Travel eSIM Prices, October 2026: 18,332 Plans Compared

The October 2026 travel eSIM price report: what 18,332 plans from 15 providers say about the cost of mobile data abroad.

A week of mobile data abroad (at least 5 GB, valid at least 7 days) costs a median of $12.19 across the 193 countries in our travel eSIM price index, and the same basket costs anywhere from $4.29 in Turkey to $183.49 in Iran, a 43-fold spread. In 48 countries it costs less than $5. In seven it costs $50 or more. And in 156 of the 185 countries where both kinds of provider sell a plan, the cheapest week does not come from one of the brands travellers search for by name.

That last number is the one most travellers never see. Search for "eSIM Japan" and the results are dominated by a handful of well-known names, because they spend the most on marketing. Our catalogue shows that the price of the same week of data varies far more between providers than most people assume, that the cheapest provider changes from country to country, and that the gap between the cheapest plan and a typical one is wide enough to matter on any trip.

This report is built entirely from the data behind eSIMCompare: 18,332 travel eSIM plans from 15 providers in 202 destinations, each read from the provider's own feed, API or plan page and dated. Every figure below links to the page that proves it, usually the individual plan, so you can check any number yourself. It covers:

• what a week of data costs, country by country and region by region;
• which providers are cheapest, and how often;
• how much more the best-known brands charge for the same basket;
• how competition, plan size, validity and "unlimited" change the price;
• how a traveller can use all of this to pay the least for the data they actually need.

The report will be repeated every month from the same basket, so from November it will also show how prices moved.

Contents

1. The headline numbers
2. The cheapest and the dearest countries
3. Region by region
4. The 20 most visited destinations
5. What common trips cost
6. Who is cheapest, and how often
7. The price of a familiar name
8. Competition and price
9. How plan size changes the price per gigabyte
10. What longer validity costs
11. Unlimited versus a fixed allowance
12. Shopping around: what it is worth
13. Against roaming
14. How to pay the least for your trip
15. Questions travellers ask
16. Method, sources and limits

The headline numbers

To compare 193 countries fairly, the index prices one fixed basket everywhere: the cheapest single-country plan with at least 5 GB of metered data, valid for at least 7 days. Five gigabytes over a week is enough for maps, messaging, browsing, social media and some video for one traveller, and a week is the most common trip length for a short break. Metered plans only, because an "unlimited" plan's real allowance depends on a daily speed cap that differs from provider to provider, so it is reported separately below. The full rules are on the price index page and in our methodology.

On that basket, as of October 26, 2026:

Two things stand out. First, travel data is now cheap almost everywhere a typical traveller goes: three countries in four come in under $20 for a week, and the median is about the price of two coffees in a European city. Second, the distribution has a long, expensive tail. A small group of countries, mostly small or isolated markets where few providers have a roaming agreement worth offering, costs ten or twenty times the median.

A detail that surprises people: the cheapest qualifying plan is usually not a 7-day plan at all. In most countries the plan that wins the basket is a 5 GB plan valid for 30 days, because the providers who price most aggressively sell their small and mid-size packs with a month of validity. A traveller on a one-week trip pays for validity they will not use, but it costs them nothing extra, and it means the same eSIM still works if the trip runs long. We come back to what validity really costs in section 10.

The rest of this report breaks that headline down.

The cheapest and the dearest countries

The ten cheapest

The top of the table is a tie in all but name. Behind Turkey, a long run of countries sits between $4.49 and $4.76, and the $4.76 price in particular repeats across dozens of European countries, because one provider, Rovero, sells the same 5 GB, 30-day pack at the same price across most of the continent. The cheapest places in the world to buy a week of travel data are therefore not exotic: they are Europe's most visited countries, the big Asian hubs and Turkey.

Turkey deserves a note. Several providers price it aggressively: all 15 we track sell a plan there, and the cheapest week costs less than in any other country. Turkey also restricts what you can buy once you are there, which is covered in our Turkey guide; buying before you land is the safe move regardless of price.

The ten dearest

At the expensive end, the pattern is the opposite of the cheap end: few providers, small markets, and in several cases sanctions or a state-controlled network that makes international roaming agreements rare and costly. Iran, Cuba, Myanmar and Yemen all fall into that group. Burundi and Namibia are small markets where only a few providers sell a plan at all, which, as section 8 shows, is the single best predictor of a high price in this data.

Two cautions. First, a high price in the index does not always mean data is expensive in that country for residents: local prepaid SIMs are often far cheaper, and in some of these places a local SIM is the right choice for anything longer than a few days. Second, where only one or two providers sell a plan, the cheapest qualifying plan may be a large one (Djibouti's is 10 GB) because nothing smaller qualifies. The Djibouti page shows every plan we track there.

Region by region

Group the countries into eight travel regions and the medians separate cleanly:

Europe: the cheapest region by a distance

Europe's median of $4.76 is the lowest of any region, and less than half of every region outside Asia. The reason is visible in the data: competition is densest there (36 of the 49 European countries have 12 or more of the 15 providers we track competing for them, and 13 have all 15), and the mobile networks there sell wholesale data to eSIM providers cheaply, partly because of the size of the market and partly because the European Union's roam-like-at-home rules pushed wholesale roaming rates down across the bloc. The one European outlier is Monaco at $25.00, a tiny market served by a single domestic operator, where fewer providers bother to offer a plan.

For a traveller, Europe is also where the choice of plan type matters least: the cheapest unlimited week in most European countries costs $6.49 to $9.39 (see section 11), barely more than the 5 GB week, so a European trip is the one place where unlimited is often worth it for anyone who streams.

If you visit several European countries, a single-country plan is not the only option: regional Europe plans cover many countries on one eSIM. The Europe page compares them; they cost more than a single-country plan for one country, but less than buying three.

Asia: cheap hubs, a long expensive tail

Asia's median of $6.64 hides two very different groups. The big travel hubs, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and China, all come in between $4.49 and $5.09, as cheap as Europe. The tail is long: Myanmar at $80.07 and Iran at $183.49 are among the most expensive countries in the world to roam in. India, the region's median country, sits at $6.64.

China is a special case worth repeating: a travel eSIM there routes your traffic through the provider's partner network outside the Great Firewall, which is one reason travellers choose an eSIM over a local SIM. Our China guide covers what that means in practice.

Middle East and the Caucasus

The region's median of $10.49 sits at the United Arab Emirates, where the cheapest week is $10.49 from eSIM For U, more than double the European price for the same basket. The region spans the cheapest country in the whole index (Turkey, $4.29) and one of the dearest (Yemen, $73.29). The Gulf states' mobile networks are high quality and wholesale data there costs more than in Europe, which shows up in every provider's prices.

The Americas

The United States is the cheapest country in North and Central America at $5.97, but its neighbours are not: Canada costs $11.40 and Mexico $10.29, roughly double the US price, although about as many providers sell plans there (14 in Canada, 15 in Mexico, 14 in the United States). Central America's median country, Honduras, is $11.49, and Belize is the dearest at $42.39.

South America's median is $14.09 (Ecuador, $14.09). The Caribbean is more expensive again at a median of $18.80, with Cuba at $66.00 as its outlier: the islands are many small markets, and only the French overseas departments (Guadeloupe and Martinique), which count as EU territory for roaming, come close to European prices.

Oceania

Australia is cheap at $5.09; the region's median of $13.99 is set by the Pacific islands, where Papua New Guinea sits in the middle at $13.99. Travellers combining Australia and New Zealand should compare a regional plan against two single-country plans.

Africa: the most expensive region, and the widest range

Africa has the most countries in the index (51) and the highest median, $21.89, set by Gabon. The range is enormous: Réunion, a French overseas department, costs the European $4.76, while Burundi costs $167.67. Morocco, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa, the continent's most visited countries, sit well below the median; the expensive tail is made of small markets with few providers.

Africa is also where the gap between a travel eSIM and a local SIM is often largest, so for stays of more than a week, buying a local SIM on arrival (where your phone and the country's registration rules allow it) can save real money. A travel eSIM still earns its place for the first days, before you can buy one.

The 20 most visited destinations

For most travellers, the global median matters less than the price in the country they are going to. Here are 20 of the most visited destinations, with the cheapest week, its rank among 193 countries, the cheapest unlimited plan valid for a week, and the cheapest price per gigabyte on any metered plan there.

Three patterns run through the table:

• The popular destinations are cheap. Seventeen of these twenty cost $6.64 or less for a week (only Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and Canada cost more), inside the cheapest third of the world. Competition follows travellers.
• Unlimited costs the least in Europe. A week of unlimited data in Germany, Spain, the UK, Greece, Italy, Portugal or France starts at $6.49; in Asia and the Americas it is typically $12 to $18.
• The cheapest gigabytes are in big plans. The best price per GB in every one of these countries comes from a 50 GB or larger plan, between $0.22 and $0.89 per GB, which only makes sense for long stays or heavy users (section 9).

Mexico, the UAE and Canada stand out as the expensive popular destinations, all close to double the European price. If you are heading to one of them, comparing is worth more than usual: in Canada the gap between the cheapest week and a typical plan is especially wide, and our Canada guide explains why.

What common trips cost

The basket is a yardstick. Real trips differ in length and data use, so here is the cheapest plan that covers eight common trips, against the median price of every plan that covers the same trip in that country:

The "typical" column is the median price of every plan we track that covers the trip, which is what a traveller who picks without comparing can expect to pay. On six of the eight trips the cheapest plan costs less than half of the typical one, and on the Paris, Thailand, USA and Japan trips between 18% and 28% of it. The two exceptions are the unlimited Japan trip and the regional Europe trip, where fewer plans qualify and prices bunch closer together.

Two details are worth noticing. The cheapest plan for a trip is often bigger and longer than the trip needs (10 GB for 30 days on a 10-day USA trip), because the cheapest providers price their mid-size, month-long packs aggressively. And for multi-country trips in Europe, a regional plan is simple but not the cheapest per country: three weeks across Europe on one eSIM costs $27.00, while a single-country week in most European countries is $4.76. If your trip is mostly in one or two countries, buying single-country plans can cost less; if it crosses many borders, the regional plan saves the switching.

Who is cheapest, and how often

The index records which provider sells the cheapest week in each country (a tie counts for every provider in it). Eleven of the 15 providers we track are cheapest somewhere:

The leaders are not the names most travellers know. Rovero wins the most countries, 36 of its 56 in Europe, with one price ($4.76 for 5 GB over 30 days) repeated across the continent. eSIM For U, a Vienna-based app that launched in October 2026, wins 38 countries, 20 of them in Africa, where small markets otherwise have few cheap options. Ezigo and Seyyah Mobile split the big Asian hubs and Turkey. Of the brands travellers search for by name, Nomad eSIM does best, cheapest in 11 countries, followed by Ubigi (8), Yesim (7) and GigSky (5).

Four providers are cheapest nowhere: ESIM0, despite its 2,069 plans, and Airalo, Holafly and Saily. The last three need a caveat. We track them in 46 popular destinations each, against 130 to 187 for the others, and their prices in our catalogue were last re-checked by hand on August 24, while most other providers' prices are re-read automatically every day (see Method). Their absence from this table therefore says they were not the cheapest on the dates we checked, not that they never are. Holafly also sells almost only unlimited plans (99% of its catalogue), which by design are not in the metered basket.

What the table does show is that no single provider is cheapest everywhere. Even Rovero, the most frequent winner, is cheapest in fewer than a third of the 193 countries. A traveller who always buys from the same brand will overpay on most trips; the right provider depends on where you are going.

The numbers move. Providers change prices, run promotions and join or leave our catalogue. The live ranking is on the price index and on each provider's review page, and every provider can show its own count with the badge we publish for it.

The providers at a glance

The breadth of a catalogue and its prices are different things. Rewild covers the most destinations (187) but sells no unlimited plans; ESIM0 covers 184 destinations with a large range of daily-allowance plans yet is not the cheapest week anywhere on today's prices; Holafly sells almost nothing but unlimited plans. Simbye covers fewer countries than most but is cheapest in six. The plan counts include several data sizes and validities per destination; a provider with more plans is not necessarily better, it simply offers more combinations.

The price of a familiar name

Seven of the 15 providers are brands that travellers search for by name: Airalo, Holafly, Nomad eSIM, Saily, Ubigi, Yesim and GigSky. (We measured this from Google's own search suggestions: these are the brands people compare in searches such as "Airalo vs Holafly"; nobody yet searches for the other eight by name.) So what does the familiar name cost?

We compared, in every country where both groups sell a qualifying plan, the cheapest week from the seven well-known brands with the cheapest week from the other eight providers:

• Countries where both groups sell a qualifying plan: 185
• Countries where a newer provider is cheaper: 156 (84%)
• Countries where a well-known brand is cheaper: 29 (16%)
• Median premium of the cheapest well-known brand over the cheapest newer provider: 30%

In other words, in a typical country the cheapest plan from a brand you have heard of costs about 30% more than the cheapest plan from one you probably have not. On a $5 plan that is $1.50; on a $20 plan in a pricier country it is $6.

Is the familiar name worth it? Sometimes. The well-known brands have longer track records, larger support teams, more reviews and polished apps, and some of them offer things the cheapest plans do not: a local carrier you know, a phone number, top-ups inside an app, or a fair-use policy that suits heavy users. On the other side, the newer providers in our catalogue are real, trading companies whose prices we read from their own feeds daily, and the eSIM itself runs on the same local networks (each plan page names the network it uses where the provider states one). For a short trip with modest data needs, the 30% premium buys little. Our provider reviews set out each provider's strengths and trade-offs from the data, and each one answers whether it is legitimate and worth it.

Two caveats keep this honest. First, the comparison is the cheapest qualifying plan on each side, not a like-for-like plan: the cheapest well-known plan may have more validity or a different network. Second, three of the seven well-known brands (Airalo, Holafly, Saily) are tracked in fewer countries and with older prices, as noted above. Without them the result barely changes, because Nomad eSIM, Ubigi, Yesim and GigSky are tracked in 151 to 185 countries each and supply most of the well-known side.

Competition and price

Why is Europe cheap and Burundi expensive? The single strongest pattern in the data is the number of providers that sell a plan in the country:

Countries where 13 to 15 providers compete have a median week of $4.99; where only one to six do, the median is $66.00, more than 13 times as much. This is an association, not proof of cause: the countries with the most providers are also the biggest, most visited markets with the cheapest wholesale data, and providers go where demand is. But the direction is consistent all the way down the table, and it matches what you would expect from any market: more sellers, lower prices.

For travellers the practical lesson is simple. In the 39 most competitive countries, almost any plan is cheap and the choice comes down to data size and validity. In the 31 countries with nine or fewer providers, the choice of provider can change the price several times over, and it pays to check every option. The destination page for each country lists how many providers we track there.

How plan size changes the price per gigabyte

Bigger plans cost less per gigabyte, steeply. Across every metered plan valid for at least a week, here is the median price per gigabyte by plan size:

A 50 GB plan costs a fifth as much per gigabyte as a 1 GB plan. Japan shows the curve in a single country: the cheapest 1 GB plan is $1.40, the cheapest 5 GB $5.09, 10 GB $7.62, 20 GB $13.69 and 50 GB $26.69. Doubling the data from 5 GB to 10 GB adds only $2.53.

The trap is buying the cheapest gigabytes rather than the cheapest plan that covers your trip. A 50 GB plan is cheap per gigabyte, but if you use 6 GB in a week, you paid for 44 GB you did not use. The sensible rule: estimate your use (our travel data calculator does it from your daily habits, and our guide to how much eSIM data you need explains the assumptions), then buy the next size up, because the step up is usually cheap and running out mid-trip is not.

What longer validity costs

Validity costs less than most people think. Where a provider sells the same data allowance in the same country with both a 7-day and a 30-day validity, we compared the two prices. Across 270 such pairs, the 30-day version costs a median of 14% more than the 7-day one, and in some cases the same.

An example from MeSIM's Japan catalogue: 5 GB costs $5.99 for 7 days and $6.99 for 30; 20 GB costs $15.99 for 7 days and $16.49 for 30. A month of validity for an extra dollar or less is insurance against a delayed flight or an extended stay, and as the headline numbers showed, the cheapest plan for a week is often a 30-day plan anyway.

The one case where short validity wins is a very short trip with high data use: day passes and 3-day plans exist for exactly that, and the plan browser filters by validity.

Unlimited versus a fixed allowance

Across the 186 countries where a provider sells an unlimited plan valid for at least a week, the cheapest unlimited week costs a median of 2.1 times the cheapest 5 GB week. That ratio varies a lot by region: in most of Europe an unlimited week starts at $6.49, barely above the $4.76 metered week, while in Japan it is $13.64 against $5.09, and in China $16.69 against $4.99.

"Unlimited" also means different things. Most unlimited travel eSIMs run at full speed up to a daily high-speed allowance and then slow down for the rest of the day, and some limit hotspot use. Our guide Is unlimited eSIM really unlimited? sets out each major provider's policy, and every unlimited plan page on eSIMCompare shows the speed policy the provider states.

When is unlimited worth it? When you will stream video or tether a laptop daily, when you cannot predict your use, or when, as in Europe, it costs almost the same as a metered plan. For a traveller who mostly uses maps and messaging, a 5 to 10 GB plan is cheaper nearly everywhere.

Shopping around: what it is worth

In a typical country, the cheapest plan that meets the basket is 64% cheaper than the median qualifying plan in the same country (measured across the 187 countries with at least five qualifying plans). Put differently: a traveller who picks a qualifying plan at random typically pays nearly three times the cheapest price for the same amount of data.

That gap is the whole case for comparing. It is also why we publish the full catalogue rather than a short list: the cheapest plan is often from a provider a traveller would not think to check. Every destination page on eSIMCompare ranks every plan we track there, with its price per gigabyte, validity, network and the date its price was read.

Against roaming

How do these prices compare with simply using your home plan abroad? For travellers from the United States, both Verizon TravelPass and AT&T's International Day Pass cost $12 per day in most countries (Verizon charges $6 a day in Canada and Mexico; AT&T caps the charge at 10 days per line per bill). A week of either is $84, roughly seven times the $12.19 median week of travel eSIM data, and over 17 times the $4.76 European price. In return, the day pass keeps your number for calls and texts and includes data at your plan's allowance, which a data-only eSIM does not replace.

For most travellers the efficient setup is both: keep your home line active for calls and the verification texts banks send, with data roaming switched off, and use a travel eSIM for data. Our eSIM vs physical SIM guide explains how dual SIM works on modern phones.

Travellers from the European Union roaming inside the EU are the exception: the EU's roam-like-at-home rules let them use their home allowance in other member states at no extra charge, subject to fair use. Outside the EU, the same logic as above applies.

How to pay the least for your trip

The data above reduces to a short routine:

1. Start from the country, not the brand. The cheapest provider changes from country to country; open the destination comparison first.
2. Size the plan to your use, then go one step up. Per-gigabyte prices fall quickly with size, so the step up is cheap insurance.
3. Take the longer validity when it costs little. A median of 14% more buys a month instead of a week.
4. Check unlimited in Europe and for heavy use. Elsewhere it costs about twice a 5 GB week.
5. Compare when few providers serve the country. In the 31 countries with nine or fewer providers, the provider you choose can change the price several times over.
6. Check the date beside the price. Prices change; every price on eSIMCompare shows when it was last read, and the provider's checkout is the final word.

If you are studying abroad or staying for months, the arithmetic changes: see eSIMs for a term or a semester abroad, where 180-day plans with 50 GB start around $30.

Questions travellers ask

How much does a travel eSIM cost? A week of data (5 GB or more) costs a median of $12.19 across 193 countries, from $4.29 in Turkey to $183.49 in Iran. In Europe's most visited countries it is $4.76 to $4.99; in Japan $5.09; in the United States $5.97. Each country's price is on the price index.

Which eSIM provider is the cheapest? It depends on the country. On October 26, 2026, Rovero sold the cheapest week in 56 countries, eSIM For U in 38, and Ezigo and Seyyah Mobile in 24 each; no provider was cheapest in more than a third of countries. Check the country you are going to.

Are the best-known brands more expensive? Usually, for the same basket: the cheapest week from Airalo, Holafly, Nomad eSIM, Saily, Ubigi, Yesim or GigSky costs a median 30% more than the cheapest from the other providers, and a newer provider is cheaper in 156 of 185 countries. What the premium buys is a longer track record, larger support teams and, for some, a phone number or a fair-use policy that suits heavy users.

Is an unlimited eSIM worth it? In most of Europe, yes for anyone who streams: an unlimited week starts at $6.49 against $4.76 for 5 GB. Elsewhere it costs a median 2.1 times a 5 GB week, so it pays only for heavy daily use. Check the daily high-speed cap on the plan page before buying.

Why is eSIM data so expensive in some countries? Mostly because few providers sell plans there: countries served by six or fewer of the providers we track have a median week of $66.00, against $4.99 where 13 to 15 compete. Small markets, sanctions and state-controlled networks make roaming deals rare and costly.

Is an eSIM cheaper than roaming? For US travellers, much cheaper: Verizon's and AT&T's day passes cost $12 a day, $84 a week, against the $12.19 median week of travel eSIM data. Keep your home line on for calls and texts, with data roaming off.

Are the cheapest providers trustworthy? Every price in this report was read from the provider's own feed, API or website, and every buy link ends at the provider's own checkout. Our reviews show how much of each provider's pricing we confirmed on its own site. Price says nothing about support or refunds, so read the provider's terms before you buy.

Method, sources and limits

The catalogue. 18,332 plans from 15 providers in 202 destinations (196 countries plus regional and global plans), as of October 26, 2026. Prices are in US dollars as each provider states them; we never convert currencies ourselves, so a provider that only publishes local-currency prices is not included until it gives us dollar prices.

Freshness. Twelve providers' prices are re-read automatically on a daily schedule from their own feeds, APIs or the catalogues their sites load (Nomad eSIM's and Yesim's in rotation, Ezigo's whenever it regenerates its feed): 13,521 plans carry an October 26 price date and 16,988 were read on or after October 20. Airalo, Holafly and Saily have no source we can re-read automatically; their prices were last checked by hand on August 24, 2026, and their plans carry that date. Every plan page shows its own date. See how prices are kept current.

The basket. The cheapest single-country plan with at least 5 GB of metered data valid at least 7 days, per country, by price alone. Regional and global plans are excluded from the country figures because they cover several countries at once. Unlimited plans are reported separately because their real allowance depends on a provider's fair-use policy.

Price alone. eSIMCompare earns a commission from some providers when a traveller buys through its links, and its recommended lists give those providers a disclosed boost (how the partner boost works). Nothing in this report uses that boost: every ranking, count and median here is by price alone, and a commission never changes a price we show.

The data is open. The full catalogue is free to download and cite as one JSON file, and AI agents can query it live through our MCP server. If you quote a figure from this report, please link the page it comes from.

What it cannot tell you. Price is not everything: network quality, customer support, refund terms and how easy a provider's app is to use all matter, and none of them are measured here. Our provider reviews cover what the data can show about each provider; for the rest, read the provider's own terms before you buy.

Next month. This report repeats every month from the same basket. From November it will also compare each plan's price with the previous month, so it can say which prices fell, which rose, and by how much, without a new provider ever reading as a price change.

Industry figures on adoption and market size (GSMA Intelligence, Juniper Research, Kaleido Intelligence) are collected, with their sources, on our travel eSIM statistics page.

This report reflects prices as of October 26, 2026. Travel eSIM prices change often, so check the current price on the plan page and the provider's checkout before you buy.