The best eSIM for Afghanistan in 2026. Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Afghanistan, priced on the same day: 10 GB for a month from $33.99, unlimited from $32.99.
Prices read on 28 September 2026. Few travel eSIMs sell Afghanistan at all. We checked the six that get most of the traffic for this search on the same day: five sell a plan, Holafly does not. We priced a few days in Kabul, a week or two between Bamyan and Herat, and a month, and read the fine print. Here is where each one wins, and where Ringo Light does not.
Ringo Light: The only unlimited plan sold for Afghanistan alone. Unlimited data for 3 days at $32.99, 7 days at $74.99 or 30 days at $252.99, one payment each, fair use applies. None of the other five sells Afghanistan unlimited. It is not the cheap option: our buckets cost more than Saily's and Airalo's, and Saily's Global plan gives a month with 30 GB at full speed for $59.99.
Saily: Cheapest 10 GB and cheapest month of heavy use. 10 GB for 30 days at $33.99 and 5 GB at $20.99. Its Global plan covers Afghanistan too: 30 GB at full speed for 30 days, then 1 Mbps, at $59.99. Listing from June.
Airalo: Cheapest short trip, on Roshan. 1 GB for 3 days at $5.50, 10 GB for 7 days at $33 and 10 GB for 30 days at $34, on Roshan, the network every rival here uses.
Ubigi: Most data a month, if you accept a renewal. Its World plan covers Afghanistan: 20 GB a month for $44, renewing monthly. Its Afghanistan plans stop at 3 GB for 15 days at $34.
Model: Airalo Buckets only, up to 10 GB; Saily Buckets for Afghanistan; Global plans cover it too; Nomad Buckets only, up to 10 GB; Ubigi Small Afghanistan buckets; World plans cover it; Ringo Light Buckets for 30 days, or unlimited for 3, 7 or 30 days.
Unlimited, 3 days: Airalo No unlimited; 3 GB for 3 days $13.50; Saily No unlimited; Nomad No unlimited; Ubigi No unlimited; Ringo Light $32.99.
Unlimited, 7 days: Airalo No unlimited; 10 GB for 7 days $33; Saily No unlimited; Nomad No unlimited; Ubigi No unlimited; Ringo Light $74.99.
Unlimited, 2 weeks: Airalo No unlimited; 10 GB for 15 days $34; Saily No unlimited; Nomad No unlimited; Ubigi No unlimited; 3 GB for 15 days $34; Ringo Light No 2-week plan; 7 days $74.99.
Unlimited, 30 days: Airalo No unlimited; Saily No Afghanistan unlimited; Global 30 GB, then 1 Mbps, $59.99; Nomad No unlimited; Ubigi No Afghanistan unlimited; World 60 GB a month, then 2 Mbps, $120, renews; Ringo Light $252.99.
1 GB: Airalo 3 days $5.50; Saily 7 days $5.49; Nomad 7 days $9; Ubigi 7 days $18; Ringo Light 30 days $14.99.
3 GB: Airalo 7 days $14; Saily 30 days $13.99; Nomad 30 days $24; Ubigi 15 days $34; Ringo Light 30 days $33.99.
5 GB, 30 days: Airalo $21; Saily $20.99; Nomad $37; Ubigi Not sold for Afghanistan; Ringo Light $44.99.
10 GB, 30 days: Airalo $34; Saily $33.99; Nomad $68; Ubigi World plan $59; Ringo Light $85.99.
20 GB, 30 days: Airalo Not sold; stops at 10 GB; Saily Not sold for Afghanistan; Global 20 GB for 365 days $66.99; Nomad Not sold; stops at 10 GB; Ubigi World 20 GB a month $44, renews; Ringo Light Not sold; stops at 10 GB.
Full speed on unlimited: Airalo No unlimited plan; Saily Global plan: 30 GB, then 1 Mbps; Nomad No unlimited plan; Ubigi World plan: 60 GB, then 2 Mbps; Ringo Light Unlimited data, fair use applies.
Networks: Airalo Roshan; Saily Not named by Saily; Nomad Roshan; Ubigi Roshan (TDCA); Ringo Light Local partner network.
Renews?: Airalo No; Saily No; Nomad No; Ubigi Monthly World plans do; Ringo Light No, one payment; the plan ends when it ends.
App needed: Airalo Yes; Saily Yes; Nomad Optional; Ubigi Optional; Ringo Light No, the eSIM arrives by email.
Afghanistan is the rare country where most travel eSIMs sell no unlimited plan at all. Airalo and Nomad stop at 10 GB, Saily's Afghanistan plans stop at 10 GB, and Ubigi's stop at 3 GB. Holafly sells no Afghanistan eSIM. Ringo Light is the one brand of the six selling unlimited data for Afghanistan alone: 3 days at $32.99, 7 days at $74.99 and 30 days at $252.99, one payment each, nothing renews, fair use applies.
Being the only one does not make it the cheapest way to get a lot of data. For a month, Saily's Global plan, which covers Afghanistan, gives 30 GB at full speed and then 1 Mbps for $59.99, $193 less than our 30 days. Ubigi's World plan gives 60 GB a month and then 2 Mbps for $120, but it renews every month until you cancel it. For a week, Airalo's 10 GB for 7 days at $33 costs less than half our 7 days. Our Afghanistan plans do not top themselves up, so there is no second charge to add to the sums; when one ends, it ends.
Buy our unlimited if you want one payment, no counting and no renewal to cancel, and you accept the price. If you want the most data for the money, Saily's Global month is the better buy. We would rather you read that here than at checkout.
Afghanistan has several mobile networks, among them Roshan, AWCC, MTN, Etisalat and Salaam. Airalo, Nomad and Ubigi all ride Roshan, and Saily does not name its network. Ringo Light uses a local partner network. In Kabul, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and the other cities, and along the main roads between them, mobile data is normal.
Away from the cities it thins out for every brand in this table. Around the lakes of Band-e-Amir, on the long road to the Minaret of Jam and in the high valleys of the north-east, expect hours without signal. Mobile internet has also been switched off nationwide for periods in the past. Save offline maps, your bookings and your driver's number before you leave a city, and do not plan around being online.
Before you book anything, check your government's travel advice.
Saily, $33.99 for 10 GB. The cheapest 10 GB for 30 days by one cent, 5 GB at $20.99 and 3 GB at $13.99. Its listing is from June; saily.com refused the fetch.
Airalo, $34 for 10 GB. Nine plans on Roshan, from 1 GB for 3 days at $5.50 to 10 GB for 30 days at $34. The cheapest short trip.
Nomad, $68 for 10 GB. 1 GB for 7 days at $9 up to 10 GB for 30 days at $68, on Roshan, with hotspot allowed.
Ubigi, up to 3 GB. Its Afghanistan plans are 1 GB for 7 days at $18 and 3 GB for 15 days at $34. Its World plans cover the country for more: 10 GB for 30 days at $59, or 20 GB a month at $44 that renews monthly.
Ringo Light, the dearest bucket here. Our 30-day buckets are 1 GB at $14.99, 3 GB at $33.99, 5 GB at $44.99 and 10 GB at $85.99. Saily and Airalo sell the same 10 GB for $52 less. For a fixed amount of data in Afghanistan, buy Saily or Airalo, not us. We would rather you read that here than at checkout.
Ringo Light is our own data eSIM, sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. For Afghanistan it sells 30-day data buckets of 1, 3, 5 and 10 GB, from $14.99 to $85.99, and unlimited data, fair use applies, for 3 days at $32.99, 7 days at $74.99 or 30 days at $252.99. One payment, nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email in seconds and installs in one scan, no app.
The card to buy it is just below this article.
A few days in Kabul. Airalo 1 GB for 3 days at $5.50, or 3 GB at $13.50. Ringo Light 3 days of unlimited at $32.99 if you would rather not count.
A week or two: Kabul, Bamyan and Band-e-Amir. Airalo 10 GB for 15 days at $34. Ringo Light unlimited for 7 days at $74.99 only if one payment with no counting matters more than the price.
A month, budget first. Saily 10 GB for 30 days at $33.99, or Airalo at $34.
A month, heavy use. Saily's Global plan, 30 GB at full speed then 1 Mbps, at $59.99. Ringo Light unlimited for 30 days at $252.99 is the only Afghanistan unlimited, and it costs far more.
You need your own number to keep ringing. None of these travel plans does that. The full Ringo, which Ringo Light funds, ports the number you have.
What to do in Afghanistan, and what your phone needs for it. Eight places most first trips include, from Kabul and the Bamyan valley to Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, with the one thing your data does for you at each. The cities have 4G. The mountains mostly do not, so the tips below lean on offline maps and cash.
The Gardens of Babur, Kabul. Terraced gardens on a hillside in west Kabul, laid out for the Mughal emperor Babur, who is buried at the top, with a small white marble mosque below his tomb. Spring and autumn are the best times, when the trees are green or gold. Cards are rarely taken in Kabul. Carry afghanis in cash and find a money changer in maps before you head out.
The Bamyan valley, Bamyan. A green valley under a long cliff cut with caves and the empty niches of two giant Buddhas, destroyed in 2001. The valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site; go between May and October. Signal is patchy outside Bamyan town. Save the offline map and your guesthouse's number before you drive out.
Band-e-Amir, West of Bamyan. Six deep blue lakes held back by natural walls of white travertine, high in the Hindu Kush, Afghanistan's first national park. A day trip from Bamyan in summer; the road closes with snow in winter. Expect little or no data at the lakes. Download the route and arrange your driver while you still have signal in Bamyan.
The Minaret of Jam, Ghor province. A 12th century brick minaret about 65 metres tall, covered in carved brickwork, standing alone in a narrow gorge by the Hari River. A UNESCO World Heritage site reached only by a long, rough drive. There is no signal for most of the road. Tell someone your route, save offline maps and carry the driver's number on paper.
The Friday Mosque of Herat, Herat. Herat's great mosque, with a wide courtyard framed by iwans covered in blue and turquoise tilework. A tile workshop on the site still makes the tiles used to repair it. Translation by camera reads Dari signs and menus in the bazaar around the mosque.
The Citadel of Herat, Herat. A mud brick fortress on a mound in the old city, with towers and walls restored in the last twenty years and a museum inside. Go in the late afternoon for the view over the rooftops. Herat has good city coverage. Keep your hotel address saved in Dari to show a driver on the way back.
The Blue Mosque, Mazar-i-Sharif. The shrine of Hazrat Ali, covered in blue tiles and known for the white pigeons in its courtyard. It is the centre of Nowruz celebrations in March. Check opening times and dress rules on the day before you go; they are set locally and can change.
The Panjshir valley, North-east of Kabul. A long, narrow river valley in the Hindu Kush, with orchards and villages along the Panjshir River below steep bare slopes. Late spring and early autumn are the greenest. Data comes and goes along the valley road. Save offline maps in Kabul and carry cash for everything.
We priced Airalo, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Afghanistan on 28 September 2026, all on the same day, in US dollars. Each rival's price comes from its own website where it showed dollars, otherwise from an esimdb.com listing, and every source and its date is listed below. Ringo Light's prices come from the catalogue our checkout charges.
We compare the trips people actually book: a week, two weeks and a month of unlimited data, and a 10 GB bucket. We read each brand's fair use and speed rules and quote them as the brands state them. We did not run speed tests, so this page makes no speed claims for any brand.
Ringo Light is our own product. We put it in the table on the same terms as everyone else, and where a rival is the better buy the page says so.
Left out: Holafly, it sells no eSIM for Afghanistan: its Afghanistan page returns not found and esimdb lists no Holafly plan for the country.
Source for Airalo: https://www.airalo.com/afghanistan-esim?currency=USD (prices in dollars on the site; the same nine buckets on esimdb.com/afghanistan/airalo, 28 September 2026).
Source for Holafly: https://esim.holafly.com/esim-afghanistan/ (page not found on 28 September 2026; no Afghanistan plan listed on esimdb).
Source for Saily: https://esimdb.com/afghanistan/saily (listing dated 30 June 2026; saily.com refused the fetch).
Source for Nomad: https://esimdb.com/afghanistan/nomad (listing dated 17 September 2026; network from nomadesim.com/afghanistan-eSIM, which served euro prices).
Source for Ubigi: https://esimdb.com/afghanistan/ubigi (listing dated 17 September 2026; network from cellulardata.ubigi.com).
For a 10 GB bucket, Saily at $33.99 for 30 days on 28 September 2026, with Airalo one cent behind at $34. For a few days, Airalo at $5.50 for 1 GB. For a month of heavy use, Saily's Global plan at $59.99 for 30 GB at full speed. Ringo Light is the only brand selling Afghanistan unlimited, from $32.99 for 3 days, and its buckets cost more than Saily's and Airalo's.
Airalo, Nomad and Ubigi ride Roshan. Saily does not name its network on its listing. Ringo Light uses a local partner network. All of them work in the cities and along the main roads; none reaches the remote valleys well.
Every brand has a limit somewhere. Airalo, Nomad and Saily sell no Afghanistan unlimited. Saily's Global plan slows to 1 Mbps after 30 GB and Ubigi's World plan to 2 Mbps after 60 GB. Ringo Light sells unlimited data for Afghanistan, and fair use applies.
On the main roads, mostly. Every eSIM here rides an Afghan network, and around Band-e-Amir, on the way to the Minaret of Jam and in the high valleys those networks leave long gaps. Download offline maps and your bookings in a city, and check your government's travel advice before you go.
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