Airalo review: the best-known eSIM, priced for heavy users

We compared Airalo's published prices and policies on its own pages; we didn't buy or test its eSIMs for this review. Aventure SIM is run by the team behind Lotso Travel, a competitor, assessed on the same data without a score.

What changed: Airalo now sells unlimited first

Airalo built its name on cheap fixed-data packs. When we read its country pages on 31 October 2026, every one of our destinations led with unlimited day passes; fixed-GB packages sat behind a filter and rendered on only one page we opened (Mexico, where 10 GB for 15 days cost $24.50, the cheapest Airalo price in our index). Airalo was founded in 2019 and reported 20 million users by July 2025 (Wikipedia), so it's the brand most people start from, and the one most worth checking against the alternatives.

Prices for adventure trips

The unlimited pass prices were strikingly uniform: $48 for 15 days in Japan, Iceland, Norway, the UK and New Zealand; $44 in Peru, $44.01 in Canada, $49 in Tanzania and Morocco, $50 in Chile, $52 in Ecuador. Argentina had no 15-day option, and Nepal's 15-day pass cost $79, so in both the cheapest way to cover two weeks with one pass length was two 7-day passes: $70 and $69. (In Argentina, a 10-day plus a 5-day pass would shave that to $66.)

What that means in practice:

• Light use (0.5 GB a day): Airalo's median cost was 2.78× the cheapest provider. A trekker paying $48 in Iceland could have had 10 GB for $15.99–$16.
• Heavy use (1.5 GB a day): the gap narrows to a median 1.71×, and Airalo is competitive with Saily and well ahead of Holafly, though Maya Mobile's $27.99 flat pass is cheaper if you accept Maya's vaguer fair-use rules.

Use the switches above to see your own trip length and usage.

Fair use: 3 GB a day, then 1 Mbps

Airalo publishes one of the clearest fair-use policies in the market: "The default daily high-speed data threshold is 3GB", after which speed falls to "1 Mbps for the rest of that day", resetting automatically. Its unlimited-plans FAQ describes the allowance as "3GB per day at 20 Mbps". 3 GB is more than Nomad's 2 GB and less than Saily's or Ubigi's 5 GB.

The policy also reserves the right to suspend "continuous, around-the-clock" or machine-to-machine use without notice, and bans reselling or commercially sharing the connection. For ordinary travel that won't touch you.

Hotspot and top-ups

"There is no limit on tethering or the number of devices you connect", and hotspot data counts toward the daily 3 GB. That's more generous than Holafly's per-country daily hotspot cap. Packages can auto-renew when 10% of the data remains, handy on a fixed plan, though on a trek with no signal the renewal waits until you're back in coverage. We didn't find a phone number on the country pages we read.

Networks

Airalo names the primary network on each country page: SoftBank in Japan, Ncell in Nepal, Halotel (plus one other) in Tanzania, Movistar in Peru, Chile and Argentina, Bell in Canada, Síminn (plus one other) in Iceland. The "+ 1 other" pattern suggests a second operator you can roam onto, but the second network isn't always named.

Refunds and support

Airalo's refund help page is the least traveller-friendly of the big names: "Airmoney (our in-app currency) is the only available refund method in the app", and "expired or fully used eSIMs are not eligible". That's fine if you'll buy from Airalo again, less so if you won't. For installation problems you can choose a replacement eSIM instead. The page doesn't state a time limit.

Support is the opposite: Airalo's contact page says "we're available 24/7" by live chat, with more options in the app. Among our seven, only Saily, Holafly and Maya publish comparable round-the-clock help.

Who should pick something else

• Light or moderate use: Nomad (cheapest in 9 of 18 destinations) or Saily.
• Long trips in expensive-data countries: Maya Mobile.
• Refunds to your card: Nomad, or Holafly with its six-month window.
• Europe, UK, Iceland, Norway on a short trip: Lotso Travel, run by our team, was cheapest (review).

Head-to-heads: Airalo vs Holafly, Saily vs Airalo, Nomad vs Airalo.