Fax Forwarding: Complete Guide (2026)

By David Thompson · Published March 31, 2026 · Updated June 8, 2026 · 10 min read

Fax forwarding lets you receive faxes anywhere — your email inbox, a cloud folder, or a second fax number — without a physical machine or dedicated phone line. Rather than printing incoming faxes to paper, fax forwarding converts them to digital files and routes them automatically to wherever you need them.

This guide covers everything: how fax forwarding works under the hood, the different forwarding types, how to set it up step-by-step, HIPAA rules, and how it compares to number porting. By the end you'll know exactly which approach fits your situation.

What Is Fax Forwarding?

Fax forwarding is a routing feature that automatically delivers incoming faxes to a destination other than the original receiving device. Instead of a paper printout at a physical machine, the fax arrives as a digital file — a PDF or TIFF — at your chosen destination.

The destination can be:

• An email address — the most common setup, where faxes land as attachments
• A cloud folder — Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box
• Another fax number — a second machine or a different fax service account
• An FTP server — used in enterprise document workflows
• An SMS notification — an alert that a fax arrived, with a link to view it

Fax forwarding is valuable for remote workers, multi-location businesses, healthcare providers, and anyone who needs to receive faxes without being physically present at a machine.

How Fax Forwarding Works

When a sender transmits a fax to your number, the fax signal travels over the phone network (PSTN) or the internet. Here is what happens on the receiving side:

1. Signal capture — a fax server (cloud-based or on-premise) answers the incoming call
2. Conversion — the analog fax signal is decoded and converted to a digital file (PDF or TIFF)
3. Routing — the file is automatically sent to your configured destination(s)
4. Delivery confirmation — the system logs the transmission and (optionally) sends a receipt

For internet-based fax forwarding, most services use the T.38 protocol (Fax over IP, or FoIP). T.38 was designed specifically for fax because standard VoIP codecs are unreliable for fax transmissions — network jitter, packet loss, and delay cause failures. T.38 compensates for packet loss with redundancy and Forward Error Correction, keeping the connection stable even on imperfect networks.

Types of Fax Forwarding

Fax-to-Email Forwarding

The most widely used type. Incoming faxes are converted to PDF and delivered as email attachments. You get a notification email with the sender's fax number, timestamp, and page count.

Most services let you configure multiple email addresses — eFax supports up to five addresses per fax number. This is ideal for team inboxes or situations where multiple people need to see every incoming fax.

Fax-to-Cloud Forwarding

Incoming faxes are automatically saved to a cloud storage folder. Services like Dropbox Fax (formerly HelloFax), eFax, and RingCentral support native integrations with Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box.

This is popular for teams that use document management workflows — the fax lands directly in the right project folder without any manual steps.

Fax-to-Fax Forwarding

Incoming faxes at one number or machine are automatically re-transmitted to a second fax number. This is supported on most physical multifunction printers (MFPs) from Canon, Xerox, Brother, and Kyocera — usually configurable through the printer's admin menu.

Some services (like Innoport and Xerox MFPs) let you create rules: for example, route faxes from a specific sender number to a different destination than general faxes.

Carrier-Level Call Forwarding

This happens at the phone network level, before any fax service is involved. You instruct your phone carrier to forward all calls (including fax calls) from one number to another by dialing an activation code (typically *72 followed by the destination number on most US carriers).

This is a quick workaround for temporarily redirecting a fax line to a different service, but it comes with limitations — covered in the forwarding vs. porting section below.

Fax-to-FTP Forwarding

Enterprise-grade routing where incoming faxes are deposited on an FTP server for automated ingestion into document management systems, EHRs, or legal case management software. This is used by hospitals, large law firms, and insurance companies that process high volumes of inbound faxes.

Fax Forwarding vs. Fax Number Porting

These two terms are often confused. They solve similar problems but work very differently.

For most people making a long-term switch to a cloud fax service, porting is the better option. Forwarding is best as a temporary measure while you test a new service or during the porting window.

How to Set Up Fax Forwarding

The setup process depends on where you're starting from.

Option A: With an Online Fax Service (Recommended)

This is the easiest and most reliable path.

Option B: With a Traditional Phone Carrier

If you have a landline or business phone line and want to forward it to a cloud fax service:

1. Activate carrier call forwarding — dial *72 followed by the fax number of your cloud service (varies by carrier; check with AT&T, Verizon, or your provider)
2. Configure the destination service — set up the receiving fax service to accept and forward the calls to email
3. Test carefully — carrier-forwarded fax calls travel two hops (landline → cloud service), which increases the chance of transmission errors

This approach works as a bridge but is not ideal for long-term use. Quality issues are common, and you pay for both the phone line and the cloud service.

Option C: With a Physical Fax Machine or MFP

Most modern multifunction printers support built-in fax forwarding:

1. Open the printer's Admin or Fax Settings menu (on-screen panel or web interface)
2. Navigate to Fax Forward or Remote Fax settings
3. Enable forwarding and enter the destination fax number or email address
4. Set conditions if supported (e.g., forward only if not printed, or forward based on sender number)
5. Save and run a test fax

On Xerox MFPs, you can create up to five routing rules based on sender fax numbers — useful for routing department-specific faxes to different email inboxes automatically.

Fax Forwarding and HIPAA Compliance

Healthcare organizations fax approximately 9 billion pages annually in the US — about 70% of all healthcare communication happens by fax. For any provider forwarding medical faxes, HIPAA requirements apply.

A fax forwarding setup is HIPAA-compliant only when:

• ✓Encryption in transit: TLS/HTTPS for all data moving between servers and your email or cloud storage
• ✓Encryption at rest: AES-256 for stored fax files
• ✓Access controls: Multi-factor authentication, no shared logins, role-based permissions
• ✓Audit logs: Tamper-evident records of every fax sent, received, and forwarded — with timestamps and user IDs
• ✓BAA signed: The fax service must sign a Business Associate Agreement with your organization before you handle any PHI
• ✓Secure email delivery: If forwarding to email, the receiving email system must also be HIPAA-eligible (Gmail Workspace for Business, Microsoft 365 Business, etc.)

Services with dedicated HIPAA plans that include BAAs: mFax Business, SRFax, Fax.Plus Business, Documo (BAA included at no extra cost on all paid plans), eFax Corporate, and etherFax. See our full HIPAA compliant fax services comparison for details.

Top Fax Forwarding Services in 2026

Here is how the leading services compare on the features that matter most for fax forwarding:

mFax.to is the strongest option for individuals and small teams who need reliable fax-to-email forwarding with a great mobile experience. mFax Business steps up to full HIPAA compliance, team accounts, and virtual fax numbers for organizations. SRFax is the most affordable healthcare-focused option.

Benefits of Fax Forwarding

Drawbacks to Know

Fax forwarding is not without trade-offs:

• Double billing when forwarding (not porting) — you continue paying the original carrier while also paying the cloud service
• Quality risk with carrier-level forwarding — two transmission hops increase the chance of errors, especially when forwarding from a PSTN line to a VoIP service
• Only one call at a time — carrier call forwarding can only handle one active call; a second incoming fax gets a busy signal
• HIPAA burden shifts to your email system — forwarding PHI to email that isn't HIPAA-eligible creates a compliance gap
• Internet dependency — cloud fax forwarding requires a stable internet connection on the receiving end
• Porting takes time — if you want to bring your old number along, plan for a 4–5 week transfer window

For most people these limitations are minor — especially when compared to the alternative of owning and maintaining a physical fax machine. For healthcare organizations, selecting a HIPAA-compliant service and pairing it with a secure email provider handles the compliance requirement cleanly.

Fax Forwarding for Remote Workers

Remote workers were among the biggest early adopters of fax forwarding. Before cloud fax services, a remote employee who needed to receive a fax had two options: drive to the office, or pay $2–$5/page at a UPS Store or FedEx Office.

Fax-to-email forwarding eliminates both. A virtual fax number costs a few dollars per month, faxes arrive as email attachments, and the whole setup takes under five minutes.

If you're a remote worker who occasionally receives or sends faxes, mFax.to is the fastest way to get set up — create an account, get a number, and your first fax can be in your inbox within minutes.

Fax Forwarding for Multi-Location Businesses

For businesses with multiple offices or clinics, centralized fax forwarding solves the "which location received the fax?" problem. With a shared fax inbox or cloud integration:

• All inbound faxes from all locations are visible in one dashboard
• Routing rules can send faxes from specific senders to the right department or location automatically
• Audit logs provide a single source of truth for compliance purposes
• Staff in any location can access and respond to faxes without physically being at a fax machine

mFax Business supports team accounts and multiple users under one organization, making it a strong fit for multi-location practices and businesses that need centralized fax management starting at about $9/mo (billed annually). Rather than choosing from rigid fixed tiers, you build your own plan with a live calculator — set the exact number of seats and pages you need and pay only for what you use.

Fax Forwarding via Email — Step-by-Step Summary

If your goal is simply to receive faxes in your email, here is the short version:

1. Sign up at mFax.to (or another online fax service)
2. Get a virtual fax number (local or toll-free)
3. Add your email address in notification/delivery settings
4. Test — send a fax to your new number and confirm it arrives as a PDF attachment
5. Optional: Port your existing fax number to avoid giving everyone a new number

That is the complete setup. No hardware, no phone line, no IT involvement required.

Send and Receive Faxes Without the Machine

Fax forwarding is one of the most practical tools available for individuals and businesses that depend on fax but don't want to be tied to a physical machine. The combination of a virtual fax number and email delivery means your faxes follow you — to the home office, the hospital, the airport, or the couch.

For personal faxing: Download the mFax app — get a fax number, receive faxes as email PDFs, and send from your phone in under two minutes.

For business teams: mFax Business adds team accounts, HIPAA compliance, virtual fax numbers, and a shared dashboard — starting at about $9/mo.

See why over 5 million users have chosen mFax over store faxing and physical machines.