Pick 205 if the number should read as Birmingham.
205 names Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Bessemer, Jasper and Fayette, and its rate center map adds Alabaster and Trussville.
The area codes for Birmingham are 205 and 659.
Area codes in Birmingham
Get a phone number with the right area code for Birmingham.
Birmingham uses 205, one of Alabama’s original codes, and 659, laid over it in 2019. Both cover Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and western central Alabama.
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Pick 205 for Birmingham, or 659 if you want the code laid over it.
Pick 659 if the number should look newer.
659 entered service on November 12, 2019, a month after every local call began to need ten digits.
Pick 256 if the number is for Huntsville.
Huntsville and the northeastern part of the Birmingham area went to 256 in 1998.
People filed 349 FCC complaints about unwanted calls from Birmingham area codes in 12 months.
From October 2025 to September 2026, 349 unwanted-call complaints filed with the FCC gave a caller ID number that started with 205 and 659. 205 was named most, on 316 of them (91%).
- 349unwanted-call complaints named a Birmingham code
- 205was named on the most of them, 316
- 91%of the Birmingham complaints named 205
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.
This is how you get a Birmingham number.
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Start your free week.
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Type the code you picked.
Open Create a number, type the three digits and give the number a name.
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Hand the number out.
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People ask these questions about Birmingham area codes.
More in the full FAQ.
Yes. Tuscaloosa and Birmingham kept 205 in 1998 and share 659.
The Alabama Public Service Commission first ordered it on April 2, 2001 and paused it that July. It approved the overlay again on August 7, 2018.
A local call in Birmingham is dialed with ten digits, whichever of its codes the number starts with. The area code is part of every number you give out.
From October 2025 to September 2026, people filed 349 FCC complaints about unwanted calls from numbers that start with a Birmingham code: 205 (316) and 659 (33). A complaint is one person's report. Caller ID can be faked, so a code shows what appeared on the phone, not where the caller was.
Yes. You type the area code you want when you create a number, and you do not need to live in Birmingham. Calls ring the phone you already have, and texts land in your ExpressNumber inbox.
No. Your numbers are receive-only: they take calls and texts, and they never make them. You answer calls on your own phone, and you cannot reply to a text from the inbox.
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Codes around Birmingham
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Every fact on this page comes from public numbering records.
The codes, the places and the years are rows of the North American Numbering Plan Administrator's area code database, and the complaints are the FCC's own.
Put a Birmingham code on a number you can burn.
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