The rules, plainly
Calling hours, explained
Calling hours are the simplest telemarketing rule to follow and the easiest to break by accident, because the clock that counts is the other person's. Here's what applies where, and what's still unsettled.
What are the legal calling hours in the US?
From 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the called person's local time. Two federal rules say so: the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule (16 CFR 310.4(c)) treats calls outside those hours as abusive, and the FCC's TCPA rules (47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1)) bar telephone solicitations to residential subscribers outside them. The hours apply every day of the week, including weekends and holidays.
The federal rules are aimed at sales calls to consumers. The TSR exempts most business-to-business calls, and the FCC's rule protects residential subscribers, which includes cell phones. Calls that aren't selling anything, such as appointment reminders to existing customers, fall outside both.
States can be stricter, and many are. A state's rule usually applies when the person you call is in that state, wherever you're calling from.
Which states have stricter calling hours?
21 states set a narrower window for live sales calls than the federal 8 a.m.–9 p.m., and 5 more set one only for prerecorded or autodialed calls. Their windows, in the called person's local time:
- Alabama: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Saturday; no Sundays or holidays
- Connecticut: 9 a.m. – 8 p.m. every day
- Florida: 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. every day
- Kentucky: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. every day
- Louisiana: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Saturday; no Sundays or state holidays
- Maryland: 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. every day
- Massachusetts: 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. every day
- Michigan: 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. every day
- Minnesota: 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. every day
- Mississippi: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Saturday; no Sundays; covers texts
- Nevada: 9 a.m. – 8 p.m. every day
- New Mexico: 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. every day
- Oklahoma: 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. every day
- Oregon: 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. every day
- Pennsylvania: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Saturday; no Sundays or legal holidays; covers texts
- Rhode Island: Weekdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; no Sundays or holidays
- South Dakota: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Saturday; no Sundays; covers texts
- Texas: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Saturday; noon to 9 p.m. on Sunday
- Utah: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Saturday; no Sundays or legal holidays
- Washington: 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. every day
- Wyoming: 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. every day
- Robocall-only rules: California (Prerecorded (ADAD) calls: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. California time); Illinois (Autodialed recorded-message calls: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m); Indiana (Automated (ADAD) calls: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m); Maine (Automated calls: weekdays only, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., one per number per 8 hours); Nebraska (Automated (ADAD) calls: 8 a.m.–9 p.m.; Sundays and legal holidays 1 p.m.–9 p.m).
Which states ban telemarketing on Sundays or holidays?
Eight states restrict Sunday calls, and some also close holidays. Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Utah ban Sunday sales calls outright; Texas allows them only from noon to 9 p.m. Alabama, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Utah also ban holiday calls, and Louisiana stops all telephone solicitation during a governor-declared state of emergency.
Holiday lists are state law, not the federal calendar. Utah's include Pioneer Day (July 24); Rhode Island's include Victory Day (the second Monday in August) and May 4. In Canada, British Columbia bars licensed telemarketers from calling consumers on statutory holidays, including Family Day, B.C. Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Do calling hours apply to text messages?
Federally, yes for marketing texts to cell phones, though whether people can sue over it is unsettled. The FCC has treated texts as calls since 2003, and since March 26, 2024 its rule (47 CFR 64.1200(e)) says the calling-hours limits apply to telemarketing calls or text messages to wireless numbers. Courts are split on private lawsuits: in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services (July 2026), the Seventh Circuit held that texts aren't 'calls' for that purpose, while a federal court in California let a claim over texts sent before 8 a.m. go ahead in October 2026.
Some states settle it in their own law. Connecticut, Mississippi, Oregon, Pennsylvania and South Dakota name texts in their stricter hours rules; New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia name texts with the federal window. Florida, Oklahoma and Maryland put texts only in their consent definitions, so applying their 8 p.m. cutoff to texts is a cautious setting rather than a clear rule.
The wireless industry's own guidelines (CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices) don't set quiet hours; they point to the TCPA and FCC rules. In Canada, commercial texts fall under CASL, which sets consent rules but no hours.
Whose time zone counts: yours or theirs?
Always the called person's. A rep in New York calling Los Angeles at 9 a.m. Eastern is calling at 6 a.m. Pacific, which is illegal everywhere.
The area code is only a clue. People keep their numbers when they move, and 41 area codes span two or more zones: 850 covers Eastern Tallahassee and Central Pensacola, 208 covers Mountain Boise and the Pacific Idaho Panhandle, and 867 covers three territories and five time zone areas. Oregon's law expressly lets callers rely on a mobile number's area code; Connecticut's protects anyone with a Connecticut area code, wherever they live. The safe practice: use the address you have when you have one, and when an area code spans zones, call only when every zone is open.
Watch the places that keep one clock all year. Arizona (except the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, Saskatchewan and Yukon have long done so, and in 2026 British Columbia (UTC−7), Alberta and the Northwest Territories (UTC−6) and Manitoba (UTC−5) stopped changing their clocks too, so their offset from places that still change shifts in March and November. Phones and browsers with old time-zone data may still show the old times; this checker corrects for the 2026 changes.
What are the calling hours in Canada?
The CRTC's Telemarketing Rules allow calls from 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, in the consumer's local time (Part III, s. 23). Unlike the US rules, they apply to business-to-business calls too, and to callers exempt from the National Do Not Call List, such as charities, political parties and businesses calling existing customers.
Stricter provincial hours win (s. 24). British Columbia is the only province we found with its own: its Telemarketer Licensing Regulation keeps the same hours and adds a ban on statutory holidays. Manitoba requires a spoken statement of cancellation rights but sets no hours.
Commercial texts in Canada fall under CASL, which has no hours rule, and the CRTC's calling rules don't reach messages covered by CASL. The CRTC hours are still a sensible default for texts.
How TopReach handles calling hours
TopReach holds smart-list dialing to each lead's local calling window: weekdays 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the US and 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. in Canada, weekends 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and closed on statutory holidays. It works out the lead's time zone from the area code, and when an area code spans two zones it waits until both are open. Automated follow-up texts wait for the same window.
Your workspace's quiet hours (8 p.m. to 8 a.m. unless you change them) and business days narrow that further. A one-off call outside a lead's hours asks the rep to confirm before it dials, and records that they did.
TopReach doesn't apply each state's own rule for you. If you call Texas on Sundays, Pennsylvania after 7 p.m. or Kentucky before 10 a.m., set your quiet hours and business days to the strictest place you call, and use this checker when you're unsure.
