how to track someone by their phone number

Short answer: no, knowing the number is not enough. Whatever a website advertises, a phone number cannot be turned into a live location without either the carrier account holder or the device owner granting it.

Here is what each legitimate route actually needs:

| Tool | What it needs | Accuracy | |---|---|---| | Apple Find My | Family Sharing invite accepted, Share My Location on | Good outdoors, poor indoors | | Google Maps sharing | Recipient accepts a timed share | Same limits | | Carrier family plans | The line must be on your account | Cell-tower level, hundreds of meters |

That gap — between what people expect a number to do and what it can do — is where the scam market lives. Sites that promise "live GPS from any number" are either selling a data-broker record, or taking payment for a map that never loads.

When the phone is one you own or administer, the honest approach is a monitoring app installed on it with the user's knowledge. Ultimate Phone Spy runs on Android, Windows and Mac, and shows location history, geofence alerts, messages and app activity from one dashboard (location tracking, plans). It is a household tool for devices you control, not a lookup service for strangers' numbers.

One practical note: geofence alerts ("arrived at school", "left the after-school area") are far more useful than staring at a live pin. Continuous GPS polling drains the battery and makes the phone obvious to the person carrying it.