A phone number comes back in three formats

The number you store and the number you show someone often need different formatting. A UK number might appear as 020 7183 8750 on an invoice, while your database needs the country code and a consistent format.

/phone returns both, along with an international display format. Here are those fields from the response:

GET /phone/+442071838750

{
  "phone": "+442071838750",
  "valid": true,
  "country": "GB",
  "national": "020 7183 8750",
  "international": "+44 20 7183 8750"
}

phone is the normalized E.164 number, including the country code and without spaces. It is useful for storage, comparing numbers, and a tel: link. national is the familiar display format within the number's country. international keeps the country code while adding readable spacing.

You can store phone and use either display field wherever it fits the page. That saves each form and invoice template from maintaining its own spacing rules.

If the input is written in a national format, include the country context when needed. The UK example can also be passed as /phone/02071838750?country=GB. Once the number is parsed in the right country, formatting changes in the input resolve to the same normalized number.