How to port a number to Google Voice

Personal Google Voice accepts US mobile numbers only. That rules out three common cases:

• Landlines and VoIP numbers. A home landline, an office line, or a number from another internet phone service can't be ported directly into personal Voice. The standard workaround is to port the number to a cheap prepaid mobile SIM first, wait for that to complete, then port from the SIM to Google Voice.
• Numbers under contract or with a balance due. The port itself will usually go through, but leaving the carrier can trigger early-termination fees and the remaining balance on a financed phone becomes due.
• Numbers with port protection switched on. Every major carrier now lets you lock a line against transfers: Verizon calls it Number Lock, T-Mobile calls it Port Out Protection, and AT&T calls it Wireless Account Lock. If it's on, the port is rejected until you turn it off in your account.

Google Voice for Google Workspace is more permissive and can port landline and business numbers through its own process, which the Workspace admin initiates from the console.

Carriers stopped accepting your account password for port-outs years ago. You now need a Number Transfer PIN (sometimes called a port-out PIN) generated specifically for this, plus your account number as it appears on your bill.

Transfer PINs expire, typically within a few days, so generate it when you're ready to submit the port, not a week ahead. Also grab the billing name and address exactly as the carrier has them — a mismatch is the single most common reason a port is rejected.

1. Sign in at voice.google.com on a computer (the port flow isn't in the mobile app).
2. Open Settings, then under your Voice number choose Transfer (Google's wording is 'Port a number' or 'Transfer your number' depending on the version).
3. Enter the number you're moving. Google checks eligibility immediately and tells you if it's a landline or otherwise can't be ported.
4. Enter the carrier account number, transfer PIN, and the billing name and address.
5. Pay the one-time porting fee (Google has charged $20 for personal accounts for years; confirm the current amount on the payment screen).
6. Submit. You'll get an email when the port starts and another when it completes.

If you already have a Google Voice number on the account, the ported number replaces it. Google keeps the old number as a secondary for about 90 days at no charge, and you can pay a one-time fee to keep it permanently if callers on the old one still need to reach you.

Do not cancel your old carrier plan yourself. The port is what ends it. Cancelling first releases the number back to the carrier, at which point there's nothing to port and the number can be reassigned.

Mobile-to-Voice ports usually complete within 24 hours, and Google's own guidance allows up to a couple of business days. During that window the number may ring on the old phone, in Google Voice, or both. Once you get the completion email, the old SIM stops receiving calls on that number.

One thing to plan for: your physical phone still needs a plan. Porting the number to Google Voice doesn't give your handset cellular service — it just moves the number. Most people either keep the old plan and get a new number assigned to it, or move to a cheaper plan before the port and let the carrier assign a throwaway number.

• 'This number isn't eligible.' It's a landline, VoIP, or non-US number. Port it to a mobile carrier first, or use Workspace Voice.
• 'The information doesn't match.' Account number, PIN, name, or address differs from the carrier's records. Pull up a bill and copy the details character for character, including apartment numbers.
• 'Port rejected by carrier.' Usually port protection or an expired transfer PIN. Turn off port protection in your carrier account, generate a fresh PIN, resubmit.
• The port completed but calls still ring the old phone. The carrier hasn't fully released routing yet; give it a few hours. If it persists past a day, contact Google Voice support with the port confirmation.
• Texts arrive but calls don't. Check the Voice app's incoming-call settings and your linked number — see why is my Google Voice not working.

Porting is permanent in practice — you can port out again later for a small fee, but every move is a few days of routing uncertainty. So it's worth asking what you're trying to achieve.

If the goal is to stop paying a carrier for a line you barely use, porting into Voice is a genuine win. If the goal is to make a business number behave better — ring multiple people, answer after hours, book appointments — Google Voice doesn't do much of that on the personal plan, and moving the number in doesn't change how many calls you miss.

The usual pattern for a small business is to keep the number wherever it lives and forward it to something that answers. Forwarding takes a minute and reverses in a minute, which is a very different commitment from a port. See forward calls to Google Voice for the Voice side, or forward calls to an AI receptionist for the answering side.