or a support line without exposing a team member's phone.

If you end up keeping it, it simply becomes your second line. The guide to getting a US number from outside the US covers the longer-term side. Emergency calls (911) aren't supported, so keep your normal phone for those.

Will a temporary number work for verification codes?

Sometimes, and it depends far more on the app than on the number. Many apps look up what kind of line a number is before sending a code. Internet numbers, including every app and virtual number on this page, show up as VoIP or landline, never as mobile.

• Apps that say no in their own help pages: WhatsApp, Microsoft, ChatGPT, Cash App and Zelle.
• Apps that have sent codes to BubblyPhone numbers: Google, Apple, Amazon, PayPal, Uber, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Discord, among others. That shows it can work, not that every sign-up will.
• Public SMS-site numbers fail most often, because they are blocklisted by number, not just by type.

Before you pay for any number, look up how apps will see it with the virtual number checker, and check the app against our list of apps that refuse VoIP numbers.

When not to use a temporary number

Don't put a temporary number on any account you want to keep. Numbers get recycled. When you give one up, the provider can hand it to someone else, and that person receives every login code and password-reset text meant for you. Princeton researchers showed in 2021 that most recycled numbers they sampled were still tied to accounts at services like Amazon and PayPal.

• Banking, payments and email: use your main mobile number, and an authenticator app or passkey where offered.
• Accounts tied to your identity (government, tax, health): use a number you will still have in five years.
• Before releasing a number, remove it from every account where you entered it.

Can a burner number be traced?

Yes, by the provider and by anyone with a legal order. A burner number hides your personal number from the people you call and text. It doesn't make you anonymous: the provider knows which account owns the number and how it was paid for, and will hand that over when the law requires it.

That's the right expectation for normal privacy: keeping your real number away from strangers, spam lists and data brokers. Using any number to harass, threaten or scam people is illegal, and BubblyPhone suspends numbers used that way. If you want to hide your caller ID on your regular phone instead, see how to hide your number when calling.

A temporary number is also different from a fake one. A fake phone number generator makes numbers in the right format for testing or filling in a form, but nobody owns them and they can't receive anything.

Frequently asked questions

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