Best eSIM for Mexico: Telcel, AT&T or Movistar, North America plans and prices compared

Which Mexico eSIM fits your trip?

Mexico is large and travel styles differ a lot, from a week at a beach resort to a road trip across several states. A Mexico plan works across the whole country; what changes is how much data you need and how remote you go:

• A week in Cancún, Tulum or Playa del Carmen: 5 to 10 GB covers maps, ride-hailing, WhatsApp, social media and photo uploads for typical use. A plan with 1 GB a day at full speed works too.
• Two weeks with Mexico City, Oaxaca or Chiapas: 10 to 20 GB, and preferably a plan that lists Telcel, because coverage between the cities depends more on the network.
• A road trip through Baja California or the north: choose a plan with Telcel or two networks and download offline maps, because long stretches between towns have little or no signal.
• Mexico combined with the USA or Canada: compare a North America plan with separate country plans (see below).

How much data typical activities use is explained in our guide to how much data you need for travel.

Telcel, AT&T or Movistar: which network is best in Mexico?

Travel eSIMs for Mexico connect to one or more of four networks, and providers write the names in many different ways:

In Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey and the main beach destinations, all of these networks generally give you usable 4G. The differences show up on highways between cities, in the mountains and in rural areas, where Telcel usually reaches further. About half of the Mexico country plans in our database list more than one network; with those, the phone can switch when one is weak.

5G: Telcel has been rolling out 5G in larger cities since 2022, and AT&T has followed in some of them. Many travel eSIMs are labelled 5G, which means they can use it where it exists and the provider's roaming agreement allows it. Elsewhere you are on 4G, which is fast enough for everything a traveller usually needs.

Coverage from Cancún to Baja California: where the signal gets thin

Coverage in the cities and resort areas is good, but several places that are popular with travellers have gaps:

• Riviera Maya and the Yucatán: Cancún, Playa del Carmen and the centre of Tulum are well covered. Inside cenotes, in the Sian Ka'an biosphere reserve and on some jungle roads between Mayan sites the signal is weak or absent.
• Baja California: towns such as La Paz, Los Cabos and Ensenada have coverage, but the long highway stretches through the desert have sections without any signal.
• Oaxaca and Chiapas: the cities are covered; mountain roads, the coast between villages and areas around San Cristóbal de las Casas have patchier coverage.
• Copper Canyon: the train stations and towns have some coverage, the canyon itself very little.
• Boat trips and islands: Isla Mujeres and Cozumel are covered; on boats further out the signal drops.

Before you leave the cities, download offline maps for the region in Google Maps or another map app, and save tickets and booking confirmations on your phone. A plan with Telcel or two networks reduces dead spots, but no plan covers every road.

Mexico eSIM prices: the cheapest plan for every data amount

Each row shows the cheapest plan we track for that amount of data with at least a week of validity. A few points help you compare:

• Compare the price per GB, not just the price of the package; a larger package often costs only a little more.
• Check the validity: some cheap packages last only a week, others 15, 20 or 30 days. Match the validity to your trip, because two small packages usually cost more than one larger plan.
• Check the networks: the cheapest plans sometimes use a single network, such as Altán. For a beach holiday that rarely matters; for road trips a plan with Telcel is the safer choice.
• Regional plans can appear in the table when they are the cheapest option for Mexico. They also work in the other countries they list, for example the USA and Canada.

Some providers offer discount codes for a first purchase; current ones are on our promo codes page.

Unlimited data in Mexico: what happens after the daily allowance

Unlimited plans for Mexico almost always have a daily allowance at full speed, after which the speed drops until the next day. In our database many of them drop to 128 kbps after 500 MB, 1 GB or 2 GB a day; other common rules are 2 GB a day followed by 2 Mbps and 3 GB a day followed by 1 Mbps. For a notable share of plans the provider does not state the speed after the allowance.

At 128 kbps you can still send messages, but maps, ride-hailing apps and photos become very slow, so a cheap unlimited plan with a small allowance is often less useful than it looks. At 1 to 2 Mbps after the allowance, maps, messaging and social media keep working, and video calls are possible at lower quality. The right-hand column of the table only counts plans with at least 2 GB a day at full speed.

Hotspot: most Mexico plans in our database allow you to share the connection; only a few exclude it, and for some the provider does not say. Our Mexico comparison page shows what each provider states. How fair-use rules work in general is covered in our guide to unlimited eSIM plans, and sharing data with a laptop in our eSIM hotspot guide.

Mexico with the USA or Canada: one plan or separate plans?

Many trips combine Mexico with the USA or Canada, and many travellers fly in via a US airport. In our database about four in five multi-country plans that include Mexico also include the USA, and over 30 providers sell small packages for the USA and Mexico, often with Canada as well.

• One North America plan saves you from installing a second eSIM and keeps one data allowance for the whole trip. It works as soon as you land in the next country.
• Separate country plans are often cheaper when you spend most of the trip in one country or only change planes in the USA.
• Check your home plan first if you live in the USA or Canada: many mobile plans there include use in Mexico. A travel eSIM is then only worth it if your allowance abroad is small or slow.
• Check the networks in each country: a combined plan does not always use the same Mexican networks as the country plans of the same provider.

Plans for the neighbouring countries are compared on our USA and Canada pages and on the North America page; for the USA see also our guide to the best eSIM for the USA.

Travel eSIM or local SIM card in Mexico?

Prepaid SIM cards are sold in operator shops and in many OXXO convenience stores. Both options get you online; the differences are in the setup and in what you get besides data:

For most visitors the home number matters more than a local one, because bank codes arrive by SMS on the home SIM. WhatsApp is the main way to reach hotels, drivers and tour operators in Mexico and works over mobile data. How to run your home line next to the eSIM is explained in our dual SIM guide.

Set up before you fly to Mexico

1. Check that your phone supports eSIM and is not locked to your home carrier; our compatibility guide shows how.
2. Install the eSIM at home on Wi-Fi a day or two before departure. Our guide on when to activate an eSIM explains when the validity starts.
3. Install the apps you will need before you leave: Uber or DiDi for rides, WhatsApp, your map app with offline areas for the regions you visit, and a translation app with Spanish downloaded.
4. After landing, switch the travel line on, choose it for mobile data and turn on data roaming for that line. Keep your home SIM for calls and SMS, with its data roaming off.
5. If nothing connects, our troubleshooting guide lists the usual fixes in order.

Step-by-step installation instructions are in our guides for iPhone and Android.