Area code 318

About area code 318

318 is one of 6 geographic area codes serving Louisiana; NANPA records its in-service date as January 1, 1957. It is an overlay: 318 and 457 cover the same territory, so neighbors on the same street can have different area codes. It is in the Central time zone. The places with the most assigned exchanges include Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Ruston, and Natchitoches.

Cities and towns in area code 318

318 holds 27% of the 2,874 central office codes assigned in Louisiana, the most of any code in the state. 99 Census places could be matched to rate centers with 318 exchanges; the most populous are Shreveport (177,000), Monroe (46,622), Alexandria (43,133), and Ruston (22,330). For a storefront or service area inside 318, the place pages show which prefixes are rated local there.

Ten-digit and seven-digit dialing in 318

According to NANPA's dialing-plan data, local calls within 318 are dialed as ten digits (area code plus number) and toll calls as 1 plus ten digits. Ten-digit local dialing means the area code is part of how customers save and recognize your number, so print it in full everywhere. NANPA's dialing-plan note for this code reads: "1+10 digit dialing permissible at service provider’s discretion"

Carriers with 318 numbers

53 carriers hold the 764 central office codes assigned in 318. Bellsouth Telecomm INC d/b/a South Central Bell Tel has the most, with 208 (27%). 598 of the codes (78%) are pooled, meaning the code holder shares blocks of 1,000 numbers with other carriers instead of using all 10,000 itself. Numbers can move between carriers through porting, so a code's holder tells you where the block started, not where every number lives now.

Local calling areas in 318

NANPA assigns each central office code to a rate center, the local calling area that decides whether a call is local or toll. 318 has codes in 119 rate centers. The table lists the rate centers with the most codes, with the matching Census place where the abbreviation could be matched.

How full is area code 318?

An area code has 800 possible central office codes that start with 2 through 9, a few of which are reserved (such as N11 service codes and 555). 764 are assigned in 318, 96% of 800. 97 were assigned in 2020 or later.

Getting a 318 number for your business

For $99 a month, Callata puts a team of up to 5 on one plan ($20 for each person after that): up to 3 local numbers, unlimited inbound calls, a pooled allowance of 1,500 outbound US and Canada minutes per user, browser and cell calling, voicemail transcription with urgency triage, recorded calls with AI summaries and business-hours routing, with E911 on every number.

If you already have a number in area code 318, porting it to Callata is free. Texting from a local number requires a one-time carrier registration (10DLC, $49), and the numbers available in any area code depend on carrier inventory when you choose them.

Optional AI agents (receptionist, sales, support or scheduler) can answer calls after hours or when nobody picks up, take messages, text, email and transfer to your team. They are billed from prepaid AI minutes at $0.25 per minute, identify themselves as AI, and may only place outbound calls to people who consented, between 8am and 9pm.