Is my AI outbound calling TCPA compliant?
Nobody can promise you compliance, but the rules are known, the checks are mechanical, and the penalties are per call. Here is what applies to an AI agent that dials or texts US numbers.
The short version
If your software calls or texts US numbers, five things apply before every contact. The number must not be on the National Do Not Call Registry (or you must have the person's consent or an established business relationship). It must not be on the state's own do-not-call list where one exists. If the person has asked you to stop, on any channel, you must stop. The call must land inside legal calling hours in the called party's time zone: federally 8 am to 9 pm, and tighter in about 25 states. And if the voice is artificial or prerecorded, which the FCC has said includes AI-generated voices since February 2024, you need prior express consent for the call at all, and prior express written consent if it's marketing.
The platforms you build on do not do this for you. Their terms generally place compliance on the customer, so read yours. The agent framework gives you a phone; the law is on you.
What it costs to get wrong
The TCPA has a private right of action: $500 per call or text, up to $1,500 if the violation was willful or knowing, with no cap on total statutory damages. Cases arrive as class actions: at $500 a call, 2,000 calls is $1,000,000 in statutory damages claimed. That is arithmetic, not a prediction, and a plaintiff still has to establish standing and the other elements of the claim. There is a group of serial plaintiffs and firms who register numbers specifically to catch callers, which is why "known litigators" is a check in its own right. State attorneys general and the FTC enforce separately.
The checks, in order
- Opt-outs. Has this person told you, or any business you call for, to stop? Since April 2025 the FCC requires honoring a revocation made "by any reasonable means": a STOP text, "take me off your list" on a call, an email, a form. It has to be applied across every channel and, for an agency, across every client.
- Known litigators. Numbers belonging to serial TCPA plaintiffs and the firms that send demand letters.
- National Do Not Call Registry. Checked under the calling business's own FTC subscription (SAN). The first five area codes are free; each one after is $85 a year. You may not use another company's subscription.
- State lists. Several states keep their own registry and some apply their rules wherever the number is registered, not where its area code suggests.
- Consent on file. For this number, this business, this channel, with the wording the person actually agreed to. Consent a lead vendor says exists is not consent you can show.
- Calling hours. In the called party's local time, including state rules on Sundays, holidays and 8 pm cutoffs.
What "compliant" looks like in practice
Three things, every time: the checks above ran before the dial, the call was not placed if any failed, and you can prove both later. The third is what most teams skip. A year after the call, a plaintiff claims they never consented. What you need is a record, made at the time, that says what you checked, what you found, the consent you relied on in the person's own words, and evidence the record has not been edited since.
What Call Clearance does. It runs those six checks in under a second, before the call request reaches your voice platform, answers allow or block with the reason, and keeps a sealed Call Record for every check. Records are chained, published daily and timestamped on the Bitcoin blockchain, so any later change is detectable, and anyone can verify one with a free open-source tool. Three of the six checks run from your first call; the registry and litigator checks depend on data being set up (what runs today). It is compliance tooling and records, not legal advice; whether your program as a whole is lawful is a question for a lawyer, and the record is what you hand them.
Common mistakes
Checking the list once when a lead is imported instead of before each call (numbers get registered every day). Treating "not interested" as nothing when it may be a revocation. Scrubbing against the national list under an agency's subscription for twenty different clients. Letting an agent decide on its own whether consent exists. Keeping the consent checkbox wording in a CRM note instead of capturing it as it was shown. And the biggest one: having no record at all, which turns every claim into your word against theirs.
Check your first number in five minutes.
Free plan, no card. Opt-outs, consent and calling hours run from the first call; the national list switches on when a business's FTC registration is on file.