Know what a gigabyte actually costs.

Most handsets sold after 2019 handle eSIM, but carrier-locked phones often do not and a few regional models ship without it. Open Settings and look for an option to add a mobile plan. If it is missing, the phone cannot take an eSIM whatever the model number says.

It depends on the provider, and it is the commonest way travellers lose money. Some start counting at purchase, some at install, most at first connection abroad. Where a provider does not publish the trigger, we mark it unknown rather than guess.

Because the headline price hides the allowance. Four dollars for 1 GB costs four dollars a gigabyte. Nine dollars for 10 GB costs ninety cents. Sorting by price puts the worse deal first, which is why we sort by the gigabyte instead.

Yes. The eSIM runs alongside your existing SIM, so calls and texts to your usual number still arrive. Most travel eSIMs are data-only and give you no local number, which matters if a local bank or app needs to send you a one-time passcode.

Some outbound links pay us a commission. The ranking code never sees those figures. It reads price, allowance and validity from the catalogue and nothing else, and we publish the method so you can check the claim rather than trust it.