0808 numbers
A freephone number, used by businesses and helplines that pay for your call.
- Type
- Freephone
- Tied to a place
- No
- Digits in a full number
- 11, including the 0
- What it costs to call
- Free to call from UK landlines and mobiles, and has been since July 2015.
Ofcom keeps 0808 157 0000 to 0808 157 0999 for TV and film. Those numbers can never connect, so if one called you, the caller ID was faked.
Who uses 0808 numbers
0808 is the UK’s other freephone range, used in the same way as 0800. Charities and support helplines use it as well as businesses. Numbers starting 0808 5 include the ones Ofcom offered to organisations whose 0500 numbers were withdrawn in 2017: 0500 111 222, for example, could become 0808 511 1222.
What an 0808 call costs
Nothing, from UK landlines and mobiles, exactly like 0800. The rule came in on 1 July 2015; before then mobile networks were free to charge for 0808 calls. The organisation you are calling pays instead. If you are calling from abroad, check with your provider first.
Do scammers use 0808 numbers?
An 0808 number calling you can be real: some organisations show their freephone number as the caller ID. It can also be faked, because people trust numbers that look official. Judge the call by what the caller asks for, not by the number.
A genuine organisation will not mind you hanging up and calling back on a number from its website, a bill or a letter. Never share a one-time code, a password or card details with someone who rang you. If the caller claimed to be your bank, dial 159.
Call prices vary by provider and change over time. Ofcom’s call costs guide explains how every kind of UK number is charged. To see what people have said about one number, check it above.
Reported 0808 numbers
Nobody has reported an 0808 number to us yet. If one has been calling you, report it so the next person sees it.
Other numbers with no place
- 070 numbersPersonal number
- 07624 numbersIsle of Man mobile
- 076 numbersPager
- 07 mobile numbersMobile
- 0800 numbersFreephone
- 0500 numbersWithdrawn freephone
- 0843, 0844 and 0845 numbersService number
- 0870, 0871, 0872 and 0873 numbersService number
- 09 premium rate numbersPremium rate
- 03 numbersUK-wide number
- 0330 numbersUK-wide number
- 0333 numbersUK-wide number
- 055 numbersCorporate number
- 056 numbersInternet phone (VoIP)
Codes, code lengths and provider counts from Ofcom’s numbering data, downloaded 23 September 2026. Places from Wikidata. All UK area codes · Who called me? · Stop spam calls