Get a local business phone number in Salem, MA

What area code is Salem, MA?

Salem city is a Census place in Essex County, Massachusetts, with an estimated 45,677 residents in 2024. NANPA lists 26 exchanges for its rate center across 2 area codes; 978 has the most (25, 96%). 978 is part of an overlay with 351, so a new local number in Salem may carry any of those codes depending on which have numbers available. Salem 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.

Phone carriers in Salem

9 carriers hold the 26 exchanges assigned to Salem's rate center. Verizon New England INC. has the most, with 7. 22 of them are pooled codes, which the holder shares with other carriers in blocks of 1,000 numbers. Holding a code means NANPA assigned that block of numbers to the carrier for this rate center; individual numbers may since have been ported elsewhere.

Local prefixes for Salem

A prefix (NXX) is the three digits after the area code. Numbers starting with these prefixes are rated as local to Salem. The earliest assignment date recorded in the file for these codes is 2001. 1 of the 26 were assigned in 2020 or later.

When Salem's exchanges were assigned

The table groups Salem's exchanges by the decade NANPA recorded them as assigned.

Rate centers and local calling in Salem

NANPA ties every exchange to a rate center. For Salem that is SALEM, so a number from one of these exchanges reads as local to people in and around Salem.

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

Businesses around Salem

Salem 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).

Setting up a Salem business line

Callata Office costs $99 per month for up to 5 people, and each additional user is $20 a month. That covers up to 3 local numbers, calling from a browser or your cell, transcribed voicemail, recorded calls with AI summaries, after-hours routing and E911 on each number.

Porting a number you already use in Salem is free, and business texting is available once the carrier registration (10DLC) is approved; the registration carries a one-time $49 fee. Which specific numbers are open in a given area code depends on carrier inventory at the time you sign up.

AI agents are optional: an AI receptionist or scheduler can pick up when the team is busy or closed, take a message, send a text or email, or transfer the call. They draw on prepaid AI minutes ($0.25/minute), disclose that they are AI, and outbound AI calls require prior consent and are limited to 8am–9pm.

Per-seat phone plans multiply by headcount. For the rounded average establishment size in the Boston, MA-NH metro area, 20 users on RingCentral RingEX Core come to $600.00 a month and on Ooma Office Pro $499.00, at month-to-month list prices checked September 28, 2026. Callata comes to $399.00 a month for 20 users ($99 a month with 5 users included, then $20 per additional user), below both.