eSIM for digital nomads: stay online from country to country

Last updated: September 7, 2026

Your connection is your income, so this guide skips the postcard stuff. If you work from wherever you happen to be this month, an eSIM for digital nomads solves one specific problem: landing somewhere new and being able to open your laptop that same afternoon, without hunting for a phone shop or paying roaming rates for weeks. You buy a plan online, install it from the last decent Wi-Fi you had, and it comes to life when your phone finds a network on the other side.

What follows is the honest version. When a single-country plan wins, when a regional plan is worth its premium, why our own unlimited plans are the wrong tool for tethering a laptop, what a working month costs in the places nomads actually go, and how to move countries without a gap. We sell eSIMs, so weigh the advice accordingly. We'd still rather you buy the right plan than the biggest one.

Slow travel or fast travel? Decide that first

Everything else follows from how often you move. If you spend a month or three in one place, the Lisbon-then-Chiang-Mai-then-Mexico-City rhythm, single-country plans are the cheapest data we sell and you simply rebuy every 30 days. If you cross a border every week or two, a regional plan spares you the reinstall dance each time and keeps the same line working on the train from Vienna to Budapest.

The third pattern is the one people forget: a base with side trips. Two months in Portugal with a weekend in Seville and a week in Morocco. For that, a country plan for the base plus a small plan for each trip usually beats a regional plan, because you only pay regional prices for the days you're actually on the move.

Country plans: cheap, but they stop at the border

A country plan is what it sounds like: data in one country, for up to 30 days, at roughly local prices. In Europe that gets cheap. Portugal and Spain sit around 11 to 15 US dollars for 10 GB as we write this. Asia and the Americas cost more from us, not less, which surprises people who remember two-dollar SIMs from a market stall: Thailand is about 22 dollars for the same 10 GB, Mexico 19, Indonesia 28. In most of Asia a local SIM bought in person is still cheaper per gigabyte once you're settled. The eSIM buys you the first days, the airport taxi and the option not to queue.

The catch is validity. Every country plan we sell runs 30 days at most, and validity counts down whether you use the data or not. A three-month stay is three purchases, so buy the next one two days before the current one dies rather than the night it does.

Regional plans: one line across a continent

A regional plan is one eSIM that keeps working across a list of countries. Ours cover Europe (more than 30 countries including the UK, Switzerland and Turkey), Asia (14 countries, from Singapore and Thailand down to Australia and New Zealand), the Americas (13 countries from Canada to Argentina), the Middle East, and a Global plan spanning more than a hundred countries. Cross a border and nothing happens, which is the whole point.

Two honest caveats. Regional data costs more per gigabyte: 10 GB for Europe runs around 27 dollars against 11 for Portugal alone, and the Global plan is genuinely expensive at about 111 dollars for 10 GB, so it only makes sense if you hop continents inside a single month. And read the country list before you buy. Our Asia plan does not include Japan, the Philippines or Cambodia, and nobody wants to find that out at Narita.

The regional plans, on their own pages: Europe, Asia, the Americas and Global.

The long-stay plans most nomads never find

Buried in the catalogue are plans that run 60, 90 and 180 days, and they're the closest thing we sell to a nomad plan. They cover a whole region, they survive every border on the list, and the 100 GB sizes are the only plans we have that are big enough for a tethered laptop over a season.

Per gigabyte that's more than a monthly country plan. In exchange it's one purchase for a season, and you never have the Sunday night where the plan expires and the next one isn't bought. Mind the country lists here too: the light Global plan skips Japan, and the Americas plan covers Mexico and the US but not the Caribbean.

The two we'd start with: Europe + USA long-stay plans and Global light long-stay plans.

How much data does remote work actually take?

More than tourism, less than you'd think if you have decent Wi-Fi where you sleep. Video calls are the big one: roughly half a gigabyte to a gigabyte an hour, more with your camera on and a screen shared. Cloud sync and a few big uploads can quietly do the same. Everything else, email, Slack, docs, maps, is small change.

If you're between two rows, take the bigger one. Losing a client call to a 'no data' notification costs more than the difference.

The general version of this maths is in how much data you need for travel.

Why our unlimited plans are the wrong tool for a laptop

It's tempting: one price, stop counting. Read the small print on ours first. The standard Unlimited plan gives 1 GB a day at full speed and then unlimited data at 1.25 Mbps until the day resets. Fine for messaging and maps, a bad afternoon for a tethered laptop on a video call. Unlimited Plus has a much bigger full-speed pool, 6 GB for every day of validity, but it only comes in 5, 10 and 15-day lengths, mostly for Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

There's also a fair-use rule: plans are for personal use on a phone or tablet, dedicated MiFi routers aren't supported, and heavy tethering on unlimited plans falls under fair use. If the laptop is the whole job, a fixed 50 or 100 GB plan is simply the more honest product. You know exactly what you've got, and every byte of it is full speed.

Keep your home number alive, and know its expiry date

Your bank, your tax office, your clients' logins and half your apps still text a code to the number you had before you left. Keep that SIM in the phone. On a dual-SIM phone both lines stay registered: the eSIM carries data, the home SIM keeps receiving calls and texts, with its data roaming switched off so it can't run up a bill.

The nomad-specific trap: prepaid numbers at home get cancelled after a stretch of inactivity, anywhere from three months to a year depending on the carrier, and a lost number is a very bad week. Top it up on a schedule, or move it to the cheapest plan that keeps it alive. Better still, move two-factor codes to an authenticator app wherever you can. It works on any connection and doesn't care which country you're in.

The exact settings for iPhone and Android are in our dual-SIM guide.

What a working month costs, roughly

Prices move with exchange rates and with what our supplier charges us, so treat this as the shape of things and check the live price on each country page. As of September 2026, 30-day plans in the usual nomad haunts, in US dollars:

So a regular month on 20 GB runs from about 19 dollars in Portugal to about 49 in Indonesia. Europe is the cheap continent for us. Southeast Asia is where a local prepaid SIM bought in person still wins on price once you're settled, which is why plenty of nomads run the eSIM for the first week and a local SIM afterwards, keeping the eSIM installed for the next border.

Moving countries without a gap: the routine

1. Buy the next country's plan before you travel, while you still have Wi-Fi you trust. The QR code arrives by email in minutes.
2. Install it straight away, on Wi-Fi. Installing doesn't start the clock; validity begins the first time the eSIM uses data in the new country. Keep its data roaming off until you land.
3. Label the line by country ('Thailand data', 'Mexico data') so the switch is one tap in Settings, not a guess.
4. On arrival, switch mobile data to the new line and turn its data roaming on. The old plan can stay installed until it expires; then delete it to keep the list tidy.
5. Set a reminder two days before each plan ends. Plans never renew by themselves and we never charge you without a purchase, which is the point, but it does put the ball in your court.
6. Screenshot your accommodation's address and download offline maps for the new city. Boring, and the thing you'll be gladdest you did.

Three guides worth keeping open: how to install and activate an eSIM, how to top up your eSIM and what to do when an eSIM will not connect.

Have a plan B for the days that matter

eSIMs run on the same local networks as any SIM, so coverage and speed are whatever the country's networks give you, no better and no worse. Which network your eSIM lands on is assigned automatically and can't be chosen. Most days that's fine. For an unmissable client call, have a second option ready: a coworking space, an hour of your home SIM's roaming, or a second small plan from us on another line. An hour of expensive roaming is cheaper than a lost client.

And keep the refund rule in your back pocket: a plan you bought and never installed is fully refundable within 30 days, so buying ahead for a trip that then gets cancelled costs you nothing.

The details are in our refund policy.

Notes on the usual nomad bases

Thailand

Thailand's tourist SIMs are cheap and sold at every 7-Eleven, with passport registration on the spot, so the eSIM's job is the first week and the visa-run weekends to Vietnam or Malaysia. Coverage is excellent in the cities and on the islands, patchier in the mountains of the north. Thailand eSIM plans

Indonesia

Bali runs on Wi-Fi as much as mobile data, and villa Wi-Fi varies wildly, so budget for tethering. Coverage is good in the south and in the cities and thins out fast once you go remote. Indonesia is one of our pricier countries per gigabyte. Indonesia eSIM plans

Portugal

Portugal is our cheapest nomad base: 10 GB for 30 days at about 11 dollars. A local contract wants a Portuguese tax number and usually an address, so most people stay on prepaid or eSIM for months, and the Europe plan covers the Seville and Madrid weekends. Portugal eSIM plans

Spain

Spain costs much the same as Portugal. Prepaid SIMs need passport registration, which is quick but means a shop; the eSIM skips it, and Unlimited Plus comes in a 15-day size here if a fortnight of heavy calls is on the cards. Spain eSIM plans

Mexico

Mexico's prepaid SIMs are cheap and sold in every OXXO, so like Thailand the eSIM is for the landing week and for the Guatemala or Colombia hop. Our Americas plan covers Mexico, the US and most of South America on one line; it doesn't cover the Caribbean. Mexico eSIM plans