State Law
Telemarketing Calling Hours by State
What hours can I legally make telemarketing calls?
Short answerFederally, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the called party's local time zone, under the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule. A handful of states set their own, different window on top of that -- Florida, Oklahoma, Washington and Maryland narrow the evening end to 8pm, Louisiana and Alabama add a full ban on Sunday and holiday calling, and Texas allows calls only from noon on Sundays. Where a state has no rule of its own, the federal window controls.
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On this page
Most calling-hours questions have a one-line answer: 8am to 9pm, in the number's time zone, under the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule. A handful of states layer their own restriction on top, and a few of those get specific about Sundays and holidays in ways a generic "8-to-9" answer misses entirely.
| Jurisdiction | Hours | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Federal (baseline) | 8am–9pm, called party's local time | 16 C.F.R. § 310.4(c) |
| Florida | 8am–8pm, called person's time zone; no more than three calls in 24 hours on the same subject. Applies even to callers otherwise exempt from the Telemarketing Act | Fla. Stat. § 501.616(6); § 501.604 |
| Oklahoma | 8am–8pm, called party's zone | 15 O.S. § 775C.4 |
| Washington | 8am–8pm, recipient's local time | RCW 80.36.390(8); RCW 19.158.040(2) / .110(4) |
| Virginia | 8am–9pm at the contacted person's location, unless they gave prior consent | Va. Code § 59.1-511 |
| Maryland | 8am–8pm, called party's time zone | Md. Code, Com. Law § 14-4502(c)(1) |
| Connecticut | 9am–8pm local time | Conn. Gen. Stat. § 42-288a(c) |
| Texas | 9am–9pm Mon–Sat; noon–9pm Sunday. Applies to unsolicited consumer sales calls to residential numbers; no time zone stated | Bus. & Com. Code § 301.051(b)(2); scope § 301.001(4), exceptions § 301.051(a) |
| Louisiana | 8am–8pm Mon–Sat; no calls Sunday or state holidays | La. R.S. 45:811 |
| Alabama | 8am–8pm; no calls Sunday or holidays | Ala. Admin. Code r. 770-X-5-.17 |
| New York | 8am–9pm at the customer's location (same as federal), unless the customer consents to another time | GBS § 399-z(2) |
| Missouri | 8am–9pm at the called consumer's location (same as federal), for telemarketing to a residence | RSMo § 407.1076(5) |
| Pennsylvania (changing 18 Oct 2026) | Now: 8am–9pm and no legal-holiday calls. From 18 Oct 2026: 9am–7pm Mon–Sat, no Sunday or legal-holiday calls; covers calls, texts and voicemail, but not those made with prior express written consent or within a 12-month business relationship | 73 P.S. § 2245(a)(1),(a)(10), Act 47 of 2026 |
| Michigan (different legal basis) | 9pm–9am restricted, but only where intent to harass is present -- see FAQ | MCL 750.540e(1)(f) |
This table covers the states independently verified against primary source text on 2026-08-14, with Washington's broader cite, Virginia and Maryland added on 2026-09-14, and Florida corrected on 2026-09-24 (its hours rule is in § 501.616, not the FTSA). It is not a complete 50-state list, and a state not appearing here has not been checked yet -- it does not mean "confirmed to match federal."
The states that get specific about Sundays
A plain "8am–9pm" answer misses the states where Sunday and holiday calling is treated differently from the rest of the week:
- Louisiana and Alabama bar telemarketing calls entirely on Sundays and state holidays -- not a narrower window, no calling at all.
- Texas allows Sunday calling but only from noon, three hours later than its weekday start.
- Pennsylvania will join this group once its October 2026 amendment takes effect, adding a Sunday ban to its existing legal-holiday ban, with a 9am–7pm window that starts an hour later and ends two hours earlier than federal.
A calling operation built to a single national 8am–9pm rule will violate all four of these on the days they matter most.
Two rows that need more than a number
Michigan looks like a straightforward evening-hours restriction on its face, but it's written into the state's criminal telephone-harassment statute and only bites where there's intent to harass -- an ordinary sales call outside that intent isn't the target of the provision. Treat it differently from a strict regulatory hours rule.
Pennsylvania is the opposite problem: a real, specific new rule that simply isn't law yet. Its amendment was signed in July 2026 but doesn't take effect until October 18, 2026. Building compliance around it now is premature; ignoring it after that date will not be.
What to build to
If you call into multiple states, the practical approach is to build your dialing window to the tightest applicable rule for each number, not one blanket national schedule. That means checking the destination state, not just the destination number's time zone -- the two are related but calling-hour rules attach to jurisdiction, and jurisdiction takes more than an area code to determine reliably.
Calling-hour compliance is a scheduling problem NumberBroom doesn't solve directly. What it does check on every number is line type and TCPA litigator status, so the numbers making it into your dial list are worth calling in the first place. Check a single number with the free carrier lookup, or see bulk pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Whose time zone controls the calling window?
The called party's, not the caller's. A team calling from a Pacific-time office into an Eastern-time number has to stop at 9pm Eastern (6pm Pacific), not 9pm in their own zone. This is the federal rule, and the state rules on this page that name a time zone use the called party's too. Texas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Alabama and Pennsylvania set their hours without saying whose clock applies, so the safe reading in each is the called party's.
Does Florida have its own calling-hour restriction?
Yes: 8am to 8pm in the called person's time zone, and no more than three calls in 24 hours to the same person on the same subject. It is not in the FTSA (§ 501.059), which is why it is easy to miss. It sits in Florida's Telemarketing Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.616(6), added in 2021, and covers commercial telephone solicitation calls "including calls made through automated dialing or recorded messages". The Act's long list of exemptions, in § 501.604, expressly does not reach these two limits, so they apply even to callers exempt from the rest of the Act. See the Florida mini-TCPA guide for how this relates to the FTSA.
Can telemarketers call on Sunday?
Under federal law, yes. The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule (16 C.F.R. § 310.4(c)) limits the hours, 8am to 9pm at the called person's location, and says nothing about days of the week. Some states do. Louisiana bars telemarketing sales and polling calls on Sundays and state holidays, and Alabama on Sundays and holidays, outright rather than outside a narrower window. Texas allows Sunday calls but only from noon to 9pm, instead of its usual 9am start. Pennsylvania adds a Sunday ban on 18 October 2026, on top of the legal-holiday ban it already has.
Is Pennsylvania's calling-hour rule in effect yet?
Not as of this page's last update. Pennsylvania's Telemarketer Registration Act was amended by Act 47 of 2026 (signed 20 July 2026) to bar solicitation calls on Sundays, legal holidays, or outside 9am–7pm on other days -- but the amendment doesn't take effect until 18 October 2026. Before that date, Pennsylvania's existing rule applies: no telemarketing before 8am or after 9pm, which matches the federal window, and no solicitation calls on legal holidays. A number of vendor pages already describe the new window as current law; it isn't yet.
Does Michigan restrict calling hours?
Michigan has a statute (MCL 750.540e(1)(f)) restricting calls made between 9pm and 9am, but it's a provision of the state's criminal telephone harassment law, not a strict-liability telemarketing-hours rule like the others on this page. It only applies to a call made "with intent to terrorize, frighten, intimidate, threaten, harass, molest, or annoy" -- an ordinary sales call outside that intent isn't what the statute targets. Don't treat it as equivalent to Oklahoma's or Washington's straightforward hours restriction.