How to Call Colombia from the US — from $0.03/min (2026)

Quick answer: To call Colombia from the US, dial 011 + 57 + area code + number. Every Colombian number is 10 digits, so from a mobile you can simply dial +57 followed by all 10 digits. Landlines now use a 10-digit format with a 60X area code (Bogotá 601, Medellín 604, Cali 602); mobiles are a 3XX prefix + 7 more digits. With TwinPhone you can call Colombian mobiles for $0.03–$0.06/min — no app, no contract, free signup with no card.

Colombia's country code is +57. From a US landline you dial the exit code 011 first (011 + 57 + number); from a cell phone or a VoIP dialer you can just press + and dial 57. Either way, what follows is always a 10-digit Colombian number.

Here is the part that trips people up. In 2021, Colombia moved every fixed line to a 10-digit format. The old single-digit city codes (Bogotá used to be 1, Medellín 4, Cali 2) were converted by placing 60 in front of them. So a Bogotá landline that was once dialed as +57 1 234 5678 is now +57 601 234 5678. If you have old contacts saved the short way, update them — the 60X form is what completes today.

Main landline (fixed-line) area codes:

• Bogotá & Cundinamarca: 601
• Cali & the southwest (Valle del Cauca): 602
• Medellín & Antioquia: 604
• Barranquilla, Cartagena & the Caribbean coast: 605
• Bucaramanga & Santander: 607

Mobile numbers are simpler: every Colombian cell number is 10 digits and starts with 3 (for example, +57 3XX XXX XXXX). You do not add an area code, and you do not drop or add any leading zero — just +57 and the 10 digits exactly as written.

Examples, dialed from the US:

• Bogotá landline: 011 57 601 234 5678 (or +57 601 234 5678)
• Medellín landline: 011 57 604 234 5678
• Colombian mobile: 011 57 3XX 123 4567 (or +57 3XX 123 4567)

There are four realistic ways a US caller reaches a Colombian phone number. Here is how they compare on price, billing, and setup, using real per-minute rates for a call placed from the US (competitor rates checked 27 September 2026).

Method	Colombia landline	Colombia mobile	Billing	Setup
TwinPhone	$0.11/min	$0.03–$0.06/min	Per-minute	Browser, ~30 sec
US carrier (AT&T, Verizon)	Often a dollar or more a minute without an add-on	Often a dollar or more a minute without an add-on	Per-minute	None (already on your bill)
Google Voice	$0.01/min	$0.01/min	Per-minute (rounds up)	US number required
WhatsApp	Free (app-to-app only)	Free (app-to-app only)	N/A	App on both ends

1. TwinPhone — $0.03–$0.06/min to mobiles, from a browser with no app. Colombia is unusual: mobile calls are cheaper than landline calls here (more on that below). TwinPhone charges $0.03–$0.06/min to Colombian mobiles and $0.11/min to landlines, billed per minute and rounded up, so a 90-second call is charged as two minutes. It runs in your browser (Chrome, Edge, or Brave) with no app to install, every call is encrypted with TLS + SRTP, and signup takes about 30 seconds with no credit card and no US phone number. Since most people in Colombia are on mobiles, that is the rate that matters. It is not the lowest on this list — Google Voice is cheaper if you can get it — but it needs no app and no US number.

2. WhatsApp — free, if the other person is on it. WhatsApp is effectively the default phone in Colombia; the overwhelming majority of Colombians use it daily. For app-to-app voice or video calls to a family member who has a smartphone and a decent connection, it is free and hard to beat. The limits are the usual ones: you cannot reach a landline, a business line, an older relative without the app, or anyone whose internet is spotty at that moment. For those calls you need to dial an actual number.

3. Google Voice — the cheapest per minute, if you can sign up. Google Voice lists $0.01/min to both Colombian landlines and mobiles (checked 27 September 2026) — cheaper than TwinPhone on both. The catch is access: it requires a US phone number to set up, and like TwinPhone it rounds up to the next full minute.

4. Your US carrier — convenient and by far the most expensive. Dialing Colombia straight from your AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile line with no international plan often costs a dollar or more a minute — check your plan. International add-on plans knock the rate down, but you pay a monthly fee whether you call or not.

For most people the smart combination is simple: use WhatsApp when both sides are on the app with good Wi-Fi, and use TwinPhone for everything else — landlines, businesses, relatives without the app, or any time WhatsApp audio gets choppy.

Placing your first call to Colombia takes about two minutes and no app.

1. Sign up. Go to twin-phone.com and create a free account with your email or Google account. No phone number, no credit card. About 30 seconds.

2. Add credit. Top up with any major debit or credit card. TwinPhone is strictly pay-as-you-go — no subscription, no monthly fee, no minimum balance, and your balance never expires. A $10 top-up is at least 166 minutes to a Colombian mobile at $0.03–$0.06/min, or about 90 minutes to a landline at $0.11/min.

3. Dial the number. Open the dialer in your browser and enter +57 followed by the 10-digit Colombian number — a mobile (+57 3XX…) or a landline with its 60X area code (+57 601…). The exact per-minute rate is shown before you connect, so there are no surprises.

4. Press call. Your call connects over an encrypted TLS + SRTP link and is billed per minute at the rate you just saw. Adaptive audio keeps the line stable even on slow or uneven Wi-Fi.

That is the whole thing — no SIM, no app store, no calling-card PIN. If you call Colombia often, keeping a small balance (say $10–20) covers hours of talk time: at $0.03–$0.06/min, $20 is at least 333 minutes to a Colombian mobile.

Most international guides tell you mobiles cost more than landlines. Colombia flips that rule, and it is worth understanding because it can cut your bill.

On TwinPhone, a Colombian mobile is $0.03–$0.06/min while a Colombian landline is $0.11/min — the mobile is the cheaper call. The reason is termination fees: the wholesale cost to deliver a call onto Colombia's mobile networks (Claro, Movistar, Tigo, WOM) is low and heavily competed, while fixed-line delivery in Colombia carries a higher wholesale cost. VoIP providers pay those wholesale rates and pass them through, so the mobile rate ends up lower.

How to tell which one you are calling:

• Starts with 3 (e.g. +57 310 123 4567) → mobile, $0.03–$0.06/min. This is what most personal numbers look like.
• Starts with 60 (e.g. +57 601 234 5678) → landline, $0.11/min. Common for offices, banks, government lines, and older households.

The practical takeaway: when someone gives you both a cell and a home number, calling the cell is the cheaper option in Colombia. And because TwinPhone shows the rate before the call connects, you always see which one you are about to pay for — no guessing. (Google Voice, for comparison, charges the same $0.01/min for both, checked 27 September 2026.)

Colombia runs on Colombia Time (COT), UTC-5, and does not observe daylight saving. That makes it one of the easiest countries for US callers to coordinate with.

• US Eastern: identical to Colombia in winter; during US summer daylight time, Colombia is 1 hour behind New York and Miami. When it is 3:00 PM in Miami in July, it is 2:00 PM in Bogotá.
• US Central: Colombia is 1 hour ahead in winter, the same in summer.
• US Mountain: Colombia is 1–2 hours ahead.
• US Pacific: Colombia is 2–3 hours ahead. From Los Angeles in July, noon PT is 2:00 PM in Bogotá.

Because there is little or no time difference from the East Coast — where a large share of Colombian-Americans live — you can call after work and reach family during their evening without doing awkward time-zone math. Good windows are weekday evenings (6–9 PM your time) and weekend mid-mornings in Colombia.

The Colombian-American connection. More than 1.4 million people of Colombian origin live in the United States, with the largest communities in South Florida (Miami-Dade and Broward), the New York–New Jersey metro (Queens' Jackson Heights especially), and Houston. For this community the call home is constant — parents, grandparents, a business back in Bogotá or Medellín — and it is exactly the kind of frequent, per-minute calling where carrier rates quietly drain hundreds of dollars a month.

WhatsApp covers the easy calls, but it does not cover a landline in Cartagena, a clinic in Cali, a bank in Bogotá, or an abuela who never installed the app. That is the gap TwinPhone fills: dial any Colombian number, mobile or fixed, from your browser at $0.03–$0.06/min to mobiles and $0.11/min to landlines, pay only for the minutes you use, and skip the app entirely.

To wrap up:

• Dialing: 011 + 57 + the 10-digit number from a landline, or just +57 and the 10 digits from a cell or VoIP dialer. Landlines use a 60X area code (Bogotá 601, Medellín 604, Cali 602); mobiles start with 3.
• The 2021 change: all Colombian landlines are now 10 digits — update old contacts that used single-digit city codes.
• From a browser: TwinPhone, $0.03–$0.06/min to mobiles and $0.11/min to landlines, billed per minute, no app, no contract. Google Voice ($0.01/min, checked 27 September 2026) is cheaper if you have a US number.
• Colombia's quirk: mobiles are cheaper than landlines — the reverse of most countries.
• Free option: WhatsApp, app-to-app, when the other person has it and a good connection.
• Timing: Colombia is UTC-5 with no DST, so from the US East Coast there is little or no time difference.

Ready to try it? Create a free TwinPhone account — no card, no download — and your first call to Colombia can go through in the next two minutes.