Best second number for Telegram in 2026: Fragment +888, DegenPhone, a second SIM or an SMS service

We checked each option on 5 points:

• Yours to keep: can someone else get the number later?
• Other apps: does it get codes from WhatsApp, Revolut and other services, or only Telegram?
• Calls: can it take phone calls?
• Cost: what you pay to get it and keep it.
• Main risk: the most likely way it goes wrong.

DegenPhone is our product. We list it third, by use case, not first.

Login codes show on Fragment once you connect your wallet.

• Why it's good: Telegram supports it officially, with no SIM card. An existing account can switch to an unused +888 number and keep its chats. That makes it the best choice for taking an account you already have off your personal number.
• Cost: a Fragment +888 number costs over 2,500 GRAM at a fixed price. Auctions can start lower, but bidding sets the price.
• Drawbacks: a +888 number only logs in to Telegram, with no regular SMS or calls. In January 2025, the creator of a +888 rental service wrote on Telegram's bug-report site that some Fragment numbers were spam-blocked when bought.

• Why it's good: a normal mobile number, with calls and SMS, that works with almost any service.
• Cost: your carrier's price for a second SIM or prepaid plan, plus top-ups.
• Drawbacks: GSMA counted 155 countries that required proof of identity for prepaid SIMs in January 2020, so the number is usually in your name. Stop paying, and the carrier can give the number to someone else, who could then log in to your account.

Open the app in @DegenPhoneTonBot, connect your TON wallet, then roll and mint. When you need a code, tap Unlock (Activate) in My Numbers. The code arrives in your chat with @DegenPhoneTonBot.

• Why it's good: you own the number, and no carrier contract is tied to your name. It also gets SMS codes from WhatsApp, Revolut, Instagram, Amazon, Meta (Facebook), PayPal and crypto exchanges. You can sell or send it.
• Cost: mint from 150 GRAM. Service is 2 years prepaid.
• Drawbacks: use it for a new Telegram account. Moving an existing one to it usually fails, so for that, Fragment is the better pick. Telegram sometimes asks new +372 accounts to buy 1 week of Premium, about $1. SMS only, no calls yet. Lose the wallet and you lose the number, so keep your seed phrase safe. Sign up in Telegram's phone app on Wi-Fi.

Free SMS sites are worse: they post each inbox publicly, so anyone can read your code.

• Why it's good: the cheapest and fastest way to get a single code.
• Cost: from about $0.10 a code. 5sim's page listed a best Telegram delivery rate of 58%: even on that route, fewer than 6 in 10 orders got a code.
• Drawbacks: you can't reuse the number after the order, and services pass numbers on. Whoever gets the number next can request a login code. 2-Step Verification blocks their sign-in, but not account deletion, and Telegram can't restore an account without its number.

• Move your current account off your personal number: Fragment +888.
• Calls as well as messages: a second SIM or eSIM.
• A new account on a number you own, plus codes from WhatsApp, Revolut and other services: DegenPhone. It's a real phone number for Telegram, and a cheaper alternative to Fragment +888 numbers if you don't need to move an old account.
• One code for an account you'll throw away: an SMS-activation service.

Whichever you choose, hide your number in Telegram's privacy settings and turn on 2-Step Verification. See what a DegenPhone number costs and which apps work with it.

Yes. Telegram's FAQ says each phone number is a separate account, and one Telegram app can be logged in to several accounts at once. You need a second number for the second account.

Of the options you own outright, DegenPhone costs least at a fixed price: mint from 150 GRAM. A Fragment +888 number costs over 2,500 GRAM at a fixed price. An SMS-activation number is cheaper, from about $0.10 a code, but you don't keep it.

Yes, for as long as you use the account. Telegram may send a login code to the number when you sign in on a new device, and its FAQ warns that without the number, you risk losing the account.

DegenPhone wrote it, so read it with that in mind. We say where other options are better: Fragment for moving an existing account, a second SIM for calls, and an SMS-activation service for a single throwaway code. Every claim about another service links to its source.