TL;DR
A business phone number in India costs from about ₹160 a month for a second prepaid SIM to ₹5,000 or more a month for cloud telephony with IVR. A shared number in an app costs ₹300 to ₹1,000 a month plus GST. For a 5-person team, one shared app number comes to ₹708 to ₹1,179 a month with GST, close to the ₹800 that five voice-only SIMs cost.
A business phone number for a small Indian business costs from about ₹160 a month for a second prepaid SIM to ₹5,000 or more a month for a cloud telephony system with IVR, with a shared number in an app in between at ₹300–₹1,000 a month plus 18% GST. For a 5-person team, one shared app number works out to ₹708–₹1,179 a month including GST, close to the ₹800 a month that five voice-only SIMs cost.
The real differences between the options are who owns the number, whether the whole team can answer it, and what happens to your customers' calls when someone leaves.
What are your options for a business phone number in India?
There are six: a second SIM, a business postpaid SIM, a business landline, a virtual number app, cloud telephony with IVR, and a toll-free number.
Business phone number options for a small business
| Option | Example price | Monthly cost with GST | Setup time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Second SIM (prepaid) | Jio voice-only plan: ₹448 for 84 days, taxes included | About ₹160 | A few hours to a couple of days (Jio) | A solo owner who wants business calls off the personal number |
| Business postpaid SIM | Jio business postpaid: ₹249 a month + GST per SIM, rental paid in advance | ₹294 per SIM | Ordered through a Jio sales representative; the first order needs at least 10 connections per location | Teams of 10 or more who each need a company-owned mobile number |
| Business landline with broadband | JioBusiness 501 plan: ₹5,112 a year + GST for 1 voice line and 50 Mbps internet | About ₹503 | Needs an installation visit; ₹1,000 fee on monthly plans | A shop or office that wants a fixed line and internet on one bill |
| Virtual number app | Heyo ₹300–₹600, Superfone ₹599, TalkEasy Pro ₹999, all + GST | ₹354–₹1,179 | Minutes with Aadhaar e-KYC, 4–6 hours with manual KYC (MyOperator's figures) | 2–10 people sharing one number from their own phones |
| Cloud telephony with IVR | Tata Smartflo Lite ₹950 per licence + ₹5,000 one-time; MyOperator Sedan ₹5,000 a month billed yearly | ₹5,605–₹5,900 for 5 users | 2–3 business days for KYC at Exotel, plus IVR set-up | 10+ callers who need IVR menus |
| Toll-free 1800 number | Tata Tele ₹11,988 a year; Knowlarity ₹21,000 a year | ₹1,179–₹2,065, before call charges | Sales-led: enquiry, callback, then call-flow set-up (Jio's process) | A helpline advertised across India |
How we compared: prices from each provider's official page, checked 23 Sep 2026. Monthly costs add 18% GST, the rate on telecom services (CBIC); Jio states that its prepaid prices already include taxes. Tata Tele and Knowlarity don't show GST on these plans, so we added 18%.
JioBusiness's landline can ring on your mobile too (Jio calls it parallel ringing), which helps a shop owner who is often away from the counter. For a provider-by-provider view of app and cloud numbers, see the best virtual number providers in India.
How much does a business phone number cost for a 5-person team?
About ₹700–₹1,200 a month with GST for one shared app number, ₹800 for five prepaid SIMs, and ₹5,600–₹5,900 for a cloud telephony system with IVR. Jio business postpaid costs more at this size, because its first order is at least 10 connections. The example below assumes a 5-person team, such as a clinic front desk or a showroom, sharing about 3 hours of calls a day across 26 working days.
Worked monthly cost for a 5-person team
| Setup | How the bill is built | Monthly cost with GST | What the team gets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 prepaid voice-only SIMs (Jio) | ₹448 × 5 every 84 days, taxes included | ₹800 | 5 separate numbers, each registered to one person |
| 10 business postpaid SIMs (Jio's minimum first order) | ₹249 × 10, + GST | ₹2,938 | 10 company-owned numbers with 25 GB of data each, 5 of them spare |
| Heyo Pro | ₹600, + GST | ₹708 | 1 shared number, 5 agents (1 admin, 4 staff), IVR |
| Superfone Business Phone + 2 extra members | (₹599 + 2 × ₹200), + GST | ₹1,179 | 1 virtual mobile number, 5 users, paid quarterly or longer |
| TalkEasy Pro | ₹999, + GST | ₹1,179 | 1 shared number, unlimited users, 3 hours of talktime a day, call recording |
| Tata Smartflo Lite | ₹950 × 5, + GST, plus a ₹5,000 one-time cost | ₹5,605 | 1 DID per agent, 5-level IVR, 3-month minimum |
| MyOperator Sedan | ₹60,000 a year + GST, paid upfront | ₹5,900 | Up to 10 users, IVR, WhatsApp chat, call recording |
Prices from each provider's official page, checked 23 Sep 2026. GST at 18% is added where the provider prices exclude it.
The takeaway: a shared app number costs about the same as five prepaid SIMs and a fifth or less of an IVR system, and your customers get one number to save instead of five.
Two things can change the answer for your team:
- More calling. If the team talks 4 hours a day instead of 3, and the 3 included hours cover the whole account, TalkEasy Pro adds ₹49 + GST for the extra hour, which is ₹1,274 + GST over 26 working days. Superfone's quarterly plan caps outgoing calls at 2 hours a day, with top-ups at ₹15 an hour; its half-yearly and yearly plans have unlimited outgoing calls.
- Minimum seats. Acefone's Professional plan needs at least 6 seats at ₹1,599 each, so a 5-person team pays ₹9,594 a month before tax. Exotel's Dabbler bundle covers 3 agents, so five people need its Believer bundle at ₹19,999 + GST for 11 months, with calls drawn from 9,500 included credits.
Second SIM, business SIM or virtual number: which fits your team?
| Your team | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Just you | A second SIM (about ₹160) or Heyo Lite (₹354 with GST) | The cheapest second number for business calls |
| 2–5 people sharing calls | A virtual number app: Heyo Pro, Superfone or TalkEasy | One number everyone answers from their own phone, for ₹708–₹1,179 |
| 10+ people who each need their own number | Business postpaid SIMs (₹294 each with GST; Jio's first order is 10 or more) | Company-owned numbers that stay with the business |
| 10+ callers with IVR menus | Cloud telephony: MyOperator, Tata Smartflo, Exotel or Knowlarity | Multi-level IVR, integrations and contact-centre reports |
| A public helpline | A toll-free 1800 number | Callers pay nothing |
A prepaid SIM belongs to the person whose ID it is registered on, so when a salesperson leaves with it, the customers who saved that number go too. A business postpaid SIM or a virtual number stays with the company. Five SIMs also spread call history across five phones, while a shared number keeps it in one place: TalkEasy, for example, logs every call against the business number whoever answers, and routes calls by team, department or availability.
If most of your lost leads are unanswered calls, the fix may be a missed call alert service rather than a new number.
Can you make sales calls from a business phone number?
Not promotional ones. Since TRAI amended its telemarketing rules (TCCCPR) in February 2025, ordinary 10-digit numbers cannot be used for telemarketing, and promotional calls must come from a 140-series number that the business registers for with a telecom operator (PIB). None of the options in the table above gives you a 140-series number.
A business number is for calls people expect: customers ringing you, callbacks to enquiries, delivery and support calls, and follow-ups with existing customers. A service call that slips in an offer counts as promotional (TCCCPR Second Amendment). The penalty lands on your phone lines: the first violation bars outgoing calls on all your connections for 15 days, and a repeat disconnects all of them for a year. TRAI's September 2026 amendment, which takes effect 30 days after its Gazette publication, lowers the complaint trigger from 5 to 3 in 10 days when the operator's AI system also flags the number (TRAI).
Our virtual number guide explains the 140, 1600 and 1601 series and the KYC documents you need.
Do you need a toll-free number?
Only if you advertise a helpline to the public and want people to call without thinking about the charge. The business pays for every call: Tata Tele's annual toll-free plan adds a call rate of ₹0.60 on a 30-second pulse, and Knowlarity charges ₹1.05 a minute after 500 free minutes a month. Toll-free numbers take incoming calls only, as Vi Business states for its service, and the WhatsApp Business app won't register them (WhatsApp Help Center); a mobile or landline number works there, as our guide to a virtual number for WhatsApp Business explains. Most small teams start with a mobile or landline number and add toll-free when call volume justifies it.
What pushes the monthly bill up?
- GST. Add 18% to any "+ GST" price: ₹999 becomes ₹1,178.82.
- Per-user pricing. CallHippo's Starter plan is ₹1,900 per user a month on yearly billing, or ₹9,500 a month for five people before tax.
- Paying a year upfront. MyOperator bills yearly, so the ₹5,000-a-month Sedan plan is ₹70,800 on day one, including GST.
- Add-ons. Superfone charges ₹200 a month per member beyond 3, Acefone ₹500 a month for a mobile caller ID, and MyOperator from ₹30,000 a month for Truecaller Business.
- One-time fees. Tata Smartflo Lite charges ₹5,000 once, and MyOperator's optional dedicated onboarding costs ₹20,000.
One number for your whole team, at one flat price. TalkEasy by GrowEasy Pro costs ₹999 + GST a month for unlimited users and includes 3 hours of talktime a day, call recording and history, team management and an analytics dashboard. Compare TalkEasy plans and pricing.
Last reviewed 23 September 2026.
