Comparing SIM cards for India: the local counter wins on price by a wide margin

The gap is wider here than almost anywhere

Most countries we price produce a close-run contest between a local SIM and a travel eSIM. India does not. The local option is dramatically cheaper, and the only reason to pay more is time.

The airport kiosks run by Airtel and Jio sell tourist bundles at around $7. What we recorded at those counters was roughly 500 rupees, about $6, for 28 days with 1 GB a day plus unlimited calls. Spread across the month that is somewhere near 20 cents a gigabyte. We have not re-verified that bundle this month, so treat the allowance as indicative — but even halved, nothing on the eSIM side comes close.

What the counter costs you instead

Activation takes up to 24 hours. That is the price.

You will also need paperwork: a passport, a visa, and a passport photograph. This is a KYC registration requirement, not a shop policy, and it applies to local eSIMs from Indian carriers just as much as to plastic SIMs.

So the realistic sequence is: land, queue, hand over documents, and spend your first day in India — the day you most need a taxi app to work — without mobile data. For a two-week trip that trade is obviously worth it. For a four-day business visit it is obviously not.

What the travel eSIMs charge

Airalo's figures were read from its own site on 13 August 2026, Saily's from its own site on 16 August and Nomad's from its own on 18 August. eSIMCard's rows have been withdrawn: we read its own pages on 18 August 2026, found the figures we held were wrong, and could not store the real ones. See our eSIMCard page.

Nomad takes every 30-day size in that table, which is not what this page said before its prices were checked: the 3 GB row was $9.00 and marked as a listing rather than a price, and the 5, 10 and 20 GB rows went to Saily and Airalo. Between those two the gaps are a single cent — $13.99 against $14.00 at 5 GB, $23.99 against $24.00 at 10 GB — with Airalo 99 cents cheaper at 20 GB. Against Nomad they are behind by a dollar at the small sizes and five dollars at 20 GB.

The floor is $0.86 a gigabyte, on Nomad's 50 GB month at $43. An earlier version of this page gave it as $1.90 and said nothing above 20 GB existed for India. At the sizes most visitors actually buy you are paying $2.10 to $2.83. Against a local bundle at roughly 20 cents that is still around a tenfold difference — and it exists because you are buying convenience and no paperwork, not better data.

Holafly sells unlimited instead of gigabytes, from $30.90 for five days to $111.90 for thirty. Nomad's verified unlimited undercuts it at both lengths it sells — $18 for five days and $33 for ten. There is one India-specific trap with it: the Holafly app is blocked on India's App Store, so it must be installed and activated before you arrive. If that is your provider, do not leave it until landing.

Networks, and one label worth explaining

Airtel is the recommended carrier for visitors. It is the easiest to set up as a foreigner, has the best 5G speeds — 187 to 212 Mbps — and strong urban coverage. Jio leads on 5G availability nationally at 69.2% and has the wider rural reach, so it is the better bet outside cities, though its own KYC process is harder for tourists.

National 4G averages 14 to 17 Mbps, which is lower than regional peers. Do not plan on Indian 4G being fast; plan on it being present.

One thing to know when comparing: Airalo does not publish which Indian network its local eSIM connects to. It sells the plan under its own product name, Indicomm, which is Airalo branding and not an Indian carrier. Saily is the same: its India page offers a connection from the country's best networks without naming one. Nomad is the same again: an earlier version of this page said it listed Airtel and Jio access directly, and it does not — it names no carrier in any country it sells in. Holafly is the same again, whatever an earlier version of this page said about its Airtel and Reliance Jio listing. eSIMCard does list Airtel and Jio, but that is a provider claim we have not independently confirmed.

Where no plan reaches

Coverage gaps are consistent across every provider, because they are gaps in the underlying networks: rural Rajasthan; Himachal Pradesh above roughly 3,000 m; the Leh–Manali highway above the higher passes, where signal drops with altitude; the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands; and parts of the Northeast, including Nagaland and Mizoram. Jio is the strongest of the networks for rural penetration.

If your trip is a Himalayan road route, buy for the cities and accept the rest.

Who should buy what

Under a week, cities only: a travel eSIM. Pay the premium, land connected, skip the counter. Saily's verified $3.99 for a gigabyte over seven days is the cheapest doorway we hold a price for.

Two weeks or more: the local Airtel or Jio bundle at the airport, with a small eSIM as a bridge for the first 24 hours while registration clears. That combination costs a few dollars and removes the only real drawback.

Rural or high-altitude travel: a local Jio SIM, for the rural coverage rather than the price.

Full plan pricing across every provider is on the India hub, and how we test sets out which numbers carry a verification date.