How to Format Any Phone Number in E.164 for Free
Research Analyst
E.164 is the international phone number structure used for globally routable telephone numbers. In practical terms, it means a plus sign, a country code, and the national significant number.
You can format many numbers manually for free if you know the country code and the local numbering rules.
Start with the destination country
Find the country calling code first. The UK is +44, Australia is +61, Germany is +49, Brazil is +55, Japan is +81, and the US and Canada share +1.
The country code goes immediately after the plus sign.
Remove domestic-only prefixes
Many national formats use a trunk prefix such as 0 for domestic dialing. That prefix is usually removed when the country code is added.
For example, UK 020 7946 0958 becomes +442079460958, and Australian 02 9876 5432 becomes +61298765432.
Keep only dialable digits after plus
E.164 presentation can be written compactly as plus and digits. Spaces and hyphens are fine for readability in articles, but systems usually store the normalized version without separators.
The complete E.164 number can contain up to 15 digits after the plus sign.
To format a number in E.164, write +, add the country code, remove domestic-only prefixes, and keep the remaining national number digits in order.