Quick answer: AI cold calling is legal in Canada on the CRTC’s terms, and for AI voice the key term is consent. Part IV of the rules bars sales calls via an ADAD (equipment conveying a “pre-recorded or synthesized voice message”) without express consent, even under a Do Not Call List exemption. Whether a conversational AI agent is an ADAD is undecided. Corporate penalty: up to $15,000 per violation.
This page reads Parts II (the National Do Not Call List, or DNCL), III (the Telemarketing Rules) and IV (the Automatic Dialing-Announcing Device, or ADAD, Rules) of the CRTC’s Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules, and the Telecommunications Act. The CRTC site blocks our network, so rules quotes come from an Internet Archive capture of 13 September 2026 of the official page. Email and texts fall under a separate statute, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).
Is AI cold calling legal in Canada?
Yes, on the rules’ terms, and they stack: passing one Part does not pass the others. Part II asks whether the number is on the National DNCL and whether an exemption applies. Part III sets conduct rules for every telemarketing call except one made by voice mail broadcast. Part IV asks whether a sales call was placed “via an ADAD” and, if so, whether the consumer consented to ADAD calls from you.
For a live human caller, Parts II and III (and, for an exempt call, section 41.7 of the Act) are the whole job, unless a recorded message such as a “please hold” prompt is played. For a pre-recorded or synthesised-voice sales message, Part IV adds a consent requirement no DNCL exemption removes. An AI voice agent sits between: its voice is synthesised, but it converses. The CRTC’s consolidated rules page still carries a 2014 date, so the honest answer for an AI voice agent is “legal with express consent, uncertain without it”.
What the CRTC rules say an ADAD is, word for word
Part I of the rules defines it:
“Automatic Dialing-Announcing Device” or “ADAD” means any automatic equipment incorporating the capability of storing or producing telecommunications numbers used alone or in conjunction with other equipment to convey a pre-recorded or synthesized voice message to a telecommunications number;
That is five working parts, and a call has to meet all of them:
- Automatic equipment. M3AAWG’s filing in the CRTC’s 2026 review (below) calls this wording “equipment-centric” and says it leaves a gap for cloud calling software, so whether software is “equipment” is itself open.
- Incorporating the capability of storing or producing telecommunications numbers. A calling platform holding a lead list stores numbers.
- Used alone or in conjunction with other equipment. A stack of separate services (dialler, speech engine, carrier) is not obviously outside it.
- To convey a pre-recorded or synthesized voice message. Text-to-speech is synthesised voice; so is a cloned human voice.
- To a telecommunications number.
An AI calling stack fits limbs 2, 3 and 5 comfortably. The risk sits in limb 1 and above all in limb 4, in the word “message”. The rules do not choose between two readings:
- Reading A: an AI agent is an ADAD. Every utterance is a synthesised voice message from automatic equipment that stores numbers, and nothing in the definition carves out equipment that listens and replies.
- Reading B: “message” means a one-way announcement. Part IV section 4(d) requires identification to be repeated if “the actual message relayed exceeds sixty (60) seconds”, and section 2 covers ADAD calls “requesting a consumer to hold until a telemarketer is available”, which assumes a human takes over.
The CRTC has put the question on the table itself: Question 2 of its June 2026 consultation, as reproduced in an intervener’s filing (the notice itself would not load for us), asks whether the definition is “sufficient to capture software, applications, or technologies that use synthesized voices, recordings, artificial intelligence, or other methods of non-human-generated voice messages”. We know of no CRTC decision classifying a conversational AI agent, but we could not search the CRTC’s archive from our network, so that is a limit of our search, not proof. Until the CRTC answers its own Question 2, the defensive course in Canada is to treat an AI voice sales agent as an ADAD and hold ADAD-grade express consent for every consumer it calls.
The Three-Layer Test: which Part covers which call
Eleven call types through all three Parts. The last column is our reading, not a CRTC form.
| Call type | Part II: National DNCL Rules | Part III: Telemarketing Rules | Part IV: ADAD Rules | What to hold before dialling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live human sales call to a consumer, no prior relationship | Applies. No calls to numbers on the National DNCL without express consent; list no more than 31 days old | Applies in full | Not engaged by a human voice alone. A recorded “please hold” message is expressly covered | DNCL registration and subscription, scrubbed list |
| Live human sales call, existing business relationship (EBR) | Exempt if the EBR exists and the person has not made a do not call request to that organisation | Applies in full | Not engaged by a human voice alone | DNCL registration; evidence of the EBR; internal do not call list; identify purpose and caller at the start |
| Pre-recorded or synthesised-voice sales message (classic robocall) | Applies unless exempt, but an exemption does not help with Part IV | Applies in full | Prohibited without express consent to receive ADAD telemarketing from that telemarketer or client | ADAD express consent naming the specific number |
| Conversational AI voice agent making a sales call | Applies unless exempt | Applies in full | Undecided. The synthesised-voice limb reads onto it; the CRTC asked the question in June 2026 | Defensive: ADAD express consent naming the specific number |
| AI voice agent calling a customer you have an EBR with | Exempt (EBR), unless the person has made a do not call request to that organisation | Applies in full | An EBR is not an exception in Part IV. If the agent is an ADAD, consent is still needed | Defensive: ADAD express consent; the EBR does not substitute |
| Registered charity asking for donations by pre-recorded or AI voice | Exempt, section 3(a) | Applies: “solicitation” includes donations for charities | Prohibited without express consent if placed via an ADAD (a pre-recorded message is; for an AI agent it is undecided, as above); section 2 names charities expressly | ADAD express consent |
| Newspaper of general circulation selling subscriptions | Exempt, section 3(g), if that is the sole purpose | Applies in full | Prohibited without express consent if placed via an ADAD | ADAD express consent for any automated call |
| Sales call to a business number (B2B) | Does not apply, section 2 | No business carve-out in the Part III text | No business carve-out in the Part IV text | Treat Parts III and IV as applying; ADAD consent for automated calls |
| Sole-purpose survey or market research, nothing sold | Exempt, section 3(f), for a sole-purpose survey; a call that solicits nothing is not telemarketing in any case | Does not apply (section 6: not solicitation) | No consent rule, but the section 4 conditions apply if placed via an ADAD | Section 4 conditions, including hours, opening identification, number display, no emergency or healthcare lines, no sequential dialling and a 10-second disconnect |
| Appointment reminder, account collection or product recall by AI | Not a telemarketing call, so the DNCL prohibition does not reach it | Does not apply (section 6) | No consent rule, but the section 4 conditions apply if placed via an ADAD | Section 4 conditions; keep it free of any sales pitch |
| Voicemail broadcast (ringless voicemail) sales message | Applies: Part II has no voice mail broadcast carve-out (the CRTC’s 2026 consultation asks whether it should continue to apply) | Does not apply (section 4) | Part IV has no matching carve-out in its text | Scrubbed DNCL list; defensive: treat as an ADAD call and hold express consent |
Read down the Part IV column: every sales call placed via an ADAD needs express consent, and no Part II exemption changes that. Part IV section 1 says so: “The ADAD Rules apply whether or not the telemarketing telecommunication is exempt from the National DNCL Rules.” Part III section 1 says the same of the Telemarketing Rules.
Political calls are out of scope here; they also fall under Division 1.1 of Part 16.1 of the Canada Elections Act.
Do the Do Not Call List exemptions help an AI call?
With Part II only. Part II section 3 repeats section 41.7(1) of the Act: the National DNCL Rules do not apply to a telecommunication:
- by or for a registered charity under subsection 248(1) of the Income Tax Act;
- to a person with whom the caller, or the organisation it calls for, has an existing business relationship, and who has not made a do not call request to that organisation;
- by or for a registered federal party, or one registered under provincial law for a provincial or municipal election;
- by or for a nomination contestant, leadership contestant or candidate of such a party, or their official campaign;
- by or for such a party’s electoral district association;
- for the sole purpose of a survey of members of the public; or
- for the sole purpose of soliciting a newspaper of general circulation subscription.
Section 3.1 adds election candidates and their campaigns. Section 2 adds: “The National DNCL Rules do not apply to a telemarketing telecommunication made to a business consumer.”
Under section 41.7(2), an existing business relationship is formed by “a voluntary two-way communication” arising from one of three things, each between the person called and the organisation the call is made for: that person’s purchase of services, or purchase, lease or rental of products, from the organisation in the 18 months before the call; that person’s inquiry or application about the organisation’s product or service in the 6 months before the call; or another written contract between them, current or expired within 18 months.
Exemptions carry duties. Section 41.7(3): an exempt caller must, at the beginning of the call, identify its purpose and who it is made for. Section 41.7(4): an exempt organisation must keep and honour its own do not call list. Section 41.7(5) excuses survey callers from both (see the operator’s exemptions page).
An exemption from the Do Not Call List is not an exemption from the ADAD Rules: an AI call to an existing customer still needs ADAD consent if the agent is an ADAD. The operator’s telemarketer FAQ agrees: telemarketers “must follow the Telemarketing Rules and the ADAD Rules regardless of whether they are making calls that are specifically exempted from the National DNCL Rules.”
What counts as express consent for an AI or ADAD call
Part V accepts five forms of express consent, for Part II and Part IV alike:
- written, including a signed application form;
- oral, verified by an independent third party or kept as an audio recording;
- electronic, through a toll-free number;
- electronic, via the Internet; or
- another method, if the consumer or an independent third party creates a documented record.
The onus of proof is on the telemarketer and its client, and a consumer “may withdraw his or her express consent at any time.”
The content is where AI programs slip, because the two clauses differ. Both Part II section 5 and Part IV section 3 require consent that names a specific person and includes the telephone number. Only Part IV adds that the authorisation is for “a telemarketing telecommunication via an ADAD”. A consent silent on automated or synthesised-voice calls fits Part II; whether it meets Part IV has not been tested in any decision we have read, so if you use an AI agent, say so in the wording. See our guide to consent wording and record-keeping for AI calls.
Calling hours and identification rules for AI calls in Canada
Part III section 23 limits telemarketing calls to 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends, in the recipient’s local time, and section 24 applies provincial hours for the activity concerned where they are more restrictive. Part IV section 4(b) sets the same windows for non-sales ADAD calls, and section 4(c) applies provincial hours for the activity.
Worked through: 12.5 hours × 5 weekdays = 62.5, plus 8 hours × 2 weekend days = 16, gives 78.5 legal hours of 168 in a week, or 46.7%. A Toronto team calling Vancouver, normally three hours behind, can start no earlier than 12:00 noon Toronto time on a weekday and must stop by 12:30 a.m. The agent schedules on the recipient’s clock.
Section 16 requires a voice telemarketing call to give, “in a clear manner upon reaching the intended party”:
- the name or fictitious name of the individual making the call;
- the name of the telemarketer; and
- the name of the client, if the call is made for a client.
Section 17 adds, on request, a local or toll-free voice number reaching a representative and the name and email or postal address of a representative, for questions, comments or do not call requests; section 18 requires both telemarketer and client details. Sections 20 to 22: the number is answered live or by an always-available voicemail that promises, and delivers, a call back within 3 business days. Section 25: display the originating number or one where you can be reached.
Limb (a) is awkward for AI: it expects an “individual” behind the name, and an agent persona is not one. The consultation asks whether fictitious names should require an identifiable individual (Question 16) and whether callers must say a call is not a live person (Question 10). Neither is a rule yet. For other markets, see our AI outreach compliance map for Australia, the US and the EU, our UK PECR guide to AI cold calling and US TCPA consent rules for AI voice agents.
The thresholds an AI calling program has to track
Every number is from the rules text.
| Obligation | Threshold | Where it is |
|---|---|---|
| Legal calling window, weekdays | 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., recipient’s time | Part III s.23; Part IV s.4(b) |
| Legal calling window, weekends | 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., recipient’s time | Part III s.23; Part IV s.4(b) |
| Maximum age of your DNCL copy | 31 days before the call | Part II s.13 |
| Add a do not call request to your internal list | Within 14 days | Part III ss.11 to 13 |
| Keep a number on your internal do not call list | 3 years and 14 days | Part III ss.8 and 9 |
| Keep DNCL and registration records | 3 years | Part II s.8; Part III s.5 |
| Return a consumer’s voicemail | Within 3 business days | Part III ss.21 and 22 |
| Keep contact numbers and addresses valid | At least 60 days after the call | Part III s.31; Part IV s.4(j) |
| Predictive dialler abandonment rate | No more than 5% in any calendar month | Part III s.29 |
| When a call counts as abandoned | No live telemarketer within 2 seconds of answer | Part I definition |
| Non-sales ADAD: disconnect after hang-up | Within 10 seconds | Part IV s.4(h) |
| Non-sales ADAD: repeat identification | At the end, if the message exceeds 60 seconds | Part IV s.4(d) |
| Hand over records to the CRTC | Within 30 days of a request | Part VI (c) |
Whether an AI agent is a “live telemarketer” for the 2-second test is not addressed by the text. The 10-second and 60-second rules apply only to ADAD calls “where there is no attempt to solicit”, and section 4(i) lifts them for public service calls by police and fire departments, schools, hospitals and similar organisations.
What happens if you get it wrong: section 41 and the penalties
The rules rest on section 41(1) of the Act, which lets the CRTC “prohibit or regulate” unsolicited telecommunications over Canadian carriers as far as necessary “to prevent undue inconvenience or nuisance, giving due regard to freedom of expression”.
Under section 72.01, every contravention of a section 41 prohibition or requirement is a violation carrying an administrative monetary penalty of up to $1,500 for an individual or $15,000 for a corporation. Four more points matter:
- Section 72.03: a violation continued on more than one day is a separate violation for each day.
- Section 72.16: you are liable for violations by an employee in the course of employment, or an agent or mandatary acting within its authority. The rules also require a telemarketer’s client to “make all reasonable efforts” to stop the telemarketer calling numbers on the National DNCL or the client’s own do not call list, emergency lines or healthcare facilities, or via an ADAD without consent.
- Section 72.15: due diligence is a defence. Part VII of the rules sets out when a person will not be held liable: the call was an error and, routinely, you had written policies, ongoing training, a DNCL copy and internal list each no more than 31 days old, records of a process blocking numbers registered over 31 days, monitoring and enforcement, and a compliance agreement with any telemarketer you hired. For a DNCL number, it also accepts an existing business relationship, another section 41.7(1) exemption, a business recipient, a personal relationship, or valid prior express consent. The list is “not exhaustive”.
- Sections 72.12 and 72.13: proceedings must start within two years of the CRTC learning of the matter, and the CRTC may publish the violation, name and penalty.
Calling from abroad does not help. The DNCL operator’s FAQ: “Telemarketers calling Canadian consumers from outside of Canada must comply with the National Do Not Call List Rules.”
The CRTC is reviewing these rules now (consultation 2026-132)
On 11 June 2026, according to a report by emailexpert.com, the CRTC opened Notice of Consultation CRTC 2026-132, a review of these rules. Its 2026 notices index (archived 13 August 2026) lists replies due 11 August 2026. We could not open the notice, so question wording is as reproduced in the intervention by the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG):
- Question 2: whether the ADAD definition is “sufficient to capture software, applications, or technologies that use synthesized voices, recordings, artificial intelligence, or other methods of non-human-generated voice messages”.
- Question 10: whether identification should be expanded “to require telemarketers to tell consumers that the call is using this sort of technology (i.e., it is not a live person making the call)”.
- Question 6: whether Part II should “continue to apply to voice mail broadcasting, or should it be excluded” (see our ringless voicemail guide for AI agents).
M3AAWG urged a technology-neutral ADAD definition and up-front disclosure that a call is not a live person. That is one party’s submission, not a decision. The rules page captured on 13 September 2026 still showed its 2014 date; on 28 September 2026 we could not reach the CRTC site to check for a decision since. Plan for the defensive reading now and a disclosure duty later.
What a compliant AI calling program in Canada costs to run
Nothing here requires a vendor. The fixed pieces, with the DNCL operator’s published rates:
- DNCL registration for every organisation calls are made for, exempt or not, and a subscription for non-exempt calling. An annual download is listed at $3,218 for one area code and $62,166 for all; queries at $0.50 each, up to 100 a session. The rules bar sharing the list outside your organisation, affiliates included, except in confidence with a service provider that needs it to help you comply.
- A re-scrub every 31 days, and an internal do not call list that takes requests mid-call (Part III section 10).
- ADAD consent records naming you and the specific number, producible within 30 days.
- Scheduling on the recipient’s time zone, and an opening script with caller, telemarketer and client names.
The fee is the smallest line; the recurring cost is keeping consent records, list versions and scripts true every time the campaign or prompt changes. For an AI voice agent calling Canadian consumers, the consent record is the compliance program: without it, every other control only reduces a risk the missing consent has already created.
Zian AI builds autonomous phone, SMS, email and WhatsApp sales agents, with SmartReach AI™ deciding message, channel and timing. We have run outbound acquisition since 2017, and the lesson in every market is this page’s: settle the call type and its consent before the agent speaks.
When this is a question for a lawyer or the CRTC
This is not legal advice. See a Canadian lawyer before relying on Reading B, before calling for clients as a telemarketer, where provincial law sets hours for your activity, or if a reminder or survey call carries any sales content: Part III section 6 excludes only calls “made for purposes other than solicitation”. Enforcement sits with the CRTC.
Frequently asked questions
Is AI cold calling legal in Canada?
Yes, on the CRTC’s terms. Part IV of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules bars sales calls via an automatic dialing-announcing device (ADAD), defined as equipment conveying a “pre-recorded or synthesized voice message”, without the consumer’s express consent. Whether a conversational AI agent counts is undecided, so the defensive course is ADAD consent for every consumer it calls.
Is an AI voice agent an automatic dialing-announcing device?
The rules do not say. The synthesised-voice wording reads onto text-to-speech, but other parts of Part IV describe a one-way message. The CRTC’s consultation 2026-132 asks, as Question 2, whether the definition is sufficient to capture artificial intelligence.
Can I use AI to call people I already do business with?
An existing business relationship with the organisation the call is made for (a purchase from it within 18 months, an inquiry to it within 6 months, or a written contract with it current or expired within 18 months) exempts the call from the Do Not Call List Rules only, and only if the person has not made a do not call request to that organisation. Part IV applies regardless, so if the agent is an ADAD you still need express consent.
Do the Canadian do not call rules apply to B2B calls?
The National Do Not Call List Rules do not apply to telemarketing calls to a business consumer. That carve-out is in Part II only; Parts III and IV contain no equivalent.
What are the telemarketing calling hours in Canada?
9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends, in the recipient’s local time, or stricter provincial hours for the activity. The federal windows total 78.5 of 168 hours a week.
What is the fine for breaking the CRTC telemarketing rules?
Under section 72.01 of the Telecommunications Act, up to $1,500 per violation for an individual and $15,000 for a corporation. Each day a violation continues is a separate violation; due diligence is a defence.
Does CASL cover AI calls in Canada?
CASL’s consent rule (section 6) covers commercial electronic messages such as email and texts, but section 6(8) excludes a message that is “in whole or in part, an interactive two-way voice communication between individuals”, a fax, or “a voice recording sent to a telephone account”. Whether a live AI conversation fits either exclusion is not addressed in the text, so take advice before relying on it.
Where every figure on this page comes from
| Figure | Who published it | Link | Date read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part I definitions (ADAD, abandoned call, solicitation); Part II ss.2, 3, 3.1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13; Part III ss.1, 4, 5, 6, 8 to 13, 16 to 18, 20 to 25, 29, 31; Part IV ss.1 to 4; Part V; Part VI; Part VII; calling hours; 31-day, 14-day, 3-year-14-day, 3-business-day, 60-day, 5%, 2-second, 10-second and 60-second thresholds; page “Date modified: 2014-03-31” | CRTC (Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules), read via Internet Archive capture of 13 September 2026 | crtc.gc.ca/eng/trules-reglest.htm (capture: web.archive.org, 20260913083822) | 28 September 2026 |
| Section 41(1) and (2); section 41.7(1) to (5), including the 18-month and 6-month EBR periods | Department of Justice Canada (Telecommunications Act, current to 2026-09-03) | Telecommunications Act s.41.7 | 28 September 2026 |
| Penalties up to $1,500 and $15,000; per-day violations; two-year limit; publication; due diligence; vicarious liability | Department of Justice Canada (Telecommunications Act) | Telecommunications Act ss.72.01 to 72.16 | 28 September 2026 |
| Exempt callers must keep an internal do not call list; exempt call identification | National DNCL operator (for the CRTC) | National DNCL Exemptions | 28 September 2026 |
| Telemarketing and ADAD Rules apply regardless of DNCL exemption; calls from outside Canada; subscription rates $3,218, $62,166 and $0.50 (up to 100 queries a session); registration duty for exempt callers; list-sharing limits | National DNCL operator (for the CRTC) | Telemarketer FAQs | 28 September 2026 |
| Consumer-facing summary of exemptions and B2B carve-out | National DNCL operator (for the CRTC) | Who Can Still Call You | 28 September 2026 |
| Consultation 2026-132: 27 July 2026 and 11 August 2026 deadlines; public record 1011-NOC2026-0132 | CRTC (notices of consultation index), read via Internet Archive capture of 13 August 2026 | CRTC Notices of Consultation 2026 | 28 September 2026 |
| Consultation launch date 11 June 2026 | emailexpert.com, article dated 23 July 2026 (the CRTC notice itself was not reachable from our network) | emailexpert: CRTC 2026-132 | 28 September 2026 |
| CASL section 6(8) exclusions | Department of Justice Canada (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, S.C. 2010, c. 23) | CASL s.6 | 28 September 2026 |
| Wording of consultation Questions 2, 6, 10 and 16; M3AAWG’s recommendations | M3AAWG intervention on public record 1011-NOC2026-0132 | M3AAWG comments, July 2026 | 28 September 2026 |
| 78.5 of 168 hours (46.7%); 12:00 noon to 12:30 a.m. Toronto time for Vancouver | Zian AI calculation from the Part III s.23 hours | This page | 28 September 2026 |
What this means if you run an AI voice agent into Canada
Canada does not ban AI sales calls. The Do Not Call List exemptions and business carve-out stop at Part II, so settle first whether your agent calls via an ADAD, and until the CRTC answers, write the consent as if it does.