408 Area Code: San Jose, Cupertino & Silicon Valley's Tech Hub

The 408 area code is Silicon Valley's foundational telephone code — covering San Jose, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Milpitas, Campbell, Los Gatos, and surrounding communities in Santa Clara County since 1959. It is the home area code of Apple, Cisco, Intel, NVIDIA, Adobe, Netflix, and eBay — a concentration of technology industry that no other three digits on a US phone can match.

When the original 408 number pool neared exhaustion, regulators added the 669 overlay in August 2012, opening a second pool without moving a single existing number. Mandatory ten-digit dialing has been required across the region since February 3, 2012.

This guide explains what 408 covers, clears up the Florida confusion (407 vs 408), tracks how Silicon Valley grew through multiple area code splits, and details the economy behind one of the most consequential area codes in the world.

What 408 covers — Silicon Valley's South Bay

The 408 area code location is Santa Clara County and the immediate surrounding area — the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area known as the South Bay. Despite 408 being synonymous with Silicon Valley globally, the code does not cover the entire tech corridor: the Peninsula cities north of 408 — Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Redwood City — fall under 650.

Cities in the 408 area code:

What 408 does NOT cover:

• San Francisco and Marin County → 415
• East Bay (Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont) → 510
• Peninsula (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Redwood City) → 650
• Monterey, Santa Cruz, Salinas → 831

For businesses that contact us looking for Silicon Valley presence, both 408 and 669 numbers are available with San Jose, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale prefixes.

408 vs 407 — California vs Florida

The "408 area code Florida" search pattern exists almost entirely because of one digit: 407 is the area code for Orlando, Florida — home of Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, and one of the busiest tourist regions in the United States. A single transposed digit turns a Silicon Valley call into an apparent Florida one.

Here is the distinction:

408 is not in Florida and has no connection to Florida. A call from a 408 number originates in the San Jose metro area (or is spoofed by a robocaller using a California prefix). If you intended to search for the Orlando area code, that is 407.

How 408 evolved — from all of Northern California to Silicon Valley's South Bay

1947 — California starts with two codes AT&T's original North American Numbering Plan divided all of California between just two area codes: 213 for Southern California (Los Angeles and surroundings) and 415 for Northern California — everything from San Francisco to the Oregon border, including what would become Silicon Valley.

1959 — 408 splits from 415 Post-war population growth in the Santa Clara Valley — then still primarily known for orchards and canneries, not electronics — pushed the 415 number pool. Regulators carved out 408 to serve the South Bay, covering San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, and Monterey, while 415 retained San Francisco and everything to the north.

1999 — 831 splits from 408 By the late 1990s, the Internet boom had accelerated number consumption dramatically. The Monterey Peninsula and Santa Cruz area was separated from 408 as new area code 831, leaving 408 to serve only the Santa Clara County corridor — the geographic footprint it holds today.

February 3, 2012 — Mandatory 10-digit dialing As the 408 pool approached exhaustion, NANPA required all callers in the 408 region to dial all ten digits for every call — including local ones — in preparation for the incoming overlay.

August 2, 2012 — 669 goes live Area code 669 launched as a full all-services overlay on 408. No existing 408 number changed; new subscribers began receiving 669 numbers. Both codes cover identical geography with identical local call rates.

What runs on 408 — the tech companies behind Silicon Valley's South Bay

No three-digit area code in the United States is more closely associated with global technology than 408. The South Bay's economy is built on institutions whose products reach billions of people:

Apple (Cupertino) Apple Inc. has been headquartered in Cupertino since 1977. The Apple Park campus — a 2.8-million-square-foot ring-shaped structure opened in 2017 — houses more than 12,000 employees and serves as the center of the world's most valuable company by market capitalization. Every iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch shipped globally is designed from within the 408 area code.

Cisco Systems (San Jose) Cisco, the world's largest networking hardware and software company, has been headquartered in San Jose since its founding in 1984. Its enterprise networking, cybersecurity, and collaboration platforms underpin the infrastructure of most Fortune 500 companies. Cisco employs over 80,000 people worldwide, with its largest concentration in the 408 footprint.

Intel and NVIDIA (Santa Clara) Both Intel — the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer by revenue for much of its history — and NVIDIA — the dominant force in GPU computing and AI acceleration — maintain their global headquarters in Santa Clara. The Santa Clara tech corridor along Great America Parkway houses more global chip industry leadership than any comparable geography on earth.

Adobe and Netflix (San Jose and Los Gatos) Adobe Inc., the creative software giant behind Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat, is headquartered in downtown San Jose. Netflix, the world's largest subscription streaming service, operates its global headquarters from Los Gatos. Together, they anchor the media, creative, and entertainment technology sectors within the 408 / 669 region.

Is 408 in Canada, Texas, or another US state?

408 is a California area code — exclusively. It is not assigned in Canada, Texas, Florida, or any other region outside Santa Clara County and its immediate surroundings.

Canada: The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) covers both the United States and Canada under the same +1 country code. Canadian residents regularly receive calls from US area codes — including 408 — because the two countries share one dialing plan. A Canadian receiving a call from a 408 number is receiving a call from Silicon Valley, California. There is no Canadian 408 area code.

Texas: Texas has more than 20 area codes of its own; 408 is not among them. Silicon Valley tech and enterprise companies make high-volume outbound calls to Texas businesses, which drives "408 area code Texas" search queries from recipients who don't immediately recognize the California origin. Neighboring 402 — Omaha's code — generates a similar pattern for its financial services outbound calls.

Florida: As covered above, 407 is the Orlando, Florida area code. A single digit separates the two — 408 is California.

408 area code ZIP codes

Common ZIP codes within the 408 / 669 coverage area:

San Jose 95101 · 95103 · 95106 · 95108 · 95110 · 95111 · 95112 · 95113 · 95116 · 95117 · 95118 · 95119 · 95120 · 95121 · 95122 · 95123 · 95124 · 95125 · 95126 · 95127 · 95128 · 95129 · 95130 · 95131 · 95132 · 95133 · 95134 · 95135 · 95136 · 95138 · 95139 · 95141 · 95148

Santa Clara 95050 · 95051 · 95052 · 95053 · 95054 · 95055 · 95056

Sunnyvale 94085 · 94086 · 94087 · 94088 · 94089

Cupertino 95014 · 95015

Campbell / Los Gatos / Saratoga 95008 · 95030 · 95032 · 95033 · 95070 · 95071

Milpitas 95035 · 95036

Morgan Hill / Gilroy 95037 · 95038 · 95020 · 95021

ZIP code and area code boundaries do not always align perfectly. Check NANPA's number resource portal for specific NPA-NXX assignments in border zones.

Scam calls from 408 and 669 numbers

Because 408 carries the weight of Silicon Valley's reputation, spoofed 408 calls can appear more credible than many other codes — robocallers exploit the association with tech companies to increase answer rates. Common spoofed 408 schemes include:

• Tech support impersonation — Callers claim to be from Apple, Cisco, or another recognizable Silicon Valley company, using a spoofed 408 number as a credibility signal.
• Subscription and billing scams — Fraudulent calls claiming your iCloud, Netflix, or software subscription has a payment problem — all companies based in the 408 footprint.
• Text scams (smishing) — Fake package delivery alerts, prize notifications, or account verification links sent from spoofed 408 numbers.
• IRS and Social Security impersonation — Standard government-impersonation scripts using local tech-hub numbers to appear legitimate to recipients in other states.

The FCC's STIR/SHAKEN call authentication protocol requires carriers to verify caller ID — the reason many phones now display "Spam Risk" before suspected spoofed calls connect. An unsolicited 408 or 669 call that leaves no voicemail is almost certainly a spoof.

Key takeaways

• 408 is Silicon Valley's area code — San Jose, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, and surrounding South Bay communities — in service since 1959 as a split from the original 415 Northern California code.
• 669 is the 408 overlay, active since August 2, 2012. No existing 408 number changed; 669 opened a second pool for identical geography. Mandatory 10-digit dialing since February 3, 2012.
• 408 is not in Florida — that is 407 (Orlando). A transposed digit causes most of the confusion.
• 408 is not in Canada — NANP covers both the US and Canada under +1; Canadians receive 408 calls from California, not from a Canadian code.
• Time zone: Pacific (PT) — PST (UTC −8) in winter, PDT (UTC −7) during Daylight Saving Time.
• The 408 footprint is home to Apple, Cisco, Intel, NVIDIA, Adobe, and Netflix — arguably the most technology-dense area code in the world.

Frequently asked questions