Legal calling hours for cold calls: US, Canada, UK and Australia

"What time can I start calling?" has four different answers depending on where your leads live, and in the US it can change again at the state line. This guide puts the rules for the four countries Cold Call X sells in side by side, with the source for each window, so you can set a calling block that is legal everywhere on your list.

The short answer

Every window is in the called person's local time, not yours. Checked September 25, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice; the rules have exemptions this summary leaves out, so read the linked source for anything you rely on.

United States: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., then check the state

The federal floor comes from the FCC's rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act: no telephone solicitation to a residential subscriber before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., local time at the called party's location (47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1)). A few details trip people up:

• There is no weekend or holiday exception. Federally, Sunday at 8 a.m. is as legal as Tuesday at 8 a.m. Whether it is smart is a different question; see the best time to cold call.
• Cell phones are covered. The FCC's rules extend these protections to wireless numbers, so when you reach a business owner on their mobile, treat the window as applying.
• The Do Not Call Registry is a separate rule. Calling hours say when; the National Do Not Call Registry says whom. Callers who rely on the registry's safe harbor must use a version of it no more than 31 days old. Our auto dialer laws guide covers the registry, consent and what counts as an autodialer.

States with tighter windows

States can go further than the FCC, and a growing group has. These four are the ones cold callers run into most:

These state laws are written for calls to consumers, and each has its own exemptions (Texas, for instance, exempts calls to people with a prior or existing business relationship). Other states set their own windows as well, so if you call consumers in a state not listed here, check that state attorney general's telemarketing page before your first block. The practical rule for a national US list: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the lead's time zone keeps you inside every window above, except Sunday mornings in Texas.

The three-calls-in-24-hours caps matter more than they look. Double-dialing a lead who didn't pick up, then calling back after a voicemail, is already three attempts. Spread retries across days instead of hours; a follow-up that is scheduled for tomorrow morning is both more polite and more likely to connect.

Canada: 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. weekdays, 10 to 6 on weekends

The CRTC's Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules limit telemarketing calls to 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, in the local time of the person you're calling.

• B2B calls still follow the hours. Calls to businesses are exempt from the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) Rules, but not from the Telemarketing Rules, which include the calling hours (DNCL exemptions).
• Consumers on the National DNCL are off limits unless an exemption applies, such as an existing business relationship.
• Everyone keeps an internal do-not-call list, including callers making exempt calls. If someone asks not to be called again, they go on it.

United Kingdom: no clock, strict lists

UK law doesn't set calling hours for live sales calls. What the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) regulate is who you may call and how. From the ICO's telephone marketing guidance:

• Screen against the TPS and the CTPS. You can't make live marketing calls to a number registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) or Corporate TPS (CTPS) unless that person has specifically consented to your calls.
• B2B means both registers. Sole traders and some partnerships register with the TPS; companies, some partnerships and government bodies register with the CTPS. For business calls, check both.
• Show your number and say who you are. You must allow your number to be displayed, and keep your own list of anyone who asks not to be called.
• Some topics need consent regardless. Claims management calls need consent, and pension-scheme marketing calls are banned except in narrow cases.

With no statutory window, sensible practice does the work: business hours for B2B, and for consumers, nothing early in the morning, late in the evening or on Sunday. A call that is legal but lands at dinner is still a complaint waiting to happen. For the full UK rules, including the 28-day screening rule and the fines that apply since February 2026, see cold calling in the UK.

Australia: the strictest clock of the four

Australia's Telecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2017 sets fixed calling times for telemarketing calls, unless the person has consented to being called at another time:

The national public holidays are New Year's Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, including any day given in lieu. The standard also requires you to end the call immediately when asked.

The Do Not Call Register works alongside the clock: you can't make telemarketing calls to registered numbers, so consumer lists need washing against it. Business numbers aren't eligible for registration, which makes B2B lists simpler, but the calling-time rules are written for telemarketing calls generally, so the safe default is to keep every sales call inside the window above. Washing, consent and the penalties are covered in cold calling in Australia.

The hard part is the time zone, not the rule

Every window above runs on the lead's clock. On a single-city list that's easy. On a national list it is where most violations actually come from:

• The 50 states span six time zones. 8 a.m. in New York is 5 a.m. in Los Angeles and still the middle of the night in Honolulu.
• Australia has three standard time zones, and five in summer, because only some states observe daylight saving.
• Canada runs from Newfoundland's half-hour offset to Pacific time.
• Mobile numbers travel. An area code is where a number was issued, not where its owner is today, and Australian mobile numbers carry no location at all.

Two habits cover most of it. Start each block with the leads whose day has already begun and work west as the day goes on. And don't dial right up to the edge of a window: an 8:55 p.m. call to someone who moved one time zone east is a 9:55 p.m. call.

How Cold Call X handles calling hours

Cold Call X 2.0 has Calling Hours: leads are only dialed during their own daytime, in any time zone, so a national list works itself in the right order instead of you juggling filters. It works with US, Canadian, UK and Australian numbers.

What it does not do matters just as much. Calling Hours is a guardrail, not a legal opinion; make sure your calling block also fits the strictest rule above that applies to your leads. The app's Do Not Call list blocks a contact across every list and future import, but it's a personal suppression list: it doesn't check numbers against the US National Do Not Call Registry, Canada's National DNCL, the UK's TPS and CTPS or Australia's Do Not Call Register. Scrub your list against the right register before you import it.

Cold Call X dials one call at a time, from your own number, through your own carrier, and only calls leads you imported. For how that single-line setup fits the autodialer rules, see are auto dialers legal?, and for the dialer itself, the iPhone dialer guide.

A calling-hours checklist

• Know which countries and US states are on your list before you pick a block.
• For US consumers, default to 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the lead's time zone, and noon onwards on Sundays in Texas.
• Cap retries at three per lead per day, and spread them across days.
• For Canada, stop at 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and keep weekends to 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• For the UK, screen against TPS and CTPS, and keep consumer calls to civil hours.
• For Australia, no Sundays, no national public holidays, and 5 p.m. is the Saturday cutoff.
• Keep your own do-not-call list, and honor removal requests right away.