eSIM Prices by Country in 2026
We compared 91,442 active eSIM plans across 228 countries. See median prices per GB, country rankings and a 20-country comparison table.
What a travel eSIM actually costs
A 5 GB travel eSIM valid for two weeks or more costs a median of $18.80 across the twenty destinations travellers buy most. The cheapest 5 GB plan in those same countries has a median price of $3.66. Per gigabyte, across all 91,442 active plans we track, the median is $6.45. eSIM prices by country vary, but far less than the prices sitting side by side on a single country page.
Those figures come from our own catalog rather than from a survey or a hand-picked shortlist: 91,442 active plans, 62 providers, 228 countries and territories, snapshotted on 31 July 2026. The eSIM price index recomputes the figures when the stored catalog updates. The index counts only what we call practical plans, meaning an active plan with a real price per gigabyte, between 0 and 50 GB of data, and at least three days of validity. Regional plans count once for every country they cover, and global plans with no country list are left out entirely.
eSIM prices by country matter less than the plan you pick
The gap between destinations is real but modest. Across the twenty destinations in the table below, the cheapest 5 GB plan runs from $2.78 in Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and Australia to $9.55 in Kenya. Comparing each country's best available deal, that is a 3.4x spread from the cheapest destination to the most expensive one.
The gap inside one country is bigger. In a typical destination, the median 5 GB plan costs 4.6 times the cheapest 5 GB plan on the same page, for the same data and a comparable validity window. The narrowest spread we measured is 3.0x in Canada, the widest is 6.8x in South Korea, where the middle-of-the-shelf plan costs nearly seven times the cheapest one for the same 5 GB.
So the destination is the smaller lever. Swapping the most expensive country for the cheapest one moves your data bill by a factor of about three. Choosing carelessly inside any one of them moves it by four to seven. If $20 for 5 GB feels expensive, the data agrees: $18.80 is roughly the median, and the median is a bad target.
What 5 GB costs in 20 popular destinations
Each row below covers plans of about 5 GB with at least 14 days of validity, so they are genuinely comparable purchases for a two-week trip. Per-day plans are excluded, because they store a daily cap in the data field and would otherwise appear as absurdly large allowances: that filter removed 340 of 3,126 rows, or 10.9%. The 90th percentile column shows what the expensive end of each country's shelf looks like.
| Destination | Cheapest | Median | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | $3.30 | $14.79 | $41.99 |
| France | $3.74 | $15.24 | $45.42 |
| Spain | $3.30 | $14.81 | $41.99 |
| Italy | $3.30 | $14.81 | $44.99 |
| Turkey | $2.96 | $18.99 | $52.90 |
| United States | $3.97 | $18.70 | $50.00 |
| Canada | $6.50 | $19.51 | $50.00 |
| Mexico | $6.50 | $21.72 | $50.00 |
| Brazil | $4.99 | $25.99 | $56.88 |
| Japan | $3.58 | $18.00 | $44.99 |
| South Korea | $2.78 | $18.84 | $45.42 |
| Thailand | $2.78 | $17.19 | $44.99 |
| Vietnam | $2.78 | $17.19 | $41.99 |
| India | $4.77 | $19.27 | $50.99 |
| China | $3.58 | $18.77 | $45.42 |
| UAE | $5.97 | $21.79 | $53.30 |
| Australia | $2.78 | $17.40 | $50.00 |
| South Africa | $7.62 | $27.50 | $54.90 |
| Egypt | $3.97 | $21.92 | $54.90 |
| Kenya | $9.55 | $29.99 | $56.88 |
Read the cheapest and 90th percentile columns together. In Thailand you can pay $2.78 or $44.99 for the same 5 GB, out of 156 plans on the shelf. In the United Kingdom the range is $3.30 to $41.99 across 161 plans. The destination sets neither end of that range. You do.
The per-GB price index by continent
Averaging per-gigabyte prices by continent only tells you something if you exclude the thin markets, so this cut uses the median of country medians and counts only countries served by at least 10 providers. Europe is the cheapest region at $4.50 per GB across 54 countries. Asia follows at $5.97 across 30 countries, then the Middle East at $6.03 across 12, Oceania at $6.58 across 11, South America at $6.93 across 16, and North America at $7.00 across 35.
Africa is the most expensive region at $8.53 per GB across 46 countries, the only continent whose median sits above $8 while the global figure is $6.45. The individual country numbers back that up: Kenya has a median of $8.00 per GB, Tanzania $7.38 and Nigeria $7.00. Europe's cheapest markets, by contrast, cluster tightly. The United Kingdom sits at $4.20, and France, Italy, Slovakia and Russia all land at $4.30, with Spain, Latvia, Ireland and Malta at $4.32. If you are planning several stops, the regional picture for Europe is worth reading alongside these figures.
Why prices differ between countries
Competition sets the floor, not the median
The clearest pattern in the whole dataset is how many providers sell a given country. Group all 228 markets by provider count and the effect shows up immediately, but only on the cheapest plan.
| Providers in market | Countries | Median $/GB | Median cheapest $/GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | 12 | $12.84 | $4.55 |
| 4 to 9 | 11 | $7.50 | $2.05 |
| 10 to 19 | 14 | $7.37 | $1.28 |
| 20 to 34 | 63 | $8.00 | $0.94 |
| 35 to 60 | 127 | $5.94 | $0.48 |
The right-hand column falls cleanly with every step up in competition: $4.55, then $2.05, $1.28, $0.94 and finally $0.48 per GB. The median column does not. The 20 to 34 bucket sits at $8.00, higher than the $7.37 of the smaller 10 to 19 bucket, so there is no straight downward line on the median and we are not going to draw one. What competition reliably does is add a cheap plan to the bottom of the shelf. It does not stop providers from listing expensive ones above it, which is exactly why the intra-country spread stays wide in busy markets.
Thin markets and islands
At the other end, a market with one or two sellers has no floor at all. That cuts both ways, and low medians in tiny territories are not bargains. Tristan da Cunha shows a median of $1.10 per GB from a single provider, St. Pierre and Miquelon $1.30 from a single provider, and the Canary Islands $2.00 from four. Those numbers describe a shelf with almost nothing on it, not a competitive market. Treat any median drawn from a handful of plans as noise rather than a recommendation, and use the cheapest eSIM by country tool to see how many plans a figure is actually based on.
What sits underneath the retail price
An eSIM brand does not own the network you connect to. It resells access bought from local operators, so wherever that wholesale access is scarce or comes from a single carrier, the retail price has to follow. We do not see wholesale rates in our data and will not guess at them, but the catalog is consistent with it: the expensive markets are overwhelmingly small islands, remote territories and countries with few operators.
The expensive tail is real
Twenty-three countries have a median above $10 per GB, and the top of that list is startling. American Samoa is the most expensive market we track at a $77.40 median, computed from just 2 plans sold by 2 providers. The Falkland Islands follow at $70.49 from a single provider, then Libya at $48.98, Angola at $47.42 and Kiribati at $46.66.
Below those, prices ease but stay high: Sao Tome and Principe at $21.67, French Polynesia at $19.99, Burundi at $18.00, Namibia at $17.07, Djibouti at $16.83, Guam at $13.30, the Northern Mariana Islands at $13.00, Eswatini at $12.99 and Cuba at $12.87. If your trip includes one of these, budget for it deliberately and check whether a regional plan covering the destination undercuts the local ones.
How to avoid overpaying
Buy the bigger bucket. Every one of the cheapest per-gigabyte plans we verified is a large allowance, not a starter pack. In Thailand, eSIMX sells 50 GB for 10 days at $6.71, which is $0.13 per GB against a national median of $5.64. In the United Kingdom the same brand sells 30 GB for 30 days at $8.41, or $0.28 per GB. BNESIM's 50 GB Japan plan is $15.92, or $0.32 per GB, and its 20 GB United States plan is $9.55, or $0.48 per GB. Even in expensive Kenya, Airhub's 30 GB plan at $32.00 works out to $1.07 per GB. Paying a few dollars more for several times the data is usually the biggest single saving available.
That only works if you use a reasonable share of what you bought, and most travellers overestimate. Our eSIM data calculator turns your actual habits into a number of gigabytes, which stops you buying 50 GB for a weekend or 1 GB for a month.
Check the local plan too, not just the regional one. Regional and global bundles are convenient, and they count once for every country they cover in our index, but a single-country plan is frequently cheaper for a single-country trip. Both sit on the same country page, so comparing them costs you nothing.
Then sort by price per gigabyte before you pay. This is the move that actually saves money, because it is the difference between the median and the floor: in Vietnam that is $17.19 versus $2.78 for the same 5 GB, and in Japan it is $18.00 versus $3.58. If you are still weighing an eSIM against a local prepaid card, our comparison of eSIM versus a physical SIM covers where each one wins.
Bottom line
Destination matters less than most price guides suggest. A 3.4x gap separates the cheapest destinations from the most expensive on an identical 5 GB purchase, while a 4.6x gap separates the good plan from the average plan inside the same country. Spend your effort on the second gap. All figures here are a snapshot of our catalog taken on 31 July 2026 and prices move, so check the latest stored figure on the eSIM price index and confirm the checkout price before you buy.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an eSIM cost per GB?+
Across all 228 countries and territories we track, the median eSIM price is $6.45 per GB. If you look only at the single cheapest plan in each country, the median drops to $0.72 per GB, and 159 countries have at least one plan priced under $1 per GB. The per-gigabyte price you actually pay depends far more on how large a plan you buy than on where you are travelling.
Which country has the cheapest eSIM?+
By median price per gigabyte, Vatican City is lowest at $3.81, followed by the United Kingdom at $4.20 and France, Russia, Italy and Slovakia at $4.30. Europe is the cheapest continent overall at a $4.50 per GB median across 54 countries. Ignore very low medians from places like Tristan da Cunha at $1.10, where a single provider sells a handful of plans and the figure reflects a near-empty shelf rather than competition.
How much does a 5 GB eSIM cost for a two-week trip?+
The median 5 GB plan with at least 14 days of validity costs $18.80 across the twenty most popular destinations. The cheapest option in each of those countries has a median price of $3.66, ranging from $2.78 in Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and Australia to $9.55 in Kenya. Paying around $20 for 5 GB means you are paying roughly the median, not a good price.
Why are eSIMs so expensive in some countries?+
The strongest predictor is how many providers sell that market. Countries served by 1 to 3 providers have a cheapest plan at a median of $4.55 per GB, while countries served by 35 to 60 providers reach $0.48 per GB. That is why the expensive tail is dominated by tiny and remote markets: American Samoa's median is $77.40 per GB from just 2 plans and 2 providers, and the Falkland Islands sit at $70.49 with a single provider.
Is it cheaper to buy a bigger eSIM plan?+
Almost always, on a per-gigabyte basis. In Thailand the national median is $5.64 per GB, but a 50 GB, 10-day plan from eSIMX costs $6.71 in total, which is $0.13 per GB. In the United Kingdom, 30 GB for 30 days at $8.41 works out to $0.28 per GB against a $4.20 median. The saving only materialises if you use a meaningful share of the allowance, so estimate your data needs before sizing up.