eSIM hotspot and tethering: sharing your travel data
Short answer: Yes — hotspot (tethering) is enabled on every plan we sell, so you can share your travel eSIM’s data with a laptop, a tablet or a travelling companion. Make the travel eSIM your active data line, then switch on Personal Hotspot (iPhone) or Mobile hotspot (Android). Remember the shared devices draw from the same fixed allowance, and a laptop can use it far faster than a phone does.
Hotspot is the feature travellers discover they needed only after buying. It is also the one most often quietly restricted on travel plans, which makes it worth checking whoever you buy from. Here is how it works on our plans, what it costs in data, and how to avoid the two ways it commonly goes wrong.
Is hotspot included?
On our plans, yes. Tethering is enabled on every plan we sell, from the 1 GB plan to the 20 GB plan, across all 202 destinations and the regional and global plans too. There is no separate hotspot add-on, and no extra allowance — devices you connect simply use the same fixed data as your phone, so when the plan’s data is used, everything on it stops together.
How to switch it on
The steps are short, and the menu names vary slightly by phone and software version:
- Install the eSIM and make it the line your phone uses for mobile data, with data roaming off on your home line.
- Open the sharing setting: Settings → Personal Hotspot on iPhone, or Settings → Mobile hotspot (sometimes under network or connections) on Android.
- Switch it on, set a password, and join from the laptop or tablet like any other Wi-Fi network.
If it will not connect, the cause is usually that mobile data is still pointing at your home SIM rather than the travel eSIM — our eSIM not working checklist covers it.
What sharing really costs in data
A phone is frugal; a laptop is not. These are rounded planning figures, and they vary by service and quality setting:
| Activity | Rough use per hour |
|---|---|
| Email, chat, documents | Well under 100 MB for most people |
| Music streaming | Roughly 50–150 MB |
| Video calls | Roughly 0.5–1.5 GB |
| Standard-definition video | Roughly 0.5–1 GB |
| HD video | Roughly 1.5–3 GB |
The surprise is rarely the thing you chose to do. It is the laptop updating its operating system, syncing a cloud folder or backing up photos in the background. Most laptops let you mark a connection as metered or low-data, which holds those back; do that before you connect. As a worked case, a week in Japan of light laptop use might sit comfortably in 5 GB at £5.49, while a working month leans towards 10 GB at £8.99 — but that is your habits talking, not a guarantee.
Why some plans restrict tethering
Providers that limit or block hotspot usually do so because a laptop can use far more data than a phone, which matters most on plans sold as “unlimited” with a fair-use policy. It is a commercial decision rather than a technical one, and it differs by provider and sometimes by country. That is why it appears in our comparison checklist as a question to ask: allowed, restricted or disallowed? We cannot state another provider’s terms for them, so read theirs before you buy.
Hotspot, or a second eSIM?
Tethering is ideal for a laptop, which usually has no eSIM, and for one-off sharing. A device that can hold its own eSIM — most recent phones and cellular tablets — is often better off with its own plan if it will be used apart from your phone; see eSIMs for iPads and tablets and family and group travel. For long stays where a laptop is your livelihood, read the remote-work guide, and see Japan or the United States for plan sizes.
Keep your hotspot secure and your battery alive
A hotspot is a small Wi-Fi network you are broadcasting in a hotel, an airport lounge or a train carriage, so treat it like one. Set a strong password rather than the default, turn the hotspot off as soon as the last device has finished, and do not leave it running overnight on a charger in a crowded hostel. Some phones also offer a setting that hides the network or limits how many devices can join; use it if yours does.
Battery is the other cost. Sharing keeps the radio busy and the phone warm, and a phone that is both navigating and tethering can empty quickly. Keep the host phone plugged in or on a power bank, out of direct sun, and do not run it in a hot bag. If the connection keeps dropping, the usual fixes are the same as for any signal problem: toggle airplane mode, restart the phone, and check you have not wandered into a patch of weak coverage.
Before you rely on it
- Test the hotspot with your own laptop at home, on Wi-Fi, so the first time is not on a deadline.
- Mark the laptop’s connection as metered or low-data before you join it.
- Check the remaining data in the app, under My eSIMs, after a first hour of use, and scale the plan size from what you actually see.
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.
