Phone Number Validator

Validate and format phone numbers from any country using Google's libphonenumber — the same library that powers Android, Google Contacts, and billions of other applications. Submit a list of phone numbers and get back validity status, number type (mobile/fixed-line/VoIP/toll-free), E.164 format, national format, country detection, and country calling code.

Whether you are cleaning a CRM database, verifying leads before a campaign, or building a data pipeline that requires standardized phone data, this actor gives you accurate, production-grade results at scale.

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🔍 What does it do?

For each phone number you provide, the actor returns:

• Validity check — is it a real, dialable number? (isValid, isPossible)
• Number type — mobile, fixed_line, toll_free, premium_rate, voip, shared_cost, pager, personal_number, uan, voicemail, or fixed_line_or_mobile
• Country detection — ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (e.g. US, GB, FR)
• Country calling code — e.g. +1, +44, +33
• National number — the subscriber number without the country code
• E.164 format — the universal standard format used in APIs and databases (e.g. +12025550173)
• International format — human-readable international notation (e.g. +1 202 555 0173)
• National format — locally formatted number (e.g. (202) 555-0173 for US)
• RFC 3966 format — URI format for click-to-call (e.g. tel:+12025550173)

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👥 Who is it for?

CRM and sales teams — clean your contact database before launching an outreach campaign. Invalid or wrongly formatted numbers cause failed calls, bounced SMS messages, and wasted spend.

Lead generation agencies — verify that phone numbers collected from web scraping, form fills, or purchased lists are valid before handing them to clients. A list with 30% invalid numbers destroys your reputation.

Developers and data engineers — normalize phone numbers to E.164 format for storage in databases, APIs, or Twilio/Vonage pipelines. Consistent formatting eliminates duplicate detection errors.

Marketing operations — segment your audience by phone number type before a campaign. Mobile numbers can receive SMS; fixed-line numbers cannot. Toll-free and premium-rate numbers should be filtered from automated dialers.

Compliance teams — identify and remove invalid numbers from your system before GDPR/TCPA audits. Storing clearly invalid data is a liability.

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💡 Why use this actor?

• Google's libphonenumber — the authoritative phone number library used by Android, Google Contacts, WhatsApp, and more. No homegrown regex guesswork.
• Max metadata — uses the full libphonenumber-js/max dataset for the most accurate type detection across all countries.
• Multiple output formats — get E.164, international, national, and RFC 3966 formats in a single pass.
• Graceful error handling — invalid numbers are returned with isValid: false and an error message rather than crashing the run.
• Default country fallback — process local-format numbers (without country prefix) by setting a default country code.
• Deduplication — duplicate phone numbers in the input are automatically removed.
• No proxy needed — runs entirely without network requests to external services (all validation is done locally using libphonenumber metadata).

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📊 Output data

Each validated phone number produces one dataset row:

Field	Type	Example	Description
input	string	"+1 202-555-0173"	Original input string
isValid	boolean	true	Whether the number is valid for dialing
isPossible	boolean	true	Whether the number has the right length (looser check)
type	string	"fixed_line_or_mobile"	Number type: mobile, fixed_line, toll_free, voip, etc.
country	string	"US"	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code
countryCode	string	"+1"	Country calling code with + prefix
nationalNumber	string	"2025550173"	Subscriber number without country code
internationalFormat	string	"+1 202 555 0173"	Human-readable international format
nationalFormat	string	"(202) 555-0173"	Locally formatted number
e164Format	string	"+12025550173"	E.164 standard format (for APIs/databases)
rfc3966Format	string	"tel:+12025550173"	RFC 3966 URI format (for click-to-call)
carrier	string/null	null	Carrier info (not available in libphonenumber-js)
error	string/null	null	Error message if parsing failed
validatedAt	string	"2026-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"	ISO timestamp of validation

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💰 How much does it cost to validate phone numbers?

Pricing is pay-per-event (PPE):

• Start fee: $0.01 per run (one-time)
• Per number: $0.001 per phone number validated

Examples:

• 100 numbers → $0.01 (start) + $0.10 (validation) = $0.11
• 1,000 numbers → $0.01 + $1.00 = $1.01
• 10,000 numbers → $0.01 + $10.00 = $10.01

All Apify accounts include a $5/month free tier, which covers ~4,900 validations per month at no cost.

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🚀 How to use it

Step 1: Open the actor

Go to Phone Number Validator on Apify Store and click Try for free.

Step 2: Enter your phone numbers

In the Phone Numbers field, enter one phone number per line. Include the country dialing code (e.g. +1 for US, +44 for UK) for the most accurate results.

Step 3: Set a default country (optional)

If you are validating local-format numbers that do not include a country prefix (e.g. (202) 555-0173 for a US number), set the Default Country field to the appropriate ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (e.g. US).

Step 4: Run and download

Click Start. Results appear in the dataset as they are processed. Download as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Storage tab.

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⚙️ Input parameters

Phone Numbers (required)

• Type: Array of strings
• Description: The list of phone numbers to validate. One number per entry.
• Best practice: Include the country calling code (e.g. +1 202 555 0173) for reliable country detection and type identification. Numbers without a country code will be interpreted against the defaultCountry setting.
• Formats accepted: Any format libphonenumber can parse — +12025550173, +1 (202) 555-0173, +1-202-555-0173, 202-555-0173 (with defaultCountry set), etc.

Default Country (optional)

• Type: String (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, e.g. US, GB, DE)
• Description: Fallback country used when a phone number does not include a country prefix.
• Default: None (international numbers always work regardless of this setting)
• Example: Set to US to correctly parse (800) 555-0199 as a US toll-free number.

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📤 Output example

{
    "input": "+33 6 12 34 56 78",
    "isValid": true,
    "isPossible": true,
    "type": "mobile",
    "country": "FR",
    "countryCode": "+33",
    "nationalNumber": "612345678",
    "internationalFormat": "+33 6 12 34 56 78",
    "nationalFormat": "06 12 34 56 78",
    "e164Format": "+33612345678",
    "rfc3966Format": "tel:+33612345678",
    "carrier": null,
    "error": null,
    "validatedAt": "2026-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Invalid number example:

{
    "input": "not-a-phone-number",
    "isValid": false,
    "isPossible": false,
    "type": null,
    "country": null,
    "countryCode": null,
    "nationalNumber": null,
    "internationalFormat": null,
    "nationalFormat": null,
    "e164Format": null,
    "rfc3966Format": null,
    "carrier": null,
    "error": "NOT_A_NUMBER",
    "validatedAt": "2026-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}

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💡 Tips and best practices

• Always include the country code (+) when possible — it eliminates ambiguity and gives you the most accurate type and country detection.
• Use E.164 for storage — the e164Format field (+12025550173) is the canonical format used by Twilio, Vonage, AWS SNS, and most telecom APIs. Store this, not the original input.
• Filter by type before SMS campaigns — only mobile and fixed_line_or_mobile numbers can receive SMS. Filter out fixed_line, toll_free, premium_rate, and voip before uploading to your SMS provider.
• isPossible vs isValid — isPossible is a faster, looser check (correct length for the country). isValid is the full check against the national numbering plan. For strict data quality, use isValid. For quick triage of obviously broken numbers, isPossible: false is a fast filter.
• Batch large lists — the actor handles any size list in a single run. For millions of numbers, use the API and stream results from the dataset.
• Deduplication is automatic — if you send the same number multiple times in one run, it is validated once and billed once.

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🔗 Integrations

Twilio / SMS campaign pre-validation

Before uploading contacts to Twilio Messaging Service, run them through this actor and filter for isValid: true and type in ['mobile', 'fixed_line_or_mobile']. Export the e164Format column as your contact list. This eliminates failed message delivery fees.

HubSpot / Salesforce CRM cleanup

Export phone number fields from your CRM, validate them in bulk, then use the Apify API to import results back. Update records where isValid: false with a "phone_invalid" tag. Use e164Format to standardize formatting across all CRM records.

n8n / Make.com automation

Connect this actor to an n8n or Make.com workflow: trigger on new form submissions, pass the phone field through this validator, and branch on isValid. Route valid numbers to your CRM or dialer; route invalid ones to a Slack alert channel for manual review.

Google Sheets

Use the Apify Google Sheets integration to pull validation results directly into a spreadsheet. Create columns for each output field and use conditional formatting to highlight isValid: false rows in red.

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🛠️ API usage

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/phone-number-validator').call({
    phoneNumbers: ['+1 202-555-0173', '+44 20 7946 0958', '+33 6 12 34 56 78'],
    defaultCountry: 'US',
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(token='YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')

run = client.actor('automation-lab/phone-number-validator').call(run_input={
    'phoneNumbers': ['+1 202-555-0173', '+44 20 7946 0958', '+33 6 12 34 56 78'],
    'defaultCountry': 'US',
})

for item in client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).iterate_items():
    print(item)

cURL

curl -X POST \
  'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~phone-number-validator/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "phoneNumbers": ["+1 202-555-0173", "+44 20 7946 0958"],
    "defaultCountry": "US"
  }'

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Use with Claude AI (MCP)

This actor is available as a tool in Claude AI through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Add it to Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, or any MCP-compatible client.

Setup for Claude Code

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com"

Setup for Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code

Add this to your MCP config file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com"
        }
    }
}

Example prompts

• "Validate these phone numbers and tell me which ones are valid mobile numbers: +1 555-123-4567, +44 7911 123456, +33 6 12 34 56 78."
• "I have a list of phone numbers exported from my CRM — validate them all and return only the valid ones in E.164 format."
• "Check if +1 800 555 0100 is a toll-free number and what country it belongs to."

Learn more in the Apify MCP documentation.

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⚖️ Legality and data privacy

Phone number validation using libphonenumber operates entirely on the local metadata bundled with the library — no phone numbers are sent to any external service. The validation is purely computational.

Processing phone numbers in bulk for CRM cleanup or lead validation falls under normal data processing activities. However, if you are processing phone numbers of EU residents, ensure your use case complies with GDPR requirements for data minimization and legitimate purpose. The actor does not store data beyond what is in your Apify dataset.

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❓ FAQ

Q: Why does a valid-looking number show isValid: false?

A: isValid checks the number against the national numbering plan for its country — the number must be an actual assignable number, not just the right length. For example, +1 555-123-4567 is a US number with valid format but isValid: false because the 555 area code prefix is largely unassigned. Numbers that are isPossible: true but isValid: false have the right length but fail the stricter national plan check.

Q: Why is type showing fixed_line_or_mobile instead of mobile or fixed_line?

A: For some countries (notably the US), the national numbering plan does not distinguish between mobile and fixed-line numbers at the number level — a single block can be assigned to either. This is a data limitation of the numbering plan, not a bug. For countries like France, Germany, UK, and Brazil, the actor correctly identifies mobile vs fixed-line.

Q: I set defaultCountry but numbers with a + prefix are still parsed as foreign numbers.

A: Correct — this is the expected behavior. The + prefix always takes priority over defaultCountry. The defaultCountry only applies to numbers that have no country prefix at all.

Q: Can I validate VoIP numbers?

A: Yes. VoIP numbers that are assigned through a national carrier and registered in libphonenumber's database will show type: "voip" and isValid: true. VoIP numbers from providers that use unregistered ranges may show isValid: false.

Q: What happens if I submit thousands of duplicate numbers?

A: Duplicates are automatically removed at the start of the run. You are only billed for unique numbers that are actually validated.

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