International mobile top-up: send airtime to a phone abroad
You are here, the phone is somewhere else. Enter their number with its country code, pay with the card you already have, and their own operator applies the credit — normally within a minute. Nothing to install on either side, and nothing for them to collect.
What each side needs
The whole point of sending airtime rather than money is that the work stays on your side of the border.
You, sending
- Their mobile number, written with the country code. The network is worked out from it, so you do not have to know who they are with.
- A card or wallet — Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay or Google Pay. It does not have to be issued in their country.
- An email address, where the receipt and the operator's reference code arrive.
- A free account if you want the number saved for next time. Not required for a one-off.
Them, receiving
- No account here, and no app to download.
- No code to read out over the phone and no voucher to type.
- No trip to a payout point and no ID to show.
- Nothing to pay. The credit is bought and paid for by you; their balance goes up, not down.
Their operator applies the credit to the SIM directly, so they use it exactly as if they had bought it in a shop at home.
Getting the number right: ask them to send it to you from their own phone rather than reading it out. Numbers written the local way often carry a leading 0 that is dropped once the country code is in front, and that single digit is the most common reason a transfer goes to the wrong place.
Why a border breaks the usual routes
Recharging a phone in your own country is easy and there are several ways to do it. Almost all of them stop working the moment the phone is in a different country from you.
Compare all five recharge routes- The operator's own checkout
Usually wants an account on that network and a local payment method. Foreign cards and foreign billing addresses are often refused outright.
- A scratch card or voucher
Sold over a counter in the destination country. You would have to be standing there, or post it.
- A bank or wallet app
Normally domestic: one country's operators, funded in one country's currency.
- Sending them the money instead
Works, but it is a different product with a different job — see the comparison below.
Topping up your own foreign SIM while you are the one travelling is a slightly different case, and the recharge routes compared covers it alongside the domestic options. Weighing this against a money-transfer app that sells airtime too, or wondering whether any of it needs an app at all? That is set out in choosing an online top-up service.
Airtime is not a money transfer
Both send value across a border, and that is where the similarity ends. Sending the wrong one is the mistake worth avoiding before you pay, not after.
| International airtime top-up | Cash remittance | |
|---|---|---|
| What arrives | Operator credit attached to one specific mobile number. | Money in a bank account, a wallet, or cash at a payout point. |
| Who can use it | Whoever is holding that SIM. | A named person, who is identified before they are paid. |
| What it buys | Calls, texts and data on that operator's network. | Anything. |
| What they have to do | Nothing at all. | Collect it, or verify who they are, depending on the service. |
| Regulated as | A prepaid purchase from a telecoms operator. | A money-transmission service, with the checks that go with it. |
| Use it when | The point is that the phone keeps working. | The point is that they need money. |
We sell the first of those two and nothing else. If someone needs money rather than a working phone, use a licensed money-transfer service — this is not one, and airtime is a poor substitute for one.
The line is not absolutely rigid: a few operators, mostly in parts of Africa, let a subscriber move airtime into their own mobile-money balance. That is the operator's feature, not ours, and it is the exception. Two guides cover how it works and where it does not: Uganda and Ghana and the safety checks worth making first.
Paying in one currency for credit priced in another
Two currencies are involved in every international top-up, and it is worth knowing which one does what.
The money side
- The credit is sold at the destination operator's own value, in that country's local currency.
- Your card is charged once, for the credit plus a service fee. The fee varies by country, operator and amount, and the exact figure is on screen before you confirm.
- If your card is issued in a different currency, your own bank applies its conversion. We add no spread on top of the rate.
- Full detail sits in the billing policy, including invoices with a VAT or company identifier.
The card side
- Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay, through a PCI-DSS Level 1 provider.
- The card does not have to belong to the destination country — that is the whole reason this route exists.
- Card details never touch our servers and nothing is stored on our side, so you enter them at each checkout.
- One receipt per completed order, emailed and kept in your account history.
Where you can send airtime
The markets we point people to most often, grouped by the code you will be dialling in front of the number. The full catalogue runs to 47+ countries and 230+ networks.
Europe
Numbers written locally with a leading 0 usually drop it once the country code is in front.
Americas and the Pacific
Canada and the United States share +1, so the number itself decides which network is loaded.
Asia, the Middle East and Africa
The widest time-zone gap from Europe and the Americas — worth a look at the section on when credit lands.
A country missing from this shortlist may still be covered — ask us about a destination and we will tell you straight. For how a top-up behaves in one specific market, our Indonesia guide is a worked example.
When it lands, on their clock
Delivery is measured in seconds, but the destination operator is running on its own time zone — which occasionally matters when you send at your bedtime and their network is mid-maintenance.
Read the delivery policy- 5 to 60 seconds, normally
That is the window most top-ups are credited in once payment clears, wherever the number is.
- Nightly maintenance windows
Some operators close for maintenance in their own local night. Orders are still accepted and queued, then delivered when the network comes back — and the expected time is shown at checkout while a window is active.
- Proof it arrived
Every completed order returns the operator's own reference code, on the success page and in your email. Where the destination network sends its own SMS receipt, they see that on the phone.
- If it does not arrive
Anything uncredited after 30 minutes is re-queued automatically. If the retry fails too, the full amount — service fee included — goes back to your card without you asking.
Sending to the same number every month
Most people who send airtime abroad send it to one or two numbers, again and again. A free account is aimed squarely at that.
It saves the numbers you send to, keeps the full history of what went where, and repeats a previous top-up in one tap — which matters most when you are doing this at the same point every month and do not want to re-check a country code you already got right.
- Saved contact book, so the number is typed once.
- Full transaction history you can search.
- One-tap repeat of a top-up you have already sent.
- Free to register, and no card needed until you send.
Sending abroad, question by question
Refunds, security and account questions are handled in the help centre.
Open the help centreWhich country can I send from?
Any of them. The service runs in a browser and is not tied to where you are — what matters is that the destination country and operator are covered, not your own.
Does the person receiving it need to do anything?
No. They need no account here, no app and no code. Their own operator credits the SIM, so the balance simply goes up on the phone they are already carrying.
Will receiving it cost them anything?
No. You pay for the credit and the service fee in one charge on your card. Nothing is deducted from their balance for receiving it.
Can they turn the airtime into cash?
Not as a rule — airtime is operator credit, spendable on that network. A few operators do let a subscriber move airtime into their own mobile-money balance, but that is the operator's own feature and it is not how this product is meant to be used. If the need is money, use a money-transfer service instead.
Which currency am I charged in?
The credit is priced in the destination's local currency and the total is shown before you confirm. If your card is in another currency, your own bank does the conversion at its rate — we add no spread of our own.
Do you offer a top-up platform or API for resellers?
No. This is a consumer service you use from a browser — there is no reseller API, no commission programme and no white-label product to sign up for. Coverage questions are welcome through the contact form.
Where to go next
The rest of the service, and the guides that go country by country.
Elsewhere on the site
Guides for sending across borders
Buying a line rather than feeding one? The prepaid SIM overview explains what keeps a prepaid number alive between top-ups.
Their phone, your card, one minute
Pick the country, type the number with its code, choose an amount. They do not even have to know it is coming.