For the millions with family in Brazil, from the Ironbound in Newark to Framingham to Miami, this is the simple way to reach a phone in São Paulo, Rio, or the interior without an app on their end.
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Rates updated October 31, 2026
To reach a Brazil number from the United States, dial these three parts in order.
011 55 11 96123 4567
From any mobile, anywhere in the world, you can dial +55 11 96123 4567 instead. Press and hold 0 to type the +, and the phone picks the right access code for wherever you are.
Numbers in Brazil carry no leading trunk digit, so there is nothing to strip. (11) 96123-4567 is dialed exactly as written, with +55 in front. Removing a digit here is what makes the call fail.
Mobile numbers in Brazil are not all the same length (this example has 11 digits after +55), so a different count is not a mistake in itself. If a call does not connect, check the start of the number against the rule above.
Only the first part changes. Your access code replaces the 011, then 55 and the number stay exactly the same.
A ~ means wait for the second dial tone before dialing the rest. It is not a digit you press.
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The heaviest call flow into Brazil comes from the United States, home to an estimated 950,000 Brazilians by birth or ancestry - Migration Policy Institute. Half live in just three states: Florida (about 23%), Massachusetts (17%), and California (9%) - MPI. The dense hubs are unmistakable: Framingham and Somerville outside Boston, the Ironbound district of Newark, New Jersey (long a Brazilian and Portuguese quarter), and Deerfield Beach / Pompano Beach in South Florida near Miami. Callers from these communities are ringing parents and grandparents in Minas Gerais (the origin state of much of the Massachusetts diaspora, area codes 31, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38), Goiás (62/64), Espírito Santo (27/28), and the big coastal capitals. Beyond the US, Brazil pulls calls from Portugal (its largest European diaspora, sharing the language), Japan (the dekasegi community of Japanese-Brazilians, mainly around Aichi and Shizuoka), the United Kingdom, and Paraguay - Brazilian diaspora.
From inside Brazil, the international access code is 00, but there is a national twist: you must insert a two-digit carrier selection code (CSP) between the 00 and the country code, so the real pattern is 00 + CSP + country code + number - Telephone numbers in Brazil. The CSP picks which long-distance operator carries the call (for example 15 Vivo, 21 Claro, 41 TIM, 14 Oi), and there is no single default: a Brazilian dialing the US punches something like 00 15 1 555 123 4567. The busiest outbound corridors mirror the diaspora in reverse, plus Portugal and Argentina (neighbor and Mercosul partner) and the United States for family and business. This CSP requirement is a purely domestic quirk: when someone reaches Brazil from abroad through InternationalCall.co, none of it applies. You just dial +55.
Dial your international access, then Brazil's country code 55. From a US line that is 011 55; on InternationalCall.co you just enter + and 55.
Add the two-digit DDD area code (São Paulo 11, Rio 21, Belo Horizonte 31, Brasília 61). Do NOT dial a 0 before it: the domestic trunk 0 is dropped when calling from abroad.
Enter the subscriber number: 9 digits for a mobile (it starts with 9), or 8 digits for a landline (starts with 2-5).
A complete mobile is +55 followed by 11 national digits (2 area + 9 subscriber); a landline is +55 plus 10 national digits.
The two biggest gotchas are the trunk 0 and the ninth digit. Inside Brazil a long-distance call is 0 + CSP + DDD + number, but from abroad you drop the 0 entirely and never add a carrier code - Telephone numbers in Brazil. And every mobile now carries a leading 9 after the area code, so any 8-digit cell number saved before 2016 must have a 9 inserted or it will not connect - ANATEL ninth-digit reform. Avoid 0800 toll-free numbers from abroad (they generally do not route internationally); use the company's normal +55 geographic line instead.
The single most confusing thing about Brazilian numbers is the ninth digit reform. Historically Brazilian mobiles had 8 digits like landlines, but ANATEL added a leading 9 in front of every mobile subscriber number to expand capacity - ANATEL / Telephone numbers in Brazil. It started in São Paulo (area code 11) on 29 July 2012, rolled region by region, and finished in the southern states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul on 6 November 2016 - Telephone numbers in Brazil. The practical fallout: any Brazilian cell number written down before roughly 2016, or copied from an old contact card, is now missing its 9 and will simply fail. If a mobile does not connect, insert a 9 right after the two-digit area code and try again.
Number portability compounds the confusion. Brazilians keep their number when they switch between Vivo, Claro, TIM and Oi, so the old habit of guessing the carrier (and therefore the CSP) from the prefix no longer works, and a number that once behaved like one operator's line may now be on another. From abroad this does not matter to you (you never pick a carrier), but it is why locals sometimes give you a number with a carrier code that no longer fits.
Reaching institutions is its own problem. Brazilian 0800 toll-free numbers generally do not route from outside the country and are not free when they do - Toll-free number behavior, and many carriers even block or surcharge 0800 from mobiles inside Brazil. So to reach a Brazilian bank, airline or government line from the US, skip the 0800 and use its ordinary geographic +55 landline (commonly an 11 São Paulo or 21 Rio number).
Finally, expect the person not to answer an unknown ring. After a flood of telemarketing, ANATEL now requires active telemarketers to call from the 0303 prefix and has moved to block robocallers that place over 100,000 sub-3-second calls a day, alongside the Não Me Perturbe do-not-disturb registry - CNN Brasil / ANATEL. Brazilians screen aggressively as a result, so an unexpected foreign call may go ignored until you send a quick WhatsApp to say it is you.
Every Brazilian number breaks into two parts: a two-digit DDD area code (Discagem Direta à Distância) and the subscriber number - Telephone numbers in Brazil. Written locally you will see it as (11) 98765-4321 for a mobile or (11) 3456-7890 for a landline; the parentheses hold the DDD and the hyphen splits the subscriber block. In full international form that becomes +55 11 98765 4321.
The rule that never breaks: a mobile is 9 digits and its first digit is 9; a landline is 8 digits and starts with 2, 3, 4 or 5 - Telephone numbers in Brazil. So a complete Brazilian mobile carries 11 national digits (2 + 9) and a landline 10 (2 + 8). Valid DDDs run from 11 to 99, but the round codes ending in zero (10, 20, 30 ... 90) and a handful like 23, 25, 26, 29, 52 are reserved and never used - List of dialling codes in Brazil. If you are handed a bare 8- or 9-digit number with no area code, ask which city it is: without the DDD it cannot be dialed from outside that region.
Brazil's DDDs are broadly grouped by region, which is a handy sanity check when someone reads you a number. The 1x codes are São Paulo state (11 for the São Paulo metro, 19 Campinas, 13 Santos, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 the interior). The 2x codes cover Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo (21 Rio city, 22 and 24 interior Rio, 27 Vitória). The 3x block is Minas Gerais (31 Belo Horizonte, 32 Juiz de Fora, 34 Uberlândia) - List of dialling codes in Brazil.
Heading south and central, 41 is Curitiba, 47 Joinville/Blumenau, 48 Florianópolis, 51 Porto Alegre, 61 Brasília and the Federal District, 62 Goiânia. The Northeast and North run 71 Salvador, 81 Recife, 85 Fortaleza, 84 Natal, 91 Belém, 92 Manaus - List of dialling codes in Brazil. Because a number can be ported and people move, the DDD tells you where the line was issued, not necessarily where the person is standing today, but it is still your best clue to their city and time zone.
Brazil spans four time zones, but you rarely need to think about more than one: about 93% of Brazilians live in Brasília time (UTC-3), which covers the whole Southeast, South, Northeast coast, Brasília and most of the population centers - Time in Brazil. West of there, Amazon time (UTC-4) covers Manaus (DDD 92), Cuiabá and Mato Grosso; Acre time (UTC-5) covers the far-western state of Acre and southwest Amazonas; and the tiny island of Fernando de Noronha sits at UTC-2 - Time in Brazil.
Crucially, Brazil abolished daylight saving time in 2019, so the country no longer springs forward - Time in Brazil. The gap to the US therefore narrows when the US is on daylight time: in those months São Paulo and Rio are 1 hour ahead of US Eastern (2 hours in US winter). A good rule from the US East Coast is to call in your mid-to-late afternoon to reach someone home for dinner in Rio, or your late morning to catch a shop or office open at lunch in São Paulo. If you are calling Manaus, remember it is an hour behind the coast.
No country leans on WhatsApp quite like Brazil. More than four in five Brazilian internet users send voice messages or make app video calls, and the app is so woven into daily life that Brazilians nickname it ZapZap - Statista. Day to day, families coordinate over WhatsApp text and voice notes rather than picking up the phone, which is exactly why an unexpected regular call can go unanswered.
That is also the gap a real phone call fills. WhatsApp needs the other person to have a smartphone, the app, their account logged in, and data or Wi-Fi at that moment. An elderly parent in the interior of Minas Gerais, a landline at a family business in Salvador, a hospital ward, a notary's office, a bank line: none of those live on WhatsApp. With InternationalCall.co you dial the actual +55 number from your browser and it rings the real phone, mobile or landline, with nothing required on their end. A quick WhatsApp note ("vou te ligar agora") before you dial turns an ignored unknown call into an expected one.
Inside Brazil, making a long-distance call is genuinely a two-step choice. You dial the trunk 0, then a carrier selection code (CSP) to pick who carries the call, then the DDD and number: 0 + CSP + DDD + number - Telephone numbers in Brazil. The CSP is a two-digit operator code where neither digit is zero (for example 15 Vivo, 21 Claro, 41 TIM, 14 Oi), and there is no automatic default, so Brazilians literally memorize a carrier code. For an international call out they extend the same logic: 00 + CSP + country code + number.
From abroad, all of that disappears. You never touch the 0, you never choose a CSP: you dial +55, the DDD, and the number. That is the number-one mistake foreign callers make, keeping the leading 0 that belongs only to domestic dialing - Telephone numbers in Brazil. One more local-only detail: the special 0303 prefix now marks legitimate telemarketing, so a Brazilian who sees 0303 knows it is a sales call - ANATEL rules. You will never dial or need that prefix to reach a person.
It is almost certainly missing its ninth digit. Brazil added a leading 9 to every mobile between 2012 and 2016, so an 8-digit mobile saved before then no longer works - ANATEL ninth-digit reform. Insert a 9 immediately after the two-digit area code and before the old 8 digits (so 11 8765-4321 becomes 11 98765-4321) and it should connect.
Count the digits after the area code and look at the first one. A mobile is 9 digits and starts with 9; a landline is 8 digits and starts with 2, 3, 4 or 5 - Telephone numbers in Brazil. Because of number portability the old carrier-based hints are unreliable, so the leading 9 is your best signal. On InternationalCall.co both cost the same flat per-minute rate.
No. The 0 is Brazil's domestic long-distance trunk prefix and you drop it when dialing internationally - Telephone numbers in Brazil. Just dial +55, then the two-digit DDD (like 11 or 21), then the subscriber number. You also skip the carrier code (CSP) that Brazilians must add domestically.
Usually not. Brazilian 0800 lines generally do not route from outside Brazil and are not free when they do - Toll-free number behavior. To reach a Brazilian bank, airline, or company from the US, use its regular geographic +55 landline (often an 11 or 21 number), which you can dial normally.
The main ones are São Paulo 11, Rio de Janeiro 21, Belo Horizonte 31, Curitiba 41, Porto Alegre 51, Brasília 61, Salvador 71, Recife 81, Fortaleza 85, and Manaus 92 - List of dialling codes in Brazil. The DDD also hints at the time zone: 92 (Manaus) is UTC-4, one hour behind the São Paulo and Rio coast at UTC-3.
Brazil runs on WhatsApp, and unknown incoming voice calls are widely assumed to be spam after years of aggressive telemarketing (ANATEL now forces telemarketers onto the 0303 prefix and blocks robocallers) - ANATEL rules. A quick WhatsApp text before you dial makes the call expected, and a real browser-to-phone call still reaches landlines and elders who never use the app.
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