What does a travel eSIM really cost per GB? (2026 data)
Comparing the same plan everywhere (5 GB of data for 30 days in Europe), travel eSIMs work out to roughly $3 to $4 per gigabyte in 2026. The cheapest fixed bundles are Instabridge and Saily (about $3.00 per GB, or $2.88 for Saily with a discount code) and Nomad ($3.40), undercutting the best-known name, Airalo ($3.90), by 15 to 25 percent. If you use very little data, pay-as-you-go is cheaper still (Roamless around $1.80 per GB used), and there is now a genuinely free, ad-supported tier (Firsty). Unlimited plans (Holafly, Maya) only pay off for heavy users.
eSIM pricing is deliberately hard to compare: every provider sells a different amount of data over a different validity period, so the sticker price tells you little. The only fair number is price per gigabyte on a like-for-like plan. We used the same benchmark for every provider, a 5 GB, 30-day, Europe-region bundle (or the closest equivalent), then divided by the data. The result is a ranking the marketing usually hides.
Price per GB on a 5 GB / 30-day Europe bundle (June 2026): Roamless: about $1.80 per GB (pay-as-you-go, you pay only for what you use). Saily: about $3.00 per GB ($2.88 with code SHORTLIST10). Instabridge: about $3.00 per GB. Nomad: about $3.40 per GB. aloSIM: about $3.60 per GB. Yesim and Ubigi: about $3.80 per GB. Airalo: about $3.90 per GB (a small premium for the widest coverage). BNESIM: about $5.00 per GB, but the data never expires. GigSky: about $5.80 per GB, the only one that also works on cruise ships and flights. Free option: Firsty gives slow, ad-supported data at no cost, with fast day passes for a few dollars.
Three practical conclusions. For a normal trip with a rough idea of your usage, a fixed bundle is simplest, and Saily, Instabridge, or Nomad save real money over the famous names without giving up much. If you barely use mobile data because you are on Wi-Fi most of the day, pay-as-you-go like Roamless means you never pay for gigabytes you do not burn. If you stream, video-call, and tether all day, stop counting and buy unlimited, where Maya (around $22 for 5 days in Europe) usually undercuts Holafly ($32). And put Firsty on your phone regardless: a free backup eSIM costs nothing and saves the day when a paid one fails to connect.