Yes for most providers, and Claude is the exception
Yes, for most of the AI you actually want to use. Whether you personally have to type a phone number depends entirely on which provider and which sign-up path you pick, not on AI as a category. Some providers never ask. Some ask sometimes, depending on your device, your region, or whether a signal in your sign-up attempt looks automated. One major provider, Anthropic, asks every time, with no way to skip it, as stated on its own support page.
That last point matters, because a lot of what ranks for this question is written by services that sell temporary phone numbers, and they have every incentive to make the requirement sound universal so you feel like you need what they are selling. It is not universal. Here is what each provider actually does, checked against their own documentation and current reporting as of August 2026, since these policies do shift.
What each major provider actually requires
Treat this table as a starting point, not a guarantee. All seven rows were checked in August 2026 against each provider's own documentation where that documentation exists, and these policies change without announcement, so check the provider's help pages before treating a row as current. Sign-up flows also change requirements based on your device, IP address, browser signals, and region, so two people trying the same provider on the same day can see different prompts. If a phone step shows up where this table says it usually does not, that is your specific sign-up attempt being flagged, not the policy changing underneath you.
| Provider | Phone number at signup | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (OpenAI) | Usually not, with email or Google/Apple/Microsoft sign-in | A phone step can appear for new-device logins or flagged sign-ups. A phone number is required separately to generate your first API key on platform.openai.com |
| Claude (Anthropic) | Yes, on every new account | Anthropic's own support documentation says there is no way to skip this step. VoIP and Google Voice numbers are rejected. Accounts can only be created from a country on Anthropic's supported locations list |
| Gemini (Google) | Sometimes | This is a Google Account requirement, not a Gemini-specific one. Google's own help page says only that phone verification is "sometimes" required to confirm you are a real person, and documents no way to skip it. Which signals decide that is not published |
| Perplexity | Usually not for a new free account, with email or Google/Apple sign-in | Perplexity's help center carries an article on phone verification via SMS two-factor, and reporting in April 2026 described Pro subscribers being locked out until they added a number. The scope is not clear from public documentation, so treat a phone request on an existing account as possible |
| Mistral (Vibe, formerly Le Chat) | Not for a free account | Sign-up runs on email, Google, or Apple. Reports say a phone step can appear when you move to a paid plan |
| DeepSeek | No, phone is one option among several | Email or an SSO provider works in most regions without a phone number |
| Microsoft Copilot | No Copilot-specific phone step | Microsoft's own documentation says you can sign in to copilot.com and the mobile and macOS apps with a personal Microsoft account, an Apple ID, or a Google account. The Windows app requires a personal Microsoft account. Any phone prompt comes from creating or securing that underlying account |
One thing no phone number fixes: several of these providers only operate in certain countries. Anthropic publishes the list of locations where Claude accounts can be created and used, and the other providers each publish their own availability page. If your country is not on the list, sign-up fails whatever number you type, because that is a location limit rather than a payment or verification problem. Check the provider's supported countries page first so you do not spend an evening debugging the phone step.
If you use a chat product without creating an account at all, none of this applies, because there is no account to attach a number to. Using AI without an account covers which providers let you try a model with nothing but an open tab, and what you give up by staying logged out.
Why some providers ask for it
The honest reason is spam and duplicate free-tier abuse, and it is worth taking seriously rather than dismissing as corporate paranoia. Every AI provider gives away real, metered compute for free, and every free tier gets hit by scripts that spin up thousands of throwaway accounts to farm the free usage, resell access, or run abuse at scale that a human typing by hand never would.
An email address costs nothing to fake. You can generate a new one in seconds without leaving a script. A working phone number that can receive an SMS is harder and slower to produce in bulk, so it raises the cost of that abuse enough to matter. That is the entire mechanism. It is the same reason your bank and your food delivery app both text you a code the first time you sign in from a new device: not because they want your number for its own sake, but because a real, reachable phone is a decent proxy for a real, single human.
Anthropic states plainly on its own support page that Claude's phone number "is only used for account verification and not for any other purposes," and that it helps the company "prevent spam and abuse." Most major providers say some version of the same thing in their privacy policies: the number is collected for verification and account security, kept separately from marketing data, and not sold to advertisers. That is a stated policy, not something you can verify by watching your inbox, so if a provider's privacy commitments matter to you beyond this one question, is AI safe to use covers what actually happens to everything you type, not just the phone step.
What genuinely does not involve faking a number
The search results for this question are unusually full of services selling temporary or virtual phone numbers built specifically to receive one SMS code and disappear. That is not covered here, and not because of a technicality. Feeding a provider's verification system a number designed to be disposable is exactly the abuse pattern that verification exists to filter out, it typically violates the provider's terms of service, and it can get an account suspended after you have already put work into it. None of that solves the problem; it moves the risk from "I do not want to give my number" to "my account might vanish."
The genuine options, in order of how much they actually solve the underlying discomfort:
- Pick a provider that does not ask. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Mistral, and DeepSeek all have real, working paths that do not require a phone number for most sign-ups. If your goal is trying AI at all, not one specific model, this alone closes most of the question.
- Sign in with an account you already trust with more than a phone number anyway. A Google or Apple account you already use for banking apps, health apps, and two-factor codes is not meaningfully more exposed by adding one more login. If you are already comfortable with that account's security, using it to sign into an AI tool does not introduce new risk.
- Use a service that holds the provider relationship for you. This is a structurally different answer, not a workaround. When a service like Whizi provides access to GPT, Claude, Gemini, and image models through its own subscription, you create one account with that service using your own email, and Whizi handles the provider connections on the back end through its own API relationships. You never create a personal account with Anthropic or OpenAI at all, so there is no phone number to hand to them. The honest trade: the direct free tiers above cost nothing, while Whizi's cheapest plan is $15.99 a month, or $10.99 a month billed annually, so this route makes sense when you wanted paid-tier access to several providers anyway. Dodging one form field alone does not justify the price.
- Accept the one provider that asks, if that model specifically is what you need. If your reason for wanting Claude is a task Claude does noticeably better for you, the honest options are giving Anthropic a real number, or reaching Claude through a service that already has an account with Anthropic so you do not have to.
What actually happens after you verify
Once a code goes through, you are not asked for it again at every login. The number sits attached to the account for future security checks: a new device, a password reset, a suspicious login attempt. That is standard practice across most consumer software, not something specific to AI providers. A verification number is also not automatically the same thing as a saved recovery number. If a provider used it only to clear the sign-up check, you can often delete it later in account settings without losing access, so look under security settings in your own account rather than assuming either way.
Whether the number is kept apart from marketing data is a policy promise, not something you can observe. Either way it now lives on a company's servers, tied to an account with your email and your usage history. If that combination bothers you regardless of the stated policy, provider choice and account structure, points one through three above, are the actual lever, not a trick number that might get your account suspended.
If you just want to try AI today
Skip the phone question entirely for your first session. Open ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity and sign in with a Google or Apple account you already use. None of the three normally asks for a number when you create a free account that way. Type one real question from your actual week, something you would otherwise spend fifteen minutes writing yourself, and see what comes back. That single test tells you more about whether AI is useful to you than any amount of reading about verification policies.
If you get far enough to want to compare Claude, GPT, Gemini, and an image model side by side without opening four separate accounts, each with its own sign-up flow and its own set of requirements, that is the exact problem a single aggregator subscription solves, and it solves the phone number question as a side effect, not the main point.
- Check the specific provider before assuming a phone number is required. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Mistral, and DeepSeek usually do not ask.
- Expect Claude to ask every time. Anthropic's own documentation says there is no way to skip it.
- Sign in with a Google or Apple account you already trust instead of creating a fresh email address. It is one less login to secure, though it is no guarantee against a phone prompt, since those are triggered by signals in the sign-up attempt itself.
- Never feed a verification system a disposable or resold number. It risks the account you just built and usually breaks the provider's terms of service.
- If one specific model is behind a phone requirement you want to avoid, an aggregator that already holds the provider relationship removes the question rather than working around it.
- Treat a verification number as separate from a saved recovery number, and check your account settings if you want it removed after signup.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use ChatGPT without giving my phone number?
Usually yes. Signing up with an email address or a Google, Apple, or Microsoft account typically does not require a phone number. A phone step can appear if the sign-up looks automated or you are logging in from a new device, and OpenAI does require a phone number separately to generate your first API key on platform.openai.com.
Does Claude require a phone number?
Yes. Anthropic's own support documentation states that phone verification is required on every new Claude account and that there is no way to skip the step. VoIP and Google Voice numbers are not accepted. A number is also not enough on its own: Claude accounts can only be created from a country on Anthropic's supported locations list, so check that page first if sign-up fails for you.
Why do AI companies ask for a phone number at all?
To make fake accounts expensive to create at scale. An email address can be generated instantly by a script, but a working phone number that receives an SMS is slower and costlier to produce in bulk, which cuts down on the free-tier abuse and spam that a purely email-based system attracts.
Is it safe to use a virtual or temporary phone number to sign up for AI?
It is not recommended. Using a disposable number built to receive one code typically violates the provider's terms of service and can get the account suspended later, which trades a minor discomfort now for a real risk to an account you have already put work into. The safer path is choosing a provider that does not require a phone number, or reaching a provider that does through a service that already holds that account relationship.
Can I remove my phone number after verifying it?
Sometimes, depending on the provider. If a number was used only to clear the sign-up check and was never saved as a recovery method, it can often be removed later from account settings without affecting access. This is not universal, so check the specific provider's account settings rather than assuming.