Travel eSIM Price Index — October 2026

Corrected 2026-09-08 — the Airalo prices below were too high. Airalo splits a country's plans across tabs, and our crawler read only the tab that loaded first. In 135 of the 191 countries we hold Airalo prices for, a cheaper qualifying plan was sitting one click away, unread — by a median of 2.4×. Everything on this page has been recomputed from the full list: the median week fell from $14.99 to $13.50 and the median gap from 2.57× to 2.50×. Every part of the error flattered this site's operator, which is now cheapest in 118 countries rather than 140. Logged in full.

Corrected 2026-09-08, after first publication. The figures below were first published with a rule violation in our own row: in two countries Easy Travel Data appeared in the comparison with a plan that did not meet this page's own minimum, which no competitor was allowed to do. Recomputed after the fix, the comparable-country count went from 194 to 193, the median week from $14.49 to $14.99, and the median gap from 2.60× to 2.57× — figures that have since been superseded by the Airalo correction above. Both corrections are logged in full. We would rather stamp a correction on a published page than leave figures we know to be wrong.

Which provider you pick matters more than where you go

For the same country and the same trip — seven days, at least 5 GB — the most expensive of the four providers costs a median of 2.5 times the cheapest. In 130 of 194 countries the gap is at least double. That is a larger swing than the difference between an expensive destination and a cheap one.

What a week of data costs

Across 194 countries the cheapest qualifying plan has a median price of $13.50. Half of all countries sit between $8.49 and $22.00, and a tenth are above $27.99.

One number does a lot of work in that distribution: 30 of the 194 countries share exactly the same cheapest price, $8.49, and in 26 of them it is the same product — Europe Special 5 GB. A single regional pack sets the floor for roughly a fifth of the world.

Unlimited by the day, or a fixed number of gigabytes

The four providers do not sell the same product. Holafly sells unlimited data for N days and nothing else. Airalo mostly does. Saily and Easy Travel Data sell fixed gigabytes. Counting the plan each provider offered for this trip shape:

This matters for how you read the next table, and we would rather say it than have you work it out. A seven-day trip needing at least 5 GB is a shape that favours fixed-GB plans: unlimited-by-the-day pricing adds up fast over a week. A three-day trip, or one where you genuinely cannot predict usage, would flip much of this. The useful takeaway is not which brand wins — it is that if you know roughly how much data you need, a fixed allowance is usually cheaper for a week.

Who was cheapest, and the caveat that goes with it

This site is operated by Easy Travel Data, which is one of the four. That is why this table sits below the method rather than at the top, and why the paragraph above explains the measurement bias before you read it. Every figure links to the provider's own page — open any country and check. If you think the rule is wrong, the rule is published in full.

Most countries have no plan of their own

Only 80 of 194 countries have a single-country plan on sale from any of the four. The other 114 are covered by regional packs — one eSIM good across a continent. Having a local plan is worth roughly four dollars: the median cheapest week costs $12.75 where one exists and $16.49 where it does not.

Method, and the data

Every price was read off the provider's own page and carries the link it came from. Each provider's figure is the cheapest plan it sells for that country lasting at least seven days and giving at least 5 GB, or unlimited. Prices in US dollars, checked 2026-10-12. The full rule, including what is deliberately not compared, is on How we compare; mistakes we have found are in Corrections.

The underlying table is published as a CSV file — one row per country per provider, with the source URL and the date it was read. Reuse it with attribution; if you find an error in it, tell us and it goes in the corrections log.

That filename carries a hash of the file's own contents, so it can never come to point at different numbers. A dated edition with an attachment that could be overwritten in place is a contradiction — and it bit us once: for a few hours this page carried a correction notice while the file behind it still served the uncorrected figures.

This is the October 2026 edition, and it is updated every week during October 2026; after that month it is left as it stood. Each weekly price check rebuilds this page with the new figures, so a number here can change between one visit and the next; the date under “Method, and the data” says when the current figures were read. Each update publishes a new CSV under a new filename and removes the previous one, so if you cite a figure, keep a copy of the CSV you took it from — it records the date of every price. Errors we find are fixed, stamped on this page with a dated correction notice and logged in Corrections. The live map always shows current prices.