What phone number do I put on a Craigslist ad instead of my own?

What Craigslist hides for you, and what it does not

Craigslist gives every post a relay address of its own. A buyer writes to that address, the mail reaches your inbox, and your own address is never shown. It costs nothing and it is on by default, which makes it the best free contact route on the page.

A number typed into the description gets none of that. The body of the ad appears exactly as written, so a number you put there is public from the moment the post goes live, and software reads it long before a buyer does. Once it is out there is no undo: deleting the post does not reach the copies already taken.

So the question is not really "which number", it is "do I need one at all". Answer that first and the rest of this page gets shorter.

When the email relay is enough, and when it is not

• Enough: you are selling one thing, the buyers will all find it on Craigslist, and you do not mind arranging a pickup over email. Nothing here beats free and invisible.
• Not enough: the ad is also a card in a car window, a flyer on a board, or a sign on a lawn. Nobody reading cardboard can use a relay address.
• Not enough: you are selling something people decide about in ten minutes, and a buyer who has to write an email will text the next seller instead.
• Not enough: two of you are selling together and both need to see the replies, or you are posting week after week and want one contact route you can end later.

The free numbers, best first

• Google Voice. Free in the United States and the most complete free option available: a real number that takes calls, takes texts, does voicemail with a transcript, and rings through an app or the web. You need a Google account and a U.S. phone number to link to it. The number then lives inside the same Google account as your mail and your photos, which is the trade. If you want a free number that rings, look here first.
• A spare phone with a line that still works. Free in practice, if one is already in a drawer. A new prepaid line costs a plan every month, answers calls properly, and is one number for one person.
• A landline or a work number you are happy to publish. Uncommon, and it is the right answer when it is true.
• Nothing at all, with "email only, please" in the ad. You will get fewer replies. Some spam still reaches a relay address, but nothing is dialing your phone.

Paid app numbers

Hushed and Burner sell a second number that lives in an app on your phone. They carry calls as well as texts, and the number is yours while you keep paying for it. The cost is an install, an account, and a number that keeps reaching you until you decide to let it go. We are not going to quote their prices or their billing periods here; look at their own pages, because both move.

That shape suits somebody who wants a second line they keep. Both let you drop a number when you are finished with it, so whether one fits a one-week ad is a question for their own pages rather than for ours.

A listing number from this site, stated exactly

TheLocalRing gives you one U.S. number, local to the ZIP code you type, from whatever is in stock that day. You put it in the ad. Texts sent to it arrive in your email, in up to five inboxes at once, so both sellers see every message with no shared login and no app. You reply from your email, and the reply reaches the buyer as an ordinary text from the listing number. Your email address is stripped out before it goes.

Calls do not work. A U.S. number here forwards no calls on any plan: a caller hears a short spoken message asking them to text instead, and nothing rings. Write "text only" in the ad, or use Google Voice.

It is receive-first, which is the limit people meet first. Someone has to text you before you can text them, and you can answer anyone who has texted in the last 30 days. You cannot open a conversation, so a buyer who went quiet five weeks ago has to text again before you can reply. The first reply each person gets carries a short label you pick, for example "Bike on Craigslist via TheLocalRing. Reply STOP to end.", so they can see a relay is involved and can stop it.

No picture messaging out. Your replies go out as plain text every time, so you cannot send a photo of the item. A picture a buyer sends you may arrive; when it does, it reaches every inbox on the number as a link. Do not rely on it in either direction. There is no voicemail, a reply longer than about 1,500 characters is cut short, and we do not support verification codes: many banks, marketplaces and app signups refuse numbers like this one.

Passes run from C$2.99: C$2.99 for a day, C$5.99 for three days, or C$7.99 for a week. Monthly is C$14.99 a month, with the first 14 days free and a card taken at checkout. Prices in Canadian dollars. Your card issuer converts the charge and may add a foreign transaction fee.

When the pass ends, forwarding stops. The number is held for you for seven more days in case you come back, and then it returns to a shared pool and may be assigned to somebody else. Your ad, or a photo of your window card, can outlive the pass, so a stranger texting that number weeks later reaches whoever holds it next. Monthly keeps the number until you cancel.

Which one fits your ad

• Selling one item, all on Craigslist: no number. Use the email relay.
• You want the phone to ring, and free: Google Voice.
• You want a second line you keep, and it has to ring: Google Voice is free in the United States. An app number from Hushed or Burner, or a prepaid SIM, if you would rather it were not inside a Google account.
• The ad is on paper too, you want it answered by text, and you want the number to end: a listing number from this site.
• You need the number to receive a verification code: none of the above. Use your own mobile number.

How to word the ad

• Write "text only, please" next to the number. It sets the expectation and it filters the callers who were never going to buy.
• Keep the number out of the description if you can. Text in the body of the ad is public and gets copied. A flyer or a window card has no contact route behind it, so that is where a number earns its place.
• Name the item on the same line: "Dining table, oak, text only". A message three weeks later still makes sense.
• Keep your email out of the body. Craigslist already relays it, and an address typed into the description is harvested the same way a number is.

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