In recent years, services offering disposable phone numbers for online verification have become increasingly popular. These assigned numbers can be used instead of real phone numbers, which means you can verify your online accounts while also avoiding the hassle of possible spam and unknown calls.

These numbers are also popular for quality assurance (QA) because they allow for testing SMS delivery around the world without the need to buy a SIM card in each country.

In this guide, we’ll detail how to use a temporary phone number to receive one-time password (OTP) verification code texts in order to register for online services including TikTok, Amazon and Netflix.

For a real-world example, we'll show how a temporary number can be used for verification when registering on Twitter.

What Is a Temporary Number?

Temporary number is a phone number on a real SIM card that is rented out over the Internet. Such numbers are typically purchased for text message verification purposes when registering for an online service.

How It Works

• Purchase a temporary number for the selected country and service
• Sign up with the service using the temporary phone number
• The service will send a text message with a one-time code
• Receive the text message and code in your browser or app
• Input the code and complete your registration

The entire process typically takes no more than 5 minutes.

Advantages

• Temporary numbers are cheap (from 10 cents per number)
• You pay only for verification at the requested service
• Numbers are backed up by real SIM cards
• Available worldwide for multiple services
• KYC identity verification not required
• Issued numbers are always unique per person per service

To put it simply, if you only need a phone number to confirm your Twitter account, there is no point in buying a real or virtual SIM card. A temporary number works just as well.

There are quite a few services on the Internet that sell temporary phone numbers, but quality numbers are in short supply due to high demand. Having experienced a number of problems with such services, we found our own suppliers, created a quality control system and, after a long and rigorous testing process, opened a new service: Temp Number.

How to Sign Up for Temp Number: Go to temp-number.org. Log in via Google, Facebook or with your email address.

You can add credits using: Digital currency (WebMoney, QIWI, Perfect Money, PAYEER, etc.), Crypto payments (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, Litecoin, etc.), PayPal or a credit card.

On the main page, select your country and service from the drop-down menus. For example, Germany and Twitter. Select country and service for a temporary number. The price and the temporary number to use will be displayed. Click the "Activate" button once you’re ready to proceed. Once the number is activated, it is valid for 20 minutes.

Open the Twitter website and add the generated temporary phone number into the Twitter registration form. Twitter will send a verification code to the number you added in their registration form. Once it has been sent, go back to the Temp Number page and wait for the verification code. The verification code will typically arrive in 10-30 seconds.

If you accidentally close the Temp Number page, you can return to it from the History tab, which is where all purchased numbers are saved. The activation code will display once it’s available. Copy the code, paste it in the required field on the Twitter website and complete your registration.

Choice of Countries and Services on Temp Number

Temp Number sells real sim numbers from around the world and accepts text messages from most popular online services. We cooperate with several providers and continually update our supply of numbers to ensure quality and usability.

List of countries: Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lietuva, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Martinique, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United-States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam...

What if I Don’t Receive the Verification Code?

In rare cases, your chosen service may not send a text code if they believe the registration is suspicious. You may even be informed that the text was sent although it was actually blocked by an internal security mechanism.

Common Reasons Why You Didn’t Receive a Code:

• You register too many accounts from the same IP/browser/device.
• Country of the temporary number is different from your geolocation.
• You received a bad number that was blacklisted.
• Temporary network or SMS carrier issues.
• Internal security block to prevent registration of bots.
• Number was already registered (dishonest SIM card provider).