The short answer
You have AT&T or Verizon and a plan to see Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, maybe more, and you want to know whether to roam or buy an eSIM. I read both carriers' day-pass pages on 31 October 2026 and set them against the five travel eSIMs and Ringo Light, priced on 25 October 2026. For a day or two I would roam. For two weeks or a month I would buy Ringo Light, with my own SIM left in for calls.
Unlimited data at full speed for 2 weeks at $21.99 or 30 days at $36.99, one payment, nothing renews. Airalo asks $62 for 15 days and $99 for the month.
10 GB for 30 days at $15 and 25 GB at $25, on Jio. Useful if maps, trains and messages are most of your use.
5 days of unlimited at $18 on Airtel, with 2 GB a day at full speed. 20 GB for 30 days is $33.
Days, not gigabytes, on India's two largest networks. A week costs $39.50, and sharing from the phone is limited to 1 GB a day.
Prices read on 25 October 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, SIM rules for tourists, AT&T, Ringo Light, Verizon on their own sites or listings, Ringo Light from its catalogue. All in US dollars unless stated. Treat every number as a snapshot.
See the full price index for every country.
Travelling further? Compare the best eSIM for Asia and the eSIM for Asia-Pacific.
The prices, charted
US dollars, 25 October 2026. Ringo Light sells 2 weeks, the others 15 days. Nomad stops at 10 days. Ubigi's 15 days is 30 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps.
The 30-day plan at each brand. Ubigi's month is 60 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps. Nomad sells no month of unlimited.
Holafly sells no buckets. Ringo Light sells no bucket either: its 2 weeks is unlimited and lasts 2 weeks, not 30 days.
Side by side
Swipe to compare →
Get Ringo Light for India, from $11.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 7 days $11.99
- 2 weeks $21.99
- 30 days $36.99
We sell data eSIMs for now to fund the full Ringo service. Ringo is self funded. Every plan bought here pays for the build of one plan that works everywhere.
Want to keep your own number abroad?
That is the full Ringo service: one plan that works everywhere, with your own number included.
It is a separate product from Ringo Light and it is still being built, so it is not on sale yet. Join the waitlist to hear when it opens.
What to see in India, and what your phone needs for it
Eight places most first trips include, from the Taj Mahal to the Kerala backwaters, with the one thing your data does for you at each. Cities are well covered, and the quiet places are the ones where offline maps help.
Roam with your carrier, or buy an eSIM
AT&T's International Day Pass is $12 a day on land, read 31 October 2026, and its destination list includes India. Two weeks of daily use is $168 and a month is $360. Verizon's TravelPass countries list shows India at $12 per day on the same date. Ringo Light is $21.99 for 2 weeks and $36.99 for 30 days, unlimited data at full speed, paid once. It sells no 3-day plan for India.
Ringo Light's fortnight is $146.01 under either pass, and its month is $323.01 under. Unlimited data costs more in India than almost anywhere I have priced, so the rivals are far above it too: 15 days is $46 at Ubigi for 30 GB, $59.99 at Saily and $62 at Airalo, and a month is $68 at Ubigi and $98.99 at Saily. Short stays are where rivals win on price: Airalo's Asialink sells 3 days of unlimited at $11.50, and Nomad 5 days at $18.
Here is what the carrier wins, and it is not small. Your own number keeps ringing, calls and texts are included, nothing needs installing, and there is no eSIM slot to find. Both bill only for days the phone is used in India. One day is $12, under Ringo Light's $21.99, so for a single day I would roam. A second day at $24 tips it.
AT&T says the pass is for customers on an unlimited plan. If your line is on a smaller plan, read the terms for it first. Each additional line used on the same day adds $6, so two phones for a fortnight come to $43.98 on Ringo Light, against $168 for one.
Networks in India, and what changes for a visitor from the United States
India has four mobile networks: Jio, Airtel, Vi and the state-run BSNL. Jio and Airtel are the two largest and run 5G in the big cities. In the table, Holafly names both Jio and Airtel, Nomad rides Airtel, Ubigi Jio on 4G and Airalo Vi, and Saily does not name its network. Ringo Light rides a local partner network. For Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Mumbai and Goa I would expect any of them to work, and in the hills and on the Kerala backwaters coverage thins on every network.
For a visitor, a travel eSIM also skips India's SIM paperwork, which at a local counter means your passport and visa and a wait for activation. A carrier pass skips it too, since your own line simply roams.
The billing is the other change. AT&T and Verizon charge per day of use, on the line you already pay for. Verizon says each 24-hour session carries 5 GB at high speed, then unlimited data at 3G speeds. AT&T describes unlimited high-speed data on an unlimited plan, with speed and coverage varying by destination. The pages show no monthly plan, so I took the month as thirty days at $12.
If you want a data bucket: Ubigi or Nomad
- Ubigi, $15 for 10 GB. The cheapest 10 GB, and the cheapest large bucket at 25 GB for $25, on Jio.
- Nomad, $21 for 10 GB. 20 GB comes to $33, on Airtel.
- Saily, $23.99 for 10 GB. Its 20 GB is $38.99, read in dollars on saily.com on 25 October 2026.
- Airalo, $24 for 10 GB. Its India plan has 20 GB for $38, with small buckets from $4 for 1 GB.
- ✓Ringo Light, no buckets. Its 2 weeks is unlimited at $21.99 and its 30 days unlimited at $36.99. For 10 GB, Ubigi is cheaper, and for 20 GB or more Ubigi and Nomad both cost less. I would buy Ringo Light for unlimited, not for a bucket.
What Ringo Light is
Ringo Light is the data eSIM from Ringo, the company I write for, so weigh my verdict with that in mind. It is sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. For India I count three trips, all unlimited data at full speed: 7 days at $11.99, 2 weeks at $21.99 and 30 days at $36.99. Nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email and installs in one scan, no app.
It sits next to your own SIM, so your number still rings for calls and texts if you leave roaming on for those, which both carriers include. I would use the eSIM for data and let the carrier handle the rest.
The card to buy it is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table.
Pick by trip
I would roam on the carrier at $12. Nothing to install, and your number works.
I would buy Ringo Light unlimited, 7 days, at $11.99, which beats $84 on the pass and every rival week at $24 or more.
I would buy Ringo Light at $21.99, against $168 on either day pass and $33 to $63.50 at the rivals.
I would buy Ringo Light at $36.99. The carriers come to $360, and the cheapest rival month is Ubigi at $68.
Ubigi 10 GB for 30 days at $15, if you will mostly use maps, trains and messages.
I would keep the carrier SIM in the phone with roaming on, and put the data on Ringo Light.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, SIM rules for tourists, AT&T, Ringo Light, Verizon, Ringo Light
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for India on 25 October 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: Maya Mobile. We could not read its own prices for this country on the day, so it stays out rather than being guessed.
- Airalo: www.airalo.com/india-esim?currency=USD, unlimited in dollars on the site, 25 October 2026; Asialink unlimited in dollars on airalo.com/asia-esim the same day; buckets from esimdb.com/india/airalo, listing updated 5 October 2026
- Holafly: esim.holafly.com/esim-india/, in dollars on the site, 25 October 2026
- Saily: saily.com/esim-india/, prices in dollars on saily.com, read 25 October 2026
- Nomad: www.nomadesim.com/india-esim, in dollars from the site's own plan data, 25 October 2026; network from the same page
- Ubigi: esimdb.com/india/ubigi, listing updated 5 October 2026; network from cellulardata.ubigi.com/india
- SIM rules for tourists: www.indembassybern.gov.in/page/introduction-of-sim-cards-for-the-foreign-tourists/, Embassy of India, Bern
- AT&T: www.att.com/international/day-pass/, International Day Pass price, additional lines and what it includes, with the destination list at att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1395068/ showing India, read 31 October 2026
- Ringo Light: ringoesim.com/india, the catalogue the checkout charges, read the same day
- Verizon: www.verizon.com/support/travelpass-faqs/, TravelPass FAQ for the daily price, the 5 GB allowance and billing on days used, and the TravelPass countries list at verizon.com/plans/travelpass-countries/ for India at $12 per day, read 31 October 2026
- Ringo Light: our own catalogue, the prices the checkout charges on 25 October 2026.
Written and priced by the Ringo team. Prices change often; if you spot one that has moved, tell us through the contact page and we will update the table.
