Do not call back a number from a text or a voicemail.
Use a number from the company’s website or your own paperwork instead.
Toll-free code
855 is a toll-free code, and no place is tied to it.
The number’s owner pays for a call to 855, so it costs a landline caller nothing. Because 855 is not tied to a state or a city, the phone that answers can be anywhere.
These are the facts about the 855 code.
Tied to a place
No
No state, city or time zone.
Who pays for the call
The number’s owner
A landline caller pays nothing.
In service since
2010
From the FCC’s numbering report.
Toll-free codes
5 of 7
The fifth one to open.
How a call to a toll-free number is routed
Someone dials 855From any phone, in any state.
no place
The 855 code points nowhereIt is not tied to a state, a city or a time zone.
routed
An ordinary phone line answersIts owner pays for the call, and the line can be anywhere.
This is how the 855 code came about.
855 went into service in 2010, ten years after 866, and it was the first toll-free code to open in the 2010s. The FCC opens a new toll-free code when the numbers left in the existing ones run short.
To stop the largest companies from reserving the best numbers before smaller ones had a turn, the FCC capped how many numbers one company could reserve each day for the first 30 days. 855 was the first of two codes opened that way.
People filed 1,668 FCC complaints about unwanted calls from 855 numbers in 12 months.
From October 2025 to September 2026, 1,668 unwanted-call complaints filed with the FCC gave a caller ID number that started with 855. The state is where the person who complained was.
- 1,668unwanted-call complaints named an 855 caller ID
- 3.1%of the 54,074 caller ID numbers people reported
- #2of the seven toll-free codes, ranked by complaints
Top 5 states
Where the complaints naming an 855 caller ID were filed.
- 1California11% of the complaints naming 855181
- 2Florida10% of the complaints naming 855159
- 3Texas6% of the complaints naming 855103
- 4Arizona6% of the complaints naming 85596
- 5Maryland6% of the complaints naming 85592
All seven toll-free codes
That puts 855 second among the seven toll-free codes, ranked by complaints.
Source: Federal Communications Commission, CGB - Consumer Complaints Data (dataset 3xyp-aqkj), issue "Unwanted Calls", read on November 4, 2026. Caller ID can be faked, so a code shows what appeared on the phone, not where the caller was.
An 855 call may be a company or a scammer, and the code cannot tell you which.
855 is a toll-free code that companies can have for customer service, so a caller showing 855 can be legitimate. People file FCC complaints about 855 callers too, and a number on caller ID can be faked. What you do after the call matters more than the digits.
Slow the call down.
Say you will call back. A real company is fine with that, and a scam often pushes harder.
Write down what the caller said.
The company name, the amount and the number they gave let you check it afterward, and report the call if it was unwanted.
People ask these questions about the 855 code.
More in the full FAQ.
An 855 number is a toll-free number, like 800 and 888. The first three digits do not mark a state or a city. Its owner, usually a business, pays for the calls it gets.
No code is a scam by itself. 855 is a real toll-free code, and real companies use it. Scammers can also make 855 appear on caller ID, so hang up and call back a number you know belongs to the company.
855 opened in 2010 as the fifth toll-free code. The one before it, 866, had opened in 2000.
Not on a landline, because the owner of the number pays. The FCC says a cell phone call can use minutes on a plan that is not unlimited.
From October 2025 to September 2026, people filed 1,668 FCC complaints about unwanted calls from 855 numbers, 3.1% of the 54,074 caller ID numbers people reported. That puts 855 second among the seven toll-free codes, ranked by complaints. A complaint is one person's report, so it shows how often a code was reported, not how many calls from it were scams. Caller ID can be faked, so a code shows what appeared on the phone, not where the caller was.
No. Every ExpressNumber number has a local US area code that you type when you create it, and toll-free codes are not offered.
Other toll-free codes
Every fact on this page comes from public records of the FCC and the numbering administrator.
The years, who pays and how the codes work are from the FCC. Which codes are in service is from the North American Numbering Plan Administrator. Read November 6, 2026.
- FCC, Numbering Resource Utilization in the United States: Status as of December 31, 2023
- FCC consumer guide, What Is a Toll-Free Number and How Does it Work?
- FCC order 98-48, Toll Free Service Access Codes
- FCC order DA 17-382, opening the 833 toll-free code
- North American Numbering Plan Administrator, area code database
Give out a local number you can burn.
Every ExpressNumber number has a local US area code that you pick. Calls ring the phone you already have, and texts land in your ExpressNumber inbox.
Try it free for 7 days