The best way to get mobile data as a digital nomad
Short answer: For a month-long stay, a fixed 10 GB or 20 GB plan (30 days) covers email, chat, maps and light browsing, and hotspot is enabled so a laptop can use it. It is not enough if you spend hours a week on video calls — that is where a local SIM with a large allowance, or a fast fixed connection, is the honest answer. Buy small first, then top up in the app if you need more.
Nomads are a different buyer from holidaymakers. A holiday eSIM is judged on the cheapest week; a work eSIM is judged on whether a call drops mid-meeting, and on what it costs by the month. This page sizes the data honestly, shows what plans cost in four popular bases, and says plainly where a travel eSIM stops being the right tool.
How much data does remote work really use?
The spread is enormous, and one activity dominates it. As rounded planning figures (they vary by app and quality setting, so treat them as ranges):
- Email, chat and documents: a small fraction of a gigabyte a day for most people.
- Maps, browsing and messaging: usually a few hundred megabytes a day.
- Video calls: very roughly 0.5 GB to 1.5 GB per hour, depending on quality and group size.
- Large uploads, cloud sync and software updates: unpredictable, and capable of burning several gigabytes in one go.
Do the arithmetic for your own week. If you spend ten hours a week on calls and assume one gigabyte an hour as a round number, that is around 40 GB a month from calls alone — double the largest plan we sell (20 GB). Someone who lives in chat and documents and takes two short calls a week will be comfortable on a fraction of that.
Four popular bases, priced from the catalogue
Fixed-data plans are bought by the month, so the figure that matters is the price of a month’s data. The cheapest 10 GB and 20 GB plans for four common bases, as this page was built:
| Base | 10 GB | 20 GB | Networks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thailand | £10.49 · 30 days | £13.99 · 30 days | AIS, DTAC, TrueMove H |
| Portugal | £8.49 · 30 days | £13.49 · 30 days | Vodafone, NOS |
| Mexico | £19.99 · 30 days | £32.49 · 30 days | Telcel, AT&T |
| Indonesia | £13.99 · 30 days | £16.99 · 30 days | Telkomsel, XL, Indosat |
The price gap between countries is real: the 20 GB plan costs £13.99 in Thailand and £32.49 in Mexico. If you are choosing a base partly on running costs, that is one more line to weigh alongside rent.
Longer validity, topping up and hotspot
Most of our larger plans are valid 30 days, so a three-month stay means three purchases, or a top-up. Topping up eligible fixed-data eSIMs is available in the app under My eSIMs, which keeps the eSIM already installed instead of adding a second one. A few destinations carry longer validity on the bigger plans — 20 GB for the United States is £22.99 valid 90 days; 10 GB for the United Arab Emirates is £20.99 valid 60 days — and the validity is printed on every plan before you pay.
Hotspot is enabled on every plan we sell, so a laptop can run off your phone. Remember that a laptop spends data differently from a phone: updates and cloud sync run quietly in the background. Read how tethering uses your data before you rely on it for a working day.
Build in a backup, and know the limit
If your income depends on being online, one connection is a single point of failure. Keep your home SIM active as a fallback, install a second travel eSIM before you need it, and know where the nearest co-working space or café with solid Wi-Fi is. Mobile data is also not a replacement for the fixed line in your accommodation: if you will be on calls all day, a decent home Wi-Fi connection does the heavy lifting and the eSIM is the back-up.
Be realistic about the other direction too. If you routinely need more than 20 GB a month, a local prepaid SIM with a large allowance will usually be cheaper per gigabyte than repeatedly buying 20 GB plans, and it comes with a local number — see when a number matters. Compare the approaches in eSIM vs local SIM card.
A sensible way to start
Arrive with a small plan — 3 GB or 5 GB — so you have data the moment you land, work out your real daily use over the first week, and then buy or top up the size that matches it. Buying 20 GB in advance “just in case” is the common way to pay for data you never touch. For Thailand, for instance, the 10 GB plan is £10.49 and the 3 GB plan is £4.99. Compare options with our provider checklist or check the how much data do I need guide.
Every price and plan size on this page was read from our live catalogue when the page was built. Usage figures are rounded planning numbers, not measurements, and real use varies by app, device and quality setting. We quote no other provider’s prices. Last reviewed 7 November 2026.
