eSIM - definition
An eSIM (embedded SIM) is a form of SIM card that is embedded directly into a device as software installed onto a eUICC chip.
eSIM is a GSMA standard that supports remote SIM provisioning. That means you can change mobile network operators and plans without the need to physically swap a SIM from the device. It helps manufacturers to reduce production costs and size of connected devices, which is particularly useful for wearables and IoT products.

For consumers, it enables easy purchase of roaming and local data plans without having to visit a carrier’s office. This makes it particularly useful when traveling, as you can purchase the eSIM in advance and activate it upon arrival with no interruption in your data connection. And in countries with stricter internet control it can often let you access restricted resources.
Popular eSIM service providers that we can recommend include:
Airalo
Saily
Yesim
Ubigi
ByteSIM
When purchasing an eSIM you should consider the differences between the available packages. Most of those only offer data connectivity with no cellular calls support, but there are exceptions.
Some offers allow accessing 5G networks, while others are limited to 4G. Additionally, if you plan on sharing your data connection with other people you are travelling with or even your laptop or tablet you have to make sure that tethering is allowed.
Available data plans come in multiple tiers for each country. They either have a certain data allowance and a validity of up to a month or offer unlimited data for a shorter period. Unlimited plans may come with a speed limitation (throttling) after a certain data usage threshold for each day. Below you can find the prices of different providers for some of the regions as of December 2024 - obviously prices change all the time so make sure you shop around to get the best deal.
Country | Data Cap | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Saily | Yesim | Airalo | Ubigi | ByteSIM | ||
UK | 1GB | $4.49 | - | $5 | - | - |
10GB | $19.99 | $24.20 | $22.50 | $10 | $10 | |
1 day unlimited | - | $7.70 | - | - | $4.90 | |
7 days unlimited | - | $29.70 | - | $22 | $25.90 | |
China | 1GB | $4.99 | - | $5 | $5 | - |
10GB | $24.99 | $31.90 | $28 | $21 | $12.90 | |
1 day unlimited | - | $7.70 | - | $4.90 | - | |
7 days unlimited | - | $37.40 | $35 (10 days) | - | $24.90 | |
France | 1GB | $3.99 | - | $4.50 | - | - |
10GB | $19.99 | $22 | $23 | $7 | $13.90 | |
1 day unlimited | $7.70 | - | $4.90 | - | ||
7 days unlimited | - | $30.80 | - | $24 | $23.90 | |
Barbados | 1GB | $8.99 | - | $8 | $17 | - |
10GB | - | $72.60 | - | - | $51.90 | |
1 day unlimited | - | $14.30 | - | - | - |
Related articles:
Traveling to China? eSim is your best roaming option
Testing Airalo and Yesim travel eSIMs in London
What's an eSIM, how it works and why it's important to you

0 - 9
2G 3.5mm headphone jack 3G 4G 5G 802.11
A
A-GPS (Assisted GPS) A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) Accelerometer Airplane mode Alarm Clock Alphanumeric AMOLED display (Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) Analog Android ANT+ Antenna Aperture APN (Access Point Name) Apple AirPlay Apple AirPlay 2 Apple iOS Apple iOS 10 Apple iOS 11 Apple iOS 12 Apple iOS 7 Apple iOS 8 Apple iOS 9 Apple Pay aptX Audio jack Auto-focus AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile)
B
Bada OS Band Bandwidth Bar Base Station Battery Charging BeiDou Navigation Satellite System Benchmarking Biometrics Bit BlackBerry OS BlackBerry Playbook OS Bluetooth bps (Bits per Second) Brand Broadband Browser Byte
C
Calculator Calendar Call alerts Calling Plan Camera Capacitive Touchscreen Car Kit Carrier CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) CDMA2000 Cell Chipset cHTML (Compact HyperText Markup Language) CIF (Common Intermediate Format) Clamshell CMOS (Complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor) Color depth Concatenated SMS Connected GPS Construction Corning Gorilla Glass CPU (Central Processing Unit) Crosstalk CSTN (Color Super Twisted Nematic) CTIA Custom ringtones CyanogenMod
D
D-Pad (Direction Pad) Data Disclaimer DC-HSDPA (Dual Carrier or Dual Cell High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) Digital Zoom Display type DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) DNSe (Digital Natural Sound engine) Downlink DRM (Digital Rights Management) Dual-band Dual-Mode Dual-SIM DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) Dynamic Memory
E
EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution) EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) EGPRS EGSM (Extended GSM) Email client Emoji EMS (Enhanced Message Service) eSIM EV-DO EV-DV Exchangeable covers External Antenna Jack External Display
F
FCC (Federal Communications Commission) Feature Phone Femtocell Firefox OS Firmware Fixed-focus Flash Memory Flight mode Flip-down phone FM Radio FM Transmitter Form factor FOTA (Firmware Over-The-Air) FPS (Frames Per Second) Frame Error Rate Frequency FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
G
Galileo (Global Navigation Satellite System) GB (Gigabyte) Gbps (Gigabits per second) Geo-tag GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System) GNSS Positioning GPRS GPS (Global Positioning System) gpsONE gpsOneXTRA Assistance technology GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)
H
H.263 H.264 H.265 Half-QWERTY keyboard layout Handwriting recognition Haptics HEVC Hot Spot Hot Swap HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit Switched Data) HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) HSDPA+ (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access Plus) HSP (Headset Profile) HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) Hz (Hertz)
I
iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) Image Signal Processor (ISP) IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) IP (Internet Protocol) IP Ratings IrDA (Infrared Data Association)
J
K
KB (Kilobyte) Kbps (Kilobits per second) Key Guard Key Lock Switch
L
Land line LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) LED (Light-Emitting Diode) Li-Ion (Lithium Ion) Li-Polymer (Lithium Polymer) LiMo OS Linux Location-Based Services (LBS) Lock code Long SMS Long Term Evolution (LTE) Loudspeaker
M
Macro Maemo OS Magnetometer mAh Mass Storage mode MB (Megabyte) Mbps (Megabit per second) MeeGo OS Megapixel Memory card slot Memory effect Messaging MHz (Megahertz) Micro USB microSD microSDHC Microsoft Exchange (Server) MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile) Mil-Spec (MIL-STD) MIMO Mini-USB miniSD MMC MMCmobile MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) Mobile games Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) Mobile IM (Instant Messaging) Mobile WiMAX Mobility DisplayPort (MyDP) Models Modem Monochrome MP3 (MPEG Layer 3) MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) MPEG-4 video Multitouch input method Music playback time (battery life) Music Player
N
NAND Memory Network capacity Network coverage NFC (Near Field Communication) NiCd (Nickel Cadmium) NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) NOR Memory Numeric keypad
O
OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) Optical Zoom OS (Operating System) OTA (Over-The-Air) OTG
P
Packet Data Pager PC Sync PCS (Personal Communications Service) PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) Percentile rank Phone Book Access (PBA) Phone Life Cycle Phone Physical Attributes Phonebook PIM (Personal Information Manager/Management) PIN code (Personal Identification Number) Pixel Pixel density (Pixels Per Inch) Polyphonic ringtones POP3 (Post Office Protocol) Port Predictive text input Price PTT (Push-To-Talk) PUK Code (PIN UnlocK Code) Push
Q
QCIF (Quarter Common Intermediate Format) Quad-band Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) QVGA (Quarter Video Graphics Array) QWERTY keyboard layout
R
RAM (Random-Access Memory) RBDS (Radio Broadcast Data System) RDS (Radio Data System) Rechargeable Battery Types Resistive touchscreen Resolution Ringer ID Ringing profiles Ringtone Roaming ROM (Read-Only Memory) RS-MMC (Reduced-Size Multi Media Card) RSA (Rural Service Area) RSS (Rich Site Summary) Ruggedized (Rugged)
S
S60 user interface SAP (SIM Access Profile) SAR (Specific absorption rate) Screen protection SD (Secure Digital) Secondary camera Sensors Side Keys SIM SIM lock Single-Band Skin Slimport Smart Watch Smartphone SMIL SMS (Short Messaging Service) SNS (Social network service) Soft keys Soft Reset Speed Dial Stand-by time (battery life) Stereo Speakers Streaming Video Stylus Sub-QCIF SVGA Symbian SyncML
T
Talk time (battery life) TCP/IP TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) TEST Tethering Text messaging (texting) TFD (Thin Film Diode) TFT (Thin Film Transistor) Theme To-Do list Touchscreen Trackball Transflash Transflective Tri-band
U
UFS UI (User Interface) UIQ UMA UMTS Unlocked phone Upload UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) USB (Universal Serial Bus) USB On-The-Go USIM
V
VGA (Video Graphics Array) Video call Video Codec Voice dialing Voice mail Voice memo VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) VPN (Virtual Private Network)
W
WAP (Wireless Application protocol) watchOS WCDMA(Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) Wear OS Wearable Technology webOS Wi-Fi Windows Mobile Windows Phone OS Wireless email WLAN WMV (Windows Media Video)