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Create an Email Account Without a Phone Number

Some providers never ask. Some ask only sometimes. The reliable answer is choosing the right provider, not trying to beat the prompt on the wrong one.

By the MailFixly Editorial Team✓ Fact-checkedUpdated August 27, 2026

Quick answer

Some providers never ask for a phone number, and some ask only sometimes. The reliable route is choosing a provider that does not require one, not trying to skip the prompt on a provider that does.

Reliably phone-free: Tuta, Proton Mail, GMX and mail.com. No number at sign-up, on the free tier.
Usually phone-free: Outlook.com, which accepts an alternate email address instead.
Sometimes: Gmail. Whether you are asked depends on signals you do not control. There is no setting that turns it off.

Before you start: decide how you will get back in if you forget the password. Without a phone number that is a real question, not a formality.

Key takeaways

No provider has a switch that disables phone verification. Anyone claiming otherwise is guessing or selling something.
Gmail's prompt is conditional. The same steps work for one person and not the next.
Skipping the phone number weakens account recovery permanently. Set up a different recovery method in the same sitting.
Disposable-number sites defeat the point: a number you do not control is a number someone else can use to take the account.

Why do email providers ask for a phone number at all?

Two reasons, and only one of them is about you.

The first is abuse control. Phone numbers cost money and are awkward to obtain in bulk, which makes them an effective brake on automated sign-ups. A provider that drops the requirement entirely gets buried in throwaway accounts sending spam, and its outgoing mail starts landing in everyone else's junk folder. The requirement protects the service's deliverability at least as much as it protects your inbox.

The second is account recovery. A number gives the provider a channel to reach you that is not the mailbox you have just lost access to. This one genuinely is for your benefit, and it is the part people underestimate when they skip it.

Understanding the split matters, because it tells you which providers will bend. Services that solve abuse another way, whether through paid tiers, invitation systems, manual review or proof-of-work puzzles, have no reason to insist on a number.

Which providers let you sign up without a phone number?

Accurate as of August 2026. Providers change these rules without announcement, so treat the table as a starting point rather than a guarantee.

Provider	Phone required?	What it asks for instead	Catch
Tuta	No	Nothing, on the free tier	Free accounts can wait up to 48 hours for manual approval
Proton Mail	No	An existing email address, or a puzzle	The verification method is chosen for you and varies by region
GMX / mail.com	No	Alternate email, optional	Ad-supported, and the interface shows it
Outlook.com	Usually not	An alternate email address	Microsoft is phasing SMS out entirely, so this is getting easier, not harder
Gmail	Sometimes	Nothing, when it does not ask	Conditional. See below
Yahoo Mail	Yes	—	No documented route around it
iCloud Mail	Yes	—	A trusted phone number is mandatory for the Apple Account itself
Zoho Mail	Yes	—	Required on personal sign-ups

If the requirement is firm, start at the top of that table. If you specifically want a Gmail address, read the next section before spending an afternoon on it.

Can you create a Gmail account without a phone number?

Sometimes, and not on demand. Google decides whether to ask based on signals it does not publish. Its own documentation states only that verification may be required, which is deliberate, because publishing the criteria would tell abusers exactly what to change.

What is observable is that the prompt appears more often when the sign-up looks unusual: a fresh browser profile, a VPN or datacentre IP address, a device that has recently created other accounts, or a region with a high rate of automated sign-ups. It appears less often on an ordinary home connection, in a normal browser session, on a device with existing Google activity.

Two things follow. First, the widely-shared tricks are not tricks. Using the Android setup wizard, switching to a desktop browser, or building the account through another Google product all work by presenting a more ordinary-looking sign-up, and none is reliable. Second, repeated attempts make it worse. Several failed sign-ups from one device is exactly the pattern the check exists to catch.

Do not use a disposable or online number. Public SMS-receiving sites show every message to everyone. Anyone watching that number can trigger a password reset and take the account, and because the number was never yours you have no way to prove the account was. It is a worse outcome than giving your real number.

If an address is the requirement and a Gmail address is not, the providers in the table above take about five minutes. If you have already settled on Google, our deeper guide to creating a Gmail account without a phone number covers what decides the prompt and what to do when it will not go away, and what a free Gmail account actually includes covers what you are signing up for.

Setting one up without a number, step by step

This route uses an alternate email address as the recovery channel instead of a phone. You need one existing mailbox to receive a confirmation. A work address or an old account is fine.

Pick the provider first. Use the table above. This is the decision that determines whether the rest works.
Go to the provider's own site. Type the address yourself rather than following a link from a search advert or an email. Sign-up pages are a common phishing target, and our sign-in URL checker will tell you whether an address really belongs to the provider.
Choose your address. Short plain addresses went years ago. Have two alternatives ready before you start.
Set a password with a password manager. This matters more than usual here. Without a phone number, a forgotten password is much harder to recover from.
Enter an alternate email when offered. Take this option. It is the recovery channel replacing the phone number, and it is the single step that decides whether the account is recoverable later.
Complete the puzzle, or wait for approval. Providers that skip phone verification substitute something else: a puzzle, a proof-of-work delay, or a manual review that can take a day or two on free tiers.
Add a second factor that is not SMS. An authenticator app or a passkey. This is what makes a phone-free account genuinely secure rather than simply unverified.

What do you give up by skipping it?

One thing, and it is significant: a recovery channel independent of your password and your mailbox.

Picture the ordinary failure. You forget the password, or a browser update wipes a saved session, or you sign in from a new country and the provider asks you to confirm it is you. With a phone on file, a code arrives and it is over in a minute. Without one, you fall back to whatever else you registered — and if the answer is nothing, most providers have no route left. Support cannot verify you, because verifying you is precisely what the missing method was for.

This is not an argument for handing over your number. It is an argument for replacing it deliberately rather than leaving the slot empty:

An alternate email address you will still control in five years. Not a work address you will lose when you change jobs.
An authenticator app, with its recovery codes saved somewhere that is not the account itself.
A passkey on a device you keep, where the provider supports it.
Printed recovery codes, stored with your passport rather than in the mailbox they unlock.

An account with two of those is in better shape than an account with a phone number and nothing else. The reason to add recovery is not that the provider asked.

Sources

Google: Create a Google Account for GmailThe sign-up route, and the statement that verification may be requested.
Google: Verify your accountWhy Google asks for verification and when the prompt appears.
Microsoft: How to create a new Microsoft accountThe alternate-email route for Outlook.com sign-ups.
Tuta: Support and FAQFree-tier sign-up without a phone number, and the manual approval delay.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I create an email account without a phone number?

Yes. Tuta, Proton Mail, GMX and mail.com do not ask for one on their free tiers, and Outlook.com accepts an alternate email address instead. Gmail asks only sometimes, based on signals it does not publish, so it cannot be relied on if a phone-free sign-up is a firm requirement.

Why does Gmail ask some people for a phone number and not others?

Google decides per sign-up using signals it deliberately does not document, because publishing them would tell abusers what to change. The prompt appears more often on VPN or datacentre IP addresses, brand-new browser profiles, and devices that have recently created other accounts. There is no setting that disables it.

Do the tricks for skipping Gmail phone verification work?

Not reliably. Methods like using the Android setup wizard or switching browsers work by making the sign-up look more ordinary, not by bypassing anything, so the same steps succeed for one person and fail for the next. Repeated failed attempts from one device make the prompt more likely, not less.

Can I use a temporary or online phone number instead?

You can, and you should not. Public SMS-receiving sites display every message to every visitor, so anyone watching that number can trigger a password reset and take the account. Because the number was never yours, you have no way to prove the account was either. It is a worse position than using your real number.

What do I lose by not adding a phone number?

A recovery channel independent of your password and your mailbox. If you forget the password, or the provider asks you to confirm an unusual sign-in, a phone code resolves it in a minute. Without one you fall back to whatever else you registered, and if that is nothing, most providers have no route left and support cannot help.

What should I set up instead of a phone number?

An alternate email address you will still control in years, an authenticator app with its recovery codes stored outside the account, and a passkey where supported. Two of those leave you better protected than a phone number on its own.

Why You Can Trust This Guide

MailFixly publishes plain-English fixes for email account problems. Every step is checked against the provider's current process and updated when their interface changes.

Independently written. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google.
No credentials collected. Always sign in on Google's own pages, never on a third-party form.
Reviewed before publishing and at every update. See our editorial policy.
Last reviewed: August 27, 2026.