--- title: "Phone number formatter, validator and list cleaner" description: "Free phone number formatter: convert any number to E.164, validate it, detect mobile vs landline, and clean bulk lists for SMS and WhatsApp campaigns." canonical: "https://omnichannels.ai/tools/phone-number-formatter/" language: "en" updated: "2026-10-10" publisher: "BroadNet Technologies" brand: "OmniChannels.ai" --- # Phone number formatter, validator and list cleaner Canonical: https://omnichannels.ai/tools/phone-number-formatter/ Language: en Publisher: OmniChannels.ai by BroadNet Technologies E.164 is the international phone number format defined by ITU-T Recommendation E.164: a plus sign, the country code and the national number, with no spaces, dashes or leading trunk 0, and at most 15 digits. A UAE mobile written locally as 050 123 4567 becomes +971501234567 in E.164, or 971501234567 as digits only for APIs and wa.me links. ## How to format and clean phone numbers 1. **Choose the default country:** Numbers written without a country code, such as 050 123 4567, are read with this country's numbering plan. Numbers with + or 00 keep their own country. 2. **Paste a number or a list:** Type one number in any format, or switch to Bulk list and paste numbers or upload a .csv or .txt file. The phone column is detected from the header. 3. **Review validity and line type:** Each number is converted to E.164 and checked against the country's allocated ranges. You see why invalid numbers fail and which numbers are landlines. 4. **Download the cleaned CSV:** Choose E.164 or digits only, keep or drop invalid rows, and download a de-duplicated CSV ready to import into a campaign or send through an API. ## What E.164 format is ITU-T Recommendation E.164 is the international numbering plan that gives every phone number in the world a unique form. An E.164 number is the country code (1 to 3 digits) followed by the national significant number, up to 15 digits in total. Written for machines it carries a leading plus sign and nothing else: no spaces, brackets, dashes or the trunk prefix 0 that you dial at home. The same UAE mobile can appear as 050 123 4567, +971 50 123 4567, 00971501234567 or 971-50-1234567 in a CRM export. Only one of those is E.164: +971501234567. Storing every number that way makes them comparable, so duplicates can be found and any SMS, WhatsApp or voice API will accept them. - Country code: +971 UAE, +966 Saudi Arabia, +974 Qatar, +965 Kuwait, +973 Bahrain, +968 Oman, +20 Egypt, +44 UK, +1 US and Canada. - Drop the trunk prefix: 050 in the UAE becomes 50 after +971, and 07400 in the UK becomes 7400 after +44. - Replace the international call prefix (00 in most countries, 011 from the US and Canada) with +. - Maximum length is 15 digits, not counting the plus sign. ## GCC and MENA phone number formats Gulf numbering plans look alike but differ in length and in whether a trunk 0 is used. That is why a list mixing local formats from several countries cannot be cleaned without a default country and full numbering-plan data. - UAE (+971): mobiles are 9 digits starting with 5 (50, 52, 54, 55, 56, 58), dialled locally as 05X XXX XXXX. Landlines are 8 digits, e.g. 04 for Dubai and 02 for Abu Dhabi. - Saudi Arabia (+966): mobiles are 9 digits starting with 5, written locally as 05X XXX XXXX. +966 50 123 4567 is the E.164 form. - Qatar (+974), Kuwait (+965), Bahrain (+973) and Oman (+968): 8-digit numbers with no trunk 0, so the local number is simply the national number. Mobiles start with 3, 5, 6 or 7 in Qatar, 5, 6 or 9 in Kuwait, 3 in Bahrain and 7 or 9 in Oman. - Egypt (+20): mobiles are 10 digits starting with 10, 11, 12 or 15, written locally as 01X XXXX XXXX. - Arabic-Indic digits (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩) and Persian digits (۰۱۲۳۴۵۶۷۸۹) are common in forms filled in on Arabic keyboards. They are the same numbers and must be converted to ASCII digits before any API will accept them. ## Why clean lists matter for deliverability and cost Every invalid, duplicate or landline number in a campaign list is wasted money or a wasted message. Many SMS routes bill per submitted message, so a number with a missing digit is still paid for. A duplicate means the same customer gets your offer twice, which drives opt-outs and spam reports, and a high share of failed messages hurts the reputation of your sender ID with operators. For WhatsApp, a badly formatted number simply fails: the Cloud API expects the full international number, and a local 050… with no country code is either rejected or sent to the wrong country. Cleaning the list before import also makes your delivery reports meaningful, because failures then point to real issues such as inactive numbers rather than typos. - Remove duplicates after normalising, not before: 0501234567 and +971501234567 are the same person. - Drop landlines from SMS and WhatsApp sends; route them to voice instead. - Keep invalid rows flagged in a separate file so the source system can be fixed. - Format validation proves a number could exist, not that it is active. For that, use an HLR lookup or delivery reports. ## How this formatter works The tool uses libphonenumber-js with Google's full libphonenumber metadata, the same numbering-plan data used by Android and most messaging platforms. It checks each number against the ranges allocated in its country and returns the line type where the plan defines it: mobile, fixed line, toll-free, VoIP, premium rate or shared cost. In the US and Canada, mobile and fixed numbers share the same ranges, so the type is shown as fixed line or mobile. Before parsing, it converts Arabic-Indic, Persian and full-width digits, removes invisible direction marks that Arabic text often carries, strips tel: and wa.me prefixes, and turns 00 into +. Numbers already starting with a country code but missing the plus, such as 971501234567, are recognised too. Everything runs in your browser: lists of up to 50,000 rows are processed in small chunks on your device and are never uploaded. ## E.164 or digits only: which format to use Use E.164 with the plus (+971501234567) when storing numbers in a CRM or database, in tel: links and for most SMS and voice APIs. Use digits only (971501234567) where the plus is not allowed: wa.me click-to-chat links, the WhatsApp Cloud API wa_id, and SMS APIs that take the destination as a plain number, such as the OmniChannels.ai SMS API. Whichever you choose, keep it consistent across systems. Mixing formats is the most common reason the same contact appears twice and why imported lists fail validation. ## Phone number formatting FAQ ### What is the E.164 format of a phone number? It is the international format defined by ITU-T E.164: a plus sign, the country code and the national number with no spaces, punctuation or trunk 0, up to 15 digits. For example, the UK mobile 07400 123456 is +447400123456 in E.164. ### How do I convert a UAE number like 050 123 4567 to international format? Drop the leading 0 and add the UAE country code +971: 050 123 4567 becomes +971501234567. Formatted for reading it is +971 50 123 4567, and for wa.me links or APIs that do not accept the plus it is 971501234567. ### How do I write a Saudi mobile number in E.164? Saudi mobiles are dialled locally as 05X XXX XXXX. Remove the 0 and prefix +966, so 0501234567 becomes +966501234567. The national number is 9 digits and starts with 5. ### Should I include the plus sign when sending through an SMS or WhatsApp API? It depends on the API. WhatsApp wa.me links and the Cloud API wa_id use digits only, with no plus or leading zeros. The OmniChannels.ai SMS API also expects digits only with the country code. When in doubt, store E.164 and strip the plus at send time. ### Can this tool tell if a number is a mobile or a landline? Yes, where the country's numbering plan separates them, which covers almost every country including all GCC states. In the US and Canada mobiles and landlines share ranges, so the result is fixed line or mobile. Validation does not tell you whether a number is currently active. ### Does it work with Arabic numerals? Yes. Arabic-Indic digits (٠-٩) and Persian digits (۰-۹) are converted to standard digits automatically, and invisible right-to-left marks copied from Arabic text are removed before the number is checked. ### How many numbers can I clean at once, and is my list uploaded? Up to 50,000 rows per list, pasted or from a .csv or .txt file up to 15 MB. The file is read and processed entirely in your browser; nothing is sent to our servers. You can download the cleaned list as a CSV in E.164 or digits-only format. ### Why does Excel show my phone numbers as 9.72E+11? Excel treats long digit strings as numbers and switches to scientific notation, and it also drops leading zeros. Import the CSV with Data › From Text/CSV and set the phone column type to Text, or keep the E.164 plus sign and open the file in a text-aware tool.