To call the UK from Canada, dial 011 (Canada's exit code), then 44 (the UK country code), then the UK number without its leading 0. On a cell phone you can replace 011 with a plus sign: press and hold 0 until + appears, then dial +44 and the rest. So the London number 020 7xxx xxxx becomes 011 44 20 7xxx xxxx from a landline, or +44 20 7xxx xxxx from a cell.

That is the whole dialing rule. What makes this route different from other countries is that it trips up Canadians in a few predictable ways, and this fall several western provinces stop changing their clocks, which moves the time difference to the UK.

Dialing the UK step by step

Start with 011. This tells the Canadian phone network the call is leaving North America. On a cell, + does the same job.
Add 44. That is the UK's country code, used for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Drop the first 0 of the UK number. UK numbers are written with a 0 in front for calls inside the UK. You leave it off from abroad.
Dial the rest of the number. Most UK numbers have 10 digits once the 0 is removed.

Here is how that works for the numbers you are most likely to have:

A UK cell (they start with 07): 07xxx xxxxxx becomes 011 44 7xxx xxxxxx
A London landline: 020 xxxx xxxx becomes 011 44 20 xxxx xxxx
A Manchester landline: 0161 xxx xxxx becomes 011 44 161 xxx xxxx
An Edinburgh landline: 0131 xxx xxxx becomes 011 44 131 xxx xxxx

Save UK contacts in your phone as +44 numbers. They will then work from Canada, from the UK, and from anywhere else you travel.

The Canadian habit that breaks UK calls: dialing 1 first

Canadians dial 1 before every long distance call inside North America, so it is natural to put 1 in front of an overseas number too. Don't. Calls to the UK start with 011, never 1 011 or 1 44.

The opposite mistake happens too. If you are calling a US number from Canada, you dial 1 and the 10-digit number, not 011. The US and Canada share the +1 country code, so 011 is only for countries outside North America. If a UK contact gives you their number as 0044 20 xxxx xxxx, swap the 00 for 011. 00 is the exit code used in the UK and Europe, and it does not work from Canada.

What time is it in the UK? Canada's 2026 clock changes matter

The UK is between 3.5 and 8 hours ahead of Canada, depending on where you live. In 2026 that gap is shifting, because several provinces have stopped changing their clocks:

British Columbia made its March 8, 2026 clock change the last one and now stays on UTC-7 all year, according to the BC government.
Alberta will stay on Alberta Time (UTC-6) year-round from November 2026, according to the Alberta government.
Manitoba will also stay on daylight time and not turn its clocks back on November 1, 2026, according to news reports. We could not find a Manitoba government page confirming it, so check before you rely on it.
Saskatchewan and Yukon already stayed on one time all year.

Ontario, Quebec, the Atlantic provinces and Newfoundland still change their clocks. The UK changes too, on the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October.

Where you are in Canada	UK summer time (late March to late October)	UK winter time (November to mid-March)
St. John's, Newfoundland	UK is 3.5 hours ahead	UK is 3.5 hours ahead
Halifax, Moncton (Atlantic)	4 hours ahead	4 hours ahead
Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal (Eastern)	5 hours ahead	5 hours ahead
Winnipeg (Manitoba)	6 hours ahead	5 hours ahead (6 if Manitoba falls back after all)
Regina, Saskatoon	7 hours ahead	6 hours ahead
Calgary, Edmonton	7 hours ahead	6 hours ahead
Vancouver, Victoria, Whitehorse	8 hours ahead	7 hours ahead

Two short windows break the pattern. From October 25 to November 1, 2026, and again from March 14 to March 28, 2027, the UK and Eastern, Atlantic and Newfoundland time are one hour closer than the table shows, because one side has changed its clocks and the other has not. So in the last week of October 2026, Toronto is only 4 hours behind London.

Good calling windows: from Ontario or Quebec, 7am to 1pm your time is noon to 6pm in the UK. From BC, your morning is the UK's afternoon or evening, so early calls work best. Older time-difference charts are now wrong for Vancouver and Calgary in winter, and probably for Winnipeg too.

What Canadian carriers charge to call the UK

Calls from a Canadian cell to the UK are international long distance, and most Canadian plans do not include them. Pay-per-minute rates without an add-on vary by carrier, so check your carrier's rate lookup before you call. Your options as of October 2026:

Rogers sells an add-on called 1,000 international minutes to select countries for C$5 a month. It covers calls from Canada to the UK, the US, India, China and Hong Kong (not Macau or Taiwan), Mexico and Bangladesh.
Freedom Mobile has a limited-time offer of 1,000 long distance minutes a month for 24 months, UK included, when you activate a new line or upgrade your phone on a plan of C$35 a month or more (after its digital discount). Freedom says the offer can change or end without notice, so check it is still running.
Other carriers such as Bell, Telus, Fido, Koodo, Public Mobile and chatr have their own long distance add-ons. The countries and prices change, so look in your carrier's app or self-serve account.

Read the fine print before you call anything other than a normal UK landline or cell. Add-ons are sold for standard numbers, and UK special numbers (the 070, 084, 087 and 09 ranges in the list further down) may be billed at your carrier's full rate or not connect at all.

Hotel phones in Canada usually route international calls through the front desk's billing system. They tend to add a fee per call on top of the per-minute rate. Ask before you dial, and expect to need 9 or another digit for an outside line before 011.

A 10-minute call to a UK cell, compared

How you call	What 10 minutes costs
Rogers cell with the 1,000-minute add-on	Covered by the C$5 monthly fee
Canadian cell with no add-on	Your carrier's pay-per-use rate times 10
UK phone roaming in Canada	Your UK network's daily roaming fee, then your UK allowance
Hotel room phone	Ask first; often the most expensive option
BoraPhone in a browser over WiFi	US$0.70 (US$0.40 to a UK landline)

If you call the UK every week, a carrier add-on like Rogers' can be good value. If you call a few times a year, or you are in Canada on a visit, paying per minute makes more sense than a monthly fee.

BoraPhone runs in Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox on a laptop or phone, with no app to install. At the time of writing (October 2026), calls to the UK cost US$0.04 a minute to landlines and US$0.07 a minute to cells, billed per minute and rounded up to the next full minute. The rate shows before you dial, the first call is free, and failed calls are refunded. You can check every other country on the rates page.

Visiting Canada from the UK? Roaming, local SIMs and WiFi

If you are a Brit on a trip to Canada calling home, the numbers above still apply: dial +44 and drop the 0. What changes is how you pay.

Roaming on a UK plan. Canada is not part of the European roaming deals most UK networks offer. Three, for example, lists daily roaming charges of £5 to £8 depending on your plan and when you joined or upgraded, as of October 2026 (Three's roaming page). That page does not say which charge applies in Canada, and other networks price it differently, so check your own network's Canada price before you land. Turn off data roaming if you do not want a daily charge to start.
A Canadian prepaid SIM. Prepaid brands such as chatr, Lucky Mobile, Public Mobile and Fido give you a Canadian number for local calls. Calls to the UK on that SIM are still international long distance, so you would need an add-on.
Travel eSIMs. Many are data-only, with no phone number. They are fine for WhatsApp and browser calls, but you cannot make a regular call from them.
WiFi. Hotels, cafes and libraries across Canada commonly offer free WiFi, which is all you need for an app or browser call.

UK numbers that cost more or will not connect

Most UK numbers dial the same way. A few need care when you call from Canada:

0800 and 0808 numbers are free inside the UK, but they often cannot be reached from abroad. Look for a regular +44 number on the organization's website.
03 numbers are charged like regular landlines in the UK. From Canada you dial them as +44 3xx xxx xxxx. Most services charge them like a UK landline, but check your rate. Our guide to what UK 03 numbers cost covers them in more detail.
084, 087 and 09 numbers are service and premium numbers. They may be blocked from abroad, and they are often left out of long distance add-ons.
070 numbers look like cell numbers but are "personal numbers" that forward calls elsewhere. From abroad they are often billed differently from a real UK cell, so check the rate before you call one.

Calling a UK government office? HMRC, the DWP and other departments publish overseas numbers that start with +44. Our guide to contacting HMRC from abroad lists the right lines. For calls to other countries from Canada, see how to make international calls from Canada.

Frequently asked questions

How do I dial a +44 number from Canada?

From a cell, type it exactly as written: +44 followed by the rest of the number. From a landline, replace the + with 011, so +44 20 xxxx xxxx becomes 011 44 20 xxxx xxxx. If the number is written with a (0) after the 44, leave the 0 out.

Is calling the UK 011?

Yes. 011 is Canada's exit code, and you dial it before 44 for every call to the UK from a Canadian landline. On a cell, the + sign replaces 011. You never dial 1 before 011.

Can I call the UK from Canada for free?

App-to-app calls on WhatsApp, FaceTime, Signal or Messenger are free over WiFi if the person you are calling uses the same app. Calls to UK landlines and regular cell numbers are not free from a Canadian phone unless your plan includes them. A carrier add-on or a low-cost internet calling service brings the cost down to cents per minute.

How do I call a UK mobile from Canada?

UK mobile numbers start with 07. Drop the 0 and dial 011 44 7xxx xxxxxx from a landline, or +44 7xxx xxxxxx from a cell. Calls to UK mobiles usually cost a little more than calls to UK landlines, so check your rate first.

How to Call the UK from Canada: 011 44 Dialing, Costs and Time Zones