Zendesk Talk helps you support customers anywhere in the world with affordable phone numbers and per-minute pricing.
A Talk number is activated when you start a Talk or Suite trial, and will be retained when you purchase any of the Talk plans. As another option, you can use your existing number and pay to use the service. To cancel your Talk number, see Managing Talk number settings.
This article contains the following topics:
- Talk usage costs
- Inbound calls
- Outbound calls
- Save money with package discounts
- Bring your existing number with you
- Managing existing Talk numbers
- Need more information?
Talk usage costs
Usage costs include phone numbers, minutes, text messages, and optional voicemail transcription.
Figuring out your usage costs can get a little tricky, but that's because it's tailored to your needs. Calling French Guinea from your browser? You’ll pay a different rate than someone forwarding calls to a mobile phone in London. To help you, we’ve built handy calculators to make it easy to break down costs, and to find out if a Talk number is available in your country.
Some countries have special requirements you must fulfill in order to purchase a phone number. For more information, see Zendesk Talk and Zendesk Text number regulatory requirements.
Inbound calls
Talk supports inbound calls from over 70 countries globally. Agents can accept calls in two ways:
- Receive calls in their web browser for a flat rate globally
- Forward calls to their phone, subject to local rates per country
If a number is shown as BETA, this means our voice provider, Twilio is currently testing it. To add these numbers, sign up for the beta program.
1The per-minute price for inbound calls includes optional call recording which is priced at $0.003 per minute.
2Prices for inbound calls from mobile and international numbers might differ.
3Only English language transcriptions of voicemails are available.
Numbers from Taiwan and Venezuela cannot make outbound calls, they can only receive inbound calls.
In general Toll-Free numbers are designed to be used for domestic inbound voice calls and outbound calls cannot be supported.
*Some numbers have regulatory restrictions.For information, see Zendesk Talk and Zendesk Text number regulatory requirements.
Outbound calls
Call costs are subject to outbound rates for the country called by the agent. If agents connect outbound calls to their phones, calls are subject to local rates per country.
Outbound prices from mobile devices might differ from those shown below. Calls to China will be charged for at a minimum connection charge of 2 minutes.
Outbound call rates
Save money with package discounts
| Price | Total Voice Credits | Savings |
|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $1,031 | $31 (3%) |
| $2,500 | $2,632 | $132 (5%) |
| $5,000 | $5,556 | $556 (10%) |
| $20,000 | $23,529 | $3,529 (15%) |
| $50,000 | $62,500 | $12,500 (20%) |
Bring your existing number with you
In many countries, we can help you move or "port" your existing phone number to Zendesk Talk. Bear in mind that this process might take a little time, so factor that into your plans. To get started, read Porting numbers into Zendesk Talk.
Alternatively, you can forward calls to your existing support number into Talk. You'll still need to set up a Talk number, then work with your existing phone provider to forward your calls to your Zendesk Talk number instead. Make sure to check with your existing provider about passing the inbound caller ID to your Zendesk Talk number. For more information, see Adding Zendesk Talk numbers.
Managing existing Talk numbers
Because phone numbers are included in usage, any account with an active phone number (including Talk Lite subscriptions) will receive a monthly charge based on where that number is located.
If you were trialing Zendesk, a number would have already been assigned to you. If you do not want a Talk number and/or want to avoid this charge, you’ll need to remove your phone number, post-trial, to avoid this charge.
To learn more about managing general settings for Zendesk Talk numbers, including deleting a number or recovering a number, see Managing Zendesk Talk numbers.
Need more information?
If you've got more questions about Zendesk Talk and Text numbers, address requirements, and billing, see Zendesk Talk and Zendesk Text number FAQs.
For more information about Text numbers and pricing, see Zendesk Text number availability and pricing.
37 Comments
Hi Nora,
Thanks for sharing this list. For the countries in Beta when can we expect those to be available? Specifically I'm interested in the Philippines and then Malaysia.
Thanks!
Hey Aadit -
Apologies for the delayed response. I've been tracking down the answer for you; should have one for you soon!
Hi Aadit,
You can sign up for the beta numbers here, right now :)
Thanks, Caroline!
Would really be interested in a Toll-Free number for Singapore please!
"Numbers from Taiwan and Venezuela cannot receive calls; they can only make outbound calls."
What is the point of providing "toll-free" number which can only make outbound calls?
In which case a customer service agent will make outbound calls through a toll-free number to reach customers?
Hi Clement!
There are a couple factors in play here. The biggest one is that our phone numbers are provided by our friends over at Twilio, and so we're restricted by what they have available. The other is that the Taiwan and Venezuela toll-free numbers are in beta, and those are the only number types we currently have available for those two countries. So it's very possible that this will change at some point (although I don't know when). I hope that helps!
Hi Nora!
Do you have any plans to add numbers in Russia?
Hi Maria,
Russian numbers aren't currently available with our provider Twilio so we're unable to provide them. Apologies for this.
Thanks, Caroline
Any idea if you'll add numbers for India?
Hi Jay,
We've South Korea numbers available in the list above. India is still in Preview with Twilio which means we're unable to support those numbers at this time. As soon as they move to a more solid state we can look at making India available in our list.
Thanks, Caroline
If I'm reading this correctly - for toll-free numbers, it says domestic calls only. Does this mean that customers can only call from domestic? We would only be able to receive inbound calls from customers when they are in Canada? What happens when customers are travelling?
Hi Kelly!
Thanks for reaching out!
That's correct - toll free numbers can only receive domestic calls. However, so long as the number of the customer in question has the same domestic/country code as the toll free number, then regardless of where in the world the call comes from, the number matches. The one exception to that rule is that the US can receive calls from not just American but Canadian numbers.
That information and more on Talk number availability can be found in the following article:
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115007405487
I hope that helps! Reach back out if there's anything else we can help with!
Thanks for your response Joe. This seems odd to me that it's this limited. Perhaps I can use an example to better understand the experience:
1) Kelly from Canada calls the toll-free-number from Canada - no problem.
2) Kelly from Canada calls the toll-free-number from US with her Canadian phone - no problem.
3) Kelly from Canada borrows a US phone (from a hotel, store, friend) and calls the toll-free-number from US - problem? Would not be able to connect? What happens?
Hey Kelly,
Thanks so much for replying back on this!
I have to apologize for my last comment, as what I said was inaccurate!
I did a little further digging and found out that the domestic disclaimers pertain to price breakdowns and not functionality limitations. In other words, you can call the toll free number from a country code that is not domestic and the call will go through just fine!
Please accept my apology on this one - I was wrong! Hopefully the updated answer helps :)
Really would like to have Gibraltar numbers added if possible...
I wanted to check whether a browser only based option works for Zendesk Talk or not.
In other words, if the agent is logged in via browser or app and the end user is also logged into Zendesk via browser, can't Zendesk Talk work for India location?
Is there a mandatory requirement for Zendesk to have phone numbers in India for Zendesk talk to work in India?
This is what I learnt from Zendesk Support:
"Zendesk does not have any phone numbers in India meaning our Zendesk Talk features are not available in India."
Please clear this for me.
Hi Vijitkumar,
Talks is currently not available for India at this time. However, Zendesk is looking to add additional countries in the future. You can sign up for the Zendesk Talk Global Number Beta using the link I provided. This will notify the appropriate product managers of your interest to have beta numbers added to your account.
Cheers!
Would anyone know if these outgoing prices also apply if you transfer a call from a Zendesk number to a Zendesk number ? (for advanced routing purposes).
Or is it considered as a normal outbound call, and invoiced accordingly ?
Hey Jean-Sébastien,
I reached out to our Talk team and they were able to confirm that you would be charged for both the inbound call and the outbound call to your other Zendesk number.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Cheers!
When I transfer a call to an external number, the call is still recording and we are still being billed for those minutes even though the call is happening outside of Zendesk.
This means that if we transfer a customer to their bank and the customer starts a private discussion with their bank, that call is now available for my team to hear. This is a huge security issue that doesn't seem to raise any red flags with Zendesk.
Why are we also being billed for these calls that are no longer in Zendesk. From the outside looking in, it seems like a rather dishonest business practice.
Please share your reasons for these.. Thank you.
Hey Jordan,
I'm going to generate a ticket on your behalf so our Customer Advocacy team can dig into this further. I would expect the call to end once the external number has been picked up but I'll pass this over just to confirm.
Cheers!
Hi, how does the billing work, do I need to load credit or am I invoiced monthly?
Kind regards,
Bonne
Hey Bonne,
When you set up a subscription, you'll need to add your credit card on file. You'll then be billed monthly for the amount of talk usage for the previous month. More information on billing can be found here: I have a billing, payment, or subscription question
Let me know if you have any other questions for me!
Hi,
I have customers in Canada and they must be able to call us in France without costs for them.
Your "toll-free" solution looks intéressant, but I was wondering which solution I have to choose for my business.
If I understand :
I have already a french phone number integrated in Zendesk Talk for my customers in France.
Can I do the same for my Canadian's customers ?
Thanks a lot for your answer.
Hi Matthieu,
I confirmed with one of our Talk experts and it looks like there's no option for you to cover international calls on behalf of the caller.
The only option available is Toll-free calls which will only cover costs for local calls.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks!
Hello
Any update on local number availability in Morocco ?
Thanks!
Hi, can we use this in Pakistan? when can we expect Numbers in Pakistan?
Hi,
Why are we learning that there are costs for routing as well (still trying to figure it out, how you calculate it as it is as clear as mood) or to be hones, why it nowhere says that this is Zendesk's normal but rather dishonest practice? Two months later since we started using Talk, convinced the whole managing board that we'll save and now I am finding, that we spend twice the amount I predicted. Your support team now plays ping-pong with our Zendesk Account Handler and no one dears to get back to me with explanation how really you are billing us.
It would be great if the charges could be explained in detailed manner. No shortcuts, Zendesk!
Hi Agnieszka, thanks for letting us know about this. I've opened up a ticket for you as I'd like to get an answer for you. Somebody should be in touch soon.
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