Best eSIM for the USA: how to choose, and what to buy
Short answer: For most trips to the USA, a 5 GB plan covers a week or two of ordinary use, and it costs £6.99. The deciding factor is not price but how far you will be from a city: the US is so large that coverage, not data size, is what trips people up.
The United States is the one country on this list where the size of the place matters more than the size of the plan. A weekend in New York and a three-week drive through the Southwest are completely different connectivity problems, even though both are “a USA eSIM”.
Which plan to buy for your trip length
For the USA we currently sell 5 plans, from 1 GB for £1.99 up to 20 GB for £22.99. Matching those to the length of a trip gives the table below.
| Trip length | Light use (maps, messaging) | Moderate use (plus social, photos) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 days | 1 GB · £1.99 (7 days) | 3 GB · £4.99 (30 days) |
| 7 days | 3 GB · £4.99 (30 days) | 5 GB · £6.99 (30 days) |
| 14 days | 3 GB · £4.99 (30 days) | 10 GB · £12.49 (30 days) |
| 30 days | 10 GB · £12.49 (30 days) | 20 GB · £22.99 (90 days) |
Planning figures, not guarantees: roughly 200 MB a day for light use and 500 MB a day for moderate use. Daily video streaming, video calls and large downloads use far more. The plan shown is the cheapest one in our live catalogue that is both big enough and valid long enough.
USA eSIM plans and prices
Our plans for the USA connect to Verizon and AT&T, and the phone picks between them. The best value per gigabyte is the 20 GB plan, at £1.15 a gigabyte.
| Data | Valid for | Price | Per GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | 7 days | £1.99 | £1.99 |
| 3 GB | 30 days | £4.99 | £1.66 |
| 5 GB | 30 days | £6.99 | £1.40 |
| 10 GB | 30 days | £12.49 | £1.25 |
| 20 GB | 90 days | £22.99 | £1.15 |
City trips and road trips need different thinking
In and between major cities, mobile coverage on the big national networks is dependable, and a 3 GB or 5 GB plan is plenty for navigation, rideshare, messaging and the odd video call. The hotel or café Wi-Fi does the heavy lifting.
Road trips are where it changes. National parks, desert highways and mountain passes have long stretches with no signal on any network, so the useful habit is to download offline maps for the whole route before you leave a town, not to buy a bigger plan. Data you cannot receive is data you cannot use.
Hotspot and the rental car
If you are travelling with someone, one plan with tethering is usually cheaper than two eSIMs, and it is how most couples handle a shared road trip: the phone with the eSIM navigates and hotspots to the other. Every plan we sell allows it, so what limits you is the data, not a switch in the settings.
Rental cars with built-in navigation often charge for the subscription, so using your phone is the cheaper option, and a 5 GB plan comfortably covers weeks of turn-by-turn directions, which use very little data.
What to know before you land
US plans connect to a host network chosen by the plan, not by you. That is normal for travel eSIMs and not a fault, but it means the coverage map you should look at is the one for the networks listed above, not the one for whichever carrier you use at home.
Related guides
- USA eSIM plans — every plan and price
- Cheapest eSIM for USA — cost per gigabyte
- Best eSIM for travel — how to choose
- Comparing eSIM providers fairly
- Check your phone supports eSIM
We sell eSIMs, so this is a seller’s guide. Prices on this page were read from our catalogue on 7 November 2026; coverage notes are general, so check the plan before paying.
