Free iPhone
IMEI check.

Finding the IMEI
on any iPhone.

• Dial *#06# — it appears instantly, no call placed. Works even on a locked screen on most models.
• Settings › General › About — scroll to IMEI. Tap and hold to copy it.
• The SIM tray — printed on the tray itself on several models.
• The original box — on the barcode label. The one place it survives the phone being dead.

Two numbers showing? That is normal on dual-SIM iPhones. Use the first, IMEI1.

The first eight digits are the phone.

Those eight digits are the Type Allocation Code, and Apple is issued a fresh one for each model and variant — an iPhone 15 and an iPhone 15 Pro do not share one, and neither do the US and international versions of the same phone. That is what lets a checker turn a number into a name. The six digits after it are that handset's serial within the batch, and the last digit is the checksum.

What an IMEI does not carry: storage size, colour, or anything about the owner. Storage is on the About screen next to the IMEI; colour you can see. Neither is in the number.

Three things to confirm before you pay.

• The model matches the listing. Run the IMEI here. A 15 listed as a 15 Pro is the most common mismatch we see, and a thirty-second check.
• The previous owner has signed out. Settings › the name at the top: if an Apple Account is still signed in, the phone is not yours to activate until they remove it. Ask for that before money changes hands, not after.
• The carrier lock. Settings › General › About › Carrier Lock should read No SIM restrictions. Anything else means it works on one network.

Want all three checked in front of you? Bring the phone — and the seller, if they'll come — to 15300 Livernois. We do it free, before anybody pays anybody.