Transfer Airtime on MTN: *321# Code, 0000 PIN and ₦10,000 Limit

To transfer airtime on MTN, dial *321*recipient's number*amount*PIN# from your own line. A real one looks like *321*0803XXXXXXX*1500*1234#, with the full number in place of the Xs and your own PIN at the end. Texting works too: send Transfer 0803XXXXXXX 1500 1234 to 321, then reply YES to 321 when MTN asks you to confirm. Change the default PIN first. Every line starts on 0000. We checked MTN's Share page on 30 September 2026. Each transfer must be at least ₦50. The most you can send in one go is ₦10,000, the daily ceiling is ₦100,000, and MTN charges nothing.

Read the code slowly once and it stops looking like a jumble of stars. *321 opens MTN Share. After the next star comes the receiver's number, typed in full, then the amount in whole naira, then your PIN, and the hash key sends the whole thing off. Because MTN takes no fee, whatever amount you type is exactly what leaves your balance, so sending your sister ₦1,500 costs you exactly that and not a kobo more.

The SMS carries the same three details in the same order, just with spaces where the stars were and the word "Transfer" in front. MTN's instructions add one extra step for the text route: a reply of YES to 321 to confirm, so keep your messages app open for a minute after sending. On a weak network, where the USSD menu keeps timing out before you finish typing, the text is often the calmer option.

How to change your default PIN

MTN Share (the service used to be called Share 'N' Sell) asks for a four-digit PIN on every transfer. Because that PIN starts as 0000 on every line, anyone holding your unlocked phone can send your credit away with one short code. A curious younger brother could do it. So could a stranger at the salon while you sit under the dryer, and you'd only find out when your next call refuses to connect.

1. Pick four digits you'll remember. We'll use 4821 as the example.
2. From the line you want to protect, dial *321*0000*4821*4821#. The new PIN goes in twice so MTN knows you typed it right.
3. If USSD keeps failing, text 0000 4821 4821 to 321: old PIN, new PIN, new PIN again, with spaces between them.

Skip 1234 and your birth year. Both are easy guesses. And don't write the new one on a sticker inside your phone case, which is the first place anyone curious would look.

Changing it matters most on the days your phone leaves your hands. Think of the cracked screen you take to Computer Village, or the phone left charging at a friend's shop when NEPA takes light. Each time, your airtime sits one short code away from someone else. A PIN only you know closes that door. Free.

If you can't transfer airtime on MTN, check these

A refused transfer has usually tripped one of MTN's own rules, and going through them in order saves you redialling the same code while your patience runs out.

Start with the PIN. If you changed it, the old default is dead. If you never did, the code still wants 0000.

Then the amount. Each send has to sit inside MTN's per-transfer range. If your mum needs ₦25,000 for market, you'll send it in three goes. Watch the daily cap, too, because every one of those sends counts towards the ₦100,000 limit, and once you hit it you wait for tomorrow. Your balance has to cover the whole amount before anything moves.

Dial *310# to see what's on your line. It sits with the bundle and borrow codes on our list of other MTN USSD codes.

Then look at your typing. Put in the receiver's full number with no spaces, and write the amount in whole naira with no commas. Read the number back before you press send. One wrong digit can land your credit on a stranger's line, and there's no undo code on MTN's page to pull it back.

Here's a busy-day example. Say you send ₦10,000 to your mum, then something smaller to your brother at school and a bit more to friends over the evening. Each send is fine on its own, but they all add up against the same daily ₦100,000 limit, and MTN doesn't care that they went to different people.

Check your balance again after sending. If it dropped, the airtime has left your line, so ask the other person to look at theirs before you dial a second time. A slow confirmation text is no reason to pay twice.

And some lines can't send at all. Nothing you type will change that.

MTN is specific about who's left out. Its page shuts out prepaid customers on the Yafun-Yafun and BetaTalk tariff plans, and postpaid lines only qualify while the account balance isn't negative. If you're on one of those plans, the workaround is to buy the airtime straight onto the other person's number instead.

When the other line is Airtel, Glo or T2

MTN Share moves credit between MTN lines and nowhere else. No code sends MTN airtime to an Airtel, Glo or T2 number, and nobody can push Airtel credit into an MTN line with *321# either, because each network keeps its own balances. Sad, but true. So when a friend on Glo runs out of credit halfway through an important call, your MTN balance can't reach them, however much of it you happen to be sitting on.

Buying airtime onto their number does. It goes to their line directly, with no PIN and no confirmation text from you.

You can buy airtime for any network online on AidaPay and send it to MTN, Airtel, Glo or T2 (9mobile). MTN top-ups there run from ₦50 to ₦10,000 per purchase. When we checked, the buy page showed 1.8% cashback on MTN. Top up ₦1,000 and ₦18 comes back.

For times when you'd rather let the other person collect it, you can share airtime by link with Smart Share: set aside airtime or data, send the link or code, and they claim it. The app keeps count of what's been claimed, which helps when you've promised credit to several people in a family group and want to see who has actually taken theirs.

Before any of that, though, change the PIN tonight, while nobody is waiting on the other end.

Frequently asked questions

Published 30 September 2026. Prices and codes change - if you spot one that has moved, tell us and we will fix it.