Pick 617 if the number should read as Boston.
617 dates from 1947 and covers Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline and Newton.
The area codes for Boston are 617 and 857.
Area codes in Boston
Get a phone number with the right area code for Boston.
617 covers Boston and its closest neighbors, and 857 is laid over it. The suburbs around them use 781 and 339.
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Pick 617 for Boston, 857 for the same streets, or 781 for the suburbs.
Pick 857 if you want a second code for the same area.
857 entered service on May 2, 2001. It covers the same compact area as 617: Boston, Cambridge, Quincy, Somerville and Brookline.
Pick 781 if the number is for the suburbs around Boston.
781 took Waltham, Lynn, Woburn and the other communities of the old 617 area when it was split off in 1997. 339 is laid over it.
People filed 283 FCC complaints about unwanted calls from Boston area codes in 12 months.
From October 2025 to September 2026, 283 unwanted-call complaints filed with the FCC gave a caller ID number that started with 857 and 617. 857 was named most, on 151 of them (53%).
- 283unwanted-call complaints named a Boston code
- 857was named on the most of them, 151
- 53%of the Boston complaints named 857
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 Boston number.
- 1
Start your free week.
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- 2
Type the code you picked.
Open Create a number, type the three digits and give the number a name.
- 3
Hand the number out.
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People ask these questions about Boston area codes.
More in the full FAQ.
No. 508 was split from 617 in 1988 and covers Worcester, Framingham, Brockton and Cape Cod. It has its own page here.
Yes. Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline and Newton are in the area of 617 and 857.
A local call in Boston 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 283 FCC complaints about unwanted calls from numbers that start with a Boston code: 857 (151) and 617 (132). 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 Boston. 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 Boston
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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 Boston code on a number you can burn.
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