Guide
Temporary SMS number: what it is and when to use one
A temporary SMS number is a real phone number that you use for a short time to receive text messages, so your personal number stays private. You rent it, read your texts in a browser, and let it go when you no longer need it.
How a temporary SMS number works
Providers like GimmeSMS own a pool of real phone numbers from carriers in different countries. When you rent one, every text sent to that number during your rental is shown in your private inbox, usually within a few seconds.
When the rental ends, the number stops delivering messages to you. After a cooldown period it can be rented by someone else, which is why temporary numbers are cheap compared with a phone plan.
When a temporary number is a good idea
- Selling something on a marketplace or classifieds site without publishing your real number
- Giving a number to a courier, a restaurant or an event desk for a single booking
- Talking to landlords or buyers you have not met yet
- Testing the SMS features of an app or website you are building
- Travelling, when you want a local number for a few days of messages
When you should not use one
Because numbers are reused after a cooldown, never link a temporary number to something you need to keep or recover later. That includes your bank, your email account, government services and any account where the phone number is used to get back in.
Temporary numbers are also not a way to create accounts in bulk or to get around limits that services set. That is against the GimmeSMS acceptable use policy and against the rules of most platforms.
Private inbox versus free public numbers
Many free websites publish shared numbers where every incoming text is visible to anyone who visits the page. That is fine for curiosity but not for anything personal.
A rented number from GimmeSMS has a private inbox that only you can see while your rental is active, and messages from before or after your rental are never shown to you or to the next person.
What it costs
GimmeSMS charges a flat hourly price per number. You can rent for 1 to 48 hours, extend at any time, and pay from prepaid credit bought by card through Stripe. There is no subscription.
Try GimmeSMS
Rent a real number for $2.20 an hour, from 1 to 48 hours, and read your texts live in your browser. Available now in United States, Canada, Netherlands.