Fax confirmation is an integral part of the fax transmission process. It is the notification you receive after a fax has been sent. This article explains how to identify fax confirmations whether you’re using a traditional fax machine or an online fax service.

You can confirm that a fax was received by checking the confirmation message on the machine’s LCD screen, a printed confirmation page, or the fax journal. Online services usually provide a confirmation page or email after successful fax transmission.

If a fax was confirmed but not received, it might be due to several reasons, including paper jams, low ink levels, the fax being out of paper, or problems with the receiving machine. You will likely need to send the fax again and verify it with the recipient.

The time it takes to receive a fax confirmation can vary. It generally happens immediately after the fax has been sent. However, delays can occur due to issues with the network, the receiving machine, or the fax service itself.

For more details, check out our article on “How long does it take to send a fax?“.

Confirmations from a physical fax machine

When using a traditional fax machine, you’ll typically receive confirmation of a successful fax transmission in one of three ways:

1. LCD screen confirmation

  • Fax Machine LCD Display, Image: Amazon.com

The fax machine’s LCD screen will display the progress of the fax transmission, including page transitions and duration. Once the fax is complete, the machine will show a brief confirmation message indicating whether the fax was successfully sent.

2. Printed confirmation page

Fax machines can be set up to print confirmation reports automatically for each fax you send. Thois will come out on its own individual sheet.

Normally, to save on paper, fax machines are set to issue such a page only if there’s a problem sending or receiving a fax. But most fax machines can either disable this feature completely or enable it for all transaction results.

Some fax machines will only print a little box with some details on the page. Others will include the entire first page of the transmitted fax, as in the example shown below.

  • Fax Confirmation
    Fax Confirmation, Image: Calameo

3. Fax report or journal

Fax machines can print a log of faxes that have been sent (and received) over a recent time interval. These reports, also known as “journals” or “logs,” provide a record of all faxes sent and received over a certain period of time. A journal typically looks like this:

  • Fax Journal Report
    Fax Journal Report, Image: OKI

Confirmation from an online fax service

When sending a fax using an online fax service, you will typically receive confirmation in one of the following ways:

1. Online confirmation page

After submitting a fax online, the provider may direct you to a status tracking page. This page will update to a confirmation page once the fax has been sent.

Here’s what GotFreeFax‘s confirmation page looks like:

  • GotFreeFax Web Confirmation
    GotFreeFax Web Confirmation

2. Confirmation email

Most online fax services have a feature where they’ll email you a confirmation with all the details of the fax that you sent, once it’s complete. Here’s what faxZERO‘s confirmation email looks like:

3. Status Call or Callback for Developers

For developers, online fax services provide a status response or make a callback to your endpoint to confirm a successful fax transmission. We won’t dive into the details of this, but here are links to how two providers do this: