How do you get a mobile phone number in India in 2026?

Go to a branded Airtel, Jio (Reliance Jio), or Vi (Vodafone Idea) store in the city where you will stay. Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and other large airports sometimes have operator counters in international arrivals, but hours change and a closed desk means the city store. Take your physical passport and visa or OCI card. Department of Telecommunications rules allow digital KYC for new connections, and those rules also apply to foreign customers, with the extra checks already used for visitors. Staff photograph you and record a local address. A hotel confirmation from your short-term stay is the usual proof when you do not yet have a lease.

Do not buy a prepaid pack from a street stall that cannot show the company brand. Those SIMs are sometimes already registered to another person. When the network later blocks the line, you have no customer record to fix. Stay until the SIM places a call or loads data before you leave the shop.

Aadhaar is a later identity step for some residents, explained in getting an Aadhaar as a foreigner. It is not what the tourist counter asks for on day one. If a clerk says the line cannot be sold without an Aadhaar you do not have, ask for the visitor process with passport and visa, or try another branded store of the same operator.

Start on prepaid. You recharge in the operator app or at the store in rupees. Tourist lines are tied to the visa record the shop copied. Ask how long that pack stays active and renew only through the same operator. A line registered to you can be recharged. A line registered to a stranger cannot.

Postpaid and many longer plans ask for a stable Indian address and, often, a PAN (Permanent Account Number). Get the PAN through how to get a PAN when a bank or employer requires it. Do not delay the prepaid SIM until the PAN arrives. Opening a bank account will text codes to an Indian number, and those texts fail on a foreign roaming SIM that the bank's system rejects.

The same number shows up in FRRO registration and in the rest of paperwork after you move. Put the Indian number on those forms once it works. If you later change operators, update the bank and FRRO. A dead prepaid pack is how people miss an appointment SMS.

Home broadband is a separate contract. Compare it with utilities, internet, and transport after the phone line exists.

Landing late, or landing when the arrivals counter is shut, leaves you without an Indian number for the ride into the city. If you want data before an Indian prepaid SIM is registered, an eSIM for the first days covers the airport and the trip to a branded store. We may earn a commission if you use this link. It does not change our scores.

That travel eSIM is not your Indian mobile number. It will not receive the bank and FRRO texts that expect a local line. Use it until the store finishes KYC, then keep the Indian SIM in the phone. Local eSIM offers from Jio or Airtel often send a code to an Indian number you already have, so first-time visitors still do the counter. A residence process such as applying for a residence permit can wait until that local number is real.