The ledger, itemised
1800 Toll-Free Charges: Every Line of the Ledger
Charges on an 1800 number follow the toll-free bargain: callers pay nothing from fixed lines, and the owner pays everything else — the plan, per-second call charges, and any optional layers. Here is the ledger, line by line.
- Caller line: zero (fixed)
- Owner lines: itemised
- Per-second, reconcilable
Charges questions
What charges apply to calling an 1800 number?
From a standard Australian fixed line, none — the call is free to the caller by design. From mobiles, treatment depends on the caller's carrier and plan, which is why that line stays hedged in every honest answer.
What charges apply to running one?
The plan from $10 a month; per-second call charges for every call received, against published per-minute rates; and optional layers — tracking numbers, IVR menus, recording, phoneword leases — each priced separately on the pricing page.
Are there charges people usually miss?
The ones that scale quietly: call charges as campaigns succeed, and per-number fees as tracking fleets grow. Both are published and both reconcile against call records — the miss is in forecasting, not in fine print.
Toll-free charges confuse people because the bill sits in an unexpected place: not with the caller, where every other phone charge lives, but with the business that owns the number. This page itemises the whole ledger — caller side and owner side — so the phrase "toll-free charges" has one honest meaning.
The caller's line: zero, with one condition
From a standard Australian fixed line, a call to an 1800 number charges the caller nothing. The condition is the mobile line: mobile carriers set their own treatment of 1800 calls on their plans, so the mobile caller’s charge is a plan-terms question — the hedge that appears on every honest page.
The owner's lines: where the toll lands
The caller’s waived charge lands on the number’s owner, itemised:
- The plan — from $10 a month for a standard 1800; the hosting, routing and reporting floor.
- Call charges — every call received, billed per second against published per-minute rates. The line that scales with your marketing success.
- Optional layers — call tracking numbers ($5 a month each), IVR keypress menus, recording, and premium word leases for phonewords. Each priced separately; each worth adding only when it earns its keep.
The full table is on the pricing page, with the toll-free cost basics and the budgeting method in toll-free number cost for business.
The property that keeps the ledger honest
Per-second billing against checkable records. Every charge on the owner’s side reconciles against call detail records — the per-call data described in call detail reporting — so the bill is arithmetic, not opinion. Where fleets need the raw records, the API exposes them programmatically.
The charges nobody should pay
Two things that look like charges and are not: keyword-level attribution bundled into session-level pricing when your question is campaign-level (the category split is in our software-boundary guide), and premium word leases when a plain number serves the brand equally. Both are optional layers mistaken for requirements, per toll-free numbers are free.
The takeaway
Caller: nothing, from fixed lines. Owner: the plan, the per-second calls, the optional layers. The numbers behind the ledger start at $10 a month, searchable on available numbers.
Every line, published
Check the ledger yourself
The full rate table — plans, per-second call rates, add-ons — is on the pricing page now.