Introduction
The 310 area code is the telephone prefix of West Los Angeles — and few codes in the country carry more cachet. Since splitting from 213 in 1991, 310 has become shorthand for the Los Angeles Westside: Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu, Brentwood, Venice, and the South Bay beach cities.
It is the code of the entertainment industry, of Silicon Beach, and of some of the most recognizable zip codes in America. A 310 number plants your business in the middle of all of it.
This guide covers the full picture: which cities and neighborhoods 310 serves, how it relates to its 424 overlay and to the neighboring 213, 323, 818, and 747 codes, the Pacific Time zone that governs its business hours, and exactly how to activate a 310 virtual number — no Los Angeles office required.
Key Takeaways
Covers where is the 310 area code in depth
Covers 310 area code cities in depth
Covers 310 vs 424 area code in depth
Covers get a 310 phone number in depth
Explore MeraTalk's Area Codes solutions — built for carriers, resellers, and enterprises.
Learn moreWhat Is the 310 Area Code?
The 310 area code serves the western half of Los Angeles County, California, including the Westside, the South Bay, a small portion of Ventura County, and Santa Catalina Island offshore. It was created on November 2, 1991, in a split from area code 213, which until then covered the entire Los Angeles basin.
As mobile phones, fax lines, and pagers exhausted the available numbers, 310 was carved off to serve the coastal and western communities, and it has anchored that region ever since.
Dialing Format and Time Zone
- Dialing format: (310) 555-0182
- International: +1 310-555-0182
- Time zone: Pacific Time (PT) — UTC−8 Standard, UTC−7 Daylight Saving (March–November)
- 10-digit dialing required for all local calls due to the 424 overlay
Where Is the 310 Area Code? Cities & Neighborhoods
The 310 area code covers the coastal and western side of Los Angeles County — a string of affluent, high-profile communities running from the Santa Monica Mountains down the Pacific shoreline through the South Bay. It does not include central or eastern Los Angeles, which keep the 213 and 323 codes, nor the San Fernando Valley, which uses 818 and 747.
- Beverly Hills — the iconic city of Rodeo Drive, luxury retail, and entertainment-industry talent agencies
- Santa Monica — beachfront business hub, the Third Street Promenade, and a core node of Silicon Beach
- Malibu — the coastal enclave stretching along the Pacific Coast Highway
- Culver City — historic studio district, now a fast-growing tech and media center
- Westwood & Brentwood — home to UCLA, hillside residential districts, and professional services
- Venice & Marina del Rey — creative, tech, and waterfront communities on the coast
- Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach & Redondo Beach — the South Bay beach cities with strong small-business and tourism economies
- El Segundo & Hawthorne — South Bay aerospace and engineering corridor
- Torrance & Inglewood — major employment and entertainment centers in the southwest county
- Santa Catalina Island — the resort island 26 miles off the coast, also served by 310
Because 310 and its 424 overlay share the same footprint, two neighbors on the same street can hold numbers in either code. The geography is identical — only the three-digit prefix differs.
310 Time Zone
The 310 area code observes Pacific Time (PT) — UTC−8 during Standard Time from early November to mid-March, and UTC−7 during Daylight Saving Time from mid-March to early November. This is the same time zone used across all of California and the rest of the West Coast.
Pacific Time matters for any business serving the Westside. Los Angeles is three hours behind the East Coast, so a call placed at 9 a.m. in New York reaches a 310 line at 6 a.m. local time. Teams scheduling outreach, support hours, or sales calls into Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and the South Bay should plan around PT business hours to reach decision-makers when they are actually at their desks.
Get a local number in this area code with transparent wholesale pricing.
310 Overlay and Nearby Area Codes
The 310 area code is paired with a single overlay, 424, added on July 26, 2006 — the first overlay ever introduced in California. An overlay assigns a second area code to the exact same geographic region rather than splitting it, so existing 310 holders kept their numbers while new lines could be issued in 424. The trade-off is that 10-digit dialing became mandatory: every local call within the region must include the full area code.
- 310 — the original West Los Angeles code, covering the Westside, the South Bay, and Santa Catalina Island; the more prestigious and sought-after of the pair
- 424 — the overlay introduced in 2006, covering the identical territory with newer number inventory
- 213 & 323 — central and eastern Los Angeles, including Downtown, Hollywood, and Koreatown
- 818 & 747 — the San Fernando Valley to the north, including Burbank, Glendale, and Van Nuys
- 562 — Long Beach and the southeastern Los Angeles County communities
For a business that wants the strongest West Los Angeles identity, 310 remains the flagship — it is the code people associate with Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and the coast. The 424 overlay is functionally equivalent, but 310 carries the longer history and broader recognition.
The West LA Economy and the 310 Area Code
The territory behind the 310 area code is one of the most economically concentrated stretches of the Los Angeles region, blending entertainment, technology, aerospace, and luxury commerce into a single coastal corridor. Few area codes pack as many distinct, globally recognized industries into so small a footprint.
Entertainment and Media
Beverly Hills and the surrounding Westside are the historic home of the entertainment business — talent agencies, production companies, and studios cluster across Beverly Hills, Culver City, and Century City. Culver City in particular has reinvented itself from a classic studio town into a magnet for streaming, production, and post-production operations, keeping the 310 region central to how film and television get made.
Silicon Beach Technology
Santa Monica, Venice, Playa Vista, and Marina del Rey form the heart of Silicon Beach, the Los Angeles tech cluster that has drawn social media, gaming, e-commerce, and digital media companies to the coast. Major technology and entertainment firms operate campuses across this strip, making 310 a code closely tied to the city's modern startup and creative-tech economy.
Aerospace and the South Bay
The South Bay — El Segundo, Hawthorne, and Torrance — is one of the country's oldest aerospace and advanced-engineering hubs, with rocket, satellite, and defense operations long anchored there. That deep technical base sits alongside the beach cities' tourism, retail, and small-business economies, giving the 310 region an unusually broad industrial mix.
How to Get a 310 Area Code Phone Number
Modern VoIP and cloud phone providers let you activate a 310 West Los Angeles number in minutes — with no California office, no hardware, and no long-term contract. You search available 310 numbers, complete a short verification, configure call routing and voicemail, and your line is live, ready to ring on any device anywhere in the world.
A 310 number benefits any business that wants to look local on the Westside: entertainment and media services, real estate and luxury retail, tech startups targeting Silicon Beach, and remote teams selling into Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, or the South Bay.
MeraTalk provides 310 virtual phone numbers as part of its cloud telephony platform — numbers activate in minutes, route to any device, and integrate with your CRM, call recording, and auto-attendant from a single dashboard. Search available 310 numbers at meratalk.com.
Choosing Between a Local 310 Number and a Toll-Free Line
For a Westside business, the choice between a local number and a toll-free line comes down to what the phone number is supposed to say. A local West LA prefix signals neighborhood presence — it tells Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and South Bay customers they are dealing with someone rooted in their market, and it markedly improves the odds an outbound call gets answered rather than screened.
In image-conscious industries like entertainment, real estate, and creative services, the prestige of an established Westside prefix is itself part of the pitch.
A toll-free number sends the opposite signal: national scale. It suits support desks, e-commerce brands, and advertising campaigns aimed at callers far beyond Los Angeles. Many companies simply run both — the local line for community-facing sales and relationships, the toll-free line for nationwide service — and point them at the same team through a cloud phone platform, so the split is purely about presentation. For more, see 310 area code.
Common Phone Scams to Watch For on Westside Numbers
High-income areas attract phone fraud, and caller-ID spoofing means a scammer can display a prestigious Westside prefix without owning it. The digits on screen are not evidence of anything — the content of the call is what deserves scrutiny.
- Fake casting, agency, or talent-fee calls exploiting the region's entertainment economy
- IRS, immigration, and Social Security impersonations demanding immediate payment
- Bank fraud-department spoofs asking the victim to move money to a safe account
- One-ring callback bait and delivery-notice robocalls harvesting personal details
The reliable defenses are the boring ones: never pay anyone who demands gift cards or wire transfers on a call you did not initiate, hang up and call the organization back on its published number, and report repeat robocalls to the FCC and FTC. Businesses answering inbound lines should brief front-desk staff on the same rules.
Conclusion
The 310 area code has defined West Los Angeles since 1991 — from the talent agencies of Beverly Hills and the beachfront of Santa Monica to the Silicon Beach startups of Venice and the aerospace corridor of the South Bay. Paired with its 424 overlay, it remains the most recognizable Westside prefix, and the one businesses reach for when they want an unmistakable Los Angeles coastal identity.
Activating a 310 virtual number takes only minutes with MeraTalk. Go live with a West Los Angeles area code, route calls to any device, and pair it with call recording, auto-attendant, and CRM integration from day one — no physical Los Angeles office required. Explore the options at meratalk.com.
Ready to get started with 310 area code?
Join thousands of businesses using MeraTalk for Wholesale Voice, VoIP, and phone number services.
Contact MeraTalk Today





