Is AI cold calling legal in India? The rules, in plain English.
Short answer: yes. No Indian law bans calls made by an AI voice agent. But an AI caller has to follow exactly the same rules as a human one, and for promotional calls those rules got much stricter in 2025. In practice: promotional calls only from a registered 140-series number to people who haven’t blocked them, service and transactional calls from a 1600-series number if you’re a bank, NBFC, insurer or other financial firm, and for lenders, recovery calls only between 8 am and 7 pm.
This is a plain-English summary of public rules as of 14 October 2026, with links to the sources. It is not legal advice; check the current text with your compliance team.
Promotional vs service calls: the line that decides everything
TRAI’s Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR, 2018, amended in February 2025) split business calls into kinds, and each kind has its own rules:
| Call type | Examples | Number to call from | Consent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Promotional | Loan offers, card upsell, “pre-approved” outreach, cold sales calls | 140 series, through a registered telemarketer | Only to people who haven’t blocked promotions, or who gave explicit consent |
| Service | EMI reminders, renewal due, KYC update for existing customers | 1600 series for financial firms | Implied by the existing relationship, while the contract lasts |
| Transactional | OTP, payment confirmation, “your loan was disbursed” | 1600 series for financial firms | Tied to the transaction |
An AI agent doesn’t change which box a call falls into. A “reminder” call that slips in a new loan offer is a promotional call.
What changed in February 2025
TRAI’s February 2025 amendment tightened things:
- No more 10-digit numbers for telemarketing. Promotional calls stay on 140; service and transactional calls move to the 1600 series.
- Consent expires. Consent given during a transaction is valid for 7 days. Implied consent for service messages lasts only as long as the contract. After someone opts out, you can’t ask them again for 90 days.
- Faster, harsher penalties for spam callers. Action is triggered after 5 complaints in 10 days. A first breach means a 15-day bar on outgoing services; a repeat breach means every number and trunk is disconnected across all operators for a year and the sender is blacklisted.
- Auto-dialers and robocalls are now brought under disclosure and regulation. TRAI hasn’t written a separate rule for “AI” calls; an AI agent placing calls is treated like any other automated caller.
The 1600 series for banks, NBFCs and insurers
Financial firms must make service and transactional calls only from 1600-series numbers, so customers can tell a real bank call from a fraudster. TRAI’s November 2025 direction set the deadlines:
| Who | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Commercial banks | 1 January 2026 |
| Large NBFCs (assets above ₹5,000 crore), payments banks, small finance banks | 1 February 2026 |
| Mutual funds / AMCs, pension fund entities | 15 February 2026 |
| Other NBFCs, co-operative banks, regional rural banks | 1 March 2026 |
| Qualified stockbrokers | 15 March 2026 |
Insurers were given 15 February 2026 under a separate TRAI and IRDAI direction. All of these dates have passed, so if your AI agent makes EMI reminders or service calls for a regulated financial firm, it should already be calling from a 1600 number.
Extra rules if you are a lender
RBI’s rules on recovery calls apply to AI agents just as they do to human agents or outsourced recovery agencies:
- Calling hours. RBI’s August 2022 circular already bars recovery calls before 8 am or after 7 pm, along with threatening, anonymous or persistent calls, misleading statements and intruding on family and friends.
- From 1 January 2027, calls must be recorded. RBI’s August 2026 directions on conduct in loan recovery require lenders to record recovery calls, tell the borrower the call is being recorded, and keep the recording for six months (example text). Contact stays limited to 8 am to 7 pm unless the borrower asks otherwise, and calls must avoid occasions like a bereavement, medical emergency or wedding.
An AI agent makes these easy to prove: it can be hard-blocked from dialling outside the window, it reads the approved script every time, it can say “this call is recorded” at the start of every call, and every call leaves a recording and transcript. More on this in AI voice agents for collections.
Do you have to tell people they’re talking to an AI?
Today, no Indian law or TRAI rule makes a business say on a phone call that the caller is an AI. But RBI’s FREE-AI framework (August 2025) recommends that customers be told when they are dealing with AI and always be able to reach a human. It is a committee report, not a binding direction, but it shows where RBI is heading. For banks and NBFCs, the safe practice is simple: say it’s an AI assistant, and offer a human on request.
India’s February 2026 IT Rules amendment on synthetic content requires audio disclosures from platforms and AI-tool providers. It isn’t written for a company’s own outbound calls, but it’s another sign that disclosure is the expected norm.
Personal data: the DPDP Act
Every AI call handles personal data: the phone number, the voice, the recording, the transcript, and whatever the customer says. The Digital Personal Data Protection Rules were notified in November 2025 with an 18-month phase-in, so the main duties on notice, consent, security and retention apply from around May 2027. Build for them now: tell customers why you hold their data, keep recordings only as long as needed (RBI’s six-month rule for recovery calls is a minimum, not a maximum), and keep them secure. Penalties go up to ₹250 crore for failing to protect data.
A compliance checklist for AI calling in India
- Classify every campaign as promotional, service or transactional before it goes live.
- Promotional: registered telemarketer, 140 series, DND scrub, consent records.
- Service and transactional for financial firms: 1600-series number only.
- Honour opt-outs immediately, and don’t ask again for 90 days.
- Lenders: hard-code 8 am to 7 pm, approved scripts, recording notice, six-month retention.
- Say it’s an AI assistant and offer a human on every call.
- Keep audio and transcripts in India, encrypted, with a retention schedule.
- Review a sample of transcripts every week, or all of them with speech analytics.
New to AI calling? Start with how an AI calling agent works. Ziya, ZyroAI’s voice agent for banks, NBFCs and insurers, is built around these rules: calling windows, approved scripts, recording and transcripts on every call, and escalation to a human.
Quick answers
Is AI cold calling legal in India?
Yes. No Indian law bans AI-made calls, but they must follow the same rules as human callers: TRAI’s commercial communication rules (140 series and consent for promotions, 1600 series for financial firms’ service calls) and, for lenders, RBI’s rules on calling hours and conduct.
What is the 1600 number series?
A number series assigned for service and transactional calls from banks, NBFCs, insurers and other financial firms, so customers can recognise genuine calls. Deadlines to move to it ran from January to March 2026.
What are the RBI rules on loan recovery call timing?
Recovery calls are allowed only between 8 am and 7 pm. From 1 January 2027, RBI also requires recovery calls to be recorded, the borrower told about the recording, and recordings kept for six months.
Do AI calls in India have to say they are AI?
No current Indian law requires it on phone calls, but RBI’s FREE-AI framework recommends telling customers when they are dealing with AI and always offering a human. Regulated lenders should do both.
Can I call numbers on the DND list with an AI agent?
Not for promotional calls, unless the person has given explicit consent. Service and transactional calls to existing customers about their own account are generally allowed, from the right number series.