Title graphic: How to get a FREE burner phone number, with a nurse and a locked phone icon
A burner phone number only takes a few minutes to setup and will save you the cost of buying a new phone after you smash yours to smithereens when you receive your 10th spam call of the day.

Free and Cheap Burner Phone Number Apps

Free if you don't mind ads or data-sharing; a dollar or two a month if you'd rather skip both.

Free apps

We all love FREE, right? Just be aware these free services come with the price of obtrusive ads or having your data shared.

Cheap apps

Your privacy and peace of mind (and ad-free app experience) could easily be worth a $1-5/month with these paid services.

Tall graphic comparing burner phone number app options

Which ones I recommend

Despite my strong stance against Google's exploitive use of our data, I still use it. 😝

In fact, my StellarNurse business phone number is a Google Voice number. Google Voice's free price tag and convenience is just too hard to deny. And it's soooo easy to use.

If you're on the fence about getting a burner phone number, start with Google Voice. It's free & there's no ads.

The other free services work great but have ads that can make for a messier experience.

All three of the paid services above work great - Burner even has built-in spam filtering.

How does a burner phone number stop your spam calls?

Using a burner phone number for new or untrusted contacts gives you privacy and control and prevents spam calls.

The immediate benefit of a burner phone number is separating your travel nursing job search from your personal phone usage.

A Burner Phone number blocks spam by:

  1. Hiding your personal phone number
  2. Limiting exposure of your personal phone # to spammers
  3. Easy to mute or delete phone number

What happens when someone calls your burner number?

This is the part people get wrong, and it's the reason a burner actually works instead of just moving the problem.

With Google Voice, calls to your burner number ring in the app, not on your personal phone.

You can leave it separate, or you can forward it to your personal phone - Google lets you link up to 6 devices and turn off any you don't want ringing.

Your burner also gets its own voicemail, separate from your carrier's, so a recruiter's message lands in the app instead of mixed in with voicemails from your mom.

Here's the setting worth knowing about. ⤵️

If you do forward calls to your personal phone, Google can show your Voice number as the caller ID instead of the caller's.

Turn that on and every forwarded call is instantly labeled - you look at your screen, see your burner number, and you already know it's a recruiter before you decide whether to pick up.

That's the whole trick. You're not hiding, you're screening on your own terms.

When you call out, the person sees your Voice number. Your personal phone number never leaves your phone.

(Mechanics vary by app - the above is how Google Voice works, since it's the free option most nurses land on.)

Are the paid burner phone number apps worth it?

Even with their nominal fees, using MySudo, Hushed or Burner would definitely be worth your money.

Your money pays for

Do burner phone numbers have risk or commitment?

Burner numbers are meant to be disposable, so you're not locked into anything - no contract, no credit check, cancel whenever. There are 2 catches worth knowing about though, and I cover both below.

No risk, need to commit - you can cancel your burner numbers anytime.

Remember before cancelling your burner phone number: give a functioning phone number to any agency or person you want to keep contact with!

I use my burner phone numbers with companies or people I'm unfamiliar with and want to vet their jobs and services.

Only trusted businesses and people get access to my personal phone numbers.

Yes, and I want to be precise about why, because "burner" sounds shady and it isn't.

There is no federal law that stops you from getting a second phone number, and no law requiring you to show ID to get one.

Which is why the FCC proposed a rule in April 2026 that would require providers to collect your name, address, and government-issued ID before giving you a number. That's a proposal, not law, as of July 2026. The EFF is fighting it on the grounds that it would end anonymous phone lines entirely.

Hiding your number is explicitly fine.

The FCC says plainly that you can legally block your number from being transmitted, and that doing so is not spoofing.

Spoofing only becomes illegal when caller ID is faked "with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value."

What is a crime is using an anonymous number to threaten or harass a specific person - that's a federal offense carrying up to 2 years.

Notice what the law targets: the intent, not the anonymity.

Not wanting 40 agencies to have your personal phone number is not on that list.

Got your number sorted? Put it to work.

See what every agency is paying for your specialty in one search - full listings and pay, no account required.

Can a burner phone number be traced?

Depends entirely on who's doing the tracing, and the honest answer has 2 halves.

Law enforcement with a warrant or subpoena: yes.

Every one of these providers says so in writing. Google's own policy is that it discloses subscriber information - registration details, IP addresses, timestamps, even voicemail content - on valid legal process.

The paid apps say the same thing in their privacy policies.

Nobody is selling you an untraceable line, and you should be suspicious of anyone who claims otherwise.

Anyone who just has the number: they can tell it's a burner, but that's a different question from knowing it's yours.

Commercial lookup tools - the kind big companies run on signups - return the line type, including whether a number is VoIP. So a recruiter's system may well flag your number as a virtual one.

Your name is a separate matter, and providers only hand that over on legal process.

For what we're actually talking about here - keeping your personal phone number out of a staffing database - that's plenty. You're not trying to disappear.

You're putting a layer between you and a system that treats your phone number as an asset.

Why can't StellarNurse give you a burner phone number?

Short answer: too many regulations & red tape. 😭

Handing out phone numbers would make us a telecom provider, and that carries a stack of federal requirements we're not built to take on.

The apps above already do it well, and most of them do it free.

Here's why it matters on StellarNurse specifically

You can read every job listing and its pay without an account, and when you message an agency it goes out from your free private @SNurseMail.com address - so your personal email never leaves.

But your phone number does go to that agency, because they need a way to call you about the contract. It's the one piece of contact info that travels.

Put a burner in that field and the number they get is one you control, can silence, and can throw away. The help page lists exactly what an agency receives when you reach out.

Agencies aren't the only ones who end up with it, either. Hunting for travel nurse housing means messaging landlords and strangers on rental sites, and some of those sites put your number straight into a database that gets shared.

What's a Burner Phone Number?

Burner phone numbers are temporary, disposable phone numbers that connect to your existing smartphone - no secondary device needed.

You can choose to forward calls to your personal phone line or keep your burner phone number totally separate.

There's no commitment - you can cancel, delete or change your number anytime.

These burner phone number services ask for minimal personal information, offer pay-as-you-go plans and are very easy to set up, use, and cancel anytime.

Before cancelling: Don't forget to update your phone number with companies or people you actually want to keep in contact with!

Pros of Burner Phone Numbers

  • Increased privacy
  • Decreased spam
  • Free or cheap to use
  • Easy to setup or cancel anytime
  • No commitment
  • Keeps work calls out of your personal inbox
  • Secure way to connect to sources likely to spam or harass you

Cons of Burner Phone Numbers

  • Can't call 911
  • Won't work for certain apps or online sign-ups that don't like VoIP numbers.
  • Not truly anonymous if you setup using your personal info or pay with your personal card.
  • You'll lose your number if you let your subscription lapse.
  • May cut into your personal phone plans minutes depending on the plan.

The 2 things that will trip you up

I'd rather you hear these from me than find out the hard way.

Banks and some apps won't text a VoIP number

The Cons list mentions this, but it deserves more than a line, because it will bite you at the worst moment.

Google says it directly in its own help docs: "Some websites, such as banks or subscription services, won't send text messages to Google Voice numbers."

Ally Bank spells out why - "To protect your identity, we won't send security codes to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone numbers." It's not those companies being difficult, either.

The federal standard they follow says methods that don't prove you're holding a specific device - VoIP and email - can't be used for that kind of verification.

What this means for you: use the burner for recruiters, agencies, and job applications.

Keep your personal phone number on your bank, your payroll portal, your license board, and anything that texts you a security code.

The burner is a screening layer for strangers, not a replacement for your phone.

Same goes for emergencies. Google Voice can't reach emergency services during a power or internet outage.

Never make a burner your only line.

Google will take the number back if you don't use it

This one is specific to Google Voice and it is genuinely easy to get caught by.

Google's Acceptable Use Policy says it may reclaim your number if you don't place calls or send texts "for a period of 3 months."

Think about how that collides with travel nursing: you set up a burner, work the job hunt hard for a few weeks, sign a 13-week contract, and then ignore the app completely because you're busy being a nurse.

That's a quarter of no activity - and the number on every application you filed goes away.

You do get warned, and Google gives you 45 days after the reclaim date to get the number back. But don't rely on that.

Send 1 text from the app every couple of months, or listen to a voicemail. That's the entire maintenance cost.

Is it too late? Are Spam calls already overwhelming you?

It's not too late to fix this problem!

Get a burner phone number today, start using it IMMEDIATELY for anyone you don't already trust - in person or online.

Silence all unknown calls - let them go to voicemail.

Block and/or report spam for any unknown callers if they leave voicemails you're not interested in.

The bottom line

A burner number takes about 5 minutes to set up, and it costs you nothing if you go with Google Voice, TextNow, or TextFree. That's the whole ask.

Do it before you talk to a single recruiter, because of the way the pipeline is built: your personal phone number goes to 1 agency, and it does not stay with that 1 agency. It gets passed around, sold, and dialed by people you never gave it to.

That is not something you did wrong, and it is not something you can undo afterward - which is exactly why the setup comes first.

Your phone is only half of it, though. Agencies email as hard as they call, so set up your free private StellarNurse email while you're at it - it masks your personal address the same way a burner masks your number, and the messages still land in your normal inbox.

If the calls and emails have already started, my guide to stopping agency spam calls and emails walks you through digging out of it.

Then, with your contact info locked down, go find travel nursing jobs - we show you the best-paying and most recent contracts across every agency by default, so you can compare what's actually out there before anyone has your personal phone number.

Stick around if you're earlier in the process than that:

Here's the payoff: 5 minutes tonight buys you out of months of a buzzing phone, blocked numbers, and calls you never signed up for.

Set it up now and you're literally dodging a bullet. The bullet being a spam tsunami. 🌊

Thank you for reading. If you get stuck picking an app, or you just want to talk travel nursing, reach out to me anytime - I answer.

Ready to job-hunt on your terms?

With your number locked down, compare the best-paying, most recent travel contracts across every agency - StellarNurse surfaces them first by default, no account needed to look.

Frequently asked questions

Is a burner phone number free?
Yes. Google Voice, TextNow, and TextFree all give you a working second number for $
  1. Google Voice is the easiest and ad-free; TextNow and TextFree are ad-supported. Paid apps like MySudo start around $0.99/month if you want no ads and stronger privacy.
Will a burner number receive my bank's security codes?
Usually not. Banks and many services won't text VoIP numbers like Google Voice for security codes, because the federal standard they follow requires a method that proves you're holding a specific device. Keep your personal number on your bank, payroll, and license board - use the burner for recruiters and job applications.
Can I call 911 from a burner number?
No. Google Voice can't reach emergency services, especially during a power or internet outage. Never make a burner your only line - keep it as a screening layer on top of your real phone.
Will I lose my Google Voice number if I stop using it?
You can. Google's Acceptable Use Policy lets it reclaim a number after 3 months of no calls or texts - easy to trigger once you sign a 13-week contract and stop checking the app. Send one text or listen to a voicemail every couple of months and you're fine. If it does get reclaimed, you have 45 days to get it back.
Should I set up a burner before or after I start applying to jobs?
Before - always. The moment your personal number reaches one agency, it gets passed around, sold, and dialed by people you never gave it to, and you can't undo that. Set up the burner first, then start your search. If the spam has already started, here's how to dig out of agency spam calls and emails.