Lookup API
The Lookup API provides a way to retrieve additional information about a phone number. Lookup currently supports the following types of data.
- Region-specific number formatting and validation
- Carrier Information
- Caller Name
- Fraud Information
Fraud Lookup is currently in preview, click here to request access.
You can specify one or more types of information you would like to purchase in the request, check the Lookup Product Page for pricing information.
API URL
All URLs referenced in the documentation use the following URL.
http://www.lookups.twilio.com/v1/PhoneNumbers/{PhoneNumber}
The Twilio REST API is served over HTTPS. To ensure data privacy, unencrypted HTTP is not supported.
{PhoneNumber} is the phone number you are requesting information about. Phone numbers can be specified either in national formatting or in standard E.164 format. If providing a number in local national format, please also specify the country as an optional parameter. If no country is provided, this will default to US. Twilio will use libphonenumber, Google’s open source phone number handling library, to properly format possible phone numbers for a given region, using length and prefix.
Authentication
HTTP requests to the REST API are protected with HTTP Basic authentication. To learn more about how Twilio handles authentication, please refer to our security documentation. In short, you will use your Twilio account SID as the username and your auth token as the password for HTTP Basic authentication.
curl -G https://lookups.twilio.com/v1/PhoneNumbers/{PhoneNumber} \ -u '[YOUR ACCOUNT SID]:[YOUR AUTH TOKEN]'
You can find your account SID and auth token in your console.
To learn more about authentication and interaction with the Twilio REST API, check out our documentation for requests to the API and Twilio's response.
Lookup a Phone Number
HTTP GET
Returns phone number information matching the specified request. Formatting information is standard. Carrier, Caller Name, and phone number type information can be requested, in addition to using Add-ons to access 3rd party data sources.
Query Parameters
The following basic GET query string parameters allow you to specify the phone number you want information about and the types of information you’d like:
| Names in PHP format | |
|---|---|
countryCode
Optional
|
Optional ISO country code of the phone number. This is used to specify the country when the number is provided in a national format. |
type
Optional
|
Indicates the type of information you would like returned with your request. Possible values are |
addOns
Optional
|
Indicates the particular Add-on you would like to use to get more information. Possible values are the Add-on Unique Names of Add-ons installed on your account. You can specify multiple instances of this parameter to invoke different Add-ons. See Add-ons documentation for information on installing Add-ons. Add-on pricing is available in your list of Installed Add-ons in the Console. |
PREVIEW The Fraud data is currently in preview, click here to request access.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | Indicates the type of data you would like returned with your request. Possible value is fraud. If not specified, the default is null. Fraud costs $0.03 per phone number looked up, and is currently ONLY available in the US. |
When you use AddOns, you can pass additional parameters to the Add-on(s):
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| AddOns.add_on_unique_name.parameter_name | Optional. Passes additional data to the Add-on at request time. See Add-on documentation in Console to identify if the Add-on requires additional parameters. Note that this Add-on must be invoked in this request using the AddOns parameter above. |
Resource Properties
The following properties are always returned:
| Names in PHP format | |
|---|---|
callerName
|
String indicating the name of the owner of the phone number. If not available, this will return |
countryCode
|
The ISO country code for the phone number. |
phoneNumber
|
The phone number, in E.164 format (i.e. "+1"). |
nationalFormat
|
The phone number, in national format. |
carrier
|
|
addOns
|
Results of any Add-ons you have specified using the AddOn parameter in the request, as a JSON dictionary. For the format of the dictionary, refer to Using Add-ons 6 section in the Add-ons documentation. |
url
|
|
Only possible numbers (for a given region, using length and prefix information) will return formatting results. If you attempt to lookup a phone number which cannot exist, you will receive an HTTP 404 error.
Carrier Information
NOTE: For some regions, we are unable to return carrier and cellphone data by default. You need to contact our support team to switch on those regions. More information on our support site.
The following additional properties are returned if you requested carrier information in your GET request:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| MobileCountryCode | The mobile country code of the carrier (for mobile numbers only). |
| MobileNetworkCode | The mobile network code of the carrier (for mobile numbers only). |
| Name | The name of the carrier. Please bear in mind that carriers rebrand themselves constantly and that the names used for carriers will likely change over time. |
| Type | The phone number type. Possible values are landline, mobile, or voip. See 'Phone Number Type' below for more information. |
| ErrorCode | The error code, if any, associated with your request. |
Phone Number Types
The following are the possible values for the 'Type' property.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| landline | The phone number is a landline number generally not capable of receiving SMS messages. |
| mobile | The phone number is a mobile number generally capable of receiving SMS messages. |
| voip | An internet based phone number that may or may not be capable of receiving SMS messages. For example, Google Voice. |
Caller Name
The following additional properties are returned if you requested caller name in your GET request:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| CallerName | String indicating the name of the owner of the phone number. If not available, this will return null. |
| CallerType | String indicating whether this caller is a business or consumer. Possible values are business, consumer. If not available, this will return unavailable. |
| ErrorCode | The error code, if any, associated with your request. |
Note that Caller Name lookups for US numbers are billed per lookup, even if data may not be available. Currently, requesting Caller Name Lookup for international numbers will return null values, but will not be billed.
Fraud Information
The Fraud data is currently in preview, click here to request access.
The following additional properties are returned if you requested fraud information in your GET request:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| AdvancedLineType | The phone number type. Possible values are mobile, landline, fixed_voip, non_fixed_voip, voicemail, toll_free, premium, other and unknown. See 'Phone Number Advance Types' below for more information. |
| MobileCountryCode | The mobile country code of the carrier (for mobile numbers only). |
| MobileNetworkCode | The mobile network code of the carrier (for mobile numbers only). |
| CallerName | String indicating the name of the owner of the phone number. If not available, this will return null. |
| IsPorted | Boolean indicating if the phone number is ported. |
| LastPortedDate | The date on which the phone number was ported. |
| ErrorCode | The error code, if any, associated with your request. |
Phone Number Advance Line Types
The following are the possible values for the 'AdvanceLineType' property.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| mobile | The phone number is a mobile number generally capable of receiving SMS messages. |
| landline | The phone number is a landline number generally not capable of receiving SMS messages. |
| fixed_voip | An internet based phone number tied to addresses that may not be capable of receiving SMS messages. For example, Comcast for instance. |
| non_fixed_voip | An internet based phone number that may or may not be capable of receiving SMS messages. For example, Google Voice. |
| voicemail | An phone number with Voicemail-only service, not capable of receiving SMS messages. |
| toll_free | The phone number only capable of receiving Phone calls and the call recipient pays for call. |
| premium | The caller to the phone number will pay a premium for the call–e.g. 976 area code |
| other | The phone number type does not match with the previous types described. |
| unknown | The line type for the phone number cannot be determined. |
Using Add-ons with Lookup
Lookup also supports Twilio Add-ons, enabling you to retrieve information from a multitude of 3rd party data sources, available via the Twilio Marketplace.
Need some help?
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