France · anonymous SMS
Send an anonymous text to a French mobile
Ghost delivers your text to any mobile in France without showing your number. A standard text costs 1 credit ($0.20), there is no subscription, and you can send it from a browser on any phone or computer. In French, the accents you use decide the cost: é and à are free, but ç and ê are not.
What a text to France costs
One SMS segment to a French mobile costs 1 credit ($0.20). A segment holds 160 characters of plain text, and texts to France start with “GHOST:”, which counts toward that. é, è, à and ù are in the basic SMS alphabet, and so is the € sign, which counts as two characters. The circumflex letters â, ê, î, ô and û, ë, ï, œ, the lowercase ç, the guillemets « » and the curly apostrophe ’ in l’ or c’est are not: any one of them switches the whole text to 70-character segments. The table shows what that does to the cost.
| Text | Characters | Encoding | Segments | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A short message | 89 characters | GSM-7 | 1 segment | 1 credit ($0.20) |
| A longer message | 282 characters | GSM-7 | 2 segments | 2 credits ($0.40) |
| French, everyday accents | 108 characters | GSM-7 | 1 segment | 1 credit ($0.20) |
| French, with ç | 97 characters | UCS-2 | 2 segments | 2 credits ($0.40) |
| French, with a circumflex | 99 characters | UCS-2 | 2 segments | 2 credits ($0.40) |
Counts include the “GHOST: ” prefix these texts start with. Rates checked October 22, 2026. Rates for every country
How to type a French mobile number
Written locally
06 xx xx xx xx
Type in Ghost
+33 6 xx xx xx xx
- Open Ghost in your browser or the Android app.
- Choose France (+33) in the country list and type the mobile number.
- Write your text, check the credits shown under it, and send.
Choose France, then type the number without the 0 at the front, so a mobile written 06 … or 07 … starts with 6 or 7 in Ghost. Mobiles in mainland France start with 06 or 07. Numbers starting 0700 to 0704 are longer machine-to-machine numbers, not phones. Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte have their own calling codes (+590, +596, +594 and +262) and their own rates, so choose them in the country list rather than France.
What the person in France sees
- The text arrives as an ordinary SMS from a Ghost mobile number. Your own number is not shown anywhere in it.
- It starts with “GHOST:”, so they can tell it came through Ghost. Nothing in it says who you are unless you write it.
- People in France can forward unwanted texts to 33 700, the official number for reporting SMS spam. Saying who you are or why you are writing makes your text easy to tell apart from spam.
- Replying from their messages app does not reach you. If you want an answer, switch on a Reply Link: they open it in a browser and send you one reply, still without seeing your number.
- Anyone who would rather not get Ghost texts can block them on the stop page. Ghost will not send to a number on that list.
Writing a text in French
Some French accents are in the basic SMS alphabet and some are not. These three everyday texts show the difference.
French, everyday accents
Bonjour, le vélo est toujours disponible ? Je peux passer samedi à 10h et vous payer 80 € en espèces.GSM-7, 108 characters, 1 segment: 1 credit ($0.20)
é, è and à are all in the basic SMS alphabet, so this text stays at 160 characters a segment. The € sign is allowed too, but it counts as two characters.
French, with ç
Bonjour, j'ai reçu votre colis par erreur. Je le garde chez moi, passez quand vous voulez.UCS-2, 97 characters, 2 segments: 2 credits ($0.40)
Switched to UCS-2 by: ç
The lowercase ç in reçu is outside the basic alphabet, so this text is sent in 70-character segments and needs a second one. Only the capital Ç is in the basic alphabet, so a sentence that starts with Ça costs nothing extra.
French, with a circumflex
Désolée, je ne pourrai pas être là jeudi. On peut décaler la visite à vendredi, même heure ?UCS-2, 99 characters, 2 segments: 2 credits ($0.40)
Switched to UCS-2 by: ê
The ê in être and même switches the whole text to 70-character segments, which pushes this one into a second segment. The é and à around them would not have.
When people in France keep their number private
Buying and selling on leboncoin
leboncoin is France’s biggest site for private sales, with more than 28 million visitors a month, so a deal there usually means contacting a stranger. Text the seller through Ghost to agree a price and a meeting point, and give your own number only once you are happy to.
Renting a flat or a holiday home
leboncoin also lists homes to rent and holiday rentals. Ghost lets you ask a landlord about the rent, the deposit or a viewing time before you hand your mobile number to someone you have never met.
A note to a neighbour
Telling the flat upstairs that water is coming through your ceiling is easier without starting a thread on your own phone. Keep it polite: the law below is about repeated, threatening or insulting messages, not about the number being hidden.
French law on anonymous texts
Sending a text without showing your number is not an offence in itself. What you send and how often is what matters: repeated malicious messages meant to disturb someone’s peace are an offence under article 222-16 of the Code pénal, even when the sender is anonymous, threats are covered by articles 222-17 and 222-18, and repeated messages that degrade someone’s living conditions can be moral harassment under article 222-33-2-2. An insult sent privately is a minor offence under article R621-2. Marketing texts need the recipient’s prior consent under article L34-5 of the Code des postes et des communications électroniques.
Got a text you did not want?
If a text looks like spam or a scam, forward it to 33 700 without adding anything, or report it on the 33 700 website. The service is free and also takes texts from foreign numbers. To stop texts sent through Ghost, add your number on the stop page. For threats or harassment, keep screenshots with dates and times and contact the police or the gendarmerie.
Questions and answers
A text of up to 160 plain characters costs 1 credit ($0.20), including the “GHOST:” at the start. Longer texts are charged per segment, and a ç, a circumflex letter, an emoji or a curly apostrophe shortens each segment to 70 characters. Ghost shows the cost before you send.
No. Choose France and type the number without its first 0, so the nine digits after it start with 6 or 7. The overseas departments have their own calling codes, so pick them in the country list instead.
Not by replying in their messages app. Add a Reply Link when you send, and they can open it in a browser and send you one reply without seeing your number.
Hiding your number is not an offence in itself. Repeated malicious messages, threats and insults are, and the offence of telephone harassment applies even when the sender is anonymous.