How to receive SMS online free: the complete guide
How to receive text messages online
Pick a free number from the list above, or open a country page to choose a local one. Paste it into the app or website that is asking for your phone number, then go back to the number's page. Its inbox updates on its own, so the verification code shows up there within a few seconds, without refreshing.
Most codes arrive in under a minute. If nothing has arrived after about three minutes, the service has probably stopped sending to that number: pick another one, ideally one that received a message recently (each number shows when its last SMS came in).
No registration: anonymous SMS in seconds
You do not need an account, an email address or a SIM card to use the free numbers. The number is not yours and is not linked to you, so the service you are signing up to never sees your real phone number. That is what anonymous SMS means here: the code reaches you, your identity does not reach them.
AnonymSMS has offered this since 2018 and is now asms.ai: the same free numbers and the same team, rebuilt as a faster site with an API and MCP server for AI agents.
Why use a temporary phone number
Every account you create with your own number links that account to you, and many companies pass numbers on for marketing. A temporary phone number keeps your real one out of sign-up forms, cuts down on sales calls and texts, and stops your accounts being tied together by one number.
It also works anywhere with an internet connection: no mobile signal, no roaming and no second SIM needed. Developers use the same numbers to test sign-up flows without a drawer full of SIM cards.
Receive SMS for any app or service
The free numbers receive codes from the apps people actually use: social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X, chat apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber and Discord, dating apps such as Tinder, email providers such as Gmail and Outlook, and AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude. Each service has its own page with numbers that recently received its codes.
Some services refuse numbers that many people have used. When a free number is rejected, use a private number or the pay-per-service option instead: the code goes to a number only you can see, and an OTP order is refunded if no code arrives.
Are the free numbers temporary?
Yes. They are public, shared numbers: anyone can open a number's page and read its messages, so never use one for banking, for an account you need to keep, or for anything you would not want others to see. Use them for low-stakes sign-ups and one-off verifications.
Numbers are retired once they stop receiving messages, and new ones are added regularly, so the list keeps moving. A number's page shows whether it is active, how many messages it has received and when the last one arrived.
Numbers from the UK, the US, Europe and more
Some services only accept a local number. Free numbers are available in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, France, Georgia and more, and you can use any of them from wherever you are. Pick the country first, then any number in it.
For a country we do not have as a free number, or when you need the number for longer, rent a private number for a day, a week or longer.
Free numbers or a private number?
The free numbers cost nothing and need no sign-up, but they are shared. A private number is yours alone: nobody else sees its inbox, and you can keep it for as long as you need, which matters for accounts you will log back into. Pay-per-service (OTP) numbers sit in between: one code for one service, charged only when it works.
Building an agent or an automation? The same numbers are available through the REST API and the MCP server, so software can request a number and read the code without a person in the loop.