If a call from the 310 area code just showed up on your phone, you're hearing from one of the most recognizable area codes in the country — the dialing prefix for Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and the rest of West Los Angeles. Few area codes carry as much cultural weight, and few have a numbering history as contentious as 310's.
This guide covers everything worth knowing about the 310 area code: where it's located, which cities and communities it covers, what time zone it runs on, the unusually public fight over its overlay code, the scam patterns to watch for, and how to get a local 310 number if you're opening a business or expanding into West LA.
The 310 area code covers West Los Angeles and the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, along with a small portion of Ventura County and Santa Catalina Island offshore. It's one of the most affluent and business-dense area codes in the country, home to entertainment studios, luxury retail, and a dense coastal tourism economy.
Major cities and communities in the 310 area code include:
Geographically, the 310 numbering plan area stretches along the coast from Malibu down through the South Bay, a corridor that includes some of the most valuable commercial real estate in Southern California.
That left 310 covering roughly its current West LA and South Bay footprint, but the region's phone demand kept climbing through the 1990s as cell phones and pagers proliferated.
The reprieve lasted nearly seven years. On July 26, 2006, the 424 overlay finally went into effect — becoming California's first area code overlay — and mandatory 10-digit dialing became permanent across the 310/424 region. Existing 310 numbers were never changed; 424 was simply layered on top for new lines.
The entire 310 area code sits in the Pacific Time Zone, observing:
That means if you're calling a 310 number from the East Coast, you're generally three hours ahead — worth keeping in mind before you dial early in the morning or late in the evening.
Area code 310 itself is completely legitimate — it's simply the dialing code for one of the country's most recognizable coastal regions. But like most active area codes, it's frequently spoofed by scammers who fake a local caller ID so residents are more likely to answer a call that looks like it's coming from their own neighborhood.
Common scams reported against 310 numbers include:
If you receive a suspicious call from a 310 number, don't share personal or financial information, hang up on any recorded message demanding immediate payment, and report the call to the Federal Trade Commission. The area code isn't the problem — caller ID spoofing simply makes it easy for bad actors to borrow it.
If you want a 310 number for personal or business use, the fastest option today is a cloud business phone platform. With a provider like Softtop, getting a 310 number takes just a few steps:
Because Softtop provisions numbers instantly and supports number porting with zero port-out fees, you can also move an existing 310 number onto the platform in five to ten business days if you're switching providers rather than starting fresh.
On Softtop, every 310 number is backed by the same tools used across the platform: an AI Receptionist that answers every call in under a second, full call recording and transcription, CRM sync with HubSpot and Salesforce, and 99.999% uptime backed by an SLA.
The 310 area code is far more than a random string of digits — it's the dialing code for one of the country's most iconic regions, and its numbering history is unusually eventful, complete with a public protest campaign and a seven-year delay before California's first area code overlay finally arrived. It runs on Pacific Time, has served West LA and the South Bay since 1991, and now shares its footprint with 424 for every newly issued line.