Mobile data bundles: buy the right size, not the biggest
It is easy to overbuy data when nothing ever tells you what a gigabyte is worth. This page sizes it for you, then loads the operator's own bundle onto a prepaid number — yours or somebody else's.
We do not sell SIM cards, eSIMs or phone plans. The line already exists; we keep data on it.
How much mobile data do you actually need?
Bundles are sold in gigabytes, and a gigabyte means nothing until you know what it buys. Video is the whole story — everything else is rounding.
What one gigabyte gets you
Bars show how hungry each activity is per hour.
Treat those as planning figures, not promises. Streaming quality is the single biggest lever — dropping video from high definition to standard roughly halves the appetite, and most apps have that setting buried in their own menu rather than the phone's. Codecs, autoplay and background sync move the numbers too.
The practical rule: size the bundle for the video you will actually watch on mobile data, then add a little for everything else. If the phone is on Wi-Fi at home and at work, that is far less than people assume.
Turning that into an actual size means dividing the allowance by the window it has to cover — is one gigabyte enough? walks through that arithmetic and the four things that move you a step up or down.
Little or no video away from Wi-Fi. A small monthly bundle usually goes unfinished.
Feeds with autoplay on, a few calls, the odd episode on a commute. The middle tier most operators build their range around.
Tethering, streaming instead of broadband, hours of video calls. This is where the largest packs and the word "unlimited" start to matter.
Deciding between a data pack and plain credit rather than between two sizes? That trade-off is set out on the prepaid data SIM page, along with how bundle validity works.
What "unlimited" actually means
The word does a lot of selling and very little of it is literal. Almost every unlimited offer has a number hidden behind it — usually one of these three.
A fair-use ceiling
A stated cap in the terms. Past it the operator may slow you down, charge, or ask you to stop tethering. The figure is in the plan's small print, not on the poster.
A speed step-down
Data keeps flowing after the threshold but at a much lower speed — enough for maps and messaging, not for video. Unlimited in volume, limited in usefulness.
Deprioritisation
No cap and no throttle, but when a cell is busy your traffic yields to everyone else's. You notice it at rush hour and at events, and nowhere else.
Where we stand on it
We do not sell SIM cards, plans or an unlimited product of any kind, so there is no unlimited data bundle to buy here and nothing for us to talk up. What loads for a number is that operator's own catalogue — if they sell a large or genuinely uncapped pack, it appears there at their price, with their conditions. We neither create those offers nor discount them.
Searching for a prepaid SIM with unlimited talk, text and data is really searching for a plan, and plans are sold by operators inside one country. Buy it from them; keeping it loaded afterwards is the part we do. The prepaid SIM guide covers where a line comes from in the first place.
Comparing two data bundles
Price alone ranks them wrong. Four things decide which one is actually the better buy.
The bundle price is the operator's, set for their market in local currency. Our service fee sits on top and depends on the country, the operator and the amount — it is on screen before you confirm, and there are no promo codes or cashback here to hunt for.
How pricing and refunds work| Price per GB | The only figure that compares a 3 GB pack with a 20 GB one. Divide, then rank. |
|---|---|
| Validity window | A cheap 30 GB pack that expires in seven days is not cheap if you use four. Unused data does not normally roll over. |
| What happens at zero | Some networks stop the data, others keep going at an out-of-bundle rate that costs far more per GB than the pack did. |
| What is bundled with it | Some packs carry minutes or texts, or exempt certain apps from the allowance. That changes the real price per usable GB, and it is one of the two fences described on daily, weekly, night and social packs. |
Working out which of two packs is the cheap one once repeat purchases are counted? Cheap data bundles is that arithmetic. Chasing value across whole plans rather than single packs? Where the savings actually sit makes the case that the plan, not the discount, is where the money is.
Named packs are just labels
Operators brand their data the way supermarkets brand own-label goods, so a friend may have told you to buy one by name. Those names belong to the network, not to a separate product — and none of them are ours.
You do not have to know the name. Enter the number with its country code, and what loads is that operator's current catalogue for that line, described in their own words. If the pack you were told about is on sale, it is in that list — and if it is not, buying a bundle online goes through the reasons a pack can be missing, and what the ordering screen can and cannot tell you before you pay.
Sharing a bundle with other numbers
Several networks let one line hold an allowance and share it with nominated numbers — the master-and-beneficiary arrangement. That setup lives entirely on the operator's side: it is configured in their app, on their website or with a keypad code by whoever owns the main line.
What we do is put the bundle on the number you name. If that number is the master line, the sharing rules the operator already has in place carry on working exactly as before. Moving credit between accounts shows how one network handles the transfer side of this.
Buying data for a number that is not yours
The number and its country code are the whole requirement. Nothing is asked of the person receiving it.
A family number
Data is usually what runs out first when the phone is the only connection at home. They keep using it as normal — nothing to accept, install or read out.
A second device you own
A tablet, a dashcam, a hotspot left in a drawer. Same flow as a phone, provided you can find the SIM's own number.
Handsets you are responsible for
Field staff, a fleet of work SIMs, volunteers on a project. One account, one receipt trail, as many numbers as you need.
What a free account adds
- A saved contact book, so a number is never retyped.
- Full transaction history with the operator reference for every order.
- One-tap repeat of a bundle you have bought before.
- No card needed to register, and none stored afterwards.
On agents, resellers and bulk buying
There is no agent scheme here, no commission, no dealer pricing and no bulk or API access. Every order goes through the same checkout at the same price, whether it is your first or your fiftieth.
That is a deliberate limit rather than a coming feature, so please do not plan a business around one — the top-up for business sets out what an organisation can and cannot do here. If reseller economics are what you are researching, how commission works in this market looks at how it is done elsewhere.
Where data bundles are available
Coverage runs to 47+ countries and 230+ operators, but data packs are not universal inside that.
Some networks sell a full range of data bundles; others only sell general credit and let the customer convert it on their own side. Which of the two you get is decided by the operator behind the number, and you see the answer as soon as the number is entered — there is no guesswork before you pay, and an operator that is temporarily unavailable is greyed out rather than sold to you.
The full destination list, with dialling codes, sits on the mobile top-up overview. Missing a market? Tell us which operator and it goes on the list.
Worth knowing if you are buying into West Africa: credit, data and mobile money are three different things there. Airtime and mobile money explains what can and cannot move between them.
Data bundle questions
Payment, refunds and account questions live in the help centre.
Open the help centreDo I have to buy a SIM card from you first?
No, and you could not if you wanted to — we sell no SIM cards, no eSIMs and no plans. This works on a prepaid line that already exists, whoever supplied it.
Can I buy an unlimited data bundle here?
Not as a product of ours. If the operator behind that number sells a very large or uncapped pack, it shows up in their catalogue at checkout with their own conditions attached. We do not create, rename or discount operator offers.
Can I buy data for a number in another country?
Yes. Choose the destination country, enter the number with its international code, and the catalogue that loads is the one for that network. Your card does not have to be issued there.
How soon does the data work?
The bundle is applied by the operator, usually 5 to 60 seconds after payment clears, and you get their reference code on screen and by email. On some phones the connection needs toggling off and on before the new allowance is picked up.
What if the operator only offers airtime for that number?
Then airtime is what you can buy, and converting it into data is done on the operator's side afterwards. The trade-off between the two is covered on the data SIM page.
How do I check how much data is left?
That figure lives with the operator, not with us — their app, their account page or a keypad code will tell you. What we can show you is every bundle you have bought and when, in your account history.
Where to go next
The pages either side of this one, and the network detail it deliberately leaves out.
Around this page
Data, network by network
Taking the phone abroad? Turning roaming on properly is worth reading before you rely on a home bundle in another country. Paying for it another way — a shop, a voucher, the operator's own app — is compared on mobile recharge.
Know the size? Load it.
Country, number, then the operator's own data options with the total in front of you. Most bundles are live on the line inside a minute.