AWS Phone Verification: Sign Up Without Your Personal Number

AWS phone verification is part of opening an AWS account: you give AWS a phone number and confirm it with a code. The number doesn’t have to be your personal mobile, but it stays on the account, and AWS uses it again if you ever need to recover the root user.

Here’s what the check involves, where a text-only number falls short, and how to keep access.

Why AWS asks for a phone number

AWS’s sign-up guide lists the phone number among the details you need: “This number is used for identity verification purposes and to confirm the ownership of your account. You must be able to receive calls and SMS messages at this phone number.”

After you add a payment method, AWS may ask you to confirm your identity. You enter “a phone number that can be reached in the next few minutes,” choose Send SMS and type in the code. For a business account, AWS recommends “a corporate phone number so that your company can retain access to the AWS account even when an employee changes positions or leaves the company.”

Where a text-only number falls short

PVADeals numbers receive SMS only. That covers the sign-up code, but not everything AWS does with the number:

So a PVADeals number can receive AWS’s sign-up text, but not AWS’s recovery call. If the account matters, set up MFA properly (below) and give AWS a number that can take calls before you need one.

How to get the AWS sign-up code on a PVADeals number

1. Create a free PVADeals account and add credits: crypto from $3, or a card through Stripe from $5.
2. Choose AWS from the list of websites, in the United States or the United Kingdom. If it isn’t listed for your country, rent an All services number instead, which works on any website.
3. Pick a long-term rental (3, 7, 14 or 30 days) with auto-renew, so later texts from AWS still reach you. A 20-minute number is the wrong tool here, because the number stays on the account as its primary contact. See the prices below.
4. At the identity check, enter the number with its country code and choose Send SMS.
5. Copy the code from your PVADeals dashboard, where it appears as soon as it arrives, and finish signing up.
6. Turn on MFA for the root user as soon as you can sign in.

Protect the root user with MFA

MFA keeps you from needing that call. AWS says “all AWS account types (standalone, management, and member accounts) require MFA to be configured for their root user,” and you can register up to eight MFA devices, such as passkeys, security keys and authenticator apps. Register more than one, because AWS explains: “If you lost access to all your MFAs, you need both the phone number and the email used to register your account, to be up to date and accessible to recover your MFA.”

Keep the root email secure as well, since it “is required for account recovery.” If you want phone recovery to work, AWS’s advice is to “keep the phone number updated.” You can change the primary contact number in your account settings, and AWS sends a verification code to the new number.

If AWS phone verification fails

• Check the number and country code. AWS’s troubleshooting article starts with making sure you “correctly entered your telephone number and selected your country code.”
• Use a number that isn’t on another AWS account. AWS calls a unique number per account a best practice.
• Check your payment method. AWS asks you to confirm it’s correct and valid before you retry.
• “Maximum number of failed attempts”? AWS Support can activate the account manually, and “you can create a case with AWS Support even if you haven’t activated your account yet.”
• No SMS at all? If an eligible PVADeals number receives no SMS during the rental, its cost comes back to your balance automatically as store credit.

Open an AWS account without your personal number

A long-term non-VoIP number from PVADeals can receive AWS’s sign-up text. Building something? See our SMS verification API, and our guides to Twilio phone number verification and ChatGPT phone verification. Looking for an Amazon shopping account instead? See how to create an Amazon account without a phone number.