How to sign up for the Do Not Call Registry

Sign up online (about 2 minutes)

1. Go to donotcall.gov and choose Register a phone number.
2. Enter up to three phone numbers, including cell phones, and your email address.
3. Open the email they send you and click the link within 72 hours. Your registration is not finished until you click it.
4. That’s it. Your number shows up on the Registry the next day.

More than three numbers? Just go through it again.

Or sign up by phone

Call 1-888-382-1222 (TTY 1-866-290-4236) from the phone you want to register, and follow the prompts. One call per number.

Get your proof

1. Go to donotcall.gov and choose Verify a registration.
2. Enter your number and email, then click the link in the email they send.
3. The FTC emails you a confirmation that shows the date your number was registered. Save it as a PDF or screenshot it, and keep it. That date matters for a Registry claim.

When it starts protecting you

Your number is on the list the next day, but telemarketers get up to 31 days to update their lists. For the Registry rule, calls and texts are generally covered once your number has been registered for more than 31 days, and the rule looks for two or more from the same company within 12 months.

Registration never expires. Your number only comes off if it is disconnected and reassigned, or if you ask for it to be removed.

What the Registry does not stop

• Political calls, charities, surveys and debt collectors.
• Purely informational calls, like an appointment reminder.
• A company you have done business with, for a while after (generally up to 18 months after your last purchase or payment, or 3 months after you asked about something), unless you tell them to stop.
• A company you gave written permission to contact you.

Once you tell a company to stop, the rules require it to honor that request. Keeping proof that you told them keeps your record complete.

Not on the list yet?

Some rules do not depend on the Registry at all, like the ones on prerecorded or artificial-voice calls to your cell phone, and on companies that keep contacting you after you told them to stop. Registering today protects you from here on: new sales calls and texts after your first 31 days are covered too.

Registration is always free. If anyone calls offering to sign you up, or asks for money to put you on the list, hang up.

Use your phone for work too?

The Registry protects personal numbers, and many courts treat a registered cell phone as personal even with some work use. What matters is how the number is shown to the public, whose name the account is in, who pays and how much is work. Try the simple Google test in our FAQ.