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Give a Grok Bot a phone number: calls, SMS and iMessage routes, costs and consent

As of 2026-10-31 the official docs describe no built-in phone number, calling or SMS for a Grok Bot, so you connect a third-party service. This guide compares four routes, lists the accounts and costs, and covers consent, US 10DLC and safety.

Checked on

The playbook

What you'll get. A Grok Bot that can place phone calls, answer a number, or send texts, using a third-party service you connect. As of 2026-10-31, the official Grok Bot docs (docs.x.ai/grok-bot) describe voice chat inside the app but no phone number, calling or SMS feature for a Bot, so every route below depends on an outside service. If you only want a ranked list of templates, see Best Grok Bots for Phone Calls and SMS.

Pick a route first.

Route Best for Accounts you need Effort
A. Voice-call service (ClawCall) Errand calls, bill calls, a reserved number ClawCall Low
B. Telephony account plus voice agent (Twilio or Telnyx with xAI or ElevenLabs) Your own inbound line or custom agent Carrier, xAI API key, optionally ElevenLabs High
C. iMessage on a connected Mac Reading and replying to iMessage A Mac you leave on, Beeper's command-line tool Medium
D. Business SMS (Telnyx, Twilio or Quo) Texting customers Carrier or Quo, plus US registration Medium to high

Costs, as the providers state them. Grok Bot usage is metered on your account and is separate from phone costs (docs.x.ai/grok-bot/faq). ClawCall's own pricing page lists, as of 2026-10-31 per clawcall.dev: a free tier of 30 calls or 30 minutes, Unlimited at $8.99 a month for outbound US calls from shared numbers, Unlimited Reserve at $14.99 with a dedicated number as caller ID, and Reserve Plus at $18.99 with an inbound assistant (clawcall.dev). Twilio, Telnyx and Bland bill per minute or message; we did not find fee tables on the pages we read, so check their pricing pages before you start. xAI's SIP page does not mention pricing. Prices change, so check each vendor's pricing page before you buy.

Consent and the law, in plain terms (US). This is general information, not legal advice. Automated or AI-voiced calls to mobile phones generally need the recipient's prior consent; the FCC's February 2024 declaratory ruling (FCC 24-17) says AI-generated voices count as "artificial" voices under the TCPA (FCC 24-17). This is not legal advice. Calling a friend or a business to ask a question is a different case from marketing calls, but if in doubt, do not make automated outbound calls to people who have not agreed to them. ClawCall says each call opens with a recording notice and that it will say it is an AI if asked (clawcall.dev). Other countries have different rules.

10DLC basics for US texting. A2P 10DLC is the US carrier framework for app-sent texts over ordinary 10-digit numbers. Twilio says anyone sending app-to-person texts to US recipients over such a number must register, including hobbyists, and that unregistered traffic gets extra fees and heavier filtering (Twilio docs). Registration has two parts: a brand (who you are) and a campaign (what you send, plus how people opt in, opt out and get help). Sole Proprietor brands are capped at one campaign and roughly 1,000 segments a day to T-Mobile, per Twilio, and Standard brands need a Tax ID. Telnyx lists the same steps and says standard brand vetting takes 1 to 7 business days (Telnyx docs). Toll-free numbers use a separate process we did not verify.

Safety rules that apply to every route. Keep the Bot on approval for anything that dials a stranger, texts a customer, pays or accepts a deal. Grok Bot's Security page says Auto Review checks risky actions and that you can add personal "Ask first" rules under Settings, General, Auto-review (docs.x.ai/grok-bot/security). Routines should draft or recommend first and require approval before sending (docs.x.ai/grok-bot/skills-routines-and-automations). Never give the Bot your bank PIN, one-time codes or passwords to read to a caller. Treat any call transcript as personal data and delete what you do not need.

What we did not test. We did not import or run any template, create any carrier account, place a call or send a text. Template behaviour comes from the skill and routine names and descriptions stored in our directory, and the vendor and xAI pages named in the sources step. Every step marked untested has not been run by us.

Set it up, route by route

  1. Step 1. Decide the job and the direction

    Write down one sentence, for example "call a plumber for a quote" or "answer my shop line and take messages". Outbound errand calls point to route A. Inbound answering on your own number points to route B or to ClawCall's Reserve Plus tier. Texting customers points to route D. Reading your own messages points to route C.

    Stop here if the job is mass outreach. None of these routes is built for unsolicited marketing, and doing it may be unlawful.

  2. Step 2. Check your Grok Bot basics

    As of 2026-10-31 the docs say Grok Bot needs an eligible plan, such as The X Subscription, and the desktop app from x.ai/bot (get started). Accounts on Privacy Mode (Legacy) must switch to Privacy Mode. Open Connect apps from the sidebar to add services (computer and apps). After adding an app, confirm it appears under Installed; "Added" does not mean signed in.

  3. Step 3. Route A: connect ClawCall (untested)

    ClawCall's page says to message a Bot: "Get the ClawCall MCP so you can make phone calls for me." Select Authorize on the connect card and sign in to your ClawCall account. The approval page names Cursor, which the vendor says is expected. Once connected, every Bot you own can make calls. Start on the free tier.

    Then try a template built for it, such as Phoneline Manager. Its skills cover getting started, connecting call alerts, making a call, comparing quotes, getting you a person for identity checks or payments, and setting up an answering line. Per ClawCall, calls go to US numbers only, one call at a time, and it declines emergency calls.

  4. Step 4. Route A: add call alerts and a reserved number if you need them (untested)

    Call alerts use a webhook trigger on a routine. Per the routines docs, you ask the Bot to add a webhook trigger, then open the routine on desktop to see the URL, key and Authorization header; senders POST with Authorization: Bearer <key>, and a 200 means the run started, not that it finished. The template's "Connect call alerts" skill walks you through it. If you regenerate the key, repeat the step.

    A dedicated caller-ID number needs ClawCall's Reserve tier, and an inbound assistant needs Reserve Plus. Write the knowledge base you want it to use, and keep out anything you would not tell a stranger.

  5. Step 5. Route B: bring your own number to a voice agent (untested)

    xAI documents a Voice Agent API that accepts calls over SIP. As of 2026-10-31 the steps are: register a number you own with a webhook (origin byo_trunk), point your carrier at sip:{number}@sip.voice.x.ai, handle the realtime.call.incoming webhook after checking its signature, then join the call over WebSocket and send session.update and response.create (xAI SIP docs). For Twilio, create an Elastic SIP Trunk with that origination URI and attach a number. The docs list Telnyx, Bandwidth and Plivo steps too, and say xAI does not provision phone numbers by API.

    You need an xAI API key and a developer who can run a small webhook server. xAI's own Twilio Media Streams example calls itself "not production-ready without additional hardening" (cookbook). For a Bot-managed version, read the skills in Shopfront Receptionist (VoIP to xAI voice agent) or Voice Calls (Twilio plus ElevenLabs). Note that those templates were not run by us.

  6. Step 6. Route B alternative: Bland (untested)

    dial bot places calls through Bland AI. On first run it asks for your Bland API key and a voice. This is the shortest path if you already have a Bland account. It has no approval gate beyond your request, so confirm the number, goal and spending limit in the chat each time.

  7. Step 7. Route C: iMessage through a Mac (untested)

    Apple provides no official iMessage API for bots, so this route reads your Mac's local message database and sends through a third-party tool. iMessage bot says reading needs Full Disk Access on the Mac and sending uses Beeper's imessage-cli. The Grok Bot docs say a Bot runs commands on your local Mac only if that is enabled and you approve it, and the default policy is Ask every time (computer and apps). Leave that default on. The Mac must stay awake and signed in, and sends come from your own Apple ID, so test with a message to yourself first.

  8. Step 8. Route D: business SMS and registration (untested)

    Use Telnyx if you want a guided path. Its skills cover account signup, numbers, a messaging profile, 10DLC brand and campaign registration, and a website audit that checks your opt-in and compliance pages before you submit. A 10DLC campaign must describe how people opt in, opt out (for example by replying STOP) and get help. Text only people who have agreed to hear from you, honour STOP immediately, and keep a record of each opt-in.

    For a business already on Quo, Lead Catcher reads conversations and sends you a digest instead of texting customers. Quote Chase Desk drafts follow-ups and has skills for consent, opt-out and owner approval. Neither replaces your own compliance.

  9. Step 9. Test safely

    Call or text only your own phone first. Use a script with a single goal, a limit on what the Bot may agree to, and a stop word. Check the transcript and the bill afterwards. Test runs of routines perform real work, so keep write actions behind approval during testing (routines docs). If the template has a spend check, such as the weekday morning check in the Call Desk reserve template, turn it on.

  10. Troubleshooting

    • Bot says the call tool is missing. Open Connect apps and check the service shows under Installed. Use Reconnect or Authenticate if it says Needs auth or Disconnected.
    • No call alerts. The webhook key may have been regenerated or the connector re-added. Repeat the alert step and use Test on the routine.
    • Carrier rejects texts or error 40010. The Telnyx template names this as a 10DLC registration problem. Finish brand and campaign approval, then assign the number.
    • SIP call never reaches the agent. Check the origination URI, transport, allowed addresses and codec settings on your carrier against the xAI SIP page.
    • iMessage history is empty. Full Disk Access is probably missing for the app that reads the database.
    • Unexpected bill. Pause the routine (Details tab, switch on the routine row), then compare carrier and Grok Bot usage.

  11. Sources and checked-on date

    Checked on 2026-10-31. Sources: Grok Bot docs index, get started, computer and apps, security, routines, FAQ, xAI SIP, xAI phone cookbook, ClawCall, FCC 24-17 declaratory ruling (we could not fetch it; it returned 403 to us), Twilio A2P 10DLC, Telnyx 10DLC.

Inspired templates6

Templates that cover the routes in this guide.

dial bot

dial bot

by Matt

Places outbound Bland AI phone calls when you ask, then reports what happened. On first use it asks for a Bland API key and voice.

  • Memories6
  • Skills1
  • Routines0
Telnyx

Telnyx

by Travis

Telnyx specialist for Grok Bot — SMS, numbers, 10DLC with website audit before TCR submit, webhooks, and onboarding.

  • Memories5
  • Skills8
  • Routines1
iMessage bot

iMessage bot

by Evan Bacon

Reads and sends iMessages on a connected Mac: chat.db for history, Beeper imessage-cli for send, reply, react, and edit.

  • Memories6
  • Skills2
  • Routines0

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