Manage your numbers
Integrations → Exotel → Manage Numbers lists every number in the project as a card. Click a number to open its detail page.
Each card carries the number, its friendly name, its status badge, and five facts: whether an agent is Attached, the Monthly Cost, the Access mode, the Region / Type, and whether a Service Account is provisioned. Actions run along the bottom.
Status
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Active | Working normally. |
| Provisioning | Being claimed from the provider. Transient — seconds, not minutes. |
| Suspended | The monthly rental couldn’t be charged. Calls are being rejected. A clock is running towards release — see Billing & suspension. |
| Releasing | Being returned to the provider pool. |
| Error | Something went wrong; the card shows the reason. |
Numbers that finish releasing disappear from the list.
Most actions are only available on an Active number. The access-mode toggle and the service-account button both grey out otherwise, because neither can be applied to a number that isn’t in service.
The detail page
The header shows the number in full with a copy button, its status badge, and its friendly name, provider, region and type. Two actions sit on the right: the access mode toggle and Release Number.
Below that, three cards:
Agent Binding — which agent answers, its status, the deployment it belongs to, and the access mode. Plus Change Agent and Detach. If nothing is attached, an empty state with Attach Agent. See Connect an agent.
Number Details — the reference facts:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Provider | Always exotel today. |
| Region / Type | e.g. IN / local. |
| Monthly Cost | Credits per month for this number. |
| Capabilities | What the number supports — voice. |
| Billing Start | When rental began. |
| Next Billing | When the next charge falls due. |
| Created | When you provisioned it. |
| Provider Number ID | Exotel’s own identifier. Useful only in a support conversation. |
Service Account — the identity unknown callers get, and whether one exists yet. See Caller identity.
An Authorized Callers panel appears full-width below the cards when the number is in Authorized Only mode.
What you can’t change
The friendly name is set once, at provisioning. There’s no rename — the only way to change it is to release the number and provision a new one, which gets you a different number. Choose it deliberately in the wizard.
Likewise the region and type are fixed properties of the number itself.
Release a number
Releasing gives the number back to Exotel and stops the monthly charge.
Click Release on the card, or Release Number on the detail page, and confirm.
Releasing is irreversible. The number returns to the shared provider pool where another customer can take it. You cannot get the same number back. Anyone who has it saved — customers, printed material, a website — will no longer reach your agent.
Before you release, ask whether you actually want to detach instead. Detaching stops calls being answered but keeps the number reserved to you, so you can attach a different agent later. It also keeps billing it.
| Detach | Release | |
|---|---|---|
| Calls answered | No | No |
| Number still yours | Yes | No |
| Still billed | Yes | No |
| Reversible | Yes | No |
Common issues
- A number is stuck on Releasing — the provider call didn’t complete. It’ll be retried; if it stays there for more than a few hours, raise it with support and don’t provision a replacement in the meantime.
- The access-mode toggle does nothing — the number isn’t Active. Check its status badge.
- A suspended number won’t let you change anything — correct. Resolve the billing problem and it reactivates on its own; see Billing & suspension.
- You want to rename a number — you can’t. See above.