eSIM for Europe

One eSIM covers 34 countries. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Vatican City.

You do not pick a country when you buy. The eSIM connects to whichever partner network is strongest where you are standing, and it keeps working when you cross a border, on the same plan and the same balance. A train from Paris to Milan does not need anything from you.

The full list with the host network in each country is in the Countries panel further up this page, pulled from the live plan rather than typed out once and left to rot. If a country is not on that list, it is not covered, and the section below tells you what to do instead.

Yes, all four. This is the question worth checking before you buy anything, because a plan sold as a Europe plan is not the same as a plan sold as an EU plan, and the four countries that catch people out are exactly these.

The United Kingdom left the EU roaming area, Switzerland and Liechtenstein were never in it, Norway and Iceland are in the EEA but several providers still leave them out, and Turkey sits outside every European roaming arrangement. A traveller doing London then Paris, or Milan then Zurich, or the Greek islands then a few days on the Turkish coast, is the traveller most likely to land somewhere with no signal on a plan they assumed was fine.

Your own home contract behaves the same way. EU roaming rules stopped applying to UK networks after Brexit and never applied in Switzerland or Turkey, which is why a bill from a week in Zurich can look nothing like a bill from a week in Vienna. If you want the detail on where EU roaming stops and what replaces it, we wrote that up separately in where EU roaming stops.

Thirty four countries is not all of Europe, and we would rather say so here than let you find out at the airport. The Balkans outside Croatia, Slovenia and Greece are not in this plan, nor are the microstates other than Vatican City, nor the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, nor Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Russia.

Every one of them has its own plan on our site, so a trip that mixes covered and uncovered countries needs two eSIMs rather than a different provider. Both can sit on the same phone at the same time.

• Balkans: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia
• Eastern Europe: Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine
• Microstates: Andorra, San Marino. Monaco we do not currently sell at all
• British Isles outside the UK: Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man
• Atlantic and Caucasus: the Faroe Islands, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia
• Gibraltar, which is covered by some competitors on their Europe plan and not by ours

The one to watch is Monaco, because we do not sell it and neither does this plan. If Monaco is on your itinerary, treat it as a gap and plan around it. The others are one click each: Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Gibraltar, Andorra, San Marino, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and the Faroe Islands.

A from price tells you almost nothing, because the cheapest plan on any site is usually the one nobody should buy. Here is the whole fixed data range with the price worked out per gigabyte, so you can see where the value actually sits.

The per gigabyte column was worked out from these prices on 21 September 2026. The pattern is the same on every eSIM site: the 1 GB plan is the worst value per gigabyte and the 20 GB and above plans are the best, so if you are hesitating between 10 GB and 20 GB for a two week trip, the extra 10 GB costs less than a coffee. The 20 GB for 30 days at $15.99 is the one most people should look at first.

The smallest plans still have a job. A one night layover, a work trip where the hotel wifi is fine, or a second phone that only needs maps, are all reasonable places to spend $1.99 and no more.

Checked on 21 September 2026 against the prices each company lists publicly, in US dollars, on their own Europe page. Airalo and Saily show local currency by country, so both were read in their US dollar setting to keep the comparison honest.

Holafly does not sell fixed data on its Europe plan at all, only unlimited, so there is nothing in this table to compare it against. Its unlimited prices are in the next section.

We are a small company. We do not run television advertising, we do not sponsor podcasts, and the difference goes into the price instead. That is the whole explanation, and it is also why we would rather publish the table than a slogan.

Prices move. If one of these is cheaper on the day you read this, buy the cheaper one. We would rather you trust the page than the pitch.

No, and neither is most of what is sold under that word. Our unlimited plans come in two tiers: one gives you 1 GB a day at full speed, the other gives you 3 GB a day at full speed. After the day's allowance the connection keeps working at a reduced speed and resets the next day. You are never cut off and you are never charged extra.

Checked on 30 September 2026, Airalo's Europe unlimited is $45.00 for 7 days and $159.00 for 30 days, and Holafly's is $27.50 for 7 days and $73.90 for 30 days. Saily publishes its terms openly at 3 GB a day at full speed then 1 Mbps, and asks $49.99 for 15 days.

Read that carefully rather than taking our side of it. If you want a genuinely uncapped connection for heavy streaming or tethering a laptop all day, check what Holafly and Airalo actually promise in their terms, because our 3 GB a day tier is not the plan for that job and at 30 days it is not the cheaper one either. Where our unlimited plans do win is the light to normal user who wants a daily allowance they cannot overspend: $12.99 for a week of 1 GB a day is less than half what the same week costs elsewhere.

If you know roughly how much data you use, fixed data is almost always better value than any unlimited plan from anyone. The unlimited plans exist for people who do not want to think about it.

Yes. Five of our Europe plans come with a real European mobile number and unlimited minutes, alongside the data. Almost no travel eSIM offers this, which is why people end up carrying a data eSIM and a second phone just to receive a call.

The number is yours for the life of the plan and it appears in your phone's mobile plan settings as soon as the eSIM installs. Each order gets its own number, so buying again next year gives you a different one.

These plans sit on their own tab in the plan picker further up the page, never mixed into the data plans, because the rules attached to them are genuinely different and we would rather you read them before you buy than after. They are set out in full in the next section.

The short version: people anywhere in the world can call and text you, and you can call and text numbers inside the 34 covered countries. You cannot ring a number outside them. That one limit is the thing most likely to surprise you, so it is first.

• Incoming calls and texts work from anywhere in the world, from anyone, while your phone is inside the covered countries
• Outgoing calls and texts reach numbers inside the covered countries only. You cannot call home to the United States, Canada, Australia or anywhere else outside the list
• Keep a messaging app for calling home. WhatsApp, FaceTime and the rest run over the data on the same plan and are unaffected by any of this
• Calls, texts and data all stop at the edge of the covered countries. This is not a worldwide plan and it does not work in the United States, the UAE, Thailand or India
• The 20 GB plan includes 200 texts. The other four include unlimited texts
• There are no top ups. When the plan ends you buy a new one, and it comes with a new number

Two more things that are easy to miss. The number is European but you do not choose which country issues it, and it is not a local number for the country you are visiting, so a French cafe will not see a French number. We do not publish a dialling code for it, because the plan is sold as a regional product with no single issuing country and we will not guess at something your bank might depend on.

And the clock. On these calling plans your validity starts the moment the eSIM installs, not when you first connect to a network. That is the opposite of our data plans. Install a calling plan the day you travel, not the week before, or you will spend days of it sitting at home.

On a calling plan, yes. Incoming texts work from any sender anywhere in the world while you are inside the covered countries, so a one time passcode from your bank arrives on the European number the same way it would on a local SIM.

On a data only plan, no, and this is the single most common reason a trip goes wrong. A data plan has no number, so it cannot receive a text. Your bank code goes to your home number, which means your home SIM has to stay switched on and reachable, and for most people that means paying your home network's roaming rate just to receive one message.

The usual fix is to keep the home SIM active for calls and texts with its data switched off, and let the eSIM carry all the data. That works and costs nothing extra on most contracts. The alternative, if your bank is strict and your trip is long, is a calling plan with its own number, and then to change the number your bank texts before you leave. We wrote about the failure mode in more detail in why bank codes stop arriving abroad.

Measured purely on the number of countries, not ours. Airalo lists 41 on its Europe plan and Saily lists 35, against our 34. If your only question is how many flags are on the box, they win and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

Country counts are a weak way to choose, though, because the extra entries are usually microstates, dependencies and Balkan countries most itineraries never touch, and every provider counts differently. What matters is whether the specific countries on your route are on the list. Ours are named in full at the top of this page and in the Countries panel, so you can check in ten seconds instead of trusting a number.

Inside a covered country, coverage means the host networks, not the count. In each of the 34 we connect to two or three of the national operators, the same masts your own phone would use, so there is no meaningful difference in signal between one travel eSIM and another standing in the same street. The differences that are real are price, what happens when you run out, and whether anyone can ring you.

If you are travelling from outside Europe, almost always yes. A week of your home network's roaming in Europe typically costs more than a month of data here, and the gap is wide enough that the eSIM pays for itself on the first day.

If you already live in the EU and your contract includes roam like at home, usually no. Your own plan already covers the EU countries at no extra cost, and the only reason to buy is the four that sit outside it: the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and Turkey, plus Iceland on some contracts. For a trip inside the EU you would be paying twice for the same thing.

• Worth it: you are coming from the United States, Canada, Australia, the Gulf, Asia or Africa
• Worth it: you are in the EU but the trip includes the UK, Switzerland or Turkey
• Worth it: your home roaming has a daily fee, which most pay as you go plans do
• Probably not: you are an EU resident on a contract with EU roaming, staying in the EU
• Probably not: a two day city break where you will be on hotel and cafe wifi most of the time

That last one is a genuine answer, not modesty. For 48 hours in one city with wifi at both ends, downloading the area in Google Maps offline before you fly costs nothing and covers most of what you needed the data for.

Cheapest of all is nothing: offline maps, hotel wifi and airplane mode. It works better than people expect for a short city trip, and it is free.

Below that, in rough order of cost for a two week trip. A travel eSIM with fixed data is usually the lowest real cost, at $12.99 for 10 GB over 15 days here. A local prepaid SIM bought at the airport can be cheaper per gigabyte in a single country but costs an hour of your first morning, needs your passport in Spain, Italy, Germany and several others, and stops working at the first border. An unlimited travel eSIM costs more and removes the need to think. Your home network's roaming add on is usually the most expensive option and the easiest, which is exactly why networks sell it that way.

The trap is the daily roaming fee. A plan that charges a few dollars or pounds a day sounds harmless and then quietly becomes the largest line on the trip, because it bills for every day you are away whether you used 40 MB or 4 GB. Check whether your home plan does that before you decide you do not need anything.

Turn data roaming ON for the eSIM. This is the one setting that trips up more travellers than everything else combined, and the instinct to leave it off is exactly backwards.

A travel eSIM is a foreign profile connecting to a partner network, so to the phone it is always roaming. With roaming switched off for that profile the eSIM shows signal and refuses to pass any data, which looks like a broken eSIM and is not. The setting lives per line, so switching it on for the eSIM does not switch it on for your home SIM.

The full arrangement that works for most people: eSIM set as the line for mobile data with data roaming on, home SIM left on for calls and texts with its own data roaming off. You keep your own number reachable, you pay nothing to your home network for data, and you will still get texts on your home number because texts do not need data.

There are five worth knowing, and none of them is a reason not to buy one. They are reasons to buy the right one.

• No phone number on a data plan, so no calls and no texts unless you buy a calling plan
• Your phone must be carrier unlocked and eSIM capable. Dial *#06# and look for an EID
• Removing an eSIM is permanent. Delete the profile and it cannot be reinstalled, so never delete one mid trip to free a slot
• No physical shop to walk into if something goes wrong, only support by message
• Fixed data plans here have no top up, so if you run out you buy a second plan rather than adding to the first

The one that causes real trouble is the third. Phones hold a limited number of eSIM profiles and travellers tidy up by deleting the old ones, then find the QR code has already been used and will not scan again. Keep the profile until the trip is over, then delete it.

The one that costs money is the first. Decide before you buy whether anything on your trip needs an incoming call or a text to a number, because that decision changes which plan you want and it cannot be changed afterwards.

For most travellers, between 3 GB and 10 GB a week. Maps, messaging, a few searches and normal social use sit near the bottom of that. Video calls, streaming on trains and posting a lot of photos push you to the top of it and past it.

Two things eat data faster than people expect on a European trip. Train wifi that keeps dropping makes your phone fall back to mobile data mid video without telling you, and automatic photo backup will happily push a day of holiday photos over mobile data if you have not switched it to wifi only. Turn backup to wifi only before you fly and you will use a third less.

If you are genuinely unsure, buy the 20 GB plan. At $14.99 for 15 days it costs barely more than the 10 GB and removes the whole question. There is more detail in how much data you need for a Europe trip.

On trains and in tunnels, yes, wherever the national networks reach, which in Europe is most main lines including the Eurostar and the Alpine routes. You will lose signal in long tunnels the same way every phone in the carriage does.

On ferries and at sea, no. Once you are away from the coast the only signal is the ship's own satellite service, which is charged separately by the operator and is not roaming. The same goes for planes and their onboard wifi. Anything sold as maritime or inflight is a different product and no travel eSIM covers it.

Yes to all of them. The Canary Islands and the Balearics are Spain, Madeira and the Azores are Portugal, Corsica is France, Sicily and Sardinia are Italy, and the Greek islands are Greece. All are inside the coverage and none needs a separate plan.

The Greek islands carry one quirk worth knowing. On islands close to the Turkish coast, Kos, Rhodes, Samos, Lesbos and Chios among them, phones regularly latch onto a Turkish mast across the water instead of the Greek one. On this plan Turkey is covered too, so nothing breaks and nothing costs extra, which is not true of an EU only plan. If it bothers you, selecting the network manually in your phone's settings fixes it. We covered this in why your phone connects to a Turkish network in the Greek islands.

It depends which plan you bought, and the two answers are opposites, so this is worth thirty seconds. Data plans start when the eSIM first connects to a network in Europe. Calling plans start the moment the eSIM installs.

On a data plan you can install at home days before you fly with nothing running down. The profile sits there dormant, and the validity begins when you land and it registers on a European network for the first time. Installing early is the right move, because it is the one step that needs wifi and you would rather do it on your own sofa than in an arrivals hall.

On a calling plan the number is issued to you immediately and the clock starts with the installation, connected or not. Install it the day you travel. If you install a 30 day calling plan a week early you have bought 23 days of use, and nobody can give the week back.

Both types can be bought well in advance either way. It is only the install step that has different rules.

Five minutes on wifi, and the only thing you need is the QR code we email you straight after payment. Do this before you leave home.

• Check the phone first: dial *#06# and look for an EID number. No EID means no eSIM support
• Open the QR code we emailed on a second screen, or print it. Your phone camera cannot scan a code that is on the same phone
• iPhone: Settings, then Mobile Service, then Add eSIM, then Use QR Code
• Android: Settings, then Network and internet, then SIMs, then Add eSIM
• Label it something you will recognise, for example Europe, when the phone asks
• Set your home SIM as the default for calls and texts, and the new eSIM for mobile data
• Switch data roaming ON for the eSIM line only. Leave your home line's roaming off

When you land, give it two or three minutes to find a network. If it still says no service, turn airplane mode on and off once, then check that the eSIM line is selected for mobile data and that its roaming is on. That sequence fixes almost every case.

Keep the email. If you change phones later the same profile cannot be moved, and the QR code cannot be scanned twice, so the email is your record rather than a spare.

A Europe plan is the wrong buy more often than any eSIM company will tell you, so here is the list. If you are staying in one country for the whole trip, buy that country's plan instead: a single country plan is usually cheaper per gigabyte than the regional one, and there is a page for each of them on this site. If you live in the EU with roam like at home and are not leaving the EU, you already have what this sells.

If your itinerary is mostly Balkan, or includes Monaco, or is really a Europe trip with a week somewhere else attached, this plan will leave gaps. And if what you actually need is a phone number people can ring, do not buy a data plan and hope: buy a calling plan, or keep your home SIM live.

Two smaller ones. If your phone is carrier locked, nothing here will work and no support agent can unlock it. And if you are travelling Spain and Portugal only, or Italy and France only, compare the two single country plans against this one before you buy, because two country plans sometimes come to less than one regional plan.

For someone flying into Europe from outside it, on a trip crossing more than one border, this is the right product and the fixed data plans are the right half of it. The 20 GB for 30 days at $15.99 is the plan we would point most people at, and at that price the question of whether you will run out mostly goes away.

What we will not tell you is that no other plan could suit you better. Airalo covers more countries, Holafly's unlimited is genuinely uncapped in a way ours is not, and if either of those matters more to you than price then buy theirs. Where we are confident is value per gigabyte on fixed data, and being the rare one that will sell you a real European number with unlimited minutes if you need people to be able to ring you.

Check the four countries that catch people out, pick fixed data unless you actively want to stop counting, and install before you fly. That is the whole of it.