How to fax to France from the US

Copying the number from a French page

The label may say “Télécopie” rather than “Fax”: télécopie is France’s official term, and fax its synonym. The digits vary too: the Conseil constitutionnel prints (+33) and dots, the Culture Ministry +33 (0)1.

Choose France first: with the US still selected, the 01 and 0033 forms are refused. A number starting with + switches the country by itself. Leave out 011, which is refused with France selected.

One number can do two jobs. The official directory lists Combrimont’s town hall with the same digits under “Téléphone” and “Fax”. If you see that, warn the office your fax is coming.

What the first digits tell you now

Don’t guess a region from the prefix, or “fix” a number that seems wrong for the address. Since January 1, 2023, Arcep says, any fixed number can be used anywhere in mainland France.

Numbers that look French but aren’t covered

Several overseas territories use the same 10-digit style under separate country codes, and Arcep’s numbering plan says callers abroad must use those codes. FaxTonic doesn’t serve these places.

Don’t count on our number check here. Some of these, like 0596, pass as mainland numbers and appear at review as +33 5 96. That’s the wrong country code for Martinique, so don’t pay. With the real code, as in +596, they’re refused.

So are Monaco (+377), Andorra (+376), New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and Wallis and Futuna. Corsica is covered: its 04 95 numbers are accepted. Our international guide lists every destination.

Why an older French fax line may go quiet

Orange is closing its copper network in batches of towns. Arcep’s calendar, last updated in January 2026, puts the next technical closures in January 2027, then in January, May and October of 2028 and 2029. Orange expects the last lines to close at the end of 2030, and these dates can move.

Arcep lists fax among the business devices on copper and warns that a company still on copper at closure gets cut off. So a fax line that hasn’t moved can stop answering. If its owner didn’t ask to keep the number, Arcep’s plan lets the operator reassign it after a wait of 45 to 120 days.

Confirm an older number by phone or email first. If a fax fails, the status page’s “What to check” box gives the reason when the carrier supplied one, and our troubleshooting guide covers the rest.

Paris time and a French cover

Paris is usually 6 hours ahead of Eastern time and 9 ahead of Pacific, so a 17h00 deadline there means 11 a.m. in New York. Take an hour off those gaps while one country has changed its clocks and the other hasn’t: France changes on the last Sundays of March and October, the US on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November.

• The cover: the French version of the app prints the free cover in French, with a French date format, and shows prices in euros, not dollars. The time on the cover is your device’s when you click “Get the total”, with an offset like UTC-5 so the reader can convert it.
• Replies: FaxTonic can’t receive, so nobody can fax back to the US number in each page’s header. Put your email on the cover, or a phone number with its +1.

A fax doesn’t always count. Under French law, for example, a tenant’s notice to a landlord must use a method Service-Public lists, such as lettre recommandée (registered mail). Fax isn’t one. If a French letter or contract names a method, use it.

Send your fax to France with FaxTonic

1. Save the document as PDF, JPEG, and PNG, up to 20 pages with the cover. Pages are fitted to US Letter, so A4 shrinks slightly.
2. Open FaxTonic, or the French version for a French cover, and add your file.
3. Choose France and type the number, with no 011 and no extension.
4. At review, compare the +33 number digit by digit with your source, then pay by card: $1.59 a page, cover free.
5. Watch the status page. “Delivered” means the French machine confirmed the fax. It’s a record of sending, not a transmission report.

Play the video: How to Send a One-Time Fax Without Signing Up for Anything

An undeliverable fax is refunded automatically. FaxTonic holds back a fee of $0.30 + 2.9% and sends you the rest, unless our fax provider refused the fax when we submitted it. Then everything comes back. A delivered fax isn’t refunded, even to a wrong number, so confirm older numbers first. See the refund policy.