Georgia call recording law: what you must know before you record

Last updated 2026-07-09

Is Georgia a one-party or two-party consent state for call recording?

Georgia is a one-party consent state. Under O.C.G.A. § 16-11-66, a person who is a party to a wire, oral, or electronic communication can record that communication without telling the other parties, as long as the recording is not made to commit a criminal or tortious act. ^[1]

Plain English: if you are on the call, you can record it. You do not need to tell the other person. That is the rule for purely intrastate Georgia calls.

This differs sharply from all-party (two-party) consent states like California, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, and Florida, where every participant must consent before any recording starts. If you do business with people in those states, the stricter state rule almost always controls, no matter where your company sits. More on that below.

For a side-by-side look at how states line up, see our guide to telephone call recording laws.

What does O.C.G.A. § 16-11-62 actually prohibit?

O.C.G.A. § 16-11-62 is Georgia's core wiretapping and surveillance statute. It makes it unlawful to use any device to overhear, transmit, or record the private conversation of another without the consent of at least one party to the conversation. ^[1]

The statute covers three things:

• Telephone calls (wire communications)
• In-person conversations (oral communications)
• Electronic communications, including VoIP and messaging apps

The key phrase is "without the consent of at least one party." That one consenting party can be the person doing the recording. So a sales rep recording her own calls satisfies Georgia law without any disclosure to the customer.

There is a catch. The recording must not be for the purpose of committing any criminal or tortious act. If you record a call planning to use it to defraud, harass, or defame someone, the one-party exception evaporates. Courts look at intent.

Georgia also has § 16-11-63, which covers unlawful eavesdropping with an electronic device. That section targets a third party listening in on a call they are not part of, a separate scenario from routine business call recording but worth knowing exists.

What are the penalties for illegal call recording in Georgia?

Georgia treats violations of § 16-11-62 as a felony, not a misdemeanor. ^[1] A conviction carries up to five years in prison per offense. That is not a small risk to brush off.

On the civil side, Georgia victims can also use the federal remedy under 18 U.S.C. § 2520, which allows actual damages but not less than liquidated damages computed at $100 a day for each day of violation, or $1,000, whichever is higher, plus attorney's fees and court costs. ^[2] A single recorded call that breaks the statute can cost a minimum of $1,000 in civil damages before you even think about legal fees.

Class action exposure is real. A plaintiff's lawyer who finds a company recorded thousands of calls without proper consent in a two-party state can stack those $1,000 minimums fast. The practical risk for outbound sales teams is not a Georgia AG prosecution. It is a private plaintiff lawsuit, especially if your calls reach California, Illinois, or Pennsylvania residents.

The chart below shows how Georgia's penalty structure compares to key neighboring and high-risk states.

How does federal wiretapping law interact with Georgia's rule?

The federal Wiretap Act (18 U.S.C. § 2511) applies to any call recording in the United States, and it uses the same one-party consent standard as Georgia at the federal floor. ^[2] For an entirely Georgia-to-Georgia call between two Georgia residents, both state and federal law allow the recording if one party consents.

The federal statute makes the party exception explicit. It is not unlawful under the chapter for a person not acting under color of law to intercept a communication where that person is a party to it, unless the interception is done to commit a criminal or tortious act. That language, from 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d), mirrors Georgia's own rule almost word for word.

Federal law becomes a ceiling, not a floor, when a state law is stricter. States can require all-party consent, and many do. Federal law does not preempt California Penal Code § 632 or Illinois' eavesdropping statute. Georgia's one-party rule matches the federal baseline, so there is no conflict for in-state Georgia calls. The conflict shows up the moment your call crosses a state line into a stricter jurisdiction.

For how federal TCPA rules layer on top, see our overview of tcpa law.

What happens when you record a call between Georgia and another state?

This is where most businesses get tripped up. Georgia allows one-party consent, but if the person you are calling is in California, Maryland, or Pennsylvania, their state's stricter all-party consent law likely applies to that call. ^[3]

Courts in interstate recording cases tend to apply what practitioners call the "most restrictive state" rule: use the law of the state with the strictest consent requirement. Nobody has fully resolved this at the federal level, and different circuits have landed in slightly different places. The safest operational assumption is simple. If either party is in an all-party consent state, treat that call as requiring all-party consent.

Illinois is worth naming here. Illinois operates under 720 ILCS 5/14-2, its eavesdropping statute. After a 2014 Illinois Supreme Court decision struck down the old law and the legislature rewrote it, Illinois is understood as one-party consent for calls between private individuals. The statute still has teeth for certain recording scenarios, and businesses have faced litigation there. If you have Illinois customers, verify current guidance directly.

Missouri is another one-party state under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 542.402 ^[4], so Missouri phone call recording laws closely resemble Georgia's. A Georgia business calling Missouri customers faces no extra consent burden from Missouri's statute.

For state-specific details on a state you frequently call into, see:

• Maryland call recording laws
• Pennsylvania call recording laws
• Indiana call recording laws
• Arizona call recording laws

Does Georgia law require a beep tone or verbal disclosure when recording?

No. Georgia's one-party consent statute does not require a beep tone, a verbal announcement, or any notice to the other party. ^[1] One consenting participant is enough, and that can be you.

Some older FCC rules require a beep tone for certain telephone carriers recording calls for specific purposes, not for private businesses recording their own customer service or sales calls. ^[5]

Many businesses give notice anyway, and for good reasons. If your call ever crosses into an all-party consent state, you are already covered. A verbal disclosure on a recorded line ("this call may be recorded for quality and training purposes") is cheap and kills legal ambiguity. And for sales and support teams, disclosure tends to nudge agent behavior in a good direction.

If you call customers across the country, the simplest policy is universal disclosure at the start of every call. It costs about three seconds. It removes the cross-state risk entirely.

Are there special rules for recording group or conference calls in Georgia?

Georgia's statute treats group calls like two-party calls: at least one participant must consent. If you host a conference call, sit on the call, and consent, you satisfy Georgia's one-party requirement. ^[1]

The complication is that a group call may pull in participants from multiple states. If any of those states are all-party consent jurisdictions, their rules can layer on top. The same most-restrictive-state logic applies.

For conference calls with clients or prospects from several states at once, the only clean answer is disclosure to all participants at the start. Keep it short: "This call is being recorded." That covers you under any state's law.

For more on group audio calls under Georgia law, see our piece on georgia recording consent law group audio call.

How does call recording interact with TCPA compliance for outbound sales teams?

The TCPA (47 U.S.C. § 227) is a separate body of law from state call recording statutes, but the two often apply to the same call. The TCPA governs whether you can make the call: autodialer rules, consent requirements, Do Not Call restrictions. State recording law governs whether you can record that call once it is happening. ^[6]

For outbound sales teams, the picture breaks into three stages:

1. Before the call: TCPA and DNC compliance. Do you have prior express consent if using an autodialer? Is the number on the National DNC Registry? Is it on your internal DNC list? 2. During the call: Does your recording practice comply with the law of every state on the call? 3. After the call: How do you store, protect, and eventually delete the recording? Data privacy laws like California's may apply.

TCPA consent and recording consent are different standards. You can have TCPA consent to call someone and still violate Illinois or California recording law if you record without disclosure. They do not substitute for each other.

A proper compliance stack handles both layers. If you are building or auditing yours, LeadCompliant's free TCPA checker and compliance kit cover the consent documentation, DNC scrubbing workflows, and call recording disclosure templates that outbound teams most often miss.

For the full general-consent picture, also see is it against the law to record phone calls and recorded phone call laws.

What about recording calls for debt collection, healthcare, or financial services in Georgia?

Georgia's one-party rule applies no matter the industry, but regulated industries stack federal requirements on top.

Debt collectors under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) must not use deceptive practices, and some courts have examined undisclosed recording through that lens, though the FDCPA itself does not require recording disclosure. The bigger concern for collectors is that calls to consumers in all-party states need disclosure.

Healthcare organizations recording calls that include protected health information (PHI) also have to comply with HIPAA's privacy and security rules. ^[7] HIPAA does not ban recording, but recorded calls with PHI must be stored, accessed, and disposed of according to HIPAA's technical safeguards. A recording sitting unencrypted on a shared drive is a potential HIPAA breach, separate from any state recording law issue.

Financial services firms under FINRA or SEC oversight often carry their own retention rules. FINRA Rule 3110 requires member firms to review correspondence and communications. ^[8] Some broker-dealers must record certain communications regardless of state law. These federal obligations do not conflict with Georgia's one-party consent. They add requirements on top of it.

The takeaway: Georgia law sets the floor. Federal regulatory obligations for your industry may set higher rules above that floor.

How do Georgia's call recording rules compare to other states?

Here is how Georgia stacks up against states that come up most in cross-border calling:

State	Consent Standard	Key Statute	Felony/Misdemeanor	Min Civil Damages
Georgia	One-party	O.C.G.A. § 16-11-62	Felony (up to 5 yrs)	$100/day or $1,000 min [2]
California	All-party	Penal Code § 632	Misdemeanor	$5,000 per violation [9]
Illinois	One-party (post-2014)	720 ILCS 5/14-2	Felony	Actual or $100/day [3]
Florida	All-party	Fla. Stat. § 934.03	Felony	$100/day or $1,000 min
Texas	One-party	Tex. Penal Code § 16.02	Felony	Actual damages [10]
Missouri	One-party	Mo. Rev. Stat. § 542.402	Felony	Actual or $100/day [4]
New York	One-party	NY Penal Law § 250.00	Felony	Actual damages
Maryland	All-party	Md. Code § 10-402	Felony	Actual or $100/day [12]
Pennsylvania	All-party	18 Pa. C.S. § 5703	Felony	Actual or $100/day

Georgia sits in the one-party camp alongside Texas, Missouri, New York, and many others. The states that generate the most litigation risk for outbound teams are California (highest civil penalty per violation at $5,000), Illinois (a history of aggressive plaintiff-side litigation before the statute was revised), Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Florida. ^{[3] [9]}

For a deep look at one neighboring one-party state's rules, see texas call recording laws.

What is the practical compliance checklist for Georgia businesses recording calls?

Here is what a Georgia-based outbound team should actually have in place:

1. Identify where your contacts are located. If you call people in all-party consent states (California, Florida, Illinois for certain scenarios, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Montana, Oregon), treat those calls as all-party consent calls.

2. Implement a universal call disclosure. "This call may be recorded for quality and training purposes" at the start of every call costs nothing and covers you everywhere. Log the timestamp of when the disclosure was given.

3. Document your consent practices. If you rely on implied consent from a disclosure script, record the script version and the dates it was in use. Courts have rejected verbal disclosure defenses when companies could not prove the disclosure was actually given.

4. Train your team. Agents should know not to start recording before the disclosure runs (if you are using a disclosure-based approach). They should also know what to do when someone objects to being recorded, which usually means offering to continue the call unrecorded.

5. Secure your recordings. Set a retention policy: how long you keep recordings, who can access them, and how you delete them. Recordings with PHI, financial data, or payment card information (PCI-DSS scope) carry their own retention and deletion rules.

6. Review regularly. State laws change. Illinois rewrote its eavesdropping statute after the old one was struck down. Check your state-law map at least once a year.

If you want a pre-built disclosure template and call recording policy language as part of a broader compliance kit, LeadCompliant offers those through its one-time compliance kit at leadcompliant.com.

Can employees record calls with their employer in Georgia?

Yes. Under Georgia's one-party rule, an employee who is a party to a call can record it without telling anyone else on the call. ^[1] That cuts both ways for employers: the same law that lets you record your sales calls lets a disgruntled employee record their HR meeting.

Employers sometimes add no-recording policies to their handbooks. Under Georgia law, those policies can be enforced as a matter of employment contract, and violating them can be grounds for termination. But breaking an internal policy is separate from breaking the wiretapping statute. A secret recording by an employee in Georgia does not make the employee a criminal under § 16-11-62 as long as they are a party to the conversation.

One nuance sits at the federal level. The National Labor Relations Board has held in various rulings that blanket no-recording policies in the workplace may violate employees' Section 7 rights to engage in protected concerted activity. ^[11] Employers who want to restrict recording face a tension between their security interests and labor law. Get specific legal advice here. It is genuinely unsettled territory.

Frequently asked questions

Is Georgia a two-party consent state for recording phone calls?

No. Georgia is a one-party consent state under O.C.G.A. § 16-11-62 and § 16-11-66. Only one person on the call needs to consent to the recording, and that can be the person doing the recording. You do not have to notify the other party. Two-party consent states include California, Florida, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

Can I record a phone call in Georgia without telling the other person?

Yes, if you are a party to the call. Georgia's one-party rule means the person recording counts as the consenting party. You have no legal obligation under Georgia law to announce the recording. The exception: the recording cannot be for a criminal or tortious purpose. Cross-state calls complicate this if the other party is in an all-party consent state.

What is the penalty for illegally recording a phone call in Georgia?

Illegal recording under O.C.G.A. § 16-11-62 is a felony in Georgia, punishable by up to five years in prison. Civil liability under 18 U.S.C. § 2520 lets the victim recover the greater of actual damages or $100 per day of violation, with a $1,000 minimum, plus attorney's fees. A single unlawful recording can cost at least $1,000 in civil exposure.

Does Georgia law require a beep tone when recording a call?

No. Georgia's wiretapping statute does not require a beep tone, an announcement, or any disclosure before recording. The one consenting party (you) is enough. Some older FCC rules require beep tones in specific telephone carrier contexts, but those do not apply to businesses recording their own customer calls.

How does Illinois call recording law compare to Georgia's?

Both are effectively one-party consent states today, though Illinois had a turbulent history. Illinois' old eavesdropping statute required all-party consent and was struck down as unconstitutional in 2014. The revised Illinois law under 720 ILCS 5/14-2 applies a one-party standard for calls between private individuals. Illinois recording law still has nuances, and its litigation history makes it a higher-risk state than Georgia. Verify current Illinois law before recording calls to Illinois contacts.

Do Missouri phone call recording laws require consent from all parties?

No. Missouri is a one-party consent state under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 542.402. Like Georgia, one participant's consent to the recording satisfies Missouri's wiretapping statute. A Georgia business recording a call with a Missouri customer faces no extra consent requirement from Missouri law. Federal one-party rules under 18 U.S.C. § 2511 also align.

What happens if I record a call from Georgia to a two-party consent state like California?

California Penal Code § 632 requires all parties to consent before a call is recorded, and California's civil penalty is $5,000 per violation, the highest in the country. Courts generally apply the stricter state's law to interstate calls. If you record a call to a California resident without disclosure and they find out, you face California civil liability regardless of where your business is based.

Does TCPA consent cover call recording consent in Georgia?

No. TCPA consent (47 U.S.C. § 227) governs whether you are allowed to make the call using an autodialer or send a text. It is separate from state call recording consent. You can have valid TCPA consent to call someone and still violate their state's recording law if you record without proper disclosure. They are two independent compliance layers that both apply to the same call.

Can my employer in Georgia record my calls without telling me?

Yes, under Georgia's one-party rule, an employer who is a party to the call or whose representative is on the call can record without notifying employees. Many employers also disclose recording in employment agreements or handbooks. Employees, in turn, can record their own work calls under the same one-party rule, though employer no-recording policies may apply as a matter of contract.

Do I need to keep recorded calls for a certain period under Georgia law?

Georgia's wiretapping statute sets no retention period for lawfully recorded calls. Retention requirements come from other sources: HIPAA for healthcare-related calls (six-year minimum for relevant records), PCI-DSS for calls with payment card data (restricted storage), FINRA Rule 3110 for broker-dealers, and general litigation hold obligations. Your industry and the content of the call decide how long you must keep it.

Are text messages covered by Georgia's call recording law?

Georgia's O.C.G.A. § 16-11-62 covers electronic communications broadly, which can include some messaging contexts. Text message recording and retention, though, is mainly governed by the terms of service of your messaging platform, TCPA rules for marketing texts, and data privacy law, not the call recording statute. For SMS marketing compliance details, see our guide to text message marketing facts.

Does Georgia's one-party consent rule apply to video conference calls?

Generally yes. Georgia's statute covers electronic communications, and most courts treat video conferencing as an electronic communication under the same one-party consent framework. For multi-state video calls, the same cross-state logic applies: if any participant is in an all-party consent state, their state's law may require disclosure to all participants. Best practice is to disclose recording at the start of any recorded video call.

What should a business do if a customer in Georgia objects to being recorded?

Georgia law does not give the customer a right to stop you from recording under the one-party rule. Practically, though, recording a customer who objects will damage the relationship and may expose you to claims in other jurisdictions. Most businesses offer to continue the call without recording. That is the sensible operational answer, even when Georgia statute does not require it.

How do Georgia's call recording rules compare to New York's?

Both Georgia and New York are one-party consent states. New York Penal Law § 250.05 prohibits wiretapping, but the one-party exception mirrors Georgia's. A New York resident can record their own calls without disclosure. Civil damages in New York track federal law closely. Neither state requires a beep tone or advance notice for one-party recordings.

Sources

1. Georgia General Assembly, O.C.G.A. § 16-11-62 and § 16-11-66 (Georgia Code, Title 16, Chapter 11): Georgia's wiretapping statute requires consent of at least one party; recording by a party to the call is lawful unless done for criminal or tortious purpose
2. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, 18 U.S.C. § 2511 and § 2520 (Federal Wiretap Act): Federal civil damages for wiretapping violations are $100 per day of violation or $1,000, whichever is greater, plus attorney's fees under 18 U.S.C. § 2520
3. Missouri Revisor of Statutes, Mo. Rev. Stat. § 542.402: Missouri is a one-party consent state for phone call recording
4. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (TCPA statutory text): TCPA consent requirements govern whether calls and texts can be made; they are separate from state call recording consent requirements
5. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HIPAA for Professionals (Security Rule): Recorded calls containing protected health information must comply with HIPAA's security rule technical safeguards for storage and access
6. FINRA, Rule 3110 (Supervision): FINRA Rule 3110 requires member firms to review communications and correspondence; some broker-dealers must record certain calls regardless of state recording law
7. California Legislative Information, California Penal Code § 632: California requires all-party consent for call recording; civil penalty is $5,000 per violation, the highest state penalty in the country
8. Texas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Penal Code § 16.02: Texas is a one-party consent state for call recording; violations are a felony under state law
9. National Labor Relations Board, The NLRB and Section 7 rights: NLRB has found that blanket no-recording policies may infringe on employees' Section 7 rights to engage in protected concerted activity
10. Maryland General Assembly, Md. Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 10-402: Maryland requires all-party consent for recording telephone conversations