Where Is the 813 Area Code? Tampa and Hillsborough County

If a call from the 813 area code just showed up on your phone, you're hearing from Tampa Bay — one of the few area codes in the country popular enough to have its own annual holiday. Every August 13th, Tampa celebrates "813 Day," a citywide event with deals, giveaways, and community festivities built entirely around its dialing code.

This guide covers everything worth knowing about the 813 area code: where it's located, which cities and counties it covers, what time zone it runs on, the newer overlay changing how residents dial, the scam patterns to watch for, and how to get a local 813 number if you're opening a business or expanding into Tampa Bay.

The 813 area code covers all of Hillsborough County, the city of Oldsmar in Pinellas County, and the central and southeastern portions of Pasco County. It's one of the most business-dense area codes on Florida's Gulf Coast, home to a growing mix of finance, healthcare, and logistics employers.

Major cities and communities in the 813 area code include:

• Tampa: the anchor city and largest population center in the numbering plan area
• Brandon and Riverview: fast-growing suburban communities east of downtown
• Plant City: an agricultural hub known for its strawberry industry
• Temple Terrace: an established residential community bordering Tampa
• Oldsmar: a Pinellas County city that falls within the 813 footprint despite being west of Tampa

Geographically, the 813 numbering plan area covers most of Hillsborough County and reaches into two neighboring counties, a corridor anchored by Tampa's port and downtown business district.

The 813 area code went into service in 1953, splitting off from Florida's original 305 area code, which at the time covered the entire state. At launch, 813 covered a huge stretch of west-central Florida, well beyond just the Tampa Bay region.

As Florida's population exploded, regulators split the territory further: the southern portion became area code 941 in 1995, and the Pinellas County peninsula (excluding Oldsmar) became 727 area code in 1998. Those splits narrowed 813 to roughly its current Hillsborough County footprint.

By the late 2010s, Tampa Bay's growth pushed 813 toward exhaustion again. Rather than splitting the region a third time, Florida regulators approved 656 as an all-services overlay covering the exact same territory as 813, with the change approved March 31, 2020 and new numbers assigned starting February 22, 2022, according to an Tampa Bay Times coverage of the announcement. Existing 813 numbers are unaffected; 656 is only assigned to newly issued lines.

Because 813 and 656 now share the same territory, every call in the region — even between two neighbors calling each other in the same Tampa zip code — requires the full area code plus the seven-digit number. If your business phone system still assumes 7-digit local dialing, this is a good time to double-check your call routing settings.

The entire 813 area code sits in the Eastern Time Zone, observing:

• Eastern Standard Time (EST): UTC−5, in the winter months
• Eastern Daylight Time (EDT): UTC−4, from early March through early November

That means a 813 number keeps the same business hours as New York, Atlanta, and most of the East Coast — helpful to keep in mind when coordinating with West Coast teams or customers.

Area code 813 itself is completely legitimate — it's simply the dialing code for a large, real part of Florida's Gulf Coast. 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 813 numbers include:

• Government impersonation: callers posing as the IRS, Social Security Administration, or a process server threatening legal action or claiming your identity was stolen
• One-ring (Wangiri) scams: a call rings once and disappears, hoping you'll call back a premium-rate number
• Timeshare and vacation property scams: fake offers tied to Tampa Bay's resort and vacation rental market
• Neighbor spoofing: scammers deliberately match the first six digits of your own number to appear more trustworthy

If you receive a suspicious call from a 813 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 813 number for personal or business use, the fastest option today is a cloud business phone platform. With a provider like Softtop, getting a 813 number takes just a few steps:

1. 1Sign up for a free trial — no credit card required
2. 2Open your number inventory and search Florida → 813
3. 3Choose a local DID, toll-free number, or vanity number from Softtop's US inventory of 800+ area codes
4. 4Assign it to a team, an AI Receptionist, or an individual extension
5. 5Go live in minutes with unlimited US calling included

Because Softtop provisions numbers instantly and supports number porting with zero port-out fees, you can also move an existing 813 number onto the platform in five to ten business days if you're switching providers rather than starting fresh.

Beyond simple geography, a local 813 number gives a business real advantages when reaching customers across Tampa and Hillsborough County — a market closely tied to the neighboring 561 area code region further south along Florida's coast:

• Higher answer rates: people are more likely to pick up a call that looks local
• Regional trust: a familiar area code signals you're accessible and invested in the community
• Marketing consistency: a local number pairs naturally with localized ads, listings, and campaigns
• No physical office required: cloud phone systems let you serve the region without leasing space there

On Softtop, every 813 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 813 area code is far more than a random string of digits — it's the dialing code so beloved in Tampa that residents celebrate it every August 13th with a citywide holiday. It runs on Eastern Time, has served the region since 1953, and now shares its footprint with the newer 656 overlay to keep pace with growth.

Like any widely used area code, 813 is also a target for caller ID spoofing, so a little healthy skepticism toward unexpected calls goes a long way. And if your business wants to build a genuine local presence in Tampa Bay, getting a number no longer requires a physical office or a new phone line — a cloud platform can have you calling, texting, and answering customers as a local business within minutes.

Whether you're trying to identify an unfamiliar call or planning your next market expansion, understanding the 813 area code — its geography, history, and quirks — puts you one step ahead.