frontdesq1300 and 1800 numbers: what they cost and which one your business needs
The government fees are far smaller than most websites claim, the real costs sit elsewhere, and the right choice comes down to who you want paying for the call.
You see them painted on the side of plumbing vans and plastered across billboard ads. Six or ten digits, easy to read, with no local area code in sight.
These numbers give small businesses an instant national presence. They tell potential clients that you take calls across the country, not just down your local street.
If you are thinking about getting one, you have probably run into conflicting advice about 1300 numbers online. Some articles tell you that callers pay fortune-sized mobile rates. Others claim the government charges thousands of dollars every year just to keep the line open.
Here is an honest breakdown of how these numbers work, what they actually cost, and how to pick the right one.
The basic rules: who runs what
All phone numbers in Australia are treated as a public resource. They are managed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority under the Telecommunications Numbering Plan 2025.
Under the plan, different number types have specific jobs and naming rules. You can see how the regulator groups them on the ACMA choose your phone number guide:
- 1800 numbers are what the regulations call freephone numbers. They have ten digits starting with 1800, or seven digits starting with 180.
- 1300 numbers are local rate numbers, with ten digits starting with 1300.
- 13 numbers are local rate numbers too, shortened to six digits.
You do not buy phone numbers outright to own forever. Instead, you secure the right to use them through a phone provider, or directly through the national numbering system.
Who pays for the call: 1300 vs 1800
The main difference comes down to who covers the bill when someone dials your company.
| 1800 number | 1300 number | |
|---|---|---|
| The caller pays | Nothing, from landlines and mobiles | Up to a local call fee, included in most mobile plans |
| The business pays | The full cost of the call | The rest of the call cost |
Freephone numbers: 1800
When someone calls an 1800 number from a standard Australian landline, the call is completely free for them. The law says the caller charge must be nil. The business receiving the call pays for the entire connection and talk time.
For a long time, mobile users still paid standard per-minute fees for these calls. That changed when mobile networks agreed in 2015 to make calls to 1800 numbers free from mobiles as well.
Because callers never pay a cent, 1800 numbers in Australia are widely used by charities, support hotlines, and companies that want to remove every barrier to getting in touch.
Local rate numbers: 1300 and 13
When a customer dials a 1300 number from a landline, the law states they can only be charged up to the cost of a standard local call. The business holding the number pays the remaining cost to carry and connect the call.
From mobiles, things are even simpler today. Most current retail plans from major carriers include 13 and 1300 calls in the standard monthly allowance, as shown in the Telstra mobile plan summary. For the vast majority of mobile callers, dialling a 1300 number uses their regular plan minutes and incurs no extra fee.
Understanding the government charges
There is a lot of outdated information floating around about government fees.
The ACMA collects an Annual Numbering Charge on numbers held across the country. The exact rate scales with the length of the number, calculated by a formula in the law. Shorter numbers cost significantly more because there are fewer combinations available.
According to the official ACMA annual numbering charges table, these are the government fees for 2026:
| Number type | Length | Approximate annual government charge (2026) | Best suited for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1800 | 10 digits | About 57 cents per year | Free customer enquiries, hotlines, national services |
| 1300 | 10 digits | About 57 cents per year | Small to medium businesses, trade services, national sales |
| 13 | 6 digits | About $5,697 per year | Large national brands, roadside assistance, emergency trades |
Many online blogs still claim that a six digit 13 number costs $8,000 or more every year. That figure is out of date. The annual fee has steadily decreased over recent years, landing at under $5,700 for 2026.
For a standard ten digit 1300 or 1800 number, the annual government charge is roughly 57 cents. Because that cost is negligible, your telco usually absorbs it into your standard plan without listing it as a separate fee.
What about a custom smartnumber?
A smartnumber is a memorable phone sequence or a phoneword, like 1300 000 000 or numbers that spell out your business name on a keypad.
You can search for and secure these on the government's official numbering portal. The rules are laid out on the ACMA buy a smartnumber page.
A few important points to know about smartnumbers:
- Smartnumbers are not sold at auction any more. The last ACMA auction took place in July 2015. Today you pay a fixed, one-off allocation charge based on popularity tiers. Standard sequences cost $250, while high-demand combinations can cost up to $20,000.
- Paying the fee gives you the enhanced right to use the number, not ownership. You can connect it with any telco, license it, or sell those rights later.
- If a smartnumber remains completely disconnected from a phone service for three continuous years, the rights lapse and it returns to the public pool.
What you will pay your phone provider
Beyond any upfront government fee for a memorable word, your day-to-day 1300 number cost comes from your telecommunications provider.
Plans vary across the market, but most follow a simple pattern: monthly access fees typically run between $5 and $40 per month, and incoming call rates usually sit between 4 cents and 25 cents per minute.
Lower monthly plans usually carry higher per-minute rates. Higher monthly plans often include bundles of minutes or lower call charges.
Routing incoming calls directly to a mobile phone usually costs a few cents more per minute than routing them to a traditional landline.
You are never locked to a single telco forever. The law specifies that 1300, 1800 and 13 numbers are portable services. If you find a better rate elsewhere, your new carrier can transfer your number across without disruption.
Flexible routing features
One advantage of these inbound services is their call handling flexibility. Because the number lives in the cloud rather than on a physical copper wire in a wall, you can tell the network where to send callers.
Most providers let you route calls based on simple business rules:
- Send calls to your workshop during business hours, and to an on-call phone or after-hours team in the evening.
- Direct calls from Victorian area codes to your Melbourne office, and Queensland calls to your Brisbane team.
- Ring your main desk first, then forward the caller to a backup mobile if nobody answers within fifteen seconds.
The real problem with inbound numbers
A professional number gives your trade or business a polished look. It establishes trust quickly. But a good number only solves half the problem.
A 1300 number makes it easier for people to call you, but it cannot answer the phone for you.
If an incoming call forwards straight to a mobile in a noisy work ute or rings out while you are quoting a job, the customer simply hangs up and calls your competitor.
A professional phone number gets the customer to dial. Having someone ready to answer is what actually wins the job.
If you are weighing up your options for managing call volume, checking an answering service cost guide will give you a clear picture of how different call handling solutions fit into your monthly budget.
Letting technology handle the line
If you do not want to spend your day fielding interruptions, you can put an AI phone answering service behind your 1300 or 1800 number.
You can read more about how modern phone answering systems work to see how calls are managed behind the scenes.
frontdesq answers your calls 24/7 so you never miss a client enquiry. It qualifies callers, books appointments straight into your calendar on Growth plans and up, sends you an SMS and email summary after every conversation, and transfers urgent calls directly to your mobile. You can test it out with your first week free.
