The short answer
You hold an O2 or Three contract and a flight to Seoul, and the first question is whether your carrier covers Korea at all. I read both carriers on 10 November 2026: O2 does not name South Korea on its travel bolt-on, and Three charges £8 a day on newer plans. I priced the travel eSIMs on 10 November 2026. For anything past a day I would buy Ringo Light and keep my own SIM in for calls and texts.
Unlimited data at full speed for 2 weeks at $23.99 or 30 days at $35.99, nothing renews. Airalo asks $49 for 15 days and $69 for the month.
10 GB for 30 days at $14 and 25 GB at $25, on LG U+ and SK Telecom with 5G.
Unlimited for 3 days at $11 and 20 GB for 30 days at $28, on SK Telecom, KT and LG U+.
Days, not gigabytes, no daily cap stated for your own phone, on SK Telecom and LG U+. $27.50 for a week.
Prices read on 10 November 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Nomad, Ubigi, O2, Three, Ringo Light, European Central Bank 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. The rivals sell 15 days, Ringo Light 2 weeks. Ubigi's 15 days is 30 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps. Nomad sells no 15-day unlimited.
The 30-day plan at each brand. Ringo Light is unlimited data at full speed. Ubigi's month is 60 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps.
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 South Korea, from $9.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 3 days $9.99
- 2 weeks $23.99
- 30 days $35.99
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 do in South Korea on a trip from Britain, and what your phone needs for it
Eight places most first trips include, from Seoul down to Busan, Gyeongju and Jeju, with the one thing your data does for you at each. Google Maps gives only partial directions in Korea, so I would load Naver Map or KakaoMap before the flight from Heathrow.
Roam with your carrier, or buy an eSIM
O2 Travel is the bolt-on most Brits know, at £7 a day in 75 destinations outside Europe. On 10 November 2026 the page names Japan, Thailand and China among its Asian destinations, but not South Korea. It says a destination it does not cover is charged at standard rates, and I could not read those rates, so I give no O2 price. If you are on O2, I would ask before you fly, or skip the question and buy an eSIM.
Three lists South Korea in Go Roam Around the World Extra for Pay Monthly plans, at £8 a day (about $11) if you joined or upgraded on or after 18 December 2025, and £7 on earlier plans. Pay As You Go lists South Korea under Rest of the World, outside Go Roam, and the page says Around the World Extra is not available on Pay As You Go. At the ECB reference rate of 10 November 2026, £1 = $1.34, so three days at £8 is £24 (about $32), two weeks £112 (about $150) and thirty days £240 (about $322). On the £7 rate that is £21 (about $28) for three days and £98 (about $131) for two weeks.
Ringo Light is one payment per trip: $9.99 for 3 days, $23.99 for 2 weeks and $35.99 for 30 days. Two weeks in Korea is about $150 on Three and $23.99 on Ringo Light. A long weekend is about $32 on Three against $9.99. Among the travel eSIMs, Ringo Light is also the cheapest unlimited for two weeks and a month: Ubigi asks $34 for 15 days and $49 for a month, Airalo $49 and $69, Holafly $50.50 and $73.90. For 3 days Nomad charges $11 against $9.99.
What Three wins is real. Your UK number keeps ringing, calls and texts come with the day charge, nothing needs installing, a phone with no eSIM slot works, and the charge lands on a bill you already pay. For one night in Seoul on a layover, one day at about $11 is fair, close to the price of Ringo Light for three days. Three also caps data at 12GB of your allowance in a Go Roam destination for Pay Monthly customers, which is plenty for maps and messages but not for a month of video calls.
Networks in South Korea, and what changes for a visitor from the UK
South Korea has three networks, SK Telecom, KT and LG U+, and all three cover Seoul, Busan and the KTX lines with fast 5G. The travel eSIMs name them as follows: Airalo rides SK Telecom, Holafly SK Telecom and LG U+, Ubigi LG U+ and SK Telecom, and Nomad all three. Ringo Light uses a local partner network. For Seoul, Busan and Jeju I would not pick a plan on network.
The carrier terms differ. O2 Travel, where it applies, caps roaming speed at 2Mbps and charges the day for 24 hours from first use, but South Korea is not on its list on 10 November 2026. Three puts South Korea in Around the World Extra, intended for UK residents visiting for short periods, with up to 12GB of your data allowance in any Go Roam destination on Pay Monthly. The pages I read do not state a hotspot rule, so I would ask Three before you tether a laptop.
The travel eSIMs here are data only, with no Korean number. Some Korean services send a text code to a Korean number, which no data-only eSIM can receive. Calls go over apps that use data, such as WhatsApp or FaceTime.
If you want a data bucket: Ubigi
- Ubigi, $14 for 10 GB. The cheapest 10 GB for 30 days, and 25 GB for $25, on LG U+ and SK Telecom with 5G.
- Nomad, $18 for 10 GB. 20 GB for $28 on all three Korean networks.
- Airalo, $19 for 10 GB. Its Jjang plan rides SK Telecom. 20 GB for $30.
- ✓Ringo Light, no buckets. Its 2 weeks is unlimited for $23.99 and its 30 days unlimited for $35.99. For a fixed 10 GB, Ubigi at $14 is cheaper, and I would rather you read that here than at checkout. 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 South Korea it sells three trips: 3 days at $9.99, 2 weeks at $23.99 and 30 days at $35.99, all unlimited data at full speed. Nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email in seconds as a QR code and installs in one scan, with one payment and no app.
It is data only, with no number, no calls and no texts. It sits beside your own SIM, so your UK number stays on for calls and texts if you leave roaming on for those, and I would check how your carrier bills that day before leaning on it.
The card to buy it is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table.
Pick by trip
Ringo Light unlimited, 3 days, $9.99, against about $32 on Three at £8 a day. Nomad is $11.
Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $23.99, against about $150 of Three daily charges.
Ubigi 10 GB for 30 days at $14.
Ringo Light unlimited, 30 days, $35.99, against about $322 on Three, and Ubigi at $49 for 60 GB.
Keep your own SIM in beside the eSIM. Three includes UK calls and texts in its day charge, which I would confirm with Three before you fly.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
Airalo, Holafly, Nomad, Ubigi, O2, Three, Ringo Light, European Central Bank, Ringo Light
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for South Korea 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: Saily. I could not read its prices for this country on 22 October (saily.com and esimdb.com refused the fetch), so it has no bar in the charts rather than a guessed one.
- Airalo: www.airalo.com/south-korea-esim?currency=USD, unlimited read on the site in dollars, 10 November 2026; buckets from the esimdb listing dated 4 October 2026
- Holafly: esim.holafly.com/esim-south-korea/, read on the site in dollars, 10 November 2026
- Nomad: www.nomadesim.com/south-korea-esim, read on the site, plan data in dollars, 10 November 2026; 10 GB on sale at $18, regular $20; networks from the same page
- Ubigi: cellulardata.ubigi.com/rates-and-coverage/south-korea-data-plans/south-korea-unlimited-30-days/, 30-day unlimited page read on the site in dollars, 10 November 2026; 7 and 15 day, 10 GB and 25 GB plans from the esimdb listing dated 4 October 2026
- O2: www.o2.co.uk/international/o2-travel, O2 Travel bolt-on page, read 10 November 2026: £7 a day in 75 destinations outside Europe, for Pay Monthly; South Korea and Vietnam are not among the Asian destinations the page names, and the page says a destination it does not cover is charged at standard rates, which I could not read (the rates page did not load)
- Three: www.three.co.uk/go-roam, Go Roam daily charges and the 12GB fair use limit at three.co.uk/go-roam and three.co.uk/support/roaming-and-calling-abroad/roaming-abroad/go-roam, South Korea in Around the World Extra at three.co.uk/support/roaming-and-calling-abroad/roaming-abroad/roaming-destinations, read 10 November 2026
- Ringo Light: ringoesim.com/south-korea, the catalogue the checkout charges, read the same day
- European Central Bank: www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml, euro reference rates of 10 November 2026, the latest published, used for the dollar figures (£1 = $1.34); the rates page at ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rate/html/index.en.html returned not found
- 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.
