The short answer
Turkey from the UK on O2 or Three raises one question: roam, or buy an eSIM before you fly. I looked at both carriers' daily charges, the five travel eSIMs and Ringo Light on the trips Brits book to Istanbul, Cappadocia and the coast. Ringo Light is the one I would buy for anything past a day, and I say below where your carrier wins.
Unlimited data at full speed for 3 days at $8.99, 2 weeks at $16.99 or 30 days at $26.99, and nothing renews. Airalo asks $24.50 for one week and $69 for the month.
I read 10 GB for 30 days at $13, a sale price on its own site against $15 regular. 20 GB is $20.
10 GB for 30 days at $13, on Türk Telekom and Turkcell. Its app and site do not open from inside Turkey, so install it before you fly.
No gigabytes to track and no daily cap stated for your own phone. A week is $27.50, and sharing the connection is limited to 1 GB a day.
Prices read on 25 October 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, 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.
Travelling further? Compare the eSIM for Europe and the best eSIM for Europe, all brands priced.
The prices, charted
US dollars, 25 October 2026. Ringo Light sells 2 weeks and Nomad 5 days, so those are the nearest lengths.
The 30-day unlimited plan at each brand. Nomad sells no 30-day unlimited for Turkey. Ringo Light is unlimited data at full speed.
The bucket most people buy for a two-week holiday. 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 Turkey, from $8.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 3 days $8.99
- 2 weeks $16.99
- 30 days $26.99
- 90 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 Turkey, and what your phone needs for it
Eight places most first trips include, from Istanbul to Cappadocia and down the Aegean and Turquoise coasts, with the one thing your data does for you at each. Hotel Wi-Fi will install an eSIM the night before, but I would do it before you fly.
Roam with your carrier, or buy an eSIM
Your own network is the first price to look at. O2 Travel works in Turkey at £7 a day, billed only on days you use the phone: £21 for 3 days, £98 for two weeks and £210 for a month, read 31 October 2026. Three Go Roam charges £8 a day, which is £24 for 3 days, £112 for two weeks and £240 for a month. Its advance passes run £17.50 for 3 days, £42 for 7 days and £84 for 14 days.
O2 Travel is £7 a day in Turkey, £21 for 3 days, £98 for two weeks and £210 for a month, read 31 October 2026, against Ringo Light at $8.99, $16.99 and $26.99. The cheapest rival week in the chart is Nomad's 5 days at $17, and the cheapest month is Ubigi at $64. In Turkey Ringo Light is cheaper than the roaming bill even at 3 days.
Where your carrier wins is the rest of the phone. Your own number rings, texts and bank codes arrive, O2 includes unlimited calls to the UK and within Turkey, nothing needs installing, and a phone without an eSIM slot is fine. For one day, roaming is close on price: £7 is about $9, level with Ringo Light's 3 days at $8.99, so I would let the number decide. A day trip across from a Greek island is the case I mean.
Roaming has limits too. O2 holds roaming data to 2Mbps, which I think is fine for maps in Sultanahmet and chat apps and slow for a film on the Bosphorus ferry. Three gives up to 12GB a month of your plan's data, then a surcharge, and does not allow hotspot use in Turkey.
Networks in Turkey, and what changes for a visitor from the UK
The table names three Turkish networks. I read Airalo and Nomad on Türk Telekom, Holafly on Turkcell and Türk Telekom, Saily on Turkcell or Vodafone TR, and Ubigi on Türk Telekom and Turkcell. Ringo Light rides a local partner network. One practical catch from the parent post: the Ubigi app and site do not open from inside Turkey, so anything you buy from it has to be installed before you land.
For a visitor from the UK, the change is in the billing. O2 puts Turkey among the 75 places on the Travel list, with the £7 starting at your first call, text or data session and running 24 hours. You switch it on by texting TRAVEL to 23336 or in My O2. Three has Turkey in Go Roam Around the World Extra for Pay Monthly plans and asks nothing of you: the charge starts when the phone is used, or you buy a pass in advance in your Three account.
Check which Three rate you are on. It is £8 a day for plans joined or upgraded on or after 18 December 2025 and £7 for earlier ones. On Pay As You Go, Three lists Turkey outside Go Roam, so I priced Pay Monthly only.
If you want a data bucket: Nomad or Ubigi
- Nomad, $13 for 10 GB. The cheapest 10 GB in the table, tied with Ubigi, at the sale price on its site today ($15 regular). 20 GB is $20, and add-ons top it up.
- Ubigi, $13 for 10 GB. The same price, on Türk Telekom and Turkcell with 5G. The catch is that its app and site do not open from inside Turkey, so buy and install before you land.
- Airalo, $15.50 for 10 GB. The biggest name, with 1 GB from $4, and its Merhaba plan rides Türk Telekom. A refund for a wrong purchase comes back as Airmoney credit, not cash.
- Saily, $15.99 for 10 GB. The cleanest app of the five, and 20 GB at $22.99. You pay for the app and the Nord account.
- ✓Ringo Light, no buckets. Its 2 weeks is unlimited for $16.99 and its 30 days for $26.99. To make 10 GB last a whole month, Nomad or Ubigi at $13 is the better buy, and Nomad's 20 GB at $20 is $6.99 under Ringo Light's 30 days. I would rather you read that here than at checkout.
What Ringo Light is
I write for Ringo, so you should know where I stand. Ringo Light is its own data eSIM, sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. For Turkey it sells three trips, all unlimited data at full speed: 3 days at $8.99, 2 weeks at $16.99 and 30 days at $26.99. 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 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 Turkey on its £7 day, while Three includes calls and texts on its £8 day. The card to buy Ringo Light is further up this page, just after the table.
Pick by trip
Ringo Light unlimited, 3 days, $8.99, against £21 on O2 and £17.50 on Three's 3-day pass. If your number matters more than the price, roam.
Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $16.99. Nomad is $17 for 5 days and O2 for a week is £49 at £7 a day, a sum I worked out from the rate. Three's 7-day pass is £42.
Nomad or Ubigi 10 GB for 30 days at $13, or Ringo Light unlimited at $16.99. O2 for two weeks would be £98.
Ringo Light unlimited, 30 days, $26.99. O2 is £210 at 2Mbps and Three is £240 with no hotspot use. Ubigi asks $64.
Keep your SIM in the phone and roam for calls if the number matters, or add Ringo Light for data and keep calls on O2 or Three. Ringo Light carries no calls or texts.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, O2, Three, European Central Bank, Ringo Light, Ringo Light
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Turkey 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/turkey-esim?currency=USD, unlimited in dollars on airalo.com, network Türk Telekom (Avea), read 25 October 2026; fixed-data buckets from the esimdb listing dated 5 October 2026
- Holafly: esim.holafly.com/esim-turkey/, prices in dollars from its own page, read 25 October 2026
- Saily: saily.com/esim-turkey/, dollars, read 25 October 2026
- Nomad: www.nomadesim.com/turkey-esim, dollars, read 25 October 2026; 10 GB at the sale price, $15 regular
- Ubigi: cellulardata.ubigi.com/data-plans-and-coverage/ubigi-esim-data-plans/?destination=TUR&one-off=on, one-off plan list in dollars, read 22 October 2026; the site returned no plan list on 25 October 2026, figures confirmed against the esimdb listing dated 5 October 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, Turkey 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/turkey, 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.
