The A to Z of Indian Phone Number Format

Senior Writer: Supriya Bajaj

Date: October 17, 2023

Knowing the Indian phone number format is essential to collaborate with your new Indian team or discuss business with Indian prospects.

Not just that, learning about the correct Indian phone number format will also help you efficiently connect with customers and provide better support. This is needed, especially when 77% of customers believe amazing customer service is pivotal to brand loyalty and sales.

In this article, we enlist multiple reasons why understanding the Indian phone number format is important for your business with India. We will also walk you through the step-by-step process of how to write a phone number with country code (Indian landline number and mobile phone number) with Indian phone number examples and important area codes. Let’s get scrolling!

Expert Advice

"The Indian numbering format consists of 3 major codes–exit, country, and area codes. Entering them correctly makes your call go through successfully, which is extremely important for fruitful business discussions with Indian customers, stakeholders, and teams. Healthy discussions are key to high customer satisfaction, accelerated deal closure rate, and efficient operations. You cannot afford to miss any of these."

Mastering the Indian Phone Number Format: Why it Matters

Every country has a unique numbering system, and India is no different. Understanding the Indian phone number format is essential for businesses expanding to India and having a customer base, clients, or team. Only then, you can dial India in minutes with confidence.

Here are some other reasons why understanding the Indian phone number format is essential –

1. Correct routing of the call

If you’re trying to dial India, dialing the right codes to make your call go through at once is mandatory.

• Country code: Entering the right country code or international prefix ensures you reach the right country (India). Understanding these matters as a wrong country code would route your call to a different country or might not go through and get disconnected.
• Area code: Knowing the area code helps you understand the area/region you’re dialing to within India. This ensures you’re targeting the correct Indian city (your contact’s area), without which the call won’t get through.

• Numbering structure: Being aware of the correct order of these codes (the correct format) will allow you to dial Indian numbers confidently without confusion or time drainage.

2. Expanding to India

Understanding the number format and correctly routing your calls allows you to reach and follow up with your Indian customers, teams, and clients quickly and conduct business efficiently, leading to healthy market penetration, business expansion, and a strong relationship.

Interested in building a strong local presence in India? Check out how to get a local phone number.

3. Efficiency and cost-effectiveness

Understanding the correct Indian phone number format ensures that you dial the right contact instantly without wasting any call minutes (and costs) talking to the wrong contact. To be more cost-effective, get an Indian virtual phone number. Explore 15+ free virtual phone number providers.

Also, if wrongly dialed numbers get through, you communicate the wrong thing to the wrong contact. You cannot afford this, as 68% of businesses believe that miscommunication leads to time drainage, and 42% say it results in stress and burnout.

4. Efficient customer support

As an international business, you must know the Indian phone format to serve your Indian customers well. This will ultimately lead to increased customer satisfaction and an enhanced brand image.

5. Indian market analysis

Thoroughly understanding the Indian phone number format will help you conduct efficient market research. You’ll then be able to make better decisions based on all the customer data the Indian numbers help you gather.

Codes for Dialing Indian Phone Numbers

1. xx as exit code

2. 91 country code

3. xx area code

Dialing Indian phone numbers includes three codes, which are:

• Exit code: Your (aka dialer’s) country’s international access code to route calls overseas. For example, the exit code would be 011 if you’re dialing from the US and 00 when dialing from the UK.
• Country code: (91) to direct your call to India.
• Area code: This is specific to your recipient’s location in India. (to be eliminated when dialing an Indian mobile phone number)

Let’s now dive into the Indian area codes. So, the Indian area codes are 2-3 digits long, which you must dial after the country code when dialing an Indian landline. The two digits area codes are of metropolitan cities, whereas other cities have 3-digit long area codes.

Here are the area codes of some of the most popularly dialed Indian cities:

Indian Phone Number Example

Calling an Indian phone number can be challenging if you’re new to dialing to India. To ease the process, we have curated a list of examples of how the Indian landline and mobile numbers look when dialed from a foreign country, with all the codes.

Indian landline number example

Let’s talk about what the telephone numbers in India look like when dialed from a foreign landline. The format includes the country code, area code, and complete telephone number in India (1234 5678).

Don’t forget to add your home country’s exit code before dialing these Indian phone numbers.

Indian mobile number example

Now let’s see how the Indian phone number format changes when dialing an Indian mobile phone number. Wondering how many digits does an Indian mobile number consist of? Well, the Indian mobile number is ten digits long. The mobile number format in India includes the country code plus ten-digit Indian mobile number (1234 5678 21).

Don’t forget to add a ‘+’ symbol as an exit code before dialing these Indian mobile phone numbers.

How To Call an Indian Phone Number?

To make your call to an Indian phone number get through every single time, you must enter the right elements. Here are the elements in the right order for calling India.

Calling an Indian landline

Here are the steps to call an Indian telephone number:

Step 1: Get the international access code

The international access code is your home country’s exit code that you must enter before making international calls via landline. The aim of entering this code is to indicate to your carrier that you will make an international call.  For example, if you’re dialing from the UK, you must enter UK’s exit code (00).

Step 2: Enter the Indian country code

Once you’ve correctly entered the exit code, enter the India country code. The international calling code for India signals that you want to reach India phone number. The India country code is ‘91’.

Step 3: Key in the Indian area code

Indian area codes are 2-3 digits numbers to be entered right after India’s country code to route your calls to the recipient’s area in India. For example, Mumbai, an Indian city, has an area code of 22.

Note: Refer to our table to find India’s popularly dialed area codes. If you don’t find the one you’re looking for, search for it here!

Step 4: Finally, carefully enter your contact’s Indian phone number

Enter your Indian contact’s complete Indian landline or mobile number.

Suppose you (from the UK) want to reach your contact in Mumbai, India, with India phone number 1234 5678. The correct dialing format that must be shown up on your dial screen should look similar to this 00-91-22-1234 5678 (when dialing from a landline).

You May Also Read : Best Indian Virtual Number Provider (& Mobile Number Provider)

Calling an Indian mobile

Here are the steps to call an Indian mobile:

Step 1: Enter the international access code

The international access code is your home country’s exit code that you must enter before making international calls via mobile. When calling India phone numbers (mobile), first enter ‘+’ as an international access code.  For example, if you’re dialing from the UK or anywhere for that matter, you must enter ‘+’.

Step 2: Dial the Indian country code

Once you’ve entered the ‘+’ symbol, enter the Indian country code to route your call to India. The country code for India is ‘91’.

Step 3: Now key in your Indian contact’s mobile phone number

Enter your Indian contact’s complete Indian mobile number.

Suppose you want to reach your contact in Mumbai, India, with a mobile number 1234 5678 21. The correct dialing format that you must enter on your dial pad should look similar to this +91-1234 5678 21.

You May Also Read : How to Get an Asia Phone Number?

Wrapping Up

Knowing the India phone numbers format ensures your call gets through in one go without resource/time drainage or miscommunication. Successfully reaching your contacts will help build and strengthen relationships and promote result-oriented discussions. You just have to correctly understand and remember the codes, including exit, country, and area codes.

However, you must remember that even knowing the right format doesn’t 100% guarantee you’ll not get confused. Also, dialing international numbers is a costly affair if done frequently.

To make long distance calls with zero confusion and at an affordable rate while building a local presence and boosting the brand’s credibility, get a virtual phone number instantly from a reliable virtual local phone number provider like CallHippo.

You May Also Read : Best Free International Calling Apps in 2023

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the country code of India for making a phone call?

The country code of India is (91). This ensures that your call gets routed to India when you dial an Indian phone number from outside the country.

2. Why is my call to India not working?

If you’ve been trying to reach your Indian contact from some other country but haven’t been successful yet, these are the probable reasons:

1. You must’ve mistyped the recipient’s contact number.
2. You’ve dialed the number in the wrong format. So, check how many digits you’ve entered and its order. This right one is exit code>country code>two or three digit area codes>local number.
3. You’ve been dialing the exit code before the country code, even with a mobile. When calling internationally via mobile, you replace the exit code with the ‘+’ symbol.

3. How to call India for free?

To place free international calls to India, rely on Skype or WhatsApp. However, you must remember that these apps are insufficient for growing business because of the lack of management and advanced features.

A more reliable option is getting a virtual local number from a reliable VoIP provider like CallHippo, which lets you make high-quality international calls at an affordable price while enhancing your local presence.

Supriya Bajaj

Supriya is a highly skilled content writer with over 8 years of experience in the SaaS domain. She believes in curating engaging, informative, and SEO-friendly content to simplify highly technical concepts. With an expansive portfolio of long-format blogs, newsletters, whitepapers, and case studies, Supriya is dedicated to staying in touch with emerging SaaS trends to produce relevant and reliable content.

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