How to Give Your AI Agent a Phone Number

Why your AI agent needs a phone number

2026 is the year personal agents stopped waiting for you to open a chat. OpenAI's Dots keep working on a goal between conversations. xAI's Grok Bot runs on its own cloud computer. OpenClaw and Hermes Agent sit on your own machine or server, watching your channels and remembering what matters. They can book, research, draft, and follow up.

Then a contractor says "just give me a call," the dentist's office only takes changes by phone, or a customer rings while you're under a sink. The phone is still where a lot of real life happens, and none of these agents come with a number.

You might think the fix is to let the agent talk. It isn't. A live phone call needs a reply in well under a second, every turn, with interruptions and background noise. Chat models are built for a different rhythm. The setup that works is a split: a voice agent built for phone calls holds the conversation, and your personal agent acts as its manager. That is what BotPhone does.

How it works: your agent manages, BotPhone takes the call

BotPhone connects to your agent through MCP, the Model Context Protocol. MCP is an open standard that lets AI assistants use outside tools, and most major agents now support it. Once connected, your agent gets a small set of phone tools:

Inbound: someone dials your BotPhone number. The voice agent picks up, says it's an AI assistant, answers from the instructions and knowledge you've given it, and takes a message when it doesn't know something. The summary and transcript are saved and emailed to you, and your agent can read them the next time you ask, or on its own schedule if it's an always-on agent.

Outbound: you ask your agent to make a call. It hands BotPhone the number, who the person is to you, and the goal. BotPhone places the call with your number as caller ID, holds the conversation, and your agent gets the result.

Four ways to use a phone line for your agent

1. A personal receptionist

Plenty of people want a second number long before they want a business line. Selling a car online, renting out a room, posting a number on a school form, giving contractors a way to reach you: each one puts your personal cell into the world. Give out your BotPhone number instead. It answers every time, finds out who's calling and why, and takes a clean message.

Later, you just ask:

The second prompt is the useful part. Your agent can update the receptionist in plain language, so the line always knows the latest.

2. A business receptionist

For solo operators and small teams, this is a full AI receptionist that your agent can run. Point it at your website (it can read up to 25 pages) and it learns your hours, services, prices, and service area. Connect Calendly and it books callers onto your calendar during the call (on Calendly's free plan, it emails them your booking link instead). Forward your existing business number to it after hours, when you don't pick up, or all day.

Because your agent can edit it, keeping it current takes one sentence:

If you'd rather not manage it at all, our fully managed AI receptionist is the done-for-you version: we build, test, and tune the agent around your business. It starts at $100 a month with 650 minutes. If you're still deciding between AI and a human service, read AI receptionist vs live answering service.

3. Personal outbound calls

This is the one people try first. Plenty of errands still end with "you'll have to call us." Now your agent can make that call for you:

BotPhone holds the conversation, sticks to the goal, and your agent reads you the outcome. It works best for short, specific calls to people and businesses you already deal with. Calls go to US and Canadian numbers and run up to 10 minutes each.

4. Business outbound calls

The highest-value outbound calls for a small business are the ones that slip: calling back a missed caller, confirming tomorrow's appointments, following up with a lead who asked for a call, or checking with a supplier on an order. Ask your agent and it gets done.

Response time matters here more than people expect. Our speed-to-lead guide covers why the first business to call back usually wins the job.

Which AI agents work with BotPhone

Any agent that can connect to a remote MCP server with OAuth sign-in works. We have step-by-step setup guides for these:

Give ChatGPT and your Dots a phone number

ChatGPT connects to BotPhone as a custom connector: turn on Developer mode, create a connector named BotPhone, paste the server URL, and sign in. Dots reach apps through the same ChatGPT connectors, so a dot you allow to use BotPhone can check calls and place them while you're away. That makes a dot a natural fit for the personal receptionist job: ask it to brief you every evening on who called. Codex users can add the same server from the terminal. Full steps are in the ChatGPT and Dots guide.

Give Claude a phone number

In the Claude apps on web, desktop, or mobile, add BotPhone under Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector. In Claude Code it's one command, then a sign-in from the /mcp menu. Claude is especially good at the "shape the receptionist" side: rewriting how the agent handles pricing questions or turning a messy notes doc into clean knowledge. See the Claude guide.

Give Grok Bot a phone number

Grok Bot can add BotPhone itself. Send it one message asking to add BotPhone as a custom MCP connector, check the name and URL it shows, and tap Add. You can also add it from Settings under Connectors. Because Grok Bot works on its own cloud computer instead of inside a chat window, it suits ongoing jobs, like a daily rundown of who called and who still needs a callback. Steps are in the Grok Bot guide.

Give your Muse a phone number

Muse was our first connector, and it takes about a minute: get your key, send one message in a Muse chat, and paste the key when Muse asks. We wrote a full walkthrough in how to give your Muse a phone number, and the BotPhone for Muse page has the setup button.

Give OpenClaw a phone number

OpenClaw users add BotPhone under mcp.servers in their OpenClaw config, then sign in once from the terminal. The phone line sits next to the chat channels OpenClaw already uses, so a natural setup is: BotPhone answers, and OpenClaw messages you on Telegram the moment an urgent call comes in. See the OpenClaw guide.

Give Hermes Agent a phone number

Hermes Agent from Nous Research is built to remember context across sessions, which pairs well with a phone line: it can keep track of which callers are regulars, or that you want a callback list every morning. Add BotPhone to your Hermes config and sign in once. Steps are in the Hermes guide.

Any other MCP client

If your agent supports remote MCP servers with OAuth, point it at https://auth.botphone.tel/mcp and sign in. The tools work the same everywhere.

Set it up in about five minutes

1. Pick your agent on the BotPhone MCP page and open its guide.
2. Add the connector using the server URL or the one message the guide gives you.
3. Sign in to BotPhone and tap Allow. New accounts pick an area code and get a US number right after.
4. Teach it about you. Ask your agent something like "Read my website and set up the receptionist to answer questions about my business," or for personal use, "Take messages, and tell callers I usually call back the same day."
5. Call your new number from your cell, play a caller, then ask your agent what happened. If an answer is off, tell your agent to fix it.

Want calls to your existing number to reach it too? Set up forwarding through your carrier (the dashboard shows the code to dial). Your carrier may charge for forwarding.

What it costs

There are two ways to pay, and both are billed by the second:

• Monthly plan: $25 a month. Includes your number and 150 minutes a month. Best if the line gets regular use.
• Pay as you go: $0.20 a minute. The number is $2 a month plus a one-time $2 setup. Minutes you buy never expire. Best for a personal line that rings now and then.

The first 100 signups get the setup fee waived, the first month of the number free, and about 10 minutes of calls on us. The current count of remaining spots is on the MCP pricing section. For a business that wants a fully built and managed receptionist instead, see BotPhone plans, and for the broader market, our breakdown of what an AI receptionist costs.

Privacy, safety, and the limits worth knowing

• Callers are told it's an AI. The receptionist says so at the start of every call.
• Call audio is never recorded. BotPhone keeps transcripts and summaries so you and your agent can read them.
• Your agent only sees your own line. It works within the permissions you approve when you connect, and you can revoke access any time.
• It answers from what you give it. When it doesn't know something, it takes a message rather than guessing.
• Know the limits. Numbers are US numbers, outbound calls go to the US and Canada, and each call runs up to 10 minutes. One account has one line and one set of instructions for both inbound and outbound calls.
• It is not for emergencies. The receptionist can't reach 911 or emergency services.

BotPhone is independent. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Meta, Nous Research, or the OpenClaw project. It connects through each agent's support for MCP servers.

Frequently asked questions