Best unlimited eSIM

We held off writing this one for a long time mainly because unlimited eSIMs are messier than they look. There isn’t a single best unlimited eSIM and anyone telling you otherwise hasn’t read the T&Cs properly. These are different products sharing one word – and unlimited isn’t really unlimited anyway, but we’ll deep dive into it below.

So we dug through the fair usage terms of every provider we could, then picked 8 brands we’ve tested ourselves and think are actually worth your money.

Best unlimited eSIM by category

Every provider here is better than the others at something. Let’s take a look:

Do you even need unlimited?

Maybe not, but that really depends on you.

If you’re going on a normal holiday, a day of maps, WhatsApp, some scrolling and a few searches burns through roughly 400 MB to 700 MB. Over 10 days that’s 5 GB to 7 GB, which means a fixed 10 GB or 20 GB plan will almost always come in cheaper than 10 days of unlimited. Sometimes by half.

Unlimited earns the extra money when your usage is heavy or unpredictable. We’re talking to the people using an eSIM for work here and to you content creators uploading all day. It’s also worth it when you simply don’t want to think about your data at all and money isn’t the deciding factor.

Here’s roughly where the line falls:

What unlimited actually means here

An unlimited eSIM lets you keep using data for the whole plan period instead of handing you a fixed total.

With a fixed plan, 5 GB for 30 days means stretching 5 GB across the month. With unlimited, you get a daily allowance that resets, so 5 GB a day across 30 days works out to 150 GB. That’s the difference and it’s why unlimited costs more.

A few things to understand before you buy:

• Unlimited also means wildly different things depending on who you buy from. The daily allowance across the 8 providers here runs from 1 GB to 10 GB. The speed afterward runs from 512 kbps, which barely loads a web page, up to a reported 5 Mbps, which still handles video calls. Same word, completely different experience.

• Plenty of providers won’t tell you the number. Some publish the daily cap and the throttle speed clearly. Others publish neither. That gap matters more than most of what’s on the sales page.

The terms you’ll see:

How much full speed data do you actually need?

Most people land in the first two rows. If that’s you, the throttle speed barely matters, because you’ll rarely hit the cap at all. Price is the thing to compare.

If you tether a laptop, assume you’ll hit whatever cap you’re given. Laptops chew through data several times faster than phones do and this is where people get caught out more than anywhere else.

What to check before you buy

Ask yourself these questions:

Unlimited plans compared

Anything marked not published means the provider doesn’t state it anywhere on their site or in their terms. Anything marked (reported) comes from other reviewers and databases rather than the provider, so treat it as a decent guess rather than a fact until we’ve confirmed it ourselves.

Discount codes for all 8 providers

We’ve negotiated codes with every provider in this guide, so whichever you pick, you shouldn’t be paying full price.

The providers

Two tiers here and it’s easy to grab the wrong one at checkout, so check whether you’re buying Unlimited or Unlimited Pro. That 10 GB tier is the biggest daily allowance in this guide by a long way and Sim Local put the number front and center instead of hiding it. What they never say is what happens once you’ve used it, which is the one thing we’d want from them.

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That reported 5 Mbps is the most forgiving throttle of anyone here and it flips the usual logic, because a small daily cap stops mattering much when the speed afterward still handles a video call. We’ve used Roamify across 14 Countries and it’s held up well in most of them, though it wouldn’t connect at all during our Colombia test. The catch is you’re buying without published fair usage terms.

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Two completely different unlimited structures under one name, so working out which you’re buying matters more than anything else about Ubigi. Burn through a 60 GB pool in week two of a month long trip and you’re at 2 Mbps for the next two weeks. Checking is easy at least, because they print the figure on the product page rather than tucking it into the terms, which is why they win on transparency here.

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Built by Nord Security, the NordVPN people, so the security tools in the app are the real ones rather than a bolted on afterthought. If you already pay for a VPN, that’s a subscription you can drop. One thing to flag: their fair usage policy lists excessive tethering as prohibited without ever defining excessive, so heavy laptop use sits in a gray area you can’t measure.

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The pick-your-own-allowance thing is useful in a way nothing else here matches. If you know a gigabyte a day is plenty, you pay for exactly that instead of somebody else’s definition of unlimited. Then there’s the problem: a fourfold difference in throttle speed between two of Nomad’s own pages, which decides whether your connection after the cap does anything beyond messaging.

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The most flexible buying setup of anyone here and the no-overage guarantee counts for something given how many people get stung by exactly that. Their policy page says fair usage depends entirely on whichever partner network you connect to and that Yesim adds nothing on top, which is honest as far as it goes but leaves you unable to find out what you’re buying. Test the hotspot when you land rather than counting on it.

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The strangest product in this comparison, in a good way. Unlimited validity means you buy once and use it whenever, across years if you feel like it, which kills the buy-and-burn cycle every other provider runs on. At 30% off the discount is big enough to beat providers with cheaper sticker prices, so run the numbers with the code applied.

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The most recognized unlimited brand out there and the least forthcoming about what unlimited actually gets you. Their own FAQ argues with itself: one page says data isn’t throttled but operators might reduce speeds, another says there are no strict daily limits. Neither gives you a number. The hotspot cap is the thing that catches most people, because 500 MB is about half an hour of video calls and nothing in the app warns you as you approach it.

So which one should you buy?

FAQs about unlimited eSIMs

1. Is an unlimited eSIM really unlimited?

Yes on access, no on speed. Your data won’t stop working, but every unlimited eSIM provider applies a daily full speed allowance and slows you down after it until the allowance resets.

2. What does fair usage mean on an unlimited eSIM?

It’s the rule letting the provider or the local network cut your speed after heavy use. It exists because eSIM companies buy wholesale capacity from local carriers and unrestricted use by a few customers would degrade things for everyone sharing that agreement. The problem isn’t that fair usage exists, it’s that some providers won’t tell you where the line is.

3. Can I use hotspot with an unlimited eSIM?

Yes, you can with most unlimited eSIMs, and the tethered data comes out of the same daily allowance. Sim Local, Saily, Ubigi, Yesim, Roamify and BNESIM all support it. Holafly’s the exception, with a separate cap between 500 MB and 1 GB a day. Nomad don’t publish a policy either way.

4. Can I get an unlimited eSIM with a phone number?

Sometimes. Sim Local include calls and texts on selected destinations, with numbers on some UK and France plans. Roamify sell voice and SMS bundles. BNESIM and Yesim sell numbers separately. Saily offer a US number. Everything else here is data only.

5. When does the daily allowance reset?

Depends who you buy from and half of them don’t publish it. Saily and Nomad reset 24 hours from activation, so if you activated at 6 pm your day rolls over at 6 pm every evening rather than overnight. Yesim is reported to reset at midnight UTC, which won’t match your day outside Europe.

6. Do discount codes work on unlimited plans?

Usually. Some providers exclude unlimited, regional or global plans from their codes though, and a few restrict codes to new customers. If yours gets rejected, check whether it’s new customer only before assuming it’s expired.

7. Is 3 GB a day enough?

For most people, yes. That covers maps, messaging, browsing, social and light video without much thought. It won’t be enough if you tether a laptop, stream regularly, or work off your phone.

8. Is 10 GB a day enough?

For almost anyone, yes. It handles hotspot, streaming, video calls, uploads and long days out. It’s also the highest daily allowance available across the 8 providers here.

9. Is unlimited better than a fixed data plan?

Only if you use enough to justify it. Under a gigabyte a day and a fixed plan is usually cheaper. Tethering, streaming, working while you’re away, or just not wanting to check your usage, and unlimited’s worth the premium.

10. Why won’t some providers publish their fair usage limits?

For some it really does vary by whichever local partner network they connect to in each destination. Others just don’t disclose it. Either way, buying without knowing the daily allowance or the throttle speed means finding out mid trip, which is the worst possible time.