# How to receive a fax without a fax machine Get your fax number, give it to the office that's faxing you and read the pages as a PDF on your phone or computer. Here's how receiving a fax online works. October 19, 2026 · 6 min read · https://faxies.com/blog/receive-a-fax-without-a-fax-machine Your doctor's office wants to fax you the signed form. Your insurer says it will fax the claim letter. The landlord asks where to fax the lease back. Sending a fax only needs a website, but receiving one needs something else: a number of your own that the other side's fax machine can dial. You still don't need a fax machine or a phone line. An online fax service gives you your own number, answers the fax calls to it and turns each fax into a PDF you can open on your phone or computer. ## How receiving a fax online works A fax is a phone call between two fax machines. When the office presses send, their machine dials a number and waits for another fax machine to answer. With online faxing, the service answers that call instead. It receives the pages just as a fax machine would, saves them as a PDF and lets you know. The sender doesn't need to do anything different: to them, it's an ordinary fax, and they get their usual confirmation when the pages go through. ## Before someone faxes you Ask yourself one question first: does it have to be a fax? - **If they can email it,** ask. Some offices will send a document by email or through their patient or customer portal if you ask. - **If it's a one-time fax,** some print and shipping stores receive faxes for their customers. Call the store first and ask how they charge for it and how long they keep the pages. - **If faxes come back more than once,** or you also send faxes and want replies to come back to you, your own number is simpler. ## Get your fax number On Faxies, your fax number comes with a [plan](https://faxies.com/pricing): $9.99 a month, or $99 a year. Each plan includes 1 number for faxes and 200 pages to send each month. You can't receive faxes with pay per fax: receiving needs a number that stays yours, and that's what the plan pays for. ### Local or toll-free When you choose your number, you pick one of two kinds. Both cost the same. - **Local number:** type a 3-digit US area code, like 212, and pick from the numbers we find. A local number can feel familiar to offices in your area. - **Toll-free number:** one that starts with 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877 or 888. Take a moment to choose, because you can't change the number later on your own. The steps are in [get your fax number](https://faxies.com/help/get-your-fax-number). ### Your number sends too The faxes you send from your account come from your fax number. So when you fax a form to an office and they reply by fax, the reply comes back to you, not to a number you don't have. ## Give the number to the sender A little care before the fax is sent saves a phone call later. 1. **Read the number back.** Give it with its area code, all 10 digits, and ask them to read it back to you. One wrong digit sends your pages to someone else's fax machine. 2. **Say who it's for.** A shared office fax often has a cover page with a name on it. Ask them to put your full name, and any account, claim or patient number they gave you, on the cover page or the first page. 3. **Ask when they'll send it.** If they say this afternoon and nothing arrives by tomorrow, you know when to call. ## When the fax arrives Faxes sent to your number show up in **Received**, on your dashboard. While a fax is coming in, it shows as **Receiving**. When the call ends, it shows **Received**, with the number it came from and its pages. Receiving is included: received faxes don't use your plan's pages. ### Faxes in your email We email you each time a fax arrives, with a link to view it once you're signed in. If you'd rather have the fax itself in your inbox, turn on **Attach the PDF to received-fax emails** in Settings. It works for faxes up to 10 MB; bigger ones are on your dashboard. ### What you can do with it - **Download PDF** or **Open PDF** to read it, print it or save it with your paperwork. - **Forward** it to another fax. It starts a new fax with the received pages, which you send and pay for like any other fax. ### Keep what you need We delete received faxes 30 days after they arrive. If it's a signed lease, a claim letter or anything you may need later, download the PDF and keep it somewhere you'll find it. More on how we handle files in [how we keep your documents](https://faxies.com/help/your-documents). ## If the fax doesn't show up Received faxes only appear once the sender's call reaches your number. If nothing has arrived: 1. **Check the number they used.** Ask the sender to read back the number from their screen or their fax log. A swapped digit is the usual reason. 2. **Ask what their machine said.** If their confirmation says the fax went through to your number, look in Received again and check your spam folder for our email. 3. **Ask them to send it again** if their machine reported a busy line, no answer or an error. ## Medical and other sensitive faxes Doctors' offices, pharmacies and insurers fax a lot of health information. Faxies doesn't sign Business Associate Agreements (BAAs). If you're a clinic or practice that needs one, Faxies isn't the right fit today; see [is Faxies HIPAA compliant?](https://faxies.com/help/hipaa). If you're a patient receiving your own records, read the PDF, save what you need and delete what you don't. ## FAQ ### Can I receive a fax for free? Not on Faxies. Receiving needs a number that stays yours, and it comes with a plan. If you only need one fax, ask the sender to email it or ask a local store that receives faxes. ### Can I receive a fax on my phone? Yes. Open the email we send when a fax arrives, or sign in from your phone's browser and open **Received**. The fax is a PDF, so your phone can open it like any other. ### Can I keep the number I already have? If you have a number with another fax service, you can ask us to move it to Faxies. See [move your fax number to Faxies](https://faxies.com/help/move-your-fax-number). ### What happens to my number if I cancel? Your fax number stays active until the end of the period you paid for. After that it stops receiving faxes and we release it, so it may go to someone else. Tell the people who fax you before you cancel. ### Can I reply to a fax I received? Yes. [Send a fax](https://faxies.com/send) to the number it came from. If you send it from your account, it comes from your fax number, so their answer comes back to you.