A data-only eSIM for the United States adds a second line to your phone for internet while your existing number stays active for calls and two-factor codes. On 10 September 2026 a 10 GB, 30-day plan cost €14.00 at Yesim and €21.53 at Nomad. Most travel eSIMs here run on T-Mobile, so check the network before the price if your trip leaves the cities.
Our estimate, not a measurement, is roughly half a gigabyte a day on maps, messaging and browsing, and two or three with video. A ten-day trip on ordinary use lands near five gigabytes. The reasoning, the setup steps and the questions that are the same in every country are on how a travel eSIM works. This page is the part that is specific to the United States.
An eSIM does not have its own network. It rents capacity from a US carrier, and which one it rents from is what determines whether you have a signal on a national park in Utah.
| Network | Where it is strongest | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| T-Mobile | Cities and the interstates | What most travel eSIMs run on. Airalo and Ubigi state it, Nomad names it with the other two, and T-Mobile sells its own visitor eSIM, see the table |
| AT&T | Broad, including much of the rural South and Midwest by its own map | Named only by Nomad in our table |
| Verizon | The widest rural footprint by its own map | Nomad names it, and Airalo lists it with U.S. Cellular on some packages |
If a listing does not tell you which network it runs on, that omission is itself information. The plans confident about their coverage say so in the first line.
The two partners and two reference providers, read on the same night, per plan, before checkout. Yesim does not state its US host network on its plan page. Airalo states T-Mobile, and on some packages Verizon and U.S. Cellular as well. Nomad names all three carriers and Ubigi names T-Mobile, with a note that its plan covers Hawaii and not Alaska. Airalo also lists fixed-data plans from 1 to 50 GB; only its unlimited plans were recorded on the night. The last three rows are T-Mobile’s own U.S. Pass eSIM, read on 15 September 2026, unlimited with talk and text, but it can only be bought and activated once you are inside the United States, so it does not solve the arrival hour.
| Provider | Plan | Data | Days | Price | Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yesim | 5 GB, 30 days read at yesim.app/country/united-states/ | 5 GB | 30 | €9.00 | not stated by the provider |
| Yesim | 10 GB, 30 days read at yesim.app/country/united-states/ | 10 GB | 30 | €14.00 | not stated by the provider |
| Yesim | 20 GB, 30 days read at yesim.app/country/united-states/ | 20 GB | 30 | €21.00 | not stated by the provider |
| Yesim | 7 days unlimited read at yesim.app/country/united-states/7days-unlimited-esim-data-plan/ | Unlimited, fair-use throttle, threshold not stated | 7 | €20.30 | not stated by the provider |
| Yesim | 15 days unlimited read at yesim.app/country/united-states/15days-unlimited-esim-data-plan/ | Unlimited, fair-use throttle, threshold not stated | 15 | €29.00 | not stated by the provider |
| Yesim | 30 days unlimited read at yesim.app/country/united-states/30days-unlimited-esim-data-plan/ | Unlimited, fair-use throttle, threshold not stated | 30 | €45.00 | not stated by the provider |
| Airalo | Change 7 days unlimited read at airalo.com/united-states-esim | Unlimited, 3 GB/day full speed then reduced | 7 | €22.50 | T-Mobile, with Verizon and U.S. Cellular on some packages, as Airalo states |
| Airalo | Change 10 days unlimited read at airalo.com/united-states-esim | Unlimited, 3 GB/day full speed then reduced | 10 | €30.50 | T-Mobile, with Verizon and U.S. Cellular on some packages, as Airalo states |
| Airalo | Change 15 days unlimited read at airalo.com/united-states-esim | Unlimited, 3 GB/day full speed then reduced | 15 | €41.00 | T-Mobile, with Verizon and U.S. Cellular on some packages, as Airalo states |
| Airalo | Change 30 days unlimited read at airalo.com/united-states-esim | Unlimited, 3 GB/day full speed then reduced | 30 | €60.50 | T-Mobile, with Verizon and U.S. Cellular on some packages, as Airalo states |
| Nomad reference | 5 GB, 30 days | 5 GB | 30 | €13.78 | T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon |
| Nomad reference | 10 GB, 30 days | 10 GB | 30 | €21.53 | T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon |
| Nomad reference | 20 GB, 30 days, on sale from €32.72 | 20 GB | 30 | €31.00 | T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon |
| Nomad reference | 7 days unlimited | Unlimited, daily allowance then 512 kbps, allowance not stated | 7 | €19.81 | T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon |
| Nomad reference | 15 days unlimited | Unlimited, daily allowance then 512 kbps, allowance not stated | 15 | €37.89 | T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon |
| Ubigi reference | 10 GB, 30 days | 10 GB | 30 | $14.00 | T-Mobile |
| Ubigi reference | 7 days unlimited | Unlimited, 25 GB full speed then 2 Mbps | 7 | $25.00 | T-Mobile |
| T-Mobile (carrier) reference | U.S. Pass eSIM, 7 days, bought after landing | Unlimited, 50 GB premium then deprioritised, talk and text included | 7 | $25.00 | T-Mobile, its own network |
| T-Mobile (carrier) reference | U.S. Pass eSIM, 10 days, bought after landing | Unlimited, 50 GB premium then deprioritised, talk and text included | 10 | $30.00 | T-Mobile, its own network |
| T-Mobile (carrier) reference | U.S. Pass eSIM, 14 days, bought after landing | Unlimited, 50 GB premium then deprioritised, talk and text included | 14 | $35.00 | T-Mobile, its own network |
Observed 10 September 2026 20 plans Method
Read by hand on each provider's public plan page, per plan, before checkout, in the currency the page displayed. Prices change and promotions come and go. Partner rows link through our tracked redirect to the provider’s site, not to the plan page, and earn us a commission; the page each of those prices was read from is printed under the plan name. Rows marked reference are providers we do not earn from, and link to the page they were read from. Yesim’s unlimited plans state a fair-use policy without a threshold. Airalo’s state 3 GB a day at full speed. Ubigi’s prices are in US dollars because that is what its page displays, and its 7-day unlimited plan states 25 GB at full speed.
Two of the four providers in our table answer this in writing, and they do not give the same answer. On Ubigi’s USA 10 GB, 30-day plan page at US$14, read 15 September 2026, the feature list states that USA data plans also cover Hawaii but do not cover Alaska, and the coverage table on the same page lists Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on T-Mobile alongside the United States. Airalo’s package information, read the same day, states that the eSIM covers the United States, including Hawaii and Puerto Rico, with limited availability in Alaska.
Hawaii is covered on both, Puerto Rico is named by both, and Alaska is excluded outright by one and sold as limited availability by the other. The remaining two commit to nothing. Nomad publishes a hedge instead, that coverage may not include overseas territories under the jurisdiction of the specified country and that you should contact customer support to confirm before purchasing, and the words Alaska and Hawaii do not appear anywhere on its page. Yesim’s page gives coverage as one country, lists ten mainland cities and other cities in United States, and names none of the three places.
So if Anchorage, Denali or a Southeast Alaska cruise port is on the itinerary, one page has committed itself against you and one has committed to a phrase that is not a promise, and the other two have committed to nothing at all. Get the answer in writing before you pay, and re-read the plan page on the day you buy, because these exclusions move and the only date on any of this is ours.
| Provider | In its own words | Alaska | Hawaii | Puerto Rico |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubigi | USA data plans also cover Hawaii but do not cover Alaska | Excluded | Covered | Listed on T-Mobile, with the U.S. Virgin Islands |
| Airalo | Covers the United States, including Hawaii and Puerto Rico, with limited availability in Alaska | Limited availability | Covered | Covered |
| Nomad | Coverage may not include overseas territories under the jurisdiction of the specified country | not published | not published | Not stated, and the territory hedge applies |
| Yesim | Coverage of one country, ten mainland cities named | not published | not published | not published |
| T-Mobile, on its own U.S. Pass eSIM | Unlimited talk and text in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, bought inside the United States | not published | not published | not published |
Read 15 September 2026 at cellulardata.ubigi.com/rates-and-coverage/usa-data-plans/usa-10gb-30-days/, nomadesim.com/united-states-esim, airalo.com/united-states-esim, yesim.app/country/united-states/ and prepaid.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans/esim-usa-travel-plans. Partner pages are named rather than linked, because every link of ours to a partner is tracked.
An eSIM cannot build a tower. What it can do is rent a different one. A travel eSIM on T-Mobile inherits T-Mobile’s gaps, and in the rural West those gaps are the whole question, which makes the network column in the table above the road-trip column.
Nomad is the only provider in our table that names AT&T and Verizon. Read 15 September 2026, its United States page gives the network for the United States as T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon. Airalo and Ubigi name T-Mobile, Airalo adding one other it does not name in the label, and Yesim names none. Airalo’s page sells the Yosemite hiking trails while naming T-Mobile as the primary network, which is the distance between the sales copy and the network column in a single sentence.
Do not ask us whether there is a signal at a particular overlook, because we have not stood there. Take the host network out of the table, open that carrier’s own coverage map, and check the specific places on your route before you buy. Inside a park the honest expectation is no service on trails and in canyons on any network at any price, so download the maps while you still have bars.
Install on wifi before you fly, switch the travel line on when you land, and leave the home line alone so your number and your codes keep working. The three steps, and the mistake that locks people out of their bank, are on the shared guide.
| Option | Best when | Cost against it |
|---|---|---|
| Travel eSIM | One or two people, phone-first use | Needs a compatible, unlocked phone |
| Prepaid SIM from a US carrier | A month or more, or you need a US number | A shop visit, ID, and your home SIM comes out of the phone |
| Home carrier roaming | Very short trips, or where a day pass is genuinely cheap | Usually the most expensive over a fortnight |
The table above is what the plans cost. These are the two providers we earn from. Airalo states T-Mobile, Yesim does not state a network.
An eSIM installs before departure and connects the moment the plane doors open. Your number and your 2FA codes stay on your existing SIM.
See plansFixed data bundles with no contract. Useful for short trips where an unlimited plan costs more than the data you will actually use.
See plansNo. A data-only travel eSIM adds a second line for internet. Your existing number stays on your physical SIM or on your primary eSIM, and it remains the number people reach you on, provided you leave that line enabled.
Install before you fly, activate on arrival. Installation needs a working internet connection, which is exactly what you will not have at the airport in the United States. Most providers let you install the profile early and start the validity period later.
Three host networks, T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon. Travel eSIMs overwhelmingly run on T-Mobile, which is fine in cities and thin in parts of the rural West. In our table Airalo and Ubigi state T-Mobile, Airalo adds Verizon and U.S. Cellular on some packages, and Nomad names all three. If a plan does not name its network, that is the answer.
In cities, suburbs and along the interstates, yes on any host network. The rural West, the national parks and Alaska are where the three carriers’ maps diverge most, and a travel eSIM on T-Mobile inherits T-Mobile’s gaps there. Ubigi states plainly that its plan does not cover Alaska. Check the host network against the carrier’s own map for the specific places you are going.