How to verify Instagram without your phone number

Instagram does not always require a phone number - an email address is enough to create most accounts. A number is demanded when the sign-up looks unusual to Instagram: a new device, a shared network, several accounts in a row, or a login from somewhere far from the last one. When it is demanded, a virtual number rented for a few minutes will receive the code. What that number will not do is get you back into the account a year from now, which is why the recovery section below matters more than the sign-up itself.

Try email first

On the sign-up screen Instagram offers a phone number by default and an email address as an alternative. Choosing email frequently completes the whole registration with no number requested at all. It costs nothing to try, and it is the shortest path.

If a number is requested anyway, that is Instagram reacting to something about the sign-up rather than a rule applied to everybody.

When Instagram insists

• Several accounts created from one device or one connection.
• A brand-new device, or a fresh install after clearing data.
• A network Instagram sees a lot of sign-ups from - shared wifi, some mobile ranges, a VPN exit.
• Behaviour straight after sign-up that looks automated: following many accounts quickly, posting immediately, copying and pasting the same comment.

Using a rented number

1. Have the number before you need itRent it in one tab with Instagram open in another. The code expires quickly and starting the rental after Instagram asks wastes half the window.
2. Pick Instagram as the serviceServices are listed separately because availability differs. Choosing the right one is what makes the code arrive.
3. Enter it exactly, country code includedA mistyped digit produces an error that looks like the number being refused, and people give up at that point when nothing was wrong.
4. Read the code from the pageThe SMS lands on the same page you rented from. If nothing arrives before the timer ends, the order cancels itself and the money returns to your balance.
5. Add a recovery email straight awaySettings, then Account Centre, then Personal details. This is the step that decides whether you still have the account next year.

The number will not be there later

A rented number is yours for one verification. When Instagram later asks you to confirm your identity - a suspicious login, a new phone, an appeal against a restriction - it offers to send a code to the number on file. That number will belong to somebody else by then.

A confirmed email address on the account is what replaces it. Add one immediately, confirm it, and keep access to that mailbox. Without it, an account created on a rented number is one security prompt away from being unrecoverable.

Common questions