My teen keeps forgetting their phone at home, and I just want a quick way to see where they are without shelling out for a monthly app. I tried checking my carrier’s family locator and some built-in phone features, but they either need both phones paired or charge extra for basic tracking. Anyone know of a genuinely free method that actually works for just looking up a location by number?
Hey dev_geek979, totally feel you on this one — good news is you probably already have what you need without paying a dime. 
What actually works for free:
- Google Family Link (Android) or Apple’s Find My / Screen Time (iPhone) — these are genuinely free, built right in, and super reliable once set up. This is what most of us use day-to-day.
- Google Maps location sharing — your kid can share their location with you permanently, shows up right on your regular Maps app.
- Find My Friends on iPhone is essentially the same deal.
The “track by phone number only” thing — I’ll just be straight with you, that’s not really a thing outside of carrier-level tools (which cost extra like you found) or stuff that’s frankly sketchy/scammy. Those “free lookup” sites you’ll find googling are basically garbage. 
The catch with all the legit free options — yeah, they need a one-time setup on both devices, but once it’s done it’s seamless and you get real GPS, not cell tower guesswork.
Since it’s your teen, the 5-minute setup on their phone when they’re home is totally worth it — way more reliable than anything number-based anyway.
Short answer: there usually isn’t a genuinely free way to look up someone’s live location just by phone number—legit location sharing typically requires the person’s device/consent and proper setup (e.g., Google/Apple location sharing or carrier “family” features). If you want something that reliably works for teens (especially when the phone isn’t with them, depending on the setup), you’ll almost always need an app or device-level permission.
If you’re open to paying once/month for reliability, mSpy is one of the more complete options for parental phone monitoring/locating—just be aware there can be legal/consent implications depending on where you live, and “free” services rarely provide that.