Where to buy
Phone numbers live at Settings → Organization settings → Phone numbers. They are not under a brand, and that is deliberate: a number is bought by the organisation, has its own line on your invoice, and can only ever ring one voice agent — so it cannot be shared between brands.
The page has three tabs: Search & Buy, Owned Numbers and Verification.
Only the organisation owner can buy a number. An administrator opening this page will be refused at the purchase step, because buying charges the card on file. If you are not the owner, ask them to do this part.
Pick a country and a number type
On Search & Buy, choose a country first — the list is whatever Telnyx, our telephony provider, currently sells. Then pick a number type. Only the types available in that country are offered:
| Type | What it is |
|---|---|
| Local | A geographic number tied to a specific city or region. |
| Mobile | A mobile number, typically used for SMS and voice. |
| National | A non-geographic number reachable from anywhere in the country. |
| Toll-free | Free for the caller — your organisation pays for incoming calls. |
| Shared cost | The cost is split between the caller and your organisation. |
Narrow the search
Open the advanced filters if the first page of results is not what you want. You can filter by area code, city, state or region, and by numbers that contain, start with or end with particular digits. Two switches are worth knowing:
- Include approximate matches — widens the search to numbers that roughly fit your filters, useful when an exact pattern returns nothing.
- Instant activation only — shows only numbers that can take calls immediately with no verification wait. It applies to US and Canadian toll-free numbers.
Each result card shows the monthly rental and the setup fee before you click anything, along with what the number supports — voice is the one that matters for a voice agent.
Check what you are paying
Clicking Buy opens a confirmation that separates the two things clearly:
- Due now — the one-time setup fee, plus the rental prorated for the days left until your next billing date. The dialog shows how many days that is.
- Billed monthly — the recurring rental, and the date it starts.
You can also assign a voice agent right here, and change it later. The confirm button names the amount, so you are clicking "Pay 9.42 USD & purchase" rather than a bare "Confirm".
Confirm — and what happens if it fails
Your card is charged immediately. In most countries the number appears in Owned Numbers within a few minutes.
If the purchase does not go through, the dialog stays open and shows a red panel headed "The purchase did not go through" with the provider's reason. Only a successful purchase closes the dialog — so if it closed, it worked. Read the reason before trying again; buying a second time when the first one actually succeeded is the expensive mistake here.
If the country needs paperwork
Some countries require proof of address, an end-user declaration or a local tax number before a number can be switched on. When that happens the purchase becomes an order rather than an instant activation, and you are told so: "Verification is required before activation."
Track it on the Verification tab, which lists your pending orders and everything still outstanding on them. Upload what is asked for, and the number activates once the carrier approves it.
Pending orders now catch up by themselves. Simply opening the Phone numbers page re-checks every unsettled order with the carrier, and a background job does the same every hour — so a number that finished activating on the provider's side shows up within an hour at worst, without you having to chase it.
Have your documents ready as clear, legible PDFs before you start. Most verification delays come from blurry scans, the wrong country of issue, or an expired ID — not from the carrier being slow.
What the Owned Numbers list shows
One row per number, with the number itself, its country, its status, the agent it rings, and its monthly cost. There is no brand column — a number belongs to the organisation, and it reaches a brand only through the agent you point it at.
Assign the number to an agent
Two places do the same job:
- From this page, edit the row and pick an agent.
- Or open the agent at Brand → Voice, go to its Connections tab, and choose the number under Assigned phone numbers.
A number rings exactly one agent. Assigning it to a second agent takes it away from the first. There is no longer any "which Vex chatbot should this agent use" field on that tab — the agent answers from its brand.
How a number stops costing money
This is the part that catches people out, so read it before you buy a second number. Releasing the number on this page is the only thing that stops the monthly charge. In particular:
- Deleting the voice agent un-assigns its numbers and resets their routing — but the numbers stay in your account and keep billing.
- Deleting the whole brand deletes its voice agents and never touches its numbers. They stay on the organisation, unassigned, still billing.
- Pausing an agent stops it answering, but the rental continues.
Releasing is also owner-only, and it can now fail visibly: if the carrier refuses to take the number back you get "The number could not be released with our phone provider, so nothing has been removed. Please try again, or contact support if it keeps happening." Retrying is safe and is the right thing to do — but be aware that at that moment the recurring charge has already been stopped and any prorated credit already applied, while the number is still shown in your list.
Next step
For the full money picture, read Phone number setup fees and monthly rental. To give the number something to answer with, read Create a voice agent.