Temporary numbers for OpenAI: An Easy Guide

Why use temporary numbers for OpenAI?

There are many reasons why you’d want to use a short-term number to sign up for ChatGPT:

1. Privacy. Why give away your personal phone number? You can just rent a disposable line for a couple of minutes, sign up and be done with it.
2. Avoid spam and unwanted calls. If any service you use ever has a data breach, your personal phone number can be used to bother you with unwanted calls and messages. A temporary number mitigates this risk.
3. Country restrictions. OpenAI doesn’t support every country. A US number lets you complete the phone step from anywhere.
4. Easy to use. Temporary numbers are easy, cheap and secure.

Where do you get one?

Some sites say they will give you a free number. Usually you’ll find out that most of those numbers don’t work — OpenAI will just tell you that the number has been used too many times, and after a few tries it will ask you to wait. Free sites are also often full of ads.

To get a number that works you need a paid one. Luckily, they are cheap — check the current OpenAI price on our pricing list.

How do temporary numbers work?

The process is simple:

Balance is only deducted from your account once you get the SMS code. If no code arrives, the rental is refunded automatically, and our friendly support will help you if you run into any issues.

VoIP vs real numbers

Some services online give you a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) number for free. Google Voice is one example; TextNow is another.

Sadly, these numbers will not work for OpenAI — it will just hit you with a “It looks like this is a virtual phone number (also known as VoIP). Please provide a valid, non-virtual phone number to continue.” error. Our numbers are real non-VoIP USA mobile numbers, so they pass this check.

Get a number for OpenAI