Find your iPhone IMEI Number

IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity, you can think of IMEI like a serial number in that every iPhone, or other mobile phone for that matter, has a unique IMEI number. There are several reasons you’d want to know your IMEI, and we’ll get into those in a moment, but first let’s find the numbers:

First, you can try just dialing *#06# on your iPhone (or any mobile phone), this should retrieve the IMEI number. If that doesn’t work for whatever reason, use one of these methods:

Get iPhone IMEI from the iPhone

This is the same on any iPhone and any iOS version:

• Tap Settings
• Scroll down to and tap on “General”
• Tap on “About”
• Scroll down and look for “IMEI”
• These numbers are your IMEI, on the iPhone they are usually listed like: xx xxxxxx xxxxxx x

You can also find IMEI from iTunes:

Get an iPhone IMEI Number from iTunes

If your iPhone is connected to iTunes you can grab the IMEI number from the app:

• Select your iPhone from the iTunes menu
• In the “Summary” tab click on your phone number to reveal the IMEI number

Why would you need the IMEI number? There are plenty of reasons, ranging from theft protection to setting up an iPhone as a pay-go phone but here’s a few of the most common:

• If your phone ever gets stolen: your cellular provider can typically ban a phone from accessing the network via it’s IMEI, this is nice because the IMEI is attached to the phone itself and not the SIM card, meaning the entire phone can be blacklisted from a network which renders a stolen phone mostly useless.
• iPhone Pay-As-You-Go: You’ll need the IMEI when you call AT&T for setting up an iPhone 4 as a pay-go phone on their network, this is how they identify the phone
• Permanent iPhone unlock services: these require the use of your iPhone IMEI number, which is then added to an unlock database at a carrier. These services are questionable at best, so be cautious with signing up for them.