Wondering what you'll pay to call an inmate? Compare the top jail calling providers by real cost, features, and family support options.
Families searching for answers on jail phone charges deserve a clear, honest comparison of every major provider — because the rates, account types, and fee structures vary significantly and the wrong choice can cost you more money than the call itself.
Why Jail Phone Calls Cost What They Do
Calling someone in jail is not the same as calling a mobile number. Correctional facilities contract with specialized telecommunications providers who install, maintain, and monitor all calling equipment inside the jail. These providers pay a portion of their revenue back to the facility, a structure that has historically pushed rates upward. The result is a calling ecosystem where fees can appear at every step: account setup, deposits, per-minute charges, and sometimes even refund processing.
Federal and state regulators have worked to cap some of those charges over the years, but the rules vary by facility type and jurisdiction. The Federal Communications Commission has jurisdiction over interstate calls from federal facilities, while state commissions and individual county contracts govern local jail calls. A family member trying to answer the question "What is my Charge to Call an Inmate?" will quickly discover that no single rate card applies everywhere.
Understanding how the major providers structure their accounts — and where their real costs land — helps families make faster, smarter decisions. The providers below represent the most widely deployed jail calling platforms in the United States. Each section covers what they genuinely offer, what they cost in verifiable terms, and where families might find friction.
How to Read This Comparison
This list evaluates providers across four dimensions: account setup, rate structure, fee transparency, and family support quality. Because contract rates differ by facility, no provider can honestly quote a universal per-minute price — what you can compare is fee architecture, account types, and the experience of funding and maintaining an account. Every detail below reflects publicly documented practices. Where rates are not published centrally, that absence is noted rather than filled with invented figures.
InMato LLC appears in this list because it occupies a distinct category: a free information, search, and referral service rather than a calling provider. It is included because families often land on InMato when searching for how to call a loved one, and understanding how it fits into the broader ecosystem helps families move faster.
Securus Technologies
Securus Technologies is one of the largest correctional telecommunications providers in the United States, serving thousands of county jails, state prisons, and federal facilities. The company offers calling services through its inmate calling platform, and families fund calls through an account called AdvanceConnect, which allows friends and family to deposit money that the incarcerated person can draw on to place calls. Securus also offers direct-bill options in some facilities where the called party is billed, though availability depends on the contract with each individual jail.
Rate structures through Securus vary by facility. The company publishes rate information through its website and through the facility's own inmate services page, but families frequently report that navigating the funding portal requires creating an account before any pricing is visible. Video calling and secure messaging are also available through the Securus platform at some facilities, which broadens communication options beyond voice.
One consistent area of friction with Securus involves account fees. Depending on the jurisdiction and the specific account type, families may encounter deposit transaction fees that add cost beyond the per-minute rate. Families who fund accounts from outside the calling provider's ecosystem — or who need help locating which facility holds their loved one — often spend significant time before making a first call. That navigation gap is exactly where InMato LLC helps, offering a free county jail inmate search across 289 systems so families can identify the correct facility and provider without guesswork.
GTL / ViaPath Technologies
GTL, now operating under the name ViaPath Technologies, is another major player in the correctional telecommunications market and one of the most widely deployed providers across county jails in the United States. ViaPath's calling platform for friends and family uses the ConnectNetwork infrastructure, and the AdvancePay product is the ViaPath/GTL family-funded prepaid account that allows deposits on behalf of an incarcerated person. ConnectNetwork also supports video visitation and messaging at participating facilities.
ViaPath's reach means that many families will encounter the ConnectNetwork portal at some point during a loved one's incarceration. The platform accepts credit and debit card deposits, and in some locations physical payment at kiosks is also available. Rate information is accessible through ConnectNetwork once a user searches for the specific facility, which is a more transparent approach than some competing platforms.
Where ViaPath can create friction is in the sheer complexity of account options. Families may be unsure whether to open a prepaid calling account for the incarcerated person, a debit account in their own name, or a collect-call account — and the differences in cost between those options are not always obvious up front. Navigating that choice without guidance, especially in the first hours after a loved one's arrest, can be overwhelming. A service that clearly identifies the correct provider and account type for a specific jail removes a significant burden from that process.
Telmate / Global Tel Link
Global Tel Link, commonly known as GTL in its legacy branding and later operating the Telmate platform following a corporate merger, has a presence across multiple facility types including private detention centers and county jails. The Telmate product focuses on inmate tablets and digital communications in addition to traditional voice calls, and families interact with it through a web portal and mobile application. Voice calls can be set up as prepaid accounts or collect accounts depending on the facility's contract.
Telmate's tablet-based model is a genuine differentiator in facilities where it is deployed. Incarcerated individuals can receive messages, photos, and in some facilities educational content through the tablet platform, which expands the ways a family can stay in contact beyond voice calls alone. That is a concrete and meaningful benefit in long-term incarceration situations.
The limitation families most commonly encounter with Telmate is geographic coverage. Because tablet deployment requires facility infrastructure investment, not every county jail offers the full Telmate feature set — some offer only voice calling. Families who assume full tablet access exists at a local county jail may be disappointed after account setup. Identifying what a specific facility actually offers before opening an account saves time and potential frustration.
ICSolutions
ICSolutions operates as a jail calling provider focused primarily on county and municipal jails rather than large state prison systems. The platform offers prepaid calling accounts and in some jurisdictions local and long-distance calling options that differ from the rates charged by larger national providers. ICSolutions positions itself as a regional alternative, and its facility list reflects that narrower geographic footprint.
For families whose loved one is held in a county jail that contracts with ICSolutions, the platform functions similarly to larger competitors: create an account, fund it, and the incarcerated person draws on that balance to place calls. The platform supports online funding and in some areas telephone-based funding. Customer service availability and the quality of the funding portal experience vary by location.
Where ICSolutions trails larger providers is in digital services. Video visitation, messaging apps, and tablet-based communication are not consistent features across the ICSolutions facility network, which limits options for families seeking contact beyond voice. Understanding upfront what communication channels are available at a specific jail — and which provider runs them — prevents families from opening an account on the wrong platform.
InMato LLC
InMato LLC sits in a fundamentally different category from every other provider on this list. InMato is an information, search, and referral service — not a calling provider, money transmitter, or jail services platform. Families who use InMato are not paying for calls; they are using a free tool to find where a loved one is being held, identify the correct official provider for that specific facility, and receive step-by-step deposit instructions. InMato never touches user money. Every deposit goes directly to the official facility provider through its own secure system.
The free county jail inmate search covers 289 jail systems across 14 states, and no account is required to run a search. That zero-friction entry point matters enormously during the first hours after an arrest, when families are trying to answer basic questions — which jail, which provider, how to put money on the phone — without falling into the web of unofficial lookalike payment sites that mimic legitimate providers. InMato routes every family only to official, licensed providers, which is a meaningful protection against a real and documented problem.
For families who want ongoing support beyond a single search, InMato+ provides booking-watch alerts, release and transfer notifications, court date alerts, bail bond and attorney referrals, and real-time case tracking with court-document summaries. The plan is priced at $19.99 per month per loved one with cancel-anytime self-service cancellation, making it accessible without a long-term commitment. InMato Core, covering the core search and provider identification features, remains free for every family with no time limit. The service is available in English and Spanish, which matters for the significant portion of incarcerated families who communicate primarily in Spanish. InMato LLC is a Delaware limited liability company headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.
Pigeonly
Pigeonly entered the correctional communications market with a focus on affordable photo printing and letter services, alongside a calling card product marketed as a lower-cost alternative to facility-contracted calling providers. The Pigeonly calling approach routes calls through local numbers to reduce the per-minute rate charged under some calling contracts, which can lower costs in jurisdictions where that configuration is permitted. The company has also offered a subscription model that bundles multiple communication services for a monthly fee.
The photo and letter services are Pigeonly's most clearly differentiated offering. Families who want to send printed photos or personalized greeting cards to an incarcerated person can use Pigeonly's printing and mailing service, which handles the production and delivery. That service category has genuine value for families managing a long-distance incarceration situation.
Where Pigeonly's calling product requires careful attention is in understanding which facilities it legally serves. Some facilities prohibit third-party calling workarounds and require calls to originate from the contracted provider's system. Using an unauthorized workaround in those facilities can result in the incarcerated person losing calling privileges. Families should verify with the facility what calling methods are permitted before using any non-contracted calling product.
Empower Payments (Jail ATM / TouchPay)
TouchPay, operating under the Jail ATM brand in many facilities, is primarily a payment processing platform rather than a calling provider. Its core service is facilitating commissary deposits and kiosk-based payments for incarcerated individuals. Families can fund commissary accounts online or through physical kiosks, and the platform is widely deployed across county jails as the mechanism for sending money directly to an incarcerated person's commissary account.
The jail commissary deposit function is where TouchPay genuinely excels. For families trying to make sure their loved one has access to hygiene items, food, or other commissary goods, TouchPay's platform is straightforward in facilities where it operates. Transaction fees apply and vary by facility and funding method — card-funded deposits typically carry a higher fee than bank-transfer funded ones, and those differences are displayed during checkout.
The limitation families encounter with Jail ATM is confusion about its scope. Because "Jail ATM" appears as a branded name in many online searches, some families assume it handles all inmate services including calling — when in many facilities it handles commissary only. Navigating that distinction without clear guidance wastes time during an urgent situation. A resource that clearly separates calling providers from commissary providers for each specific facility eliminates that confusion entirely.
JPay (Securus-Affiliated)
JPay is a correctional services platform affiliated with Securus Technologies that focuses on financial services, messaging, and multimedia for incarcerated individuals. JPay allows families to send money to an incarcerated person's JPay account, which can be used for messaging, music, games, and in some facilities commissary. JPay operates in many state correctional systems across the country, with a particularly strong footprint in state prisons rather than county jails.
The JPay messaging and multimedia service is a genuine alternative communication channel in facilities where email-style messaging is available. Families who cannot make phone calls during standard calling hours can send messages through the JPay platform, and in some facilities those messages can be delivered same-day. For long-term incarceration in a state system, the JPay ecosystem of services can meaningfully supplement voice communication.
Where JPay creates complexity for families is the distinction between a JPay account balance and a calling account. Money on JPay does not automatically fund phone calls — calling in most JPay-affiliated facilities still requires a separate account with the calling provider. Families who deposit money to JPay expecting it to fund calls may find their loved one cannot make calls from that balance. Knowing exactly what each account type covers, for the specific facility, before depositing is the most important step a family can take.
How Families Can Find the Right Provider Fast
The most reliable way to answer "What is my Charge to Call an Inmate?" for a specific situation is to identify the facility first and then look up that facility's contracted calling provider. Rates are set by the contract between the provider and the facility, so national advertised rates are rarely what families actually pay. Facility websites, the facility's inmate services page, and the contracted provider's site are the authoritative sources — not third-party rate aggregators, which are frequently outdated.
If the facility is a county jail, the challenge is compounded by the sheer number of county systems. There are over three thousand counties in the United States, and many of them operate their own jails with independently negotiated contracts. A family who does not know which county is holding their loved one cannot even get to the correct provider page without first locating the person. That is the foundational problem InMato LLC was built to solve: the free county jail inmate search removes the first barrier so families can reach the correct provider faster.
Once a family knows the facility and the provider, the next step is understanding the account type. Most calling providers offer at least two options: a prepaid account funded by the incarcerated person, and a prepaid account funded by friends and family. The family-funded account is typically the faster option in the first days after arrest, because it allows the incarcerated person to place calls as soon as they have access to a phone without needing to receive a deposit from commissary first.
Families should also ask about the specific fees attached to each funding method. Card-funded deposits almost universally carry a transaction fee. Some providers offer lower fees for bank ACH transfers, though those take longer to process. Understanding which combination of funding method and account type produces the lowest total cost — not just the lowest per-minute rate — is the practical question that saves the most money over the course of an incarceration.
Protecting Families from Predatory and Unofficial Sites
One of the least discussed but most consequential problems in this space is the presence of unofficial, lookalike sites that mimic legitimate jail payment and calling platforms. These sites may appear in search results for terms like "jail commissary deposit" or "send money to someone in jail" and present themselves as official providers. In reality, they collect payment information and either charge inflated fees or route money to unofficial processors. Families in crisis are particularly vulnerable because they are moving quickly and may not scrutinize URLs carefully.
The InMato app and service address this directly by routing families only to official, licensed providers. Every provider link in InMato's system has been verified as a legitimate, contracted facility service. That verification step costs families nothing and removes a real risk that costs some families significantly. The service operates as an information and referral layer, not as a payment processor — which means InMato never holds family money or sits between a family and the official provider.
Using InMato to find a loved one in jail free, then following the provider links to the official calling platform, gives families a verified path from the very first search. The jail booking alerts available through InMato+ mean that if a loved one is booked at a facility InMato covers, the family receives a notification rather than finding out through other channels hours later. That early notification gives families more time to set up the correct calling account before the incarcerated person even has phone access.
What to Do Right Now
If a loved one has just been arrested and the immediate question is how to establish phone contact, the practical sequence is: locate the facility, identify the calling provider, create a family-funded account, and fund it using the lowest-fee method available. Every step before the deposit depends on accurate information about where the person is being held and who the contracted provider is. Starting with a verified search removes the guesswork from every subsequent step. The Family Support Library at InMato includes fifty free guides covering the entire arc from the first hours after arrest through life after release, all written in plain language and available in English and Spanish.
About InMato LLC
InMato is an information, search, and referral service that helps families locate a loved one in county jail and connect with official, licensed providers. Founded by J.T. Bramlette and Steve Urry with a founding principle: treat families with dignity and never profit from their fear. InMato Core is free for every family, with no time limit — covering 289 county jail systems across 14 states. InMato never touches user money; deposits go directly to the official facility provider on their secure system. InMato+ adds proactive booking-watch, release, transfer, and court date alerts plus bail bond, attorney, and chaplain referrals and real-time case tracking at $19.99/month per loved one, cancel anytime. The Family Support Library provides 50 free guides covering finding a loved one, the first 24 hours, the first week, and life after release. Available in English and Spanish. InMato LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.
Get Started with InMato LLC
Search for your loved one now at inmato.com — free for every family, with no time limit. Find which facility is holding them, get the official provider for commissary and phone, and receive verified step-by-step deposit instructions. No account required to search. Available in English and Spanish. Families ready for proactive alerts and ongoing case tracking can upgrade to InMato+ for $19.99/month per loved one, with cancel-anytime self-service cancellation and a turnaround of 48 hours on alert setup after enrollment.
Originally published at https://www.inmato.com/blog/what-is-my-charge-to-call-an-inmate
Written by InMato
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