AA Meetings in Atlanta

Find an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Atlanta today through the Metro Atlanta Central Office, which lists more than 1,400 weekly meetings across the metro area and answers a help line seven days a week. Our meeting finder at /meetings/ searches public AA feeds by day and format. Confirm the listing with the group before you go.

Call 911 if someone is overdosing, seizing, not breathing, or cannot be woken. For a mental health or suicide crisis, call or text 988.

How to Find AA Meetings Across Atlanta

Start with the Metro Atlanta Central Office, the communications hub for over four hundred groups that conduct more than 1,400 AA meetings each week in the metropolitan area and online. Central Office publishes updated meeting lists each year with location, day, and time, and keeps a website directory you can filter before you ever leave home.

Two phone numbers cover different needs. The help line at (404) 525-3178 is answered seven days a week, 9 a.m. to midnight, by volunteers from local groups. The business line, (404) 523-5650, is only answered during business hours: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at 270 Peachtree Street NW, Suite 1060. When you call the help line, a person can find you a meeting, explain what to expect, or arrange for a member to talk with you one on one.

The Central Office serves the metro area across 18 counties, so the same directory covers meetings well beyond the city limits, including Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, and Clayton counties. Nationally, aa.org is not itself a meeting finder; it points people to a local office like this one and to the free Meeting Guide app and the Online Intergroup for phone and online meetings. Our meeting finder is a third option: it searches public A.A. and N.A. feeds, including online meetings. Whichever route you use, confirm the day and place with the group before you head out.

Atlanta Meeting Hubs & Communities

Atlanta is a large, car-oriented metro, so think in terms of clusters rather than one central list.

• Downtown and Midtown. The Central Office itself sits at 270 Peachtree Street NW downtown, inside the MARTA rail network. Meetings in office buildings, hospitals, and community rooms cluster here, which makes a lunchtime or after-work meeting easy to fit around a job.
• Intown neighborhoods. Areas like Inman Park, the West End, and the neighborhoods east of downtown host church and community-center meetings throughout the week. The Central Office lists sort by day and time, so you can find something near a rail station instead of across town.
• The northern arc. Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Roswell, and Alpharetta along the Georgia 400 corridor have their own dense cluster of groups, many meeting in churches and synagogues. Because the Central Office covers the whole metro, one directory search covers the suburbs too.
• The south and west sides. East Point, College Park, and South Fulton sit directly on MARTA rail lines, so meetings there are reachable by train without a car. Ask the help line for the closest one if you are unsure.
• Online and outlying counties. The Central Office directory includes online meetings, and the same help line serves the full metro area, so outer counties are covered by the same phone system as the city.

Common Meeting Formats & What to Expect

AA's meeting information sorts meetings into two doors. An open meeting is available to anyone interested in AA's program of recovery; nonalcoholics may attend as observers. A closed meeting is for people who have a drinking problem and want to stop drinking. If you are not sure which suits you, start with an open one.

Atlanta listings use labels so you can pick a format before you arrive:

• Newcomer or beginner: aimed at people who are new, with practical talk about early sobriety.
• Discussion: members share on a chosen topic; the most common style.
• 12 Steps & 12 Traditions and Step Study: working through AA's steps and traditions.
• Big Book: reading and discussing AA's basic text.
• Speaker: one or two members tell their story, then the room opens up.
• Men's, women's, Spanish, and young people's meetings are listed and filtered the same way.

Two things are constant everywhere. It is free: AA says there are no dues or fees for membership, and you do not have to pay anything to attend; a voluntary basket may circulate, and passing it on is fine. And you never have to speak: AA's newcomer page says you can just sit and listen. Anonymity is a founding principle of the fellowship, so what you hear stays in the room. The first-meeting guide walks through a typical hour.

Transportation & Virtual Meetings

Without a car, MARTA is Atlanta's public transportation system, with 48 miles of rail track and 38 train stations, a network of bus routes, and the Atlanta Streetcar. Rail stations downtown, in Midtown, in Buckhead, and on the south and east sides put hundreds of meeting locations within a short walk. Customer service is (404) 848-5000; check train stations and schedules before you ride.

Not every meeting needs a room. AA says meetings can be in person, online, or by phone, and the Atlanta directory and Meeting Guide app include online and hybrid listings. Our finder shows online options from public feeds, and the online A.A. meetings guide explains how video and phone meetings work, including keeping your camera off.

Peer Support vs. Medical Care

An AA meeting is peer support, not clinical treatment. NIDA explains that mutual-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous are peer-led, not run by healthcare professionals, and are therefore not the same as treatment — though they are free, not time-limited, and many people find them useful alone or alongside professional care.

Some situations call for a doctor, not a meeting. NIAAA says alcohol withdrawal can be life threatening when people who drink heavily over time stop suddenly rather than cutting back gradually or stopping with medical support. Up to half of people with alcohol use disorder have some withdrawal symptoms, and a small proportion need a few days of medical detox. If you drink heavily and want to stop, talk with a clinician first.

For help beyond a meeting:

• Emergency: call 911 for an overdose, a seizure, trouble breathing, or someone who cannot be woken.
• Crisis: call or text 988 for a mental health or suicide crisis.
• Treatment: search FindTreatment.gov, SAMHSA's treatment locator, or call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) — free, confidential, 24/7, in English and Spanish.
• Referral help: call or text (800) 653-9376 and we can help you sort out a level of care. SmarterRecovery is a referral helpline, not the Metro Atlanta Central Office; calling is free to you because treatment providers pay for the referral service.

Call or text (800) 653-9376 if you want help finding treatment. If what you need tonight is a meeting, start with the meeting finder or the Central Office directory and confirm the listing. If this is an emergency or a suicide crisis, call 911 or 988 first.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• Metro Atlanta Central Office of Alcoholics Anonymous (about, address, help line and business lines)
• Metro Atlanta Central Office: meeting lists and 1,400 weekly meetings
• A.A.: Need help with a drinking problem? (what to expect at a first meeting)
• A.A.: What to Expect at an A.A. Meeting (open and closed meetings)
• A.A.: A.A. and Anonymity
• A.A.: Meeting Guide app
• NIDA: Treatment (mutual-help groups are peer-led, not clinical treatment)
• NIAAA Core Resource on Alcohol: Alcohol Use Disorder, From Risk to Diagnosis to Recovery
• SAMHSA National Helpline
• SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
• MARTA: Atlanta's public transportation system (rail, buses, streetcar)
• MARTA: Train stations and schedules
• SmarterRecovery meeting finder (public meeting search; listings are not verified by this site)

Common Questions