The short answer
You hold an O2 or Three contract and a ticket to India, and the choice is whether to roam or buy a travel eSIM first. I read what each carrier charges in India on 10 November 2026 and set it against the travel eSIMs I priced on 10 November 2026 and Ringo Light. For two weeks or more I would buy Ringo Light and keep my own SIM in for calls and texts.
Unlimited data at full speed for 2 weeks at $21.99 or 30 days at $36.99, nothing renews. Airalo asks $62 for 15 days and $99 for the month, and daily roaming charges climb past both.
10 GB for 30 days at $15 and 25 GB at $25, on Jio.
5 days of unlimited at $18 on Airtel, with 2 GB a day at full speed. 20 GB for 30 days at $33.
Days, not gigabytes, on India's two largest networks. $39.50 for a week; sharing limited to 1 GB a day.
Prices read on 10 November 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, SIM rules for tourists, O2, Three, 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.
Travelling further? Compare the best eSIM for Asia and the eSIM for Asia-Pacific.
The prices, charted
US dollars, 10 November 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 trips from Britain include, from Delhi and Agra to Goa and Kerala. Whichever plan you pick, the tip under each one is where your phone matters, and on the water and in the hills I would download before I go.
Roam with your carrier, or buy an eSIM
O2 Travel works in India at £7 a day, charged only for days of use, and each charge covers 24 hours from first use. At the ECB reference rate of 10 November 2026, £1 = $1.34, so one day is about $9, three days £21 (about $28), two weeks £98 (about $132) and a month £210 (about $282). For Three, India sits in Go Roam Around the World Extra on Pay Monthly plans, where the daily charge is £8 (about $11) for plans joined on or after 18 December 2025 and £7 for earlier ones. That makes about $32 for three days, about $150 for two weeks and about $322 for thirty days at the £8 rate. On Pay As You Go, Three lists India under Rest of the World and I found no price for it. I read all of it on 10 November 2026.
Ringo Light is one payment per trip. For India it sells 7 days at $11.99, 2 weeks at $21.99 and 30 days at $36.99. Two weeks is about $132 on O2 and about $150 on Three against $21.99, and a month is about $282 and about $322 against $36.99. India is rarely a short trip, so a daily charge adds up quickly.
Among the travel eSIMs, Ringo Light is also the cheapest unlimited for two weeks and a month. Nomad stops at 10 days for $33, Ubigi asks $46 for 15 days, Saily $59.99, Airalo $62 and Holafly $63.50, and for a month the rivals run $68 to $111.90. For three days it is the other way round: Ringo Light has no 3-day plan, and Holafly charges $19.90 and Airalo $20.50 for 3 days of unlimited, against about $28 on O2.
What O2 and Three win is real, and I do not wave it away. Your UK number keeps ringing, calls and texts come with it, nothing needs installing, a phone with no eSIM slot works, and the charge lands on a bill you already pay. For one day, such as a transit night in Delhi, O2's £7 is the right call. Beyond a few days I would buy a plan before the flight.
Networks in India, and what changes for a visitor from the UK
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. Holafly names both Jio and Airtel, Nomad rides Airtel, Ubigi Jio on 4G, and Airalo names Vi. Ringo Light uses a local partner network. For Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Mumbai and Goa I would expect any of them to work, and on the Kerala backwaters coverage thins on every network.
The carrier passes have terms of their own. O2 calls the bolt-on unlimited, caps roaming speed at 2Mbps and names no fair use rule, and calls to the UK and within India are unlimited while other countries cost standard roaming rates. Receiving a call or text does not start the day charge, and you switch it on by texting TRAVEL to 23336. O2's page offers the bolt-on to Pay Monthly plans. Three's Go Roam page allows up to 12GB of data a month in a Go Roam zone as its fair use limit, and the page does not state a hotspot rule.
The travel eSIMs here are data only, with no Indian number, and an eSIM installed at home skips the SIM paperwork at a counter. Calls go over apps that use data, such as WhatsApp or FaceTime.
If you want a data bucket: Ubigi or Nomad
- Ubigi, $15 for 10 GB. The cheapest 10 GB and the cheapest big bucket, 25 GB for $25, on Jio.
- Nomad, $21 for 10 GB. 20 GB at $33, on Airtel.
- Saily, $23.99 for 10 GB. 20 GB at $38.99, read in dollars on saily.com.
- Airalo, $24 for 10 GB. 20 GB for $38, buckets from $4 for 1 GB.
- ✓Ringo Light, no buckets. Its 2 weeks is unlimited for $21.99 and its 30 days unlimited for $36.99. For 10 GB, Ubigi and Nomad are both cheaper than the Ringo Light 2 weeks, and for 20 GB or more Ubigi and Nomad are cheaper than the Ringo Light month. I would buy Ringo Light for unlimited, not for a bucket.
What Ringo Light is
Ringo Light is Ringo's own data eSIM, and I write for Ringo, so weigh that. It is sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. For India it sells 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 in seconds and installs in one scan, no app.
It sits next to your own SIM, so your UK number keeps working for calls and texts if you leave roaming on for those. O2's page says calls to the UK and within India are unlimited, though I would check how your carrier bills the day before leaning on that.
The card to buy it is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table.
Pick by trip
O2 Travel. A single £7 day, about $9, no purchase and nothing to install.
Holafly 3 days at $19.90 or Airalo at $20.50. Ringo Light has no 3-day plan in India, and O2 would be about $28.
Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $21.99, against about $132 on O2 or about $150 on Three.
Ringo Light unlimited, 30 days, $36.99, against about $282 on O2 or about $322 on Three.
Ubigi 10 GB for 30 days at $15, on Jio.
Keep your own SIM in beside the eSIM. O2 and Three carry calls and texts on your number and the travel eSIMs do not; the full Ringo, which Ringo Light funds, ports the number you have.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, SIM rules for tourists, O2, Three, Three, European Central Bank, Ringo Light, Ringo Light
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for India on 10 November 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: Revolut. I could not read its own prices for India on the day, so it has no bar in the charts and is not guessed. Left out: Maya Mobile. I 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, 10 November 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, 10 November 2026
- Saily: saily.com/esim-india/, prices in dollars on saily.com, read 25 October 2026; not readable on 10 November 2026, figures kept from 25 October
- Nomad: www.nomadesim.com/india-esim, in dollars from the site's own plan data, 10 November 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
- O2: www.o2.co.uk/international/o2-travel, O2 Travel bolt-on page, read 10 November 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, for Pay Monthly plans; the destination is on the page's list of 75 countries
- Three: www.three.co.uk/go-roam, Go Roam daily charges of £8 for plans joined on or after 18 December 2025 and £7 for earlier ones, and the 12GB a month fair use limit, read 10 November 2026
- Three: www.three.co.uk/support/roaming-and-calling-abroad/roaming-abroad/roaming-destinations, roaming destinations page, read 10 November 2026: India is listed under Go Roam Around the World Extra for Pay Monthly and under Rest of the World for Pay As You Go
- European Central Bank: www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml, euro reference rates of 10 November 2026, the latest published that day, used for the dollar figures (£1 = $1.34)
- Ringo Light: ringoesim.com/india, the catalogue the checkout charges, read the same day
- Ringo Light: our own catalogue, the prices the checkout charges on 10 November 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.
