Mobile Data Price Index 2026: What 1GB Costs Travelers in 196 Countries

How much does mobile data really cost when you travel? We checked our live prepaid eSIM prices for 196 countries, using a 10GB plan as the reference, and the answer is: it depends enormously on where you are going. The cheapest destination works out to $0.90 per GB and the most expensive to $21.90 per GB. That is a 24x spread for the same gigabyte of data.

The median across all 196 destinations is $2.70 per GB. For comparison, typical carrier roaming passes run $5 to $15 per day, and pay as you go roaming rates can reach several dollars per megabyte.

The 20 cheapest countries for travel data

The 10 most expensive

Small island destinations and microstates dominate the expensive end. Limited carrier competition and costly interconnects push wholesale rates up, and retail follows.

What this means for travelers

First, never assume roaming is fine because your last trip was cheap: the same gigabyte can cost 24 times more one border away. Second, in most of Europe, Southeast Asia and North America, prepaid eSIM data is now so cheap that a week of heavy use costs less than a single day of carrier roaming. Third, for the expensive destinations, a fixed prepaid plan protects you from the worst outcome, which is an unbounded roaming bill.

The full index: 196 countries A to Z

Method note: prices are our live retail prices in USD for the listed plan closest to 10GB and 30 days in each destination, collected automatically from our catalog. They update as our prices change, so treat this page as a living index rather than a snapshot.

Browse our destination guidesCoverage, data needs and prices for every destination we sell.