The eSIM Price Report 2026: same data, very different prices
We compared 23,900 travel eSIM plans from five of the largest providers in 225 destinations. A week of unlimited data costs a median $27. The same fixed-data plan differs by 36% between providers, and by up to 6.2x.
By Maxim Morozov, CEO of Retailgrid, 20 years in retail pricing. Published 25 September 2026. Prices observed 25 September 2026.
Key findings
Median price of 7 days of unlimited data abroad, across 113 destinations.
Median gap between the cheapest and the most expensive provider for an identical fixed-data plan.
Identical plans where the most expensive provider charges more than double the cheapest.
Widest gap on an identical plan: 5 GB for 30 days in Tunisia costs $11.00 or $68.42.
Destinations where one provider is cheapest for a week of unlimited data.
A week online costs $20.99 in Thailand and $84.50 in Sierra Leone.
What a week of unlimited data costs in the top 20 destinations
For the destinations travellers look up most, prices are tight at the top. In most of them the median week costs between $23 and $27.50. The spread comes from the cheapest offer, not the median. In the UK the cheapest week costs $12.32 against a median of $26.99. In India three providers charge $38.99 to $39.50, and the cheapest offer is $24.64.
The cheapest and most expensive places to stay online
Thailand, Western Europe, Mexico and the US are the cheapest markets. The most expensive are smaller markets, mostly in Africa, plus Guyana, Fiji and Paraguay. There a week costs up to three times the global median. Inside a single destination, picking the cheapest provider over the most expensive saves a median $6.68 on a week of unlimited data, or 32%.
The same plan can cost five times more
We matched 953 fixed-data plans that are identical across providers: same country, same data allowance, same validity. Only one in three sits within 25% of the cheapest offer. More than a third are over 50% apart.
| Destination | Plan | Cheapest | Most expensive | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tunisia | 5 GB, 30 days | $11.00 | $68.42 | 6.2x |
| Morocco | 10 GB, 30 days | $21.00 | $118.14 | 5.6x |
| Nepal | 10 GB, 30 days | $24.00 | $127.49 | 5.3x |
| Singapore | 10 GB, 30 days | $14.00 | $72.24 | 5.2x |
| Uzbekistan | 5 GB, 30 days | $11.00 | $55.24 | 5.0x |
| Philippines | 10 GB, 30 days | $17.00 | $82.44 | 4.8x |
| Pakistan | 5 GB, 30 days | $10.99 | $45.89 | 4.2x |
In every row one provider sits far above all the others. A gap like that on an identical product usually points to a price list that has not been reviewed against the market, rather than a deliberate premium.
Unlimited and fixed data have different leaders
On unlimited plans one provider leads almost everywhere: Provider A is cheapest for a 7-day plan in 80% of contested destinations, with a median 23% below the others. On fixed data the picture is split. Provider B is cheapest on 44% of identical plans and has the lowest median price per GB, $1.70.
Median price per day of unlimited data, by trip length
| Provider | 5 days | 7 days | 10 days | 15 days | 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provider A | $3.33 | $2.97 | $2.76 | $2.55 | $1.87 |
| Provider B | $3.60 | $3.57 | $3.30 | - | - |
| Provider C | $3.80 | $3.86 | $3.50 | $3.27 | $2.40 |
| Provider D | $3.90 | $3.86 | $3.50 | $3.27 | $2.40 |
| Provider E | $4.10 | $3.93 | $3.65 | $3.37 | $2.46 |
"-" means fewer than 20 destinations offered. "Unlimited" follows each provider's own label; fair-use terms differ, and many plans slow down after a daily allowance.
A deeper discount, the same list prices
We first collected these prices on 10 September 2026. Two weeks later one provider had moved from a 5% sitewide discount to 10-15% on almost 5,000 price points, while the list prices we checked stayed the same. That made it cheaper on many popular plans, but it is still around five times the market on the long-tail plans above. A blanket discount moves every price by the same percentage. It does not fix a price position that was far off to begin with.
Why a retail pricing company studies eSIMs
eSIM plans are a clean test of price position: identical products, public prices, exact matching. The patterns match what we see in every retail category we monitor.
- Most of the gap hides in the long tail. Teams watch their top sellers. Items nobody checks drift to 4-5x the market.
- List and paid prices drift apart. Discounts on top of an outdated list make it hard to know your real position.
- Position changes overnight. One discount setting moved almost 5,000 prices at once.
Retailgrid tracks competitor prices, matches products like for like and shows where each price sits against the market. See how competitive pricing and price monitoring work in Retailgrid.
Methodology
Every publicly listed plan on the websites of five of the largest travel eSIM providers, collected on 25 September 2026 in USD. 48,400 raw observations were reduced to 23,900 country-level plans after removing regional, global, cruise, duplicate and voice-only plans. Plans are matched on country, plan type, data allowance and validity. The price is the price shown before checkout, including discounts displayed on the page, and excluding coupon codes, credits and taxes added at checkout. Top-20 destinations are ranked by destination popularity published in provider storefront data. Providers are shown as A to E. Retailgrid is not affiliated with any provider and was not paid to produce this report.
Cite as: Retailgrid, The eSIM Price Report, September 2026. Figures and the dataset may be reused with attribution and a link to this page (CC BY 4.0). The CSV has one row per destination; the full plan-level dataset and a PDF edition are available to journalists and researchers on request. Media: maxim@retailgrid.io
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