From a daughter in Miami checking on her parents in Santiago to a Venezuelan family in Houston calling a cousin who resettled in Chile, callers dial one flat nine-digit number after +56, whether it rings a landline in Valpara铆so, a mobile in Temuco or a home in Punta Arenas.
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Rates updated October 31, 2026
To reach a Chile number from the United States, dial these three parts in order.
011 56 2 2123 4567
From any mobile, anywhere in the world, you can dial +56 2 2123 4567 instead. Press and hold 0 to type the +, and the phone picks the right access code for wherever you are.
Numbers in Chile carry no leading trunk digit, so there is nothing to strip. (2) 2123 4567 is dialed exactly as written, with +56 in front. Removing a digit here is what makes the call fail.
A Chile mobile number is 9 digits after +56. If a call does not connect, count the digits first.
Only the first part changes. Your access code replaces the 011, then 56 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 United States is home to the second-largest Chilean community abroad, after Argentina. Chile's statistics institute and foreign ministry estimated 1,037,346 Chileans living abroad, 42.4% of them in Argentina, and estimated 138,969 in the United States, of whom 96,444 were born in Chile - INE and DICOEX, Segundo Registro de Chilenos en el Exterior. Drawing on 2010 US Census Bureau survey data, the same study placed the Chile-born mainly in Florida (21,530), California (19,124) and New York (12,234), followed by New Jersey and Maryland, so the archetypal call runs from Miami, Los Angeles or the New York area to a parent in Santiago, Valpara铆so or Concepci贸n. The ties are old: Chileans joined the California gold rush in 1849, and a later wave of exiles and asylees arrived after the 1973 coup - Chilean Americans.
A second, newer stream of calls has nothing to do with Chilean-born families. Chile now hosts about 1.54 million international migrants, led by people born in Venezuela (about 428,000), Peru (262,000), Colombia (189,000), Haiti (172,000) and Bolivia (150,000) - UN DESA, International Migrant Stock 2024, so a Venezuelan in Doral or a Haitian in Miami ringing a relative in Santiago is dialing Chile too. Business adds a steady layer: the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement has been in force since January 1, 2004, and two-way U.S. goods and services trade with Chile reached an estimated $49.5 billion in 2025 - USTR, which keeps Chilean exporters and suppliers on the phone with buyers in the US.
Calling out of Chile still runs through a long-distance carrier, a legacy of the old multicarrier system. The regulator's rule is to dial the carrier code, then 0, then the country code and number, or 00 and the country code if the line has a contracted carrier - SUBTEL. In practice a call to the US is 123 0 1 plus the 10 digits with Entel - Entel, or 188 0 1 (or the older 181) with Movistar - Movistar. Do not be surprised if a relative describes calling you as "one-two-three, zero, one" rather than a simple 00 1.
The busiest outbound lanes mirror the migration map. Chileans call Argentina, home to the largest Chilean community abroad, and Spain, Australia, Sweden and Canada, where Chile-born communities of roughly 27,000 to 74,000 people live - UN DESA. Meanwhile Chile's own migrant residents call home to Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Haiti and Bolivia, mostly in Spanish and, for Haitian families, in Haitian Creole.
Dial the exit code: 011 from a US or Canadian landline, or + on a mobile or browser dialer.
Dial Chile's country code, 56.
Dial all 9 digits exactly as written; Chile has no trunk prefix, so nothing is added or taken away. A Santiago landline written (2) 2123 4567 becomes 011 56 2 2123 4567, and a mobile written 9 XXXX XXXX becomes +56 9 XXXX XXXX.
Count the digits after 56: there must be 9. If an old contact shows only 8, it predates a reform: put a 9 in front of an old 8-digit mobile number, or add a 2 after the zone code of an old landline (Santiago 2 2XXX XXXX).
Chile has no trunk prefix, so a complete number is always 9 digits after +56: for example +56 2 2123 4567 for a Santiago landline, or +56 9 plus eight digits for a mobile - Telephone numbers in Chile. Older domestic formats such as (02) for Santiago or 09 for mobiles used access digits that the 2014 and 2016 reforms retired, so they never belong after +56 - SUBTEL. Chilean 800 numbers cannot be called from abroad, and calls arriving from 600 or 809 numbers inside Chile are mass or commercial calls, not a person - SUBTEL. Easter Island and the far south use exactly the same +56 format.
The most common failure is an old number saved before Chile's two renumberings. In 2012 and 2013 every landline gained an extra 2 after its zone code: Santiago's 7-digit numbers, once written (02) XXX XXXX, became 2 2XXX XXXX on November 24, 2012, and regional numbers followed, Puerto Montt last in July 2013 - ITU, Chile numbering plan. Then on February 6, 2016 mobiles gained a leading 9, so a cell number once written as eight digits became 9 plus those eight, and every number in the country reached 9 digits - SUBTEL. The quick test is to count the digits after +56: nine is current, eight means the contact predates a reform. Contacts already saved as +56 9 plus eight digits kept working through 2016, because that was already the full international form.
Landlines are disappearing, so the family home number may simply be gone. Chile had 3.56 million fixed lines in service at the end of 2009 but only 1.40 million in June 2026, about 7 per 100 inhabitants, against 23.7 million mobile subscriptions - SUBTEL statistics. If an old 2 2XXX XXXX number rings out or plays a recorded message, ask for a mobile. And because fixed-to-mobile portability has applied since September 5, 2016, a number can move between a landline and a cell without changing - ITU.
Chileans are now told by their regulator that a sales call from a mobile or a foreign number is a scam. Since August 13, 2025, commercial and mass calls must come from numbers beginning 600 (calls the customer asked for) or 809 (unsolicited calls), and SUBTEL's advice to the public is blunt: if someone calls from a +569 number or from abroad to sell something, it is a fraud - SUBTEL. A personal call from a US number is not what that rule targets, but it lands with people primed to distrust unknown foreign numbers, so a short WhatsApp message or text saying who you are and when you will call makes a pickup far more likely.
Numbers built for domestic callers will not help you. Chilean 800 freephone numbers cannot be accessed from abroad - Toll-free telephone number, and 600 numbers are a national non-geographic range for companies' service lines - Prefijos telef贸nicos de Chile. From the US, look for the organization's geographic number, usually a Santiago 2 2XXX XXXX line.
Every Chilean number is 9 digits after +56, and the plan is closed: there is no trunk prefix and no difference in length between landline, mobile and VoIP numbers - Telephone numbers in Chile.
Landlines still carry the fingerprint of the old zones. Santiago is 2 followed by a local number that begins with 2 (2 2XXX XXXX), while regional lines use a two-digit zone plus a 2, such as 32 2XX XXXX for Valpara铆so and Vi帽a del Mar, 41 for Concepci贸n, 45 for Temuco, 51 for La Serena, 55 for Antofagasta, 61 for Punta Arenas and 65 for Puerto Montt - ITU. Those digits tell you roughly where a landline was installed, but they no longer change how a call is dialed or billed inside Chile: national long distance ended on August 9, 2014, when every domestic fixed call became local - Prefijos telef贸nicos de Chile.
Mobiles begin with 9, and non-geographic ranges begin 600 (company service lines), 700 (entertainment lines) and 800 (freephone), with 44 used as a virtual zone for VoIP - Prefijos telef贸nicos de Chile. Emergency short codes such as 131 (ambulance), 132 (firefighters) and 133 (Carabineros police) work only from a phone inside Chile - Telephone numbers in Chile.
Continental Chile switches between UTC-4 in winter and UTC-3 in summer, and the dates are set by decree rather than by a permanent law. Decree 98 of 2026 fixed the next three seasons: clocks go forward at midnight on the first Saturday of September and back at midnight on the first Saturday of April, from September 2026 through April 2029 - BCN, Decreto 98. In 2026 that meant falling back on April 4 and springing forward on September 5, as the navy's official time service confirmed - Hora Oficial de Chile (SHOA).
Two southern regions opted out. Magallanes, whose capital is Punta Arenas, has kept UTC-3 year-round since 2017, and Ays茅n joined it by a decree of March 2025 after a non-binding consultation in which 94.14% of participants backed permanent summer time; the decree lists the benefits as more afternoon daylight for family life, sport after work and school, and safer travel home - BCN, Decreto 93. So in the southern winter, Punta Arenas is an hour ahead of Santiago.
Easter Island (Rapa Nui) keeps its own zone two hours behind the mainland, UTC-6 in winter and UTC-5 in summer, and changes its clocks at 22:00 local time on the same nights as the mainland - SHOA. For US callers the practical upshot is that Santiago is 2 hours ahead of New York from early November to mid-March, 1 hour ahead in the shoulder weeks, and on New York time from early April to early September.
Chile has an unusually even mobile market. At the end of June 2026 the regulator counted 23.7 million mobile subscriptions, about 118 per 100 inhabitants, split between Entel (34.3%), Movistar (22.8%), Claro (21.6%) and WOM (20.4%), with small virtual operators sharing the rest - SUBTEL statistics. With four networks of similar size there is no default carrier to assume for a relative's number, and with more subscriptions than inhabitants, it is worth asking which number a relative actually answers.
None of this changes how you dial. Numbers move between operators and, since 2016, between fixed and mobile networks, so the digits reveal nothing reliable about the carrier. The carrier matters in one direction only: when people in Chile call abroad, each operator has its own access code, such as 123 for Entel and 188 or 181 for Movistar - Entel, and the multicarrier system lets a caller pick a carrier code for each call - SUBTEL. If a relative's call to you keeps failing, suggest they try another carrier's code before assuming your number is wrong.
Chile now labels mass calls by prefix, which matters when a relative is waiting for a callback. Companies must place mass calls from 600 numbers when the customer asked for them and from 809 numbers when they did not, and from March 2027 state bodies such as hospitals, municipalities and public agencies will use a new 702 prefix - SUBTEL. So a 702 caller will be a public body, a 600 caller a company the person already deals with, and an 809 caller unsolicited marketing.
Plan around Chile's calendar as well as its clock. September 18 and 19, Independence Day (Fiestas Patrias) and Army Day, are mandatory national holidays, falling on a Friday and a Saturday in 2026 - Public holidays in Chile. Offices close, but it is one of the best weekends of the year to reach family at home. On ordinary weekdays, offices keep roughly 9am to 6pm hours, which from the US East Coast means calling between about 7am and 4pm ET in the southern summer and between 9am and 6pm ET in the southern winter.
Chile's country code is +56, and every number after it is exactly 9 digits, whether it is a landline, a mobile or a VoIP line - Telephone numbers in Chile. From a US landline dial 011 56 and then the 9 digits, for example 011 56 2 2123 4567 for a Santiago office; from a mobile, +56 2 2123 4567.
No. Chile has no trunk prefix, so nothing is removed: dial +56 and the 9 digits exactly as the number is written today - Telephone numbers in Chile. A leading 0 only appears in formats from before the 2014 and 2016 reforms, such as (02) or 09, so treat any number written that way as outdated and confirm the current 9-digit version before calling.
Dial 011 56 9 and the remaining eight digits, or +56 9 XXXX XXXX from a mobile. Chilean mobiles gained the leading 9 on February 6, 2016, when every number became 9 digits, and contacts already saved as +569 plus eight digits kept working - SUBTEL. Because numbers can be ported between fixed and mobile networks, a 9 is a strong hint of a cell phone, not a guarantee.
It shifts because Chile and the US change clocks in opposite seasons. Santiago is 2 hours ahead of New York from early November to mid-March, 1 hour ahead in the shoulder weeks, and on the same time from early April to early September - BCN, Decreto 98. Magallanes and Ays茅n stay on UTC-3 all year, and Easter Island is 2 hours behind Santiago - Hora Oficial de Chile.
It probably predates the renumbering of November 24, 2012, when Santiago's 7-digit local numbers gained a leading 2, so (02) XXX XXXX became 2 2XXX XXXX; regional landlines followed through July 2013 - ITU. A current number always has 9 digits after +56. If the corrected number still fails, the line may be gone: Chile has lost more than half its landlines since 2009 - SUBTEL statistics.
Usually not. Chilean 800 freephone numbers cannot be accessed from abroad - Toll-free telephone number, and 600 numbers are a national service range that may refuse international calls too. Look for the organization's geographic number, typically a Santiago 2 2XXX XXXX line. And if your relative gets a call from a 600 or 809 number, it is a company's mass or telemarketing call - SUBTEL.
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