Get a local business phone number in Gloucester, MA

What area code is Gloucester, MA?

With 30,491 residents in the Census 2024 estimate, Gloucester sits in Essex County, Massachusetts. NANPA lists 17 exchanges for its rate center across 3 area codes; 978 has the most (13, 76%). 978 is part of an overlay with 351, so a new local number in Gloucester may carry any of those codes depending on which have numbers available. Gloucester is in the Eastern time zone.

According to NANPA's dialing-plan data, local calls within 978 are dialed as ten digits (area code plus number) and toll calls as 1 plus ten digits.

Gloucester exchanges by carrier

10 carriers hold the 17 exchanges assigned to Gloucester's rate center. Verizon New England INC. has the most, with 4. 13 of them are pooled codes, which the holder shares with other carriers in blocks of 1,000 numbers. A business number in Gloucester can come from any of these blocks; once it is yours, porting lets it move between providers.

Gloucester phone prefixes

A prefix (NXX) is the three digits after the area code. Numbers starting with these prefixes are rated as local to Gloucester. The earliest assignment date recorded in the file for these codes is 2002. 3 of the 17 were assigned in 2020 or later.

When Gloucester's exchanges were assigned

Assignment dates show when each block of Gloucester numbers was added to the local supply.

Rate centers and local calling in Gloucester

What a caller sees as "local" is the area code plus prefix. In Gloucester, those come from the GLOUCESTER rate center, as recorded by NANPA.

New local numbers are drawn from carrier inventory, so the exact 978 numbers available change over time; porting an existing number is free.

Who does business near Gloucester

Gloucester is part of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, home to 5.0 million people in 2024. County Business Patterns counted 133,807 business establishments in the Boston, MA-NH metro area in 2023, employing 2,681,704 people. The largest sectors by establishment count are professional, scientific, and technical services (17,803), retail trade (15,568), and health care and social assistance (15,127).

A Gloucester number on Callata

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 Gloucester, 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.

A 20-person team is the benchmark here, the rounded average establishment size in the Boston, MA-NH metro area. Billed per seat at month-to-month list prices (checked September 28, 2026), RingCentral RingEX Core costs $600.00 a month and Ooma Office Pro $499.00. On Callata the same 20 people cost $399.00 a month, less than either per-seat plan.