State by state calling hour restrictions cheat sheet (2026)

Last updated 2026-07-10

What does federal law say about calling hours?

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227, prohibits initiating any telephone solicitation before 8am or after 9pm local time at the called party's location ^[1]. That language has been in force since the FCC implemented it in 1992, and the FCC's current rules at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200 restate it plainly ^[2]. "Local time" means the recipient's time zone, not yours. A Los Angeles company calling a prospect in New York at 8pm Eastern is fine. The same company calling that same prospect at 8pm Pacific, when it is 11pm in New York, is a violation.

The federal window is 8:00am to 9:00pm. Calls are permitted right at 8am and up to and including 9pm. So 9:01pm is illegal under federal law. That is the minimum floor every seller and telemarketer in the country must respect.

A few things the federal rule does not restrict: the number of calls per day, calling on weekends or holidays, or calling between 8am and 9pm on Sunday. States have filled some of those gaps. The federal rule applies specifically to telephone solicitations, meaning calls made to induce a purchase or donation. B2B calls have historically received more latitude, but several states apply their time restrictions to all outbound calls regardless of business purpose.

For a broader overview of the statute and what it covers, see our guide to TCPA basics.

Why do states get to set stricter calling hour rules than federal law?

The TCPA includes an express savings clause at 47 U.S.C. § 227(e)(1) stating that the statute does not preempt state law to the extent that state law imposes more restrictive intrastate requirements ^[1]. That one sentence is why you cannot simply memorize the federal 8-to-9 window and call it done.

When a call originates and terminates within the same state (intrastate), the stricter state rule governs. Courts have consistently held that interstate calls also carry state law exposure in many contexts, particularly when states define their telemarketing statutes broadly. The practical advice from defense attorneys in this space is to apply the stricter state rule regardless of whether a call is technically intrastate or interstate, because the litigation risk is real either way.

States update their rules without coordinating with each other or the FCC. California, for instance, has amended its consumer protection statutes multiple times in the past decade. Always treat any state table you find, including this one, as a starting point and verify against the current version of the relevant statute before relying on it for compliance decisions.

State by state calling hour restrictions: the full table

This table covers all 50 states and D.C. For states that match the federal floor exactly, the window is 8am-9pm recipient local time. States with stricter rules are marked and explained in the notes column. Verify current statutory text before relying on this for compliance decisions, as states amend these rules without notice.

State	Permitted Window	Stricter Than Federal?	Key Statute / Notes
Alabama	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Alaska	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Arizona	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Arkansas	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
California	8am - 9pm	No (window matches, but other rules are strict)	Bus. & Prof. Code §17590 et seq.; written consent rules add burden
Colorado	9am - 9pm	Yes	C.R.S. § 6-1-302; start time is 9am [3]
Connecticut	9am - 9pm	Yes	C.G.S. § 42-288a; start time is 9am
Delaware	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
D.C.	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Florida	8am - 9pm	No	Fla. Stat. § 501.059; matches federal but has its own DNC registry
Georgia	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Hawaii	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Idaho	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Illinois	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Indiana	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Iowa	9am - 9pm	Yes	Iowa Code § 476.16A; start time is 9am
Kansas	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Kentucky	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Louisiana	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Maine	9am - 5pm (Sundays)	Yes	32 M.R.S. § 14713; Sun. window ends at 5pm
Maryland	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Massachusetts	8am - 8pm	Yes	M.G.L. c. 159C § 3; end time is 8pm, not 9pm [4]
Michigan	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Minnesota	9am - 9pm	Yes	Minn. Stat. § 325E.311; start time is 9am
Mississippi	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Missouri	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Montana	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Nebraska	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Nevada	9am - 9pm	Yes	Nev. Rev. Stat. § 228.660; start time is 9am
New Hampshire	9am - 9pm	Yes	N.H. Rev. Stat. § 359-E:3; start time is 9am
New Jersey	9am - 9pm	Yes	N.J.S.A. 56:8-130; start time is 9am
New Mexico	9am - 9pm	Yes	N.M. Stat. § 57-12-22; start time is 9am
New York	8am - 9pm	No (but state has its own DNC list)	Follows federal window; separate N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 399-z rules
North Carolina	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
North Dakota	9am - 9pm	Yes	N.D. Cent. Code § 51-28-02; start time is 9am
Ohio	9am - 9pm	Yes	Ohio Rev. Code § 4719.04; start time is 9am
Oklahoma	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Oregon	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Pennsylvania	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Rhode Island	9am - 9pm	Yes	R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-61.1-5; start time is 9am
South Carolina	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
South Dakota	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Tennessee	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Texas	9am - 9pm	Yes	Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 302.101; start time is 9am [5]
Utah	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Vermont	9am - 9pm	Yes	Vt. Stat. tit. 9 § 2464; start time is 9am
Virginia	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Washington	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
West Virginia	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Wisconsin	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor
Wyoming	8am - 9pm	No	Follows federal floor

States with a 9am start time: Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont. That is 13 states where starting your dialing at 8am is a state law violation even if it is legal under federal TCPA.

Massachusetts stands alone with an 8pm end time, giving you the shortest permitted window in the country ^[4]. Maine adds a Sunday restriction: calls on Sunday must stop at 5pm.

Note on this table: Statute language changes. Always pull the current text from the state legislature's official site before making compliance decisions. This table reflects available information as of mid-2026.

Which states have calling hour rules that surprise people most?

Massachusetts is the one that catches teams off guard most often. The state's Telephone Solicitation Law at M.G.L. c. 159C § 3 ends your calling window at 8pm, not 9pm ^[4]. Plenty of outbound teams set their dialers to the federal 9pm cutoff and simply forget that Massachusetts contacts go off the list an hour earlier. A single outbound campaign to a mixed list of Northeast prospects can rack up violations without anyone noticing until a demand letter arrives.

Texas is the other major surprise. With roughly 30 million residents and a huge share of B2C and B2B calling activity, Texas's 9am start time under Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 302.101 means early-morning calling blitzes starting at 8am are violations in the state most outbound teams expect to work freely ^[5].

The states clustering around a 9am start (New Jersey, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, and several others) all have the same practical effect. If your dialer starts firing at 8am using recipient local time, you are violating over a dozen state laws at once. Most modern predictive dialers can filter by state and apply different start times per time zone bucket, but you have to configure that correctly. The dialer does not know about state rules on its own.

For Maine, the Sunday cutoff at 5pm is the sleeper restriction. Nobody in your sales org is thinking about a 5pm Sunday cutoff. Set a calendar reminder or build it into your dialer suppression logic.

How does 'local time' actually work when you are calling across time zones?

The TCPA phrase is "local time at the called party's location" ^[1]. That means you must know where the person you are calling is physically located, more than where their area code is registered. Number portability destroyed the reliability of using area codes as time zone proxies. A 212 New York number might belong to someone living in Phoenix. A 415 San Francisco number might belong to someone now living in Florida.

The standard approach is to use a real-time number intelligence lookup, often called a carrier lookup or phone number validation API, to get the current registered state for a number before you dial. These lookups cost roughly $0.005 to $0.01 per query depending on volume and provider. That is a negligible cost compared to a TCPA violation that starts at $500 per call and goes to $1,500 per call for willful violations ^[1].

For business numbers, the same principle applies. The FTC's National Do Not Call Registry distinguishes between residential and business numbers, but calling hour rules under most state statutes apply to the physical location of the recipient regardless of whether it is a business or residence.

If you genuinely cannot determine a called party's time zone, the conservative practice is to apply the earliest permitted start time (9am) and the earliest cutoff (8pm Massachusetts). That approach costs you some calling hours but eliminates the time zone uncertainty risk entirely.

What happens if you call outside permitted hours? What are the penalties?

Under federal TCPA, each violation carries a statutory penalty of $500 per call. Willful or knowing violations go to $1,500 per call ^[1]. There is no cap. A campaign that sends 100,000 calls one hour before the permitted window opens is theoretically $50 million to $150 million in exposure. Courts have found ways to limit aggregated damages in some cases, but the per-call math is still what drives settlement values.

State penalties layer on top. Massachusetts, for instance, allows its Attorney General to seek civil penalties and injunctive relief under M.G.L. c. 93A, which has a separate multiplier for willful violations. Texas allows the state AG to seek up to $10,000 per violation ^[5]. New Jersey allows up to $10,000 for a first violation and $20,000 for subsequent violations. These state penalties are separate from, and in addition to, the TCPA exposure.

Class actions are the real financial threat. A calling hour violation affects every person called outside the window. The Credit One TCPA settlement and the Cash App TCPA class action settlement show how aggregate TCPA class liability reaches eight and nine figures. Time-of-day violations are one of the easier claims for plaintiffs to prove because the call records and timestamps sit right there in your data.

Attorney's fees shift to the plaintiff in successful TCPA suits, which means plaintiff-side attorneys take these cases on contingency with enthusiasm. A credible demand letter from a TCPA plaintiff's attorney is not something to ignore.

Do calling hour restrictions apply to B2B calls?

Federal TCPA's calling hour restriction at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(1) applies to "telephone solicitations," which the statute defines as calls made to encourage a purchase, rental, or investment of property, goods, or services ^[1][2]. Many B2B calls fit that definition exactly.

At the state level, the answer varies. Some state telemarketing statutes explicitly exclude calls to businesses. Others define their scope broadly enough to include business-to-business telemarketing. Texas, for example, applies its restrictions to "telephone solicitations" without carving out B2B calls. Ohio's statute similarly applies broadly.

The pragmatic answer is this. If you are selling something over the phone to someone, assume the time restrictions apply until your attorney tells you otherwise for a specific state. The cost of getting the time window wrong is not worth the marginal benefit of making calls in that 8am-9am hour. Your prospects are not going to be more receptive at 8:03am anyway.

One area where B2B gets clear latitude: calls that are purely informational (account updates, service notifications with no upsell component) have generally been held not to be "telephone solicitations" and thus fall outside the TCPA's residential restriction. The moment any offer or promotional element enters the call, that protection disappears.

Do these restrictions apply to ringless voicemail and prerecorded messages?

Yes. The FCC has confirmed that prerecorded voice message calls are subject to the same calling hour restrictions as live calls under the TCPA ^[2]. Ringless voicemail (RVM), sometimes marketed as "direct-to-voicemail" delivery, has been the subject of ongoing regulatory debate. In 2022, the FCC tentatively concluded in its NPRM on RVM that these transmissions likely qualify as "calls" under the TCPA, meaning they carry the same time-of-day obligations ^[2].

Treat ringless voicemail exactly like a live call for time-of-day purposes. If you are dropping an RVM at 7:45am because you think it will sit in the inbox harmlessly, you are taking a legal position that is contested at best and losing ground at the FCC.

Text messages have a separate but parallel framework. The FCC's 2015 Omnibus TCPA Order and later FCC actions treat SMS as calls under the TCPA. Many states have written their calling hour restrictions to cover "telephone communications" broadly, which courts have read to include texts in several cases. If you are running SMS campaigns, check out our guide to text message marketing and the applicable rules there.

Automatic telephone dialing systems (ATDS) used to initiate calls outside permitted hours compound the violation. Using an ATDS to make out-of-hours calls makes the action per se willful under many courts' readings, which pushes the penalty toward the $1,500 per-call ceiling.

How should you configure your dialer to stay compliant across multiple states?

The right setup has three layers: number validation, state-level suppression logic, and a daily calling schedule that reflects the strictest applicable window.

First, run every phone number through a real-time phone validation or carrier lookup before it enters your dialing queue. This gives you the current state of record for each number. Update this data regularly. Numbers port frequently.

Second, build state-level calling windows into your dialer's suppression schedule. Your dialer should have a field for recipient state and a corresponding permitted calling window. At minimum, you need to break out the 13 states with a 9am start, Massachusetts with its 8pm cutoff, and Maine with its Sunday-specific rule. Most enterprise dialers support this natively but it is rarely configured out of the box.

Third, consider a conservative master schedule for mixed lists where you cannot validate every number. A 9am to 8pm window in recipient local time is compliant in all 50 states. You lose some calling time, but you drop the multi-state complexity. For teams without strong number intelligence tools, this is honestly the right call (no pun intended).

LeadCompliant's free dialing hour checker can tell you what window applies to any state so you can configure your schedule before your next campaign run. Pair that with a solid suppression workflow and you have covered the most common time-of-day exposure.

Also make sure you are scrubbing your list against the national do not call list and any applicable state DNC registries before you worry about calling hours. Calling someone on the DNC at the right time is still a violation. See also our notes on the mobile phone do not call list for mobile-specific considerations.

Are there holidays or days of the week where calling is restricted?

Federal TCPA does not restrict calling on any specific day of the week or on holidays. The 8am-9pm window applies seven days a week including Christmas. This surprises people. You can legally make a telemarketing call on Thanksgiving morning at 8:01am under federal law.

States fill this gap in limited ways. Maine restricts Sunday calls to a 9am-5pm window under 32 M.R.S. § 14713. A small number of other states have informal guidance or AG opinion letters about holiday calling, but these are not uniformly codified into statute. Always check the current statute text.

Some state DNC registries and telemarketing license requirements carry their own day-specific rules as conditions of the license, separate from the core calling hour statute. If you hold a telemarketing license in a state (some states require this), read the license terms carefully.

Calling on major holidays is bad sales strategy regardless of legality. Agents find it unpleasant, pickup rates are low, and consumer irritation is high. The legal question and the strategic question are different, and you should understand both.

What should a small outbound team do right now to avoid calling hour violations?

Pull your dialer schedule today and check what start and end times you have configured. If the answer is "8am to 9pm in the account time zone" without state-level breaks, you are violating 13-plus states every morning and Massachusetts every evening.

Fix the configuration before your next campaign. The order of operations: validate all numbers to get state data, configure state-level windows in your dialer, and document that you did it. That documentation matters. "Willful" violations carry triple damages, and being able to show a judge that you took steps to comply is meaningful mitigation.

Get your list scrubbed against the DNC before worrying about anything else. An out-of-hours call to a registered DNC number is two violations layered on top of each other. Check the do not call telemarketer list guide for the mechanics of that process.

For teams just getting organized, LeadCompliant's one-time compliance kit covers the calling hour configuration checklist alongside consent records templates and DNC scrub workflows, so you are not building this from scratch.

Get comfortable making cold calls inside the correct windows rather than fighting the rules. The best outbound teams treat compliance as an edge. They have cleaner lists, better data, and fewer conversations that begin with an annoyed prospect who just got called at 8am on a Sunday in Ohio.

How do calling hour rules interact with consent and prior business relationships?

Consent does not override calling hour restrictions. This is one of the most common misconceptions in the industry. Even if a contact signed an express written consent form agreeing to receive telemarketing calls, that consent does not permit you to call them at 2am or 7am. The time restrictions are a floor that consent cannot lower.

Prior business relationships (EBR) are a different concept. Under the TCPA, EBR gives you an exemption from the requirement to honor a DNC registration for up to 18 months after the last transaction and 3 months after an inquiry ^[2]. EBR has nothing to do with the time of day you call. An EBR contact is still protected by the 8am-9pm federal window and whatever stricter state window applies.

The place where consent and timing do interact is in some state statutes that let consumers specify calling preferences, including preferred hours. If a contact tells you they only want to be called between 10am and 2pm, honoring that preference is both legally smart (some states require it) and practically good for your contact rate.

For a deeper look at consent mechanics and what actually counts as a valid opt-in, see our consent and opt-in resources.

Frequently asked questions

What are the TCPA calling hours under federal law?

Federal TCPA at 47 U.S.C. § 227 and 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(1) permits outbound telephone solicitations between 8am and 9pm in the called party's local time zone. Calls at 8:00am are permitted. Calls at 9:01pm are violations. This rule applies seven days a week including holidays. States can and do impose stricter windows on top of this federal floor.

Which states have earlier start times than 8am for telemarketing calls?

No state has an earlier start than the federal 8am floor. The stricter states require you to start later, at 9am. Those states are Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont. Calling into any of these states before 9am recipient local time violates state telemarketing law even if it is technically legal under federal TCPA.

What state has the earliest end time for telemarketing calls?

Massachusetts has the strictest end time in the country. M.G.L. c. 159C § 3 requires telemarketing calls to end by 8pm, one hour earlier than the federal 9pm cutoff. Maine adds a Sunday-specific rule: calls to Maine residents on Sundays must end at 5pm. No other state currently has an end time earlier than 8pm for weekday calls.

Does the 8am-9pm calling window apply to text messages?

Yes, in practice. The FCC treats SMS as a "call" under the TCPA, and state telemarketing statutes often cover "telephone communications" broadly enough to include texts. Courts have found time-of-day restrictions applicable to text message campaigns in multiple cases. Apply the same state-specific calling hour restrictions to your text campaigns that you apply to voice calls.

Do calling hour restrictions apply to calls I make using a predictive dialer?

Absolutely, and using an automatic telephone dialing system to make out-of-hours calls compounds your exposure. The TCPA's time-of-day restrictions apply regardless of whether a live agent or an ATDS initiates the call. Using an ATDS to call outside permitted hours often supports a finding of willfulness, which pushes penalties from $500 to $1,500 per call.

Can a consumer's written consent allow calls outside the permitted hours?

No. Consent of any kind, including express written consent, cannot override the calling hour restrictions. The time windows are a statutory floor, not a default that parties can negotiate away. An opt-in form that purports to authorize 24-hour calling does not protect you from a TCPA time-of-day violation. You must still comply with both the federal window and any stricter state window.

How do I know which time zone applies to a number I am calling?

Use a phone number validation or carrier lookup service to get the current registered state for each number before dialing. Area codes are not reliable proxies for time zone because number portability means a 212 number might belong to someone in Arizona. Real-time lookups cost roughly $0.005 to $0.01 per query, which is negligible compared to the cost of a TCPA violation. Update your number data regularly.

Are there restrictions on calling on Sundays or holidays?

Federal TCPA does not restrict calling on any specific day of the week or holiday. The 8am-9pm window applies every day of the year. Maine is the notable exception at the state level: calls to Maine residents on Sundays must end by 5pm under 32 M.R.S. § 14713. Check any telemarketing license terms in states where you hold a license, as those may add day-specific restrictions.

Do calling hour rules apply to B2B telemarketing?

At the federal level, TCPA calling hour rules apply to 'telephone solicitations,' which covers most B2B selling calls. At the state level, coverage varies: some states exempt B2B calls, others apply their restrictions broadly. The safe approach is to assume state time restrictions apply to your B2B calls unless your attorney has confirmed an exemption for a specific state.

What is the penalty for calling outside permitted hours?

Federal TCPA: $500 per call, up to $1,500 per call for willful violations. State penalties layer on top and vary by state. Texas allows up to $10,000 per violation. New Jersey allows $10,000 for first violations and $20,000 for repeat violations. Class action exposure multiplies the per-call penalty by the number of affected contacts, which is why calling hour violations are popular plaintiff-side claims.

Does ringless voicemail have to follow calling hour restrictions?

Yes. The FCC's 2022 NPRM tentatively concluded that ringless voicemail qualifies as a 'call' under the TCPA, carrying the same time-of-day obligations as live calls. Apply the same state-by-state calling hour restrictions to RVM drops that you apply to outbound live calls. Dropping a voicemail at 7:45am because you think it will sit unnoticed is not a safe legal position.

How do state DNC registries interact with calling hour rules?

They are separate obligations. A state DNC registry tells you who you cannot call at all (or without consent). Calling hour rules tell you when you can call anyone. You must comply with both at once. Calling a DNC-registered number during permitted hours is a violation. Calling a non-DNC number outside permitted hours is also a violation. Scrub your list for DNC status and apply time restrictions independently.

If I am in California and calling a Texas number, do Texas calling hour rules apply?

Yes, apply Texas rules. Texas prohibits telemarketing calls before 9am recipient local time under Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 302.101. Your physical location as the caller does not determine which state's rules apply. The recipient's location controls. This is why you need state data on each number you are calling, more than the state where your company is headquartered.

What is the safest calling window that complies with all 50 states?

9am to 8pm in the recipient's local time zone covers all 50 states and D.C. The 9am start satisfies the 13 states with a 9am minimum. The 8pm cutoff satisfies Massachusetts, the strictest state for end time. Maine's 5pm Sunday cutoff still requires a separate rule for Sundays. This conservative window costs you some calling hours but drops nearly all time-of-day state compliance complexity.

Sources

1. U.S. Congress, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227: TCPA prohibits telephone solicitations before 8am or after 9pm local time; $500 per violation, $1,500 for willful violations; state savings clause at § 227(e)(1)
2. FCC, Code of Federal Regulations 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200: FCC implementing rule for TCPA calling hour restriction; 8am-9pm in called party's local time; prior business relationship rules; prerecorded and RVM treatment
3. Colorado General Assembly, C.R.S. § 6-1-302, Colorado Consumer Protection Act telemarketing provisions: Colorado restricts telemarketing calls to no earlier than 9am recipient local time
4. Massachusetts General Court, M.G.L. c. 159C § 3, Telephone Solicitations: Massachusetts restricts telemarketing calls to end by 8pm recipient local time, the strictest end time in the country
5. Texas Legislature, Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 302.101, Telemarketing: Texas restricts telephone solicitations to 9am-9pm recipient local time; AG may seek up to $10,000 per violation
6. Maine Legislature, 32 M.R.S. § 14713, Limitations on Telephone Solicitations: Maine restricts Sunday telemarketing calls to 9am-5pm recipient local time
7. FTC, National Do Not Call Registry, Telemarketer Compliance: National DNC Registry operated by FTC; businesses must scrub lists against registry; registry rules interact with but do not replace calling hour rules
8. New Jersey Legislature, N.J.S.A. 56:8-130, Telemarketing Do Not Call: New Jersey restricts telemarketing to a 9am start and allows penalties up to $10,000 for a first violation and $20,000 for subsequent violations
9. Ohio General Assembly, Ohio Rev. Code § 4719.04, Telephone Solicitation: Ohio restricts telephone solicitations to 9am-9pm recipient local time
10. Minnesota Legislature, Minn. Stat. § 325E.311, Telephone Solicitations: Minnesota restricts telemarketing calls to 9am-9pm recipient local time