The short answer
Egypt from the UK is usually Cairo, a flight or sleeper train to Luxor, the Nile to Aswan, and a week on the Red Sea. I compared what O2 and Three charge to roam through all of that with the five travel eSIMs and Ringo Light. For anything past a few days I would buy Ringo Light, and I note where your carrier is the better choice.
Unlimited data at full speed for 2 weeks at $18.99 or 30 days at $40.99, nothing renews. I found Airalo at $49 for 15 days and $90 for the month.
I read 3 days of unlimited at $14, with 2 GB a day at full speed, on Orange and Vodafone.
3 GB for 30 days at $9, 10 GB for 30 days at $19, and 10 GB for a week at $17.
Days, not gigabytes, on Orange, with no daily cap stated for your own phone. A week is $36.50, and sharing the connection is limited to 1 GB a day.
Prices read on 25 October 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, NTRA, O2, Three, European Central Bank, Ringo Light 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.
The prices, charted
US dollars, 25 October 2026. Ringo Light sells 2 weeks, the others 15 days. Ubigi's 15 days is 5 GB a day at full speed, then 2 Mbps. Nomad stops at 10 days ($35).
The 30-day plan at each brand. Ringo Light is unlimited data at full speed. Ubigi's month is 5 GB a day at full speed, then 2 Mbps. Nomad sells no 30-day Egypt unlimited.
Holafly sells no buckets. Ringo Light sells no bucket either: its 2 weeks is unlimited and lasts 2 weeks, not 30 days. Ubigi's 10 GB lasts a month for one cent more.
Side by side
Swipe to compare →
Get Ringo Light for Egypt, from $12.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 7 days $12.99
- 2 weeks $18.99
- 30 days $40.99
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 Egypt, and what your phone needs for it
Eight places most first trips include, from Cairo down the Nile to Abu Simbel and out to the Red Sea, with the one thing your data does for you at each. The cities and the river have good 4G; the desert roads between them do not always.
Roam with your carrier, or buy an eSIM
Egypt is rarely a one-day trip, so the sums add up quickly. O2 Travel covers Egypt at £7 a day, charged only on days you use the phone: £98 for two weeks and £210 for a month, read 31 October 2026. Three Go Roam is £8 a day, so £24 for 3 days, £112 for two weeks and £240 for a month. Its passes in advance are £17.50 for 3 days, £29.75 for 5 days, £42 for 7 days and £84 for 14 days.
O2 Travel is £7 a day in Egypt, £98 for two weeks and £210 for a month, read 31 October 2026, against Ringo Light at $18.99 and $40.99. Even the cheapest rival fortnight in the chart, Ubigi at $44 for 15 days, is above Ringo Light, and Ubigi's $69 is the cheapest rival month. Ringo Light sells no 3-day plan for Egypt.
The carrier still wins a few things. Your own number keeps ringing, texts and bank codes arrive, O2 includes unlimited calls to the UK and within Egypt, and you install nothing. For a long weekend in Cairo I would roam, because the cheapest 3 days I found among the eSIMs is Nomad at $14 and a single O2 day is £7. Three's 3-day pass is £17.50, about $23, which is more.
The limits matter on a Nile trip. O2 holds roaming data to 2Mbps, which I would expect to handle a taxi app and WhatsApp and to struggle with photo backups from a cruise. Three gives up to 12GB a month of your plan's data, then a surcharge, and does not allow hotspot use in Egypt.
Networks in Egypt, and what changes for a visitor from the UK
Egypt has four networks: Vodafone, Orange, e& (once Etisalat) and WE. Vodafone and Orange carry most travel eSIMs. I read Airalo on Vodafone, Holafly on Orange and Nomad on both, while Saily and Ubigi do not name theirs and Ringo Light rides a local partner network. Coverage follows the Nile valley, Cairo, Alexandria and the Red Sea resorts. On the road south to Abu Simbel and towards the Western Desert oases, signal thins out on every network, and I would download offline maps first.
Egypt also has a phone rule worth knowing. Since 21 January 2026, a phone bought abroad that goes onto an Egyptian SIM owes customs fees, and the NTRA keeps a tourist exemption for 90 days from the day the phone is activated on the network. A local SIM must be bought in person with your passport. Roaming skips that queue, because it uses the UK SIM already in your phone, and an eSIM does too.
The billing is the other change. O2 lists Egypt among the 75 places on its Travel bolt-on, and the £7 starts at your first call, text or data session and runs 24 hours. Three has Egypt in Go Roam Around the World Extra for Pay Monthly plans, and the charge starts when the phone is used. It is £8 a day on plans joined or upgraded on or after 18 December 2025 and £7 on earlier ones. Pay As You Go sits outside Go Roam, so I priced Pay Monthly only.
If you want a data bucket: Ubigi
- Ubigi, $19 for 10 GB. That lasts 30 days, one cent over the 2 weeks of Ringo Light. It also sells 3 GB for 30 days at $9 and 10 GB for a week at $17, the cheapest small amounts I found.
- Nomad, $28 for 10 GB. 20 GB is $37 and 3 GB is $12, on Orange and Vodafone.
- Airalo, buckets from $5.50 for 1 GB. 10 GB is $33 and 20 GB is $42, both for 30 days, from the esimdb listing dated 5 October 2026.
- Saily, $33.99 for 10 GB. 20 GB is $42.99 for 30 days, read on saily.com.
- ✓Ringo Light, no buckets. Its 2 weeks is unlimited for $18.99 and its 30 days for $40.99. That is $3.99 over Nomad's 20 GB at $37 and $1.99 over Ubigi's 25 GB at $39. For 10 GB across a whole month, or 3 GB for a light week, I would buy Ubigi, and I would rather you read that here than at checkout.
What Ringo Light is
Ringo Light is the data eSIM from the company I write for, sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. For Egypt it sells three trips, all unlimited data at full speed with no speed cap: 7 days at $12.99, 2 weeks at $18.99 and 30 days at $40.99. Nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email in seconds and installs in one scan, no app.
It sits beside your own SIM, so your O2 or Three number can stay in the phone for calls and texts. Leave roaming on for those and O2 includes unlimited calls to the UK and within Egypt, while Three includes calls and texts on its daily charge. I put the card to buy Ringo Light further up this page, after the table, and I would read the table first.
Pick by trip
I would roam. O2 is £7 a day, Three's 3-day pass is £17.50, and Nomad's 3-day unlimited at $14 is the eSIM to beat. Ringo Light has no 3-day plan for Egypt.
Ringo Light, 2 weeks, $18.99. O2 is £98, Three £84 on the 14-day pass or £112 on daily charges, and Ubigi $44 for 15 days.
Ringo Light, 30 days, $40.99, against Ubigi at $69. O2 would be £210 at 2Mbps and Three £240 with no hotspot use.
Ringo Light unlimited, 7 days, $12.99, less than Ubigi's 10 GB for a week at $17. If light use is all you need, its 3 GB for 30 days at $9 is cheaper still. Seven O2 days would be £49, a sum I worked out from the daily rate.
Roaming is the only one of these that carries calls on the number you have. For a longer trip I would add Ringo Light for data and keep your SIM in the phone for calls.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, NTRA, O2, Three, European Central Bank, Ringo Light, Ringo Light
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Egypt 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/egypt-esim?currency=USD, unlimited read on the site in dollars, 25 October 2026; 10 GB and 20 GB buckets from the esimdb listing dated 5 October 2026
- Holafly: esim.holafly.com/esim-egypt/, read on the site in dollars, 25 October 2026
- Saily: saily.com/esim-egypt/, prices in dollars on saily.com, read 25 October 2026
- Nomad: www.nomadesim.com/egypt-esim, read on the site in dollars, 25 October 2026
- Ubigi: cellulardata.ubigi.com/rates-and-coverage/egypt-data-plans/egypt-unlimited-15-days/, plan pages on cellulardata.ubigi.com/rates-and-coverage/egypt-data-plans/ in dollars, 25 October 2026
- NTRA: www.tra.gov.eg/en/end-of-exceptional-exemption-on-imported-mobile-phones-carried-by-passenger-following-success-of-local-manufacturing-at-competitive-prices-effective-1200-noon-wednesday-january-21-2026/, phone customs rules and the 90-day exemption for tourists, 21 January 2026
- O2: www.o2.co.uk/international/o2-travel, O2 Travel bolt-on page, read 31 October 2026: £7 a day, charged for the 24 hours from first use, unlimited data capped at 2Mbps while roaming, unlimited calls to the UK and within the destination; the destination is on the page's list of 75 countries. The roaming page at o2.co.uk/international/roaming returned not found on the same day
- Three: www.three.co.uk/go-roam, Go Roam daily charges, the 12GB fair use limit and passes at three.co.uk/go-roam, Egypt in Around the World Extra at three.co.uk/support/roaming-and-calling-abroad/roaming-abroad/roaming-destinations, and the roaming FAQs, read 31 October 2026
- European Central Bank: www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml, euro reference rates of 30 October 2026, the latest published on 31 October 2026, used for the dollar figures (£1 = $1.34)
- Ringo Light: ringoesim.com/egypt, the catalogue the checkout charges, read the same day
- 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.
