Call family in Kingston, a guesthouse in Montego Bay, or a shop in Mandeville from your browser, with no app for them to install and nothing to set up on their end.
Rates updated September 15, 2026
To reach a Jamaica number from the United States, dial these three parts in order.
011 1 876 210 1234
From any mobile, anywhere in the world, you can dial +1 876 210 1234 instead. Press and hold 0 to type the +, and the phone picks the right access code for wherever you are.
Jamaica numbers carry no leading trunk digit, so there is nothing to strip. (876) 210-1234 is dialed exactly as written, with +1 in front. Removing a digit here is what makes the call fail.
A typical Jamaica mobile number is 10 digits after +1. If a call does not connect, count the digits first.
Only the first part changes. Your access code replaces the 011, then 1 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.
Calls to Jamaica are $0.66 a minute, billed by the minute. There is no connection fee, no monthly plan, and no minimum spend. You add prepaid credit from $5, and it never expires.
Only for the time you actually talk.
Top up once, use it whenever.
Any number, nothing to install.
The heaviest inbound traffic to Jamaica comes from its diaspora, roughly two million Jamaicans living abroad, about 1.3 million of them Jamaican-born - Wikipedia. The single biggest source is the United States, home to more than 1.1 million Jamaican Americans, concentrated in the New York metro area (around 416,000) and across Florida (Miami, Orlando, Tampa), with large communities in Atlanta, Hartford, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC - Wikipedia. These are the people calling home on a Sunday to a mother in Kingston or a grandmother in rural St. Elizabeth, checking on a plot of land, or coordinating a barrel being shipped down for the holidays.
After the US, the two other pillars are the United Kingdom and Canada. The UK holds an estimated 400,000-plus people of Jamaican origin, centred on London neighbourhoods like Brixton, Tottenham, Hackney and Harlesden and on Birmingham - Wikipedia. Canada adds roughly 309,000, most of them in the Greater Toronto Area - Wikipedia. That diaspora sent home about in remittances in 2024, near , and roughly 90% of it originates from the US, UK and Canada - . Behind almost every one of those transfers is a phone call to confirm the money landed.
From the United States or Canada, dial 1, then the area code (876 or 658), then the seven-digit number. Example: 1 876 555 0147. No 011 is needed, because Jamaica shares the +1 country code.
From anywhere outside the +1 zone (UK, Europe, Africa, etc.), dial your international access code (00 in most of the world, 011 from any +1 country), then 1, then 876 or 658, then the seven digits.
On a mobile or a browser-based dialer, just enter the number in full international form: +1 876 555 0147. The + handles the exit code automatically.
Always include all ten digits after +1. There is no trunk 0 to add or drop in Jamaica, so never put a 0 before the area code.
Jamaica has no national trunk prefix, so unlike the UK or many African countries there is no leading 0 to drop when calling from abroad - you dial the code straight (876 or 658), never 0876 - Wikipedia. The one genuine gotcha is the 658 overlay: a Jamaican number can start with 658 rather than 876, so do not assume 876 and do not "correct" a 658 number you were given - Wikipedia. Numbers are always exactly ten digits after +1; there is no variable length. And because Jamaica sits inside the North American Numbering Plan, callers from the US or Canada must remember they do dial 011 for Jamaica, only the domestic-style - .
The biggest hurdle to reaching a Jamaican number is a real reform most callers still get wrong: the 658 overlay. For decades Jamaica had exactly one code, 876, introduced on 1 May 1997 when the country split from the old Caribbean 809 code - Wikipedia. As central-office codes ran out, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) approved an overlay on 15 September 2016, and 658 entered service in 2019, with the first 658 numbers not actually assigned until May 2023 - Wikipedia. Because it is an overlay, 658 is not a region: a 658 number can belong to someone standing next to a 876 number in the same Kingston apartment block. So if you have an old contact saved as seven digits, or you assume every Jamaican number starts with 876, you will misdial. Save the full ten digits, code included, every time.
Ten-digit dialing itself became mandatory on 30 March 2019 for calls placed within Jamaica, part of preparing the island for the overlay - Wikipedia. From abroad this changes nothing (you already dial the code), but it means anyone relaying a number to you locally now speaks it as ten digits, so there is no missing piece to guess at. A second, quieter complication is , live in Jamaica since : a subscriber can move between and and keep the same number - . That is convenient for the owner, but it means you cannot infer the carrier (or even reliably tell mobile from landline) from the digits, since old prefix patterns no longer hold.
A Jamaican number is always ten digits: the three-digit area code (876 or 658) plus a seven-digit local number written as NXX-XXXX - Wikipedia. In full international form it looks like +1 876 555 0147. The +1 is the shared North American country code, and the 876 or 658 sits where a US area code would. That is the whole format: there are no regional codes to memorise, no variable lengths, and no extra trunk digits inside the country.
The thing that surprises first-time callers is that the code tells you nothing about location. Because 876 and 658 are overlays covering the entire island, a number in Kingston, Montego Bay, Spanish Town or Negril can carry either code, and you cannot read a town off the digits the way you can with, say, a London 020 or a Paris 01 - Wikipedia. If someone gives you only seven digits (an old habit from before overlay dialing), ask which code goes in front, because there is now genuinely a choice between 876 and 658.
One more practical note: some people write the number with the +1 pushed together, like +1876..., which can look like an eleven-digit oddity. It is not. It is country code 1, then area code 876, then the seven-digit line. Save it with clear separators so you never drop or double a digit.
Under many countries' plans, a leading digit instantly flags a mobile (a Dutch 06, a UK 07, a Nigerian 070/080/090). Jamaica does not work that way. As a full NANP member, its mobiles and landlines draw from the same 876/658 codes and the same seven-digit pool, with no dedicated mobile prefix - Wikipedia. So a number like +1 876 555 0147 could be a Digicel handset in Portmore or a FLOW home line in Ocho Rios, and nothing in the digits reveals which.
Number portability (live since May 2015) removed even the historical hints, because a person can carry an old number from a landline-era prefix onto a mobile or between carriers - Jamaica Gleaner. In practice this rarely matters when you are calling a specific person you know, because you dial the same way regardless. It matters mainly for expectations: most Jamaicans live on mobile, since the country crossed into near-universal mobile coverage while fixed lines declined, and the two carriers dominating that market are Digicel and FLOW (the former Cable & Wireless/LIME) - Wikipedia. If you want to reach someone reliably, their mobile is almost always the right number. With a browser-based service you dial any Jamaican mobile or landline the same way, and the person you call needs no app, no SIM change and no setup.
Jamaican toll-free numbers use the North American 8XX ranges (800, 888, 877, 866 and so on), and there is a local quirk: to reach one from within Jamaica you dial the 888-XXX-XXXX form without a leading 1, whereas from abroad you dial it like any +1 toll-free number - Digicel Support. Be aware that many North American 8XX toll-free lines will not accept international calls at all, so a bank or airline's toll-free help line that works from Kingston may simply refuse to connect from overseas. When a Jamaican company lists both a toll-free number and a standard 876/658 number, use the standard one when calling from abroad.
Government offices, banks (like NCB or Scotiabank Jamaica) and utilities generally publish ordinary ten-digit 876 numbers and keep normal weekday hours, roughly 8:30am to 4:30pm Jamaica time, so plan your call inside that window given the small time difference from the US East Coast. Emergency and public-safety numbers are short local codes and are not meant for international dialing: Jamaica uses 119 for police and 110 for fire and ambulance, with 112 and 911 also introduced to align with global norms - Jamaica Information Service. If you need to reach emergency help for someone in Jamaica from abroad, call the person or a local relative directly rather than trying to dial a 3-digit emergency code internationally, which will not route from outside the country.
Jamaica runs on Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5) all year and does not shift for daylight saving, its last DST change having been back in 1983 - timeanddate. That gives a clean rule of thumb from the US: in winter Jamaica is the same time as New York; in summer it is one hour behind the US East Coast (and three behind California), because the mainland springs forward while Jamaica stays put. So a 9am call from Miami in July reaches Jamaica at 8am.
For reaching a person rather than a business, mornings before work (7am-9am) and evenings after dinner (after 6pm) are the sweet spots, and Sunday remains the classic call-home day across the diaspora. This is about reachability, not price: with pay-as-you-go prepaid credit there is no off-peak rate, so calling at midnight costs the same per minute as calling at noon. Pick the hour that suits the person, not the clock.
Culturally, Jamaican phone calls tend to open warm and unhurried, a proper greeting and a "how yuh do?" before business, so budget a minute of pleasantries with an elder before getting to the reason you called. Since credit never expires on prepaid, you are not racing a meter, and a relaxed call lands better than a clipped one.
Because Jamaica ran out of numbers under its original 876 code and added a second, 658, as an island-wide overlay. The Office of Utilities Regulation approved it in 2016, it entered service in 2019, and the first 658 numbers were assigned in May 2023 - Wikipedia. A 658 number is just as valid as an 876 one and can belong to a neighbour of an 876 number in the same street.
From the US or Canada you dial 1 + 876 (or 658) + the seven-digit number, with no 011, because Jamaica is part of the same +1 North American Numbering Plan - Wikipedia. From outside the +1 zone, you use your local international access code (usually 00) then 1 876....
You generally can't from the digits alone. Jamaican mobiles and landlines share the same 876/658 codes with no distinct mobile prefix, and number portability since 2015 means old patterns don't hold - Wikipedia. Most Jamaicans are reachable on mobile, usually Digicel or FLOW. With a browser dialer you call either type the same way.
No. Jamaica has no trunk prefix, so you never add or drop a leading 0. You dial the area code directly (876 or 658), never 0876 - Wikipedia. This differs from the UK, Nigeria and many others where you drop a domestic 0 when calling from abroad.
Be cautious. The 876 code is heavily associated with the lottery/sweepstakes scam and the one-ring "wangiri" callback trick, so an unexpected 876 call can be a scam attempt rather than a person - U.S. Embassy in Jamaica. If you don't recognise it, don't call back blindly. A genuine call from your own family placed through a browser service will show your number, not a random 876 one.
Jamaica is on Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5) year-round with no daylight saving - timeanddate. So it matches US Eastern time in winter and is one hour behind Eastern in summer. To catch a person at home, try early morning or after 6pm Jamaica time; for offices, call 8:30am-4:30pm on weekdays. Price never changes by time of day, so pick the hour that suits the person.
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Start callingFrom inside Jamaica, the international access code is 011, the standard North American prefix, so a Jamaican calling the wider world dials 011 + country code + number (for example 011 44 for the UK, or 011 234 for Nigeria) - Wikipedia. The important quirk is that Jamaica shares the +1 country code with the US, Canada and much of the Caribbean, so calls to those places do not use 011 at all: a Jamaican rings a cousin in Brooklyn or Toronto exactly like a domestic call, 1 + area code + 7 digits - Wikipedia. This is why so many people assume the US and Jamaica sit on the same phone network. The busiest outbound destinations mirror the diaspora in reverse: New York, Florida, London and Toronto, plus nearby islands. One trap catches people: because a US number looks local, a Jamaican prepaid mobile can burn a lot of credit thinking a +1 call is cheap, so many islanders route diaspora calls over WhatsApp or a browser-based service instead.
Then there is the reputation problem the 876 code carries abroad. Jamaica became notorious as the origin of the lottery and sweepstakes scam, where callers tell (usually elderly) Americans they have won a prize and must wire fees upfront - U.S. Embassy in Jamaica. The fallout is that many US carriers, spam filters and wary relatives treat any incoming 876 call as suspect, and the code has also been tied to the one-ring "wangiri" scam, where a robodialer rings once so you call back an expensive line - National Sheriffs' Association. None of this affects outbound calls you place to a known relative in Jamaica, but it is worth telling elders at home that a real family call over a browser service shows your own number, not a spoofed 876 one, so they know it is genuinely you.