A virtual phone number, sometimes called a virtual mobile number or VMN, is an ordinary phone number whose calls and messages terminate in software rather than in a SIM card. Nobody carries a handset for it. Traffic arrives at an API, a trunk or an application, and you decide what happens next.

It is worth being clear about what the word "virtual" does and does not mean, because it invites two wrong readings. It does not mean simulated: the number is real, it belongs to a real numbering range, and the networks route to it exactly as they route to any other. And it does not describe a capability tier: a virtual number is not automatically able to do more or less than a number on a phone.

## What kinds are there?

The type describes the range a number is drawn from and how it reads to the person who sees it.

- **Mobile**: drawn from the same ranges a mobile network gives to handsets. Where these exist they usually carry the broadest set of capabilities, which makes one the number to reach for when a single number has to do several jobs.
- **Local**: the leading digits are a city or regional area code, so it reads as nearby. This is the type most likely to carry voice but not messaging.
- **National**: a country-wide prefix rather than a regional one, so every customer in the country has the same number to call.
- **Toll-free**: the called party pays, so the cost of reaching you is never a reason not to. In North America these can carry messaging too.
- **Short codes**: four to six digits, national only, no voice, and in North America the highest messaging throughput of any sender. Two type values cover them, an ordinary short code and a free-to-end-user one whose traffic is not billed to the subscriber, so a reader branching on the type meets both.

Short codes are the one type you cannot simply buy: they reach a workspace by allocation rather than by purchase, and ordering one through the numbers API is refused. A search may still list them, so treat those rows as a catalogue of what exists rather than as an offer. An allocated short code is also shared rather than yours, which cuts both ways: there is no monthly charge of your own, and you cannot release it.

## What can a given number actually do?

Read it off the number. This is the single most useful habit in this whole subject.

The type tells you what kind of number you have. A separate `capabilities` field tells you what that particular number can do, and it varies by country and by the carrier the number came from. **Never infer SMS or voice from the type alone.** Two local numbers in the same country can differ.

In practice that means the search comes first and the assumption never does: filter a country search by the capability you need, then read the field back on the number you were actually allocated. A number bought on the assumption that its type implies SMS is the commonest way to end up holding a number that cannot do the job.

The list of types is open. New ones are added as coverage grows, so treat an unfamiliar value as a supported type rather than as an error.

## Why can't I send from a number I own?

Because owning a number and being authorised to send from it are different things, and the second one follows the type.

A number proves ownership under its own type, and the registration programme a country runs for a toll-free number is a different programme from the one it runs for a local one. Completing the wrong one does not unblock sending. The number's `ownership` field names what is still outstanding and which call advances it, and a number waiting on that sits at `pending_compliance` **while still being billed**, which is the part worth planning around.

Two programmes come up constantly. A US long code, whether mobile, local or national, needs a registered brand and campaign before it can carry application-to-person traffic. A toll-free number carrying messaging needs toll-free verification. Both register the sender rather than the number, and both are additional to owning it.

## How do I choose one?

Work backwards from what the number has to do rather than forwards from what it is called.

1. **Decide the job first**: two-way conversation, one national support line, high-volume one-way messaging, or voice only. That decides the type more reliably than any comparison of types does.
2. **Search by capability, not by type**, and read `capabilities` back on the allocation.
3. **Budget the registration, not just the number.** For US messaging especially, the time to send is set by the programme rather than by the purchase.

[Number types](/docs/guides/numbers/number-types) covers each type and what it typically carries, [buying numbers](/docs/guides/numbers/buying-numbers) covers searching a country, and [numbers overview](/docs/guides/numbers/overview) covers the lifecycle a number moves through after it is yours.