To call India from Canada, dial 011, then 91, then the 10-digit Indian number. On a cell phone, type +91 and the 10 digits instead, so a mobile number written as 98765 43210 becomes +91 98765 43210 or 011 91 98765 43210 from a landline.

Indian landlines work the same way, but you drop the 0 at the front of the city code: a Mumbai number written as 022 2345 6789 becomes 011 91 22 2345 6789. The rest of this guide covers what Canadian carriers charge for India, which option is cheapest for how often you call, the time gap from each province after the 2026 clock changes, and the mistakes that make these calls fail.

What calling India from Canada costs

India is cheap to call from Canada with an add-on, an app or an internet calling service, and expensive if you just dial from a plan that does not include it.

What Canadian carriers offer

Rogers sells a "1,000 international minutes to select countries" long distance add-on for C$5 a month. It covers calls from Canada to India, the US, China and Hong Kong, the UK, Mexico and Bangladesh, as of October 2026 (Rogers add-ons). For anyone who calls India every week, that is hard to beat.
Bell lists a pay-per-use rate of C$1.50 a minute for calls to India, as of October 2026, and says rates can change without notice (Bell long distance rates). That makes a 10-minute call C$15, so anyone on Bell who calls India more than once in a while should look at its long distance features in MyBell first.
Telus, Freedom, Fido, Koodo, Public Mobile, chatr and Lucky Mobile sell their own international long distance options. The minutes, prices and country lists change often, so open the add-ons section of your carrier's app and search for India before you pay a per-minute rate.

Ten minutes to India, compared

How you call	Cost of a 10-minute call
WhatsApp, to someone who uses it	Free over wifi
Rogers with the C$5 add-on	Covered by the C$5 monthly fee (1,000 minutes)
Bell, pay-per-use	C$15
Viber Out (advertised from 1.6¢ a minute, July 2026)	From about 16¢
Boss Revolution (advertised 3.3¢ a minute, July 2026)	About 33¢
BoraPhone in a browser	US$1.10
Hotel room phone in Canada	Set by the hotel, often with a connection fee; ask first

Which option is cheapest for you

For daily calls, apps and add-ons beat pay-per-minute services on this route, and a carrier add-on like Rogers' wins easily for heavy callers. The worst choice is dialing from a plan with no add-on at all.

How often you call India	Best fit	Why
Every day, 20 minutes or more	A carrier add-on such as Rogers' C$5 for 1,000 minutes, or a calling app	Flat monthly price, dialed from your normal phone
Daily, and family uses WhatsApp	WhatsApp video or voice	Free over wifi or data on both ends
A few calls a month	Pay per minute in an app or browser	No monthly fee to forget
A landline: a bank, a hospital, an elderly parent without a smartphone	A regular phone call through any of the above	WhatsApp cannot ring a landline
An urgent call from a laptop, or a phone you cannot install apps on	A browser calling service	No app and no SIM needed

BoraPhone charges US$0.11 a minute to both Indian landlines and mobiles at the time of writing (October 2026), billed per minute and rounded up to the next full minute. That is not the cheapest rate to India. It makes most sense for landlines, short urgent calls and people who cannot install an app, since it runs in Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox with no download. If you prefer a card you can hand to a parent or grandparent, our guide to India calling cards compares them.

Mobile numbers and landlines: how Indian numbers are built

Every Indian number is 10 digits once you remove the leading 0.

Mobile numbers start with 6, 7, 8 or 9 and are 10 digits long. You dial +91 and all 10 digits. Indians often write them as two groups of five, such as 98765 43210.
Landlines start with a city code (STD code). Inside India it is written with a 0 in front: 011 for Delhi, 022 for Mumbai, 080 for Bengaluru, 044 for Chennai. From Canada you drop that 0, so Delhi becomes +91 11 and Bengaluru +91 80.

A real example: State Bank of India lists 080-26599990 as its toll (paid) customer care number (SBI contact page). From a Canadian landline that is 011 91 80 2659 9990, and from a cell +91 80 2659 9990. SBI's 1800 toll-free numbers are listed for callers in India, and Indian 1800 numbers often cannot be reached from abroad, so the toll number is the one to try from Canada.

The time gap to India from each province

India runs on one time zone all year, UTC+5:30, with no daylight saving. That half-hour offset means most gaps from Canada end in ".5", and Newfoundland, with its own half-hour offset, is the only place in Canada with a whole-hour gap.

Canada's own clocks changed in 2026. British Columbia stopped changing its clocks after March 8, 2026. Alberta stays on UTC-6 from November 2026, and Manitoba announced on September 17, 2026 that it will stay on daylight time and not turn its clocks back on November 1. Saskatchewan and Yukon already kept one time all year. Older charts are now wrong for western Canada.

Where you are	India is ahead by, March to October	India is ahead by, November to March	India time when it is 9 pm for you in winter
St. John's	8 hours	9 hours	6:00 am
Halifax, Moncton	8.5 hours	9.5 hours	6:30 am
Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal	9.5 hours	10.5 hours	7:30 am
Winnipeg	10.5 hours	10.5 hours	7:30 am
Regina, Saskatoon	11.5 hours	11.5 hours	8:30 am
Calgary, Edmonton	11.5 hours	11.5 hours	8:30 am
Vancouver, Victoria, Whitehorse	12.5 hours	12.5 hours	9:30 am

In practice: your evening is India's morning, and your early morning is India's evening. From Ontario or Quebec, 9 to 11 pm reaches family over breakfast all year. From BC, a call at 7 am lands at 7:30 pm in India, which suits people who work during the day.

New in Canada from India? Your phone in the first months

Students, workers and new permanent residents arriving from India face a choice the rest of this guide does not cover: what to do with the Indian number.

Get a Canadian number first. Landlords, employers, banks and schools in Canada expect a Canadian number. Prepaid plans from brands such as chatr, Lucky Mobile and Public Mobile need no credit check, which helps when you have no Canadian credit history yet. Ask whether the plan includes calls to India, or whether you need an add-on.
Think before letting your Indian SIM lapse. Indian banks and services often send one-time codes to the Indian number on file. Before you stop recharging, check your operator's rules on how long a number stays active, and update the number on your Indian accounts if you plan to give it up.
Do not roam on the Indian SIM for calls. International roaming packs from Indian operators are built for short trips. For daily calls home, a Canadian plan with an India add-on, or an app over wifi, costs far less.
Use wifi. Most Canadian campuses, public libraries and many cafés have free wifi, which is all you need for WhatsApp or a browser call.

For the general rules on calling abroad from a Canadian phone, see our guide to making international calls from Canada.

Visiting India with a Canadian phone

When you travel to India, calls you make there are roaming calls. Bell's Roam Better costs C$16 a day in eligible international destinations and includes calls within the destination and back to Canada, charged only on days you use your phone (Bell Roam Better FAQ). Bell does not name individual countries on that page, so check that India is on its eligible list in MyBell before you fly. Other carriers sell their own daily or multi-day passes.

A 10-minute call home from India on that pass costs the C$16 day fee. If you are staying a few weeks, an Indian SIM for local calls plus wifi calls to Canada is usually cheaper than paying a daily fee.

Mistakes that make calls to India fail

Dialing 1 before 011. Canadians dial 1 for long distance inside North America. For India it is 011 91, not 1 011 91.
Keeping the 0 after 91. +91 022 ... will not connect. Drop the 0 from the city code.
Adding a 0 in front of a mobile. Inside India, people sometimes dial 0 before a mobile number from a landline. From Canada, just +91 and the 10 digits.
Calling an Indian 1800 number. Most are for callers inside India. Look for a regular number with a city code, like SBI's 080 number above.
International calls blocked on your plan. Bell says that if you cannot make international calls, you should open your long distance add-ons in MyBell and remove the international calling restriction. Other carriers have similar switches.

If you also call India from the US, our US to India calling guide covers US carriers and area codes in more detail.

Frequently asked questions

Can I call India from Canada for free?

Yes, if the person you are calling uses WhatsApp, Google Meet or another app: app-to-app calls are free over wifi. Calls to Indian landlines and to people without those apps cost money, either through a carrier add-on, a calling app or a pay-per-minute service.

Is +91 India's country code?

Yes. +91 is India's country code. From Canada you dial 011 91 from a landline, or +91 from a cell, followed by the 10-digit number. Numbers starting with +91 and then 6, 7, 8 or 9 are usually mobiles.

How much does it cost to call India from Canada?

It ranges from free (app-to-app calls) to C$1.50 a minute on Bell's pay-per-use rate, as of October 2026. Rogers' 1,000-minute add-on for C$5 a month covers India, and calling apps advertise rates of a few cents a minute. Browser services sit in between, at around 11 US cents a minute.

How do I call India from my cell phone?

Press and hold 0 until a + appears, type 91, then the 10-digit number. For a landline, type the city code without its 0 and then the local number. Saving contacts in this +91 format means they also work when you travel.

How to Call India from Canada: Dialing, Costs and Time Gaps