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Rates updated October 31, 2026
To reach a Nicaragua number from the United States, dial these three parts in order.
011 505 8123 4567
From any mobile, anywhere in the world, you can dial +505 8123 4567 instead. Press and hold 0 to type the +, and the phone picks the right access code for wherever you are.
Numbers in Nicaragua carry no leading trunk digit, so there is nothing to strip. 8123 4567 is dialed exactly as written, with +505 in front. Removing a digit here is what makes the call fail.
A Nicaragua mobile number is 8 digits after +505. If a call does not connect, count the digits first.
Only the first part changes. Your access code replaces the 011, then 505 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 inbound traffic to Nicaragua comes from the United States, and within the US it is overwhelmingly South Florida. Roughly 30% of all Nicaraguan Americans live in Miami-Dade County, and about 90% of Florida's Nicaraguans are in metro Miami, concentrated in Sweetwater (nicknamed "Little Managua"), Fontainebleau, and Doral - Source. This community traces to the waves that fled after the 1979 Sandinista revolution, when families associated with the Somoza era resettled in South Florida - Source. Calls out of Miami dial phones in Managua, Masaya, Granada, Le贸n, and rural municipalities where relatives stayed behind.
The other giant corridor is Costa Rica to Nicaragua. The majority of Nicaraguans living abroad are actually in Costa Rica, not the US, and Costa Rica is the second-largest source of remittances after the United States - Source. Remittances into Nicaragua passed US$4 billion in 2023, with nearly 60% sent from the US and almost 20% from Costa Rica, reaching close to a million households - Source. Nearly every one of those transfers is bracketed by a phone call, so Spain, Panama, and El Salvador also generate steady inbound volume from smaller Nicaraguan communities.
From inside Nicaragua, the international access code is 00. To reach the US you dial 00 + 1 + the 10-digit number; Costa Rica is 00 + 506, Spain 00 + 34, Panama 00 + 507 - Source. The dominant outbound destination is the United States (the parent, child, or spouse who migrated and sends money), followed closely by Costa Rica, where hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans work in agriculture, construction, and domestic service.
A practical quirk: many Nicaraguans skip dialing altogether for family calls and route everything over WhatsApp, which is near-universal because it sidesteps per-minute charges on modest local incomes. That means a Nicaraguan number you are given is often a mobile that also runs WhatsApp, and the person may expect app calls by default. When you call the actual phone line instead, you reach them even if their data is off, which is exactly why a browser-to-phone call matters for elders and rural relatives who do not keep the app open.
From the US, dial the exit code 011, then Nicaragua's country code 505.
Dial the 8-digit national number exactly as given (for example 8123 4567). There is no trunk 0 to add or drop.
Full string from a US phone: 011 505 8123 4567. In E.164 (and from a browser) it is +505 8123 4567.
Check the first digit: 2 is a landline, 8 (or 7, 5, 6) is a mobile. Both are always 8 digits.
If a number has only 7 digits, it is pre-2009: add a 2 for a landline or an 8 for a mobile before it.
Nicaragua uses a closed 8-digit plan with no trunk prefix and no area codes, so unlike many countries there is no leading 0 to drop when calling from abroad - Source. Dial exactly 8 digits after +505. The one recurring pitfall is length: a 7-digit number is a pre-2009 leftover (prepend 2 for fixed or 8 for mobile per the 22 April 2009 reform), while a 9 or 10-digit string means someone mistook it for a US-style number - Source. Also avoid 1800-XXXX numbers, which are domestic toll-free and do not work internationally.
Nicaragua's biggest gotcha is the 2009 numbering reform. On 22 April 2009 the country moved from 7 digits to 8, prepending a 2 to every fixed line and an 8 to every mobile, with the regulator explicitly stating there would be no parallel dialing of the old and new numbers - Source. More than fifteen years on, old business cards, cached web listings, and family address books still carry 7-digit fragments that silently fail. If a Nicaraguan number is one digit short, it is almost certainly pre-2009, and you fix it by adding the right leading digit.
The same reform abolished dialable city area codes. Callers who expect to add a code for Le贸n, Granada, or Estel铆 are working from an outdated table; today every landline is just 2XXX XXXX regardless of city, and there is no regional prefix to insert - Source. This is the opposite of neighboring Guatemala and Honduras, and it is the single most common reason a "correct" Nicaraguan number does not connect.
Number portability adds confusion of a different kind. Nicaragua's regulator TELCOR assigns mobile ranges to specific operators (roughly 880, 881, 886-889, 895-899 to Tigo; 882-885, 890-894 to Claro; 688 and 699 to Cootel), but portability lets a subscriber keep their number after switching carriers, so the prefix no longer reliably tells you the network - Source. For calling this is harmless (routing handles it), but it defeats any attempt to guess someone's carrier from their digits.
Finally, watch for hard-to-reach institutional lines. Nicaraguan banks and government hotlines heavily advertise 1800-XXXX toll-free numbers that work only inside the country and fail outright from abroad - Source. To reach a bank like BANPRO or LAFISE or a ministry from the US, you must find their ordinary +505 2XXX XXXX landline, which they usually also publish alongside the 1800 line.
Every current Nicaraguan number is exactly 8 digits with no internal area code, which is unusual for Central America and is the direct legacy of the 2009 reform that flattened the plan - Source. In E.164 the shape is +505 XXXX XXXX: the country code, then the 8 digits with no trunk prefix in between. There is no "0" to add or drop when calling from abroad, because Nicaragua has no national trunk-0 convention the way the UK or much of Europe does.
The first digit is the entire classification system. A 2 means a fixed landline (Claro's copper and fiber network, plus institutional lines). An 8, 7, 5, or 6 means a mobile - Source. In practice you will see 8 far more than any other, because mobiles vastly outnumber fixed lines and the reform seeded almost all cell numbers into the 8 block. So if someone writes their number as 8XXX XXXX, that is a cell phone; 2XXX XXXX is a house or office.
Watch how Nicaraguans write numbers locally: they often group them as XXXX-XXXX with no +505, because inside the country you never dial the code. When you save that contact for calling from the US, store the full international form starting +505 and confirm it is 8 digits. A common paste error is dropping to 7 digits (a pre-2009 fragment) or padding to 10 (mistaking it for a US number); either will fail to connect.
Nicaragua is a mobile-first country. Fixed landlines (the 2 block) are largely confined to Managua and to businesses, banks, and government offices, while ordinary households, especially outside the capital, live entirely on mobile lines in the 8 range - Source. If you are trying to reach a relative in a small town in Jinotega, Matagalpa, or on the Caribbean coast (Bluefields, Puerto Cabezas), assume they have a mobile and no landline at all.
The market runs on three operators: Claro (Am茅rica M贸vil), Tigo (Millicom, the former Movistar), and the smaller Cootel, which uses the 688 and 699 ranges - Source. Because of portability you cannot assume the prefix equals the carrier, and for calling it does not matter: from a browser you dial the same +505 8XXX XXXX and it routes correctly regardless of which network the number sits on today.
One reachability nuance: prepaid ("saldo") is the norm, and many Nicaraguans keep mobile data off to conserve balance, which is why WhatsApp is not always reliable for reaching elders. A direct call to the 8-digit mobile line rings the phone itself, no app or data required on their end, which is often the surest way to reach an older parent or a rural relative who does not keep messaging apps running.
If you find an old table listing Managua 2, Le贸n 311, Granada 552, Masaya 522, Chinandega 341, Estel铆 713, you are looking at the pre-2009 system, and those geographic codes no longer exist as dialable prefixes - Source. The 2009 reform absorbed the old regional codes into the flat 8-digit number, so today a Managua landline and a Granada landline both just start with 2, distinguished only by the digits that follow, not by a separate area code you dial first.
This is the opposite of neighbors like Guatemala or Honduras, and it trips up callers who expect to add a city code. There is nothing to add. Whether the person is in Managua, Le贸n, Estel铆, or Bluefields, the number is the same 8-digit +505 format with no regional prefix.
For businesses this means a Managua company and a Le贸n company are indistinguishable by dialing pattern: both are +505 2XXX XXXX. The practical takeaway is to ignore any instruction to "add the area code for Le贸n" and simply dial the 8 digits you were given.
Nicaraguan institutions publish two kinds of numbers, and only one works from abroad. Many banks (BANPRO, LAFISE Bancentro, BAC, Ficohsa) and government hotlines advertise a 1800-XXXX toll-free number that is dialable only inside Nicaragua and simply fails from the US - Source. To call them internationally you need their standard +505 2XXX XXXX landline, which the institution usually also lists (look for the 8-digit line, not the 1800).
Business hours track a Central American rhythm: offices generally run 8 am to 5 pm with a real midday lull, and many wind down earlier on Fridays. Because Nicaragua is UTC-6 with no daylight saving, that maps to roughly 10 am to 7 pm US Eastern in summer and 9 am to 6 pm Eastern in winter - Source. If you are calling a ministry, a utility (ENACAL for water, DISNORTE-DISSUR for power), or a consulate, aim for mid-morning Nicaragua time to beat both the lunch gap and end-of-day close.
For customer-facing companies (airlines, hotels on the Pacific coast, tour operators in Granada and San Juan del Sur), the reachable line is almost always an 8-digit mobile or a 2-prefixed office line, and WhatsApp Business is common, but the phone line itself is what you dial from a browser when you want a real voice conversation rather than a chat thread.
It is a pre-2009 number. Nicaragua switched to 8 digits on 22 April 2009 by adding a 2 in front of every landline and an 8 in front of every mobile, with no parallel dialing of the old numbers - Source. Repair it by prepending 2 for a fixed line or 8 for a mobile, then dial the full 8 digits.
Look at the first digit. A 2 is a fixed landline; an 8, 7, 5, or 6 is a mobile, with 8 being by far the most common - Source. Both are always 8 digits total. Most ordinary households, especially outside Managua, are reachable only on a mobile.
None. Nicaragua abolished dialable city area codes in the 2009 reform, so every landline nationwide simply starts with 2 and there is no regional prefix to insert - Source. Whether your contact is in Managua, Le贸n, Granada, or Bluefields, you dial the same 8-digit +505 number.
Not reliably. TELCOR originally assigned ranges by operator (for example 880/881/886-889 to Tigo, 882-885/890-894 to Claro, 688/699 to Cootel), but number portability lets people keep their number when they switch carriers - Source. For calling it makes no difference: the number routes correctly whatever network it is on now.
Numbers in the 1800-XXXX format are domestic toll-free and only dialable inside Nicaragua, so they fail from abroad - Source. Banks like BANPRO and LAFISE also publish a regular +505 2XXX XXXX landline; use that 8-digit line to reach them internationally.
Nicaragua is UTC-6 (Central Standard Time) with no daylight saving, so its clock never changes, while Miami's does - Source. From US Eastern time it is 2 hours behind in summer and 1 hour behind in winter, so late morning to evening Eastern is a comfortable window to reach someone at home.
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