Comparing SIM cards and travel eSIMs for Austria

For most European visitors, the answer is nothing

Austria is in the EU. If your SIM is from any EU or EEA country, roam-like-at-home applies and your existing allowance works here at no extra cost. Buying anything is a waste of money. That covers a large share of Austria's visitors, and it is the first thing this page should say.

The rest of this is for travellers from outside the bloc, and for anyone whose home plan has a fair-use cap they expect to hit.

Airalo sells two Austria packages

Airalo lists two separate Austria packages, Servus Austria and Servus Austria+, at different prices for identical allowances. Both sets of figures below were read from Airalo's site on 13 August 2026.

What the premium buys is not stated by Airalo, so we cannot tell you whether the plus package is worth $7.50 on a 50GB month. What you can do is see which one you are buying, because the two carry different names: if the plan says Servus Austria+, the plain Servus Austria version of the same allowance is a separate listing at a lower price. The gap is worth checking at some sizes and not others — at 20GB over 30 days the two are 50 cents apart, $16.00 against $16.50, while at 5GB over 30 days Servus Austria+ at $11.00 is nearly 40% dearer than Servus Austria at $8.00 for the same gigabytes over the same month.

The rest of the market

The Nomad rows were read off Nomad's own site on 17 August 2026, the Saily rows off Saily's on 18 August 2026. Saily's $1.99 gigabyte is the cheapest entry price we hold for any country, and it is now a checked figure rather than an indicative one — along with Bulgaria and Czechia, Austria is one of only three markets where Saily's week of 1GB costs under $2. At the other end, an earlier version of this page said Nomad tied Airalo's Servus Austria at $29 for 50GB over 30 days. It does not: Nomad's 50GB month is $45, 90 cents a gigabyte, and Airalo's $29 is the only 58-cent plan in Austria. Saily's 3GB month at $5.99 undercuts Nomad's $9 comfortably, and its 5GB, 10GB and 20GB months all land a cent under Airalo's Servus Austria.

Holafly is hard to justify here. Its cheapest Austria plan is $19 for five days of unlimited. Less than that — $16 — buys 20GB from Airalo's Servus Austria with a month of validity, and Holafly does not support hotspot.

The local SIM, and why it rarely wins

A1, Magenta Telekom and Drei all sell prepaid SIMs. There are counters for all three in the arrivals area at Vienna Airport, a counter at Salzburg Airport, carrier stores in Vienna's centre on Mariahilfer Strasse and around Stephansplatz, and stock in MediaMarkt and Saturn electronics stores. A passport or ID is required for registration. An airport SIM runs around $15.

In most countries the local SIM wins on volume. Austria is the exception, because the eSIM floor is so low. For $15 at the airport to beat a verified 20GB month — $15.99 from Saily, $16.00 from Servus Austria — the local pack would need to carry more than 20GB, and you would still have handed over your passport and stood in a queue to get it.

Where A1 earns its recommendation

A1 has the broadest rural and alpine valley coverage, at over 99% of the population on 4G. Magenta and Drei are excellent in the cities, with 5G live in Vienna, Graz, Linz and Salzburg. National average speed is around 48 Mbps.

The gaps are all vertical. High alpine terrain above roughly 2,000 metres — off-piste skiing, high hiking ridges — drops out. So do the narrow deep valleys in Tyrol and Styria, and some border mountain areas with Germany. If your trip is a city break, none of this touches you. If it is a ski week, download your maps before you get on the lift.

Full plan tables and coverage detail are on the Austria hub.