How to call India from Canada: dialing guide 2026

The dial string is +91 followed by the 10-digit Indian number with the leading 0 dropped. Indian toll-free prefixes (1800, 1860) are domestic only and will not connect from Canada. Eastern Canada sits 9.5-10.5 hours behind India Standard Time, so office-hour calls require an early Canadian morning or a late Indian evening slot.

The dial string

To call India from Canada:

• ›+91 {area code or mobile} {number}, or
• ›011 91 {area code or mobile} {number} from a Canadian landline (00 is the common international prefix outside NANP; from Canada use 011 or +).

Drop the leading 0. A Mumbai mobile printed as 098765 43210 becomes +91 98765 43210. A Delhi landline printed as 011 2345 6789 becomes +91 11 2345 6789.

Mobile vs landline

Indian mobiles are 10 digits starting 6, 7, 8, or 9. Indian landlines combine a 2-4 digit STD code with a 6-8 digit subscriber number: Mumbai 22, Delhi 11, Bengaluru 80, Chennai 44, Kolkata 33, Hyderabad 40, Pune 20, Ahmedabad 79.

India does not bill the receiver for ordinary incoming international calls.

What it costs

Four realistic routes for a Canada→India call in 2026:

• ›Canadian mobile international add-on. Rogers, Bell, and Telus exclude India from most inclusive North America talk buckets. Pay-as-you-go without a world pass commonly sits around $1.50-$3.00/min to Indian mobiles (confirm on the carrier’s current international rate sheet).
• ›Pre-paid international calling card. Cards sold for India traffic advertise very low landline rates; mobile rates and connection fees raise the cost of short IVR calls.
• ›VoIP app-to-phone. Teams Phone and Viber Out terminate to Indian mobiles at roughly low-to-mid US cents per minute. Google Voice outbound to India is often unavailable from North American accounts.
• ›Browser-to-phone via WorldDial. From $0.06/min to Indian mobiles and $0.07/min to landlines on the public rates table, see call India.

Unless a Canadian world pass already includes India at a flat rate, carrier pay-as-you-go loses to browser and VoIP routes for any call longer than a few minutes.

Toll-free numbers from this corridor

Indian 1800 and 1860 numbers do not work from Canada. Banks and government services publish paid international lines on the same contact page. Examples: HDFC +91 22 6160 6161; Passport Seva international helpdesk +91 40 6717 3500 (also covered on Passport Seva from abroad).

Best calling windows

India Standard Time is UTC+5:30 year-round. Canada Eastern is UTC-5 / UTC-4. India runs 10.5 hours ahead of Eastern in winter and 9.5 hours ahead in summer.

Most practical daytime window in Canada: 07:00-08:30 Eastern, which maps to 17:30-19:00 IST near the end of the Indian working day. An alternative is 21:30-23:00 Eastern for 08:00-09:30 IST the next morning, useful for Pacific callers shifted three hours earlier.

Avoid Sunday IST for government offices. Indian banks often run Saturday morning only.

Pitfalls specific to this corridor

• ›OTP tied to an Indian mobile. Bank and Aadhaar IVRs send SMS OTPs to a registered Indian number. Without that SIM (or an Indian eSIM), verification fails mid-call. Resolve the OTP path before spending 20 minutes in a queue.
• ›TRAI international gateway quirks. Inbound calls to Indian mobiles traverse a small set of licensed ILD carriers; one-way audio happens. Hang up and redial, the second attempt often uses a different gateway.
• ›DTMF on deep bank menus. Four to six IVR levels are common; test keypad tones before a long hold. If tones are ignored, switch device or route rather than repeating the same broken path.
• ›Pacific vs Eastern scheduling. A 07:00 Eastern slot is 04:00 in Vancouver, Pacific callers should prefer the late-evening IST-morning window instead.
• ›Indian public holidays and bank Saturdays. Republic Day, Independence Day, Diwali week, and regional state holidays shut many helplines. Indian bank phone support is often Saturday-morning only; Sunday IST is a poor bet for anything official.

Quick checklist

• ›Dial +91 plus ten digits; drop the leading 0.
• ›Replace Indian 1800 numbers with paid +91 lines.
• ›Pick 07:00-08:30 Eastern (or the late-evening IST-morning alternative from Pacific).
• ›Have customer IDs and any Indian-mobile OTP path ready.
• ›Skip Canadian carrier pay-as-you-go unless an India-inclusive pass is active.