The Reassigned Numbers Database: how a query works and when it buys you the safe harbor
10 min readDatabase pages and rules read 2026-10-22
For the owner or ops lead whose list holds numbers that customers gave you months or years ago: what the FCC's Reassigned Numbers Database checks, what each answer means, which conditions of 47 CFR § 64.1200(m) a query has to meet, and how to get access. Every rule and price was read from the eCFR, the FCC's order and the database's own pages on 2026-10-22.
The short answer
The Reassigned Numbers Database is the FCC's record of which US phone numbers have been permanently disconnected, and when. You send it a number and a date; it tells you whether the number has been cut off since then. A clean answer, checked the right way, is the only route to the TCPA's reassigned-number safe harbor.
Why consent goes stale
Under the TCPA, consent is given by a person for a number. When that person changes carriers and keeps the number, nothing changes. When they give the number up, it goes back into the pool and, a few weeks later, to a stranger. Your CRM still says “opted in”. The person who now answers never did.
The FCC's 2018 order that created the database put the scale at roughly 35 million disconnected numbers a year, an average of numbering reports for 2013 to 2016, and noted that one party questioned the figure.
A worked timeline
The database's own FAQ walks one number through it. A number permanently disconnected on 2021-10-16 is reported by 2021-11-15. Because it must age 45 days, it cannot go to a new subscriber until after 2021-11-30. A caller who queries each month sees the disconnection before the number can reach anyone new.
The aging floor is the same for everyone; the ceiling is not. Under 47 CFR § 52.15(f)(1)(ii), a number that belonged to a residential customer is aged for 45 to 90 days, and a business customer's number for 45 to 365 days.
What does not count as a disconnection
The database's FAQ is precise here. A number ported to another provider stays with the same person, so it is not permanently disconnected. Neither is a line suspended for an unpaid bill. Only a number that has left its subscriber for good is reported.
What goes in and what comes back
A query has three fields: the telephone number, a date the database calls the last known contact date, and your registered Company ID. An optional Record ID of up to 12 digits lets you tie each answer back to a row in your own records.
| Answer | What the database is telling you | Safe harbor |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | The number was permanently disconnected on or after the date you sent | Does not apply. Treat the number as reassigned. |
| No | Not disconnected since your date; or not in the database at all and your date is on or after 2021-01-27 | May apply, if the answer turns out to be wrong |
| No data | Not in the database, and your date is before 2021-01-27, when every provider had to keep disconnect records | Does not apply. Query again with a newer date. |
An example from the FAQ: a number disconnected on 2021-02-11 and queried with 2021-01-11 returns “yes”, because the disconnection falls inside your window. Query the same number with a date after 2021-02-11 and the answer is “no”: the disconnection came before the date you sent.
Which date to send
“You can use the date when you obtained consent from the consumer to call the number or you can use a past date on which you are reasonably certain that the consumer could still be reached at that number.”
The FAQ's examples are the last time you spoke to the customer at that number, or the day they updated their contact details. Either way, the date has to live next to the number in your consent records (the records hub collects the tools for them). A list without dates cannot be queried at all.
The safe harbor and its three conditions
The database exists so that a careful caller is not punished for something it could not see. The FCC wrote that into 47 CFR § 64.1200(m): a caller who reaches a new subscriber is not liable for the call if it can show three things.
“(1) it obtained consent from the intended call recipient; (2) it or its duly authorized agent checked the database prior to calling the number to verify that the number had not been permanently disconnected, or reassigned, after the date the caller obtained consent; and (3) the database returned a query response of “no” that was incorrect”
The second condition has a clock in it. The FCC refused requests to let a single check cover calls for three months or a year: the safe harbor reaches only as far as “the most recent update to the database”. Providers report on the 15th, so in practice a number you keep calling is queried again each month.
Does this query give me the safe harbor?
Walk one number through the rule. Each question is a condition from § 64.1200(m), the FCC's order or the database's answer table, and the walk stops at the first one a call fails.
Does this query give me the safe harbor?
Answer for one number and one call. Each question is one condition of the rule; the first one a call fails ends the walk.
Step 1 of up to 5
Pick an answer to question 01 to see the next condition.
A carrier-data flag is not a database query
Many scrubbing and data vendors sell a “reassigned” or “disconnected” check built on carrier and phone-data feeds. Some are useful. None of them is the FCC's database, and the FCC said in plain words that the safe harbor stops there.
“We also decline to extend the safe harbor to other commercial databases.”
| Check | FCC database query | Carrier-data reassigned flag |
|---|---|---|
| Where the data comes from | Every provider holding US numbers, reporting by rule each month | The vendor's own sources, which differ by vendor |
| What you send | The number and your consent date | Usually the number; check with the vendor |
| What comes back | Yes, no or no data for your window | A flag or a score, defined by the vendor |
| Safe harbor | Yes, on the terms of § 64.1200(m) | No |
| Meets Maine's sales-call rule | Yes, it is the database the statute names | No |
Our reading of vendor documentation found the split clearly. In the TCPA compliance software comparison, five of six tools document a reassigned-number check against the FCC database. In the TCPA-compliant auto dialer comparison, not one of six dialers documents a built-in query, so that check is something you buy separately, often from a DNC scrubbing service.
Who can query it: callers and caller agents
The database has two kinds of querying user. A Caller is the business that calls or texts and queries for itself. A Caller Agent is a contractor that queries on a client's behalf. Both register, both prepay, and an agent also needs a Letter of Authorization for each client company before it can query for it.
Ways to send numbers
| Method | Limit | Fits |
|---|---|---|
| Typed into the website | 50 numbers | A few numbers before a call |
| File upload on the website | 1,000,000 numbers per file | A monthly list check |
| SFTP | 1,000,000 numbers per file | Scheduled jobs from a CRM export |
| API | 1,000 numbers at a time | A check inside your own send flow |
| API upload | 1,000,000 numbers per file | Large batches by machine |
If you would rather not touch it, an agent can. The database publishes a list of registered caller agents, among them PossibleNOW, Contact Center Compliance and Gryphon.ai. It says plainly that neither callers nor providers are required to use an agent and that it endorses none. A company that wants its own access as well as an agent registers first, and both then use the same Company ID.
What it costs
Querying is a prepaid subscription for one, three, six or twelve months, priced by the number of queries. The administrator calls the table interim pricing; the current one was posted in July 2025. These are the four smallest of its twelve tiers, read from its pricing page on 2026-10-22.
| Tier | Per query | 1 month | 3 months | 6 months | 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | $0.008 | 1,000 for $8 | 3,000 for $24 | 6,000 for $48 | 12,000 for $86 |
| Tier 2 | $0.006 | 10,000 for $60 | 30,000 for $180 | 60,000 for $360 | 120,000 for $648 |
| Tier 3 | $0.0056 | 50,000 for $280 | 150,000 for $840 | 300,000 for $1,680 | 600,000 for $3,024 |
| Tier 3A | $0.00544 | 100,000 for $544 | 300,000 for $1,632 | 600,000 for $3,264 | 1,200,000 for $5,875 |
Twelve-month plans carry a discount (10% on tiers 1 to 6), which is why they are not exactly twelve times the monthly price. The largest tier runs to 50,000,000 queries a month. Run out early and you have three options: once 75% of the queries are used you can start a new plan at once and carry the rest over, you can upgrade to a higher tier at a prorated price, or you can “top off”, paying 10% of the plan price for 10% more queries.
Maine makes the query mandatory
Federal law rewards the query; Maine requires it. Since an amendment (PL 2023, c. 570), Maine's telephone-solicitation statute treats skipping it as a violation for sales calls to its residents.
“It is a violation of this section for a telephone solicitor to initiate a telephone sales call to a consumer if that consumer's telephone number has been on the national or state do-not-call registry … for at least 3 months prior to the date the call is made or to fail to use the reassigned numbers database to verify that a consumer's telephone number has not been reassigned prior to initiating a telephone sales call to that consumer.”
The statute's defence mirrors the federal one and adds a step: the solicitor, or someone acting for it, uses the reassigned numbers database as part of its routine business practice before a telephone sales call (defence E-1). The statute defines that database as the one the FCC created and maintains, so a carrier-data flag does not satisfy it. The rest of the state rules sit in the mini-TCPA state laws guide.
Fitting the query into your consent log
The query is cheap; the record around it is what earns the safe harbor. For a business that texts or calls the same customers month after month, the routine below keeps every number answerable.
The query sits beside, not in place of, the other checks a list needs before a send: the Do Not Call scrub, your internal opt-out list and the litigator screen. The reassigned answer is the only one of them that speaks to whether the consent you hold still belongs to the person who will answer. Whether your tool counts as an autodialer decides whether the consent rules, and so this safe harbor, are in play at all.
This guide explains the FCC's rules and the database's published terms. It is not legal advice.
Questions callers ask
Is querying the Reassigned Numbers Database mandatory?
Not under federal law. The database's own FAQ says use is not mandatory, and the FCC built the safe harbor to reward callers who use it. Maine is the exception: its telephone-solicitation law makes it a violation to place a telephone sales call to a Maine consumer without first using the database.
Does it cover text messages?
Yes. The database's FAQ answers "I only text my customers, may I use this Database?" with yes: the FCC order covers businesses that call or text. The safe harbor covers the consent rules in 47 CFR § 64.1200(a)(1) to (a)(3), which is where autodialed texts sit.
What date do I put in the query?
The date you obtained consent, or a later date on which you were reasonably sure the person could still be reached at that number, such as the last time you spoke with them there or the day they updated their contact details. The FCC's order names the same two choices.
What does a 'no data' answer mean?
The number is not in the database and the date you sent is before 2021-01-27, the date from which all providers had to keep disconnect records. The database cannot speak for the time before that, so no safe harbor applies. Re-confirm the number with the customer and query again with the newer date.
How often should I query a number I keep calling?
Before the calls, against the latest monthly update. Providers report disconnections on the 15th of each month, and the FCC refused to stretch the safe harbor beyond the most recent update, so a query from three months ago does not cover a call made today.
Does the safe harbor protect me from Do Not Call claims?
No. The rule shields calls under the consent prohibitions in 47 CFR § 64.1200(a)(1), (2) and (3) only. Telemarketing calls to numbers on the national or your internal do-not-call list are a separate rule with its own defence: a current scrub and written procedures.
Can my dialer or texting platform run the query for me?
Only through a registered caller agent, and only if the query is the FCC database with your consent date. The database lists its registered caller agents and says it endorses none. A reassigned score built from carrier data is a different product and earns no safe harbor.
Sources
- FCC, Reassigned Numbers Database (wording via this site's canonical facts)fetched 2026-10-22
- Reassigned Numbers Database, home pagefetched 2026-10-22
- Reassigned Numbers Database, About (answers and administrator)fetched 2026-10-22
- Reassigned Numbers Database, Querying Data (registration and query methods)fetched 2026-10-22
- Reassigned Numbers Database, FAQsfetched 2026-10-22
- Reassigned Numbers Database, Interim Subscription Pricing (table posted July 2025)fetched 2026-10-22
- Reassigned Numbers Database, Find an Agentfetched 2026-10-22
- FCC, Second Report and Order FCC 18-177 (Dec. 13, 2018), paras. 6 and 53-57fetched 2026-10-22
- 47 CFR § 64.1200(l) and (m) (eCFR, current as of 2026-10-20)fetched 2026-10-22
- 47 CFR § 52.15(f)(1)(ii), aging numbers (eCFR, current as of 2026-10-20)fetched 2026-10-22
- Maine, 10 M.R.S. § 1499-B (telephone solicitation)fetched 2026-10-22