The best eSIM for India in 2026. Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for India, priced on the same day: two weeks unlimited for $18.99, a month for $34.99, which to buy.
Prices read on 28 September 2026. Six travel eSIMs sell an India plan and get most of the traffic for this search. We priced all six on the same day, for a week in Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, two weeks that add Rajasthan or the south, and a month, and read the fine print on unlimited. Here is where each one wins.
Ringo Light: Cheapest unlimited for two weeks or a month. Unlimited data at full speed for 2 weeks at $18.99 or 30 days at $34.99, one payment each, nothing renews. Airalo asks $62 for 15 days and $99 for the month.
Ubigi: Cheapest data bucket. 10 GB for 30 days at $15 and 25 GB at $25, on Jio.
Nomad: Cheapest short unlimited. 5 days of unlimited at $18 on Airtel, with 2 GB a day at full speed. 20 GB for 30 days at $33.
Holafly: Two networks, Airtel and Jio. Days, not gigabytes, on India's two largest networks. $39.50 for a week; sharing limited to 1 GB a day.
Model: Airalo Buckets or unlimited days; Holafly Unlimited days only; Saily Buckets or unlimited days; Nomad Buckets or unlimited days; Ubigi Buckets, then 2 Mbps; Ringo Light Unlimited trips: 2 weeks or 30 days.
Unlimited, 3 days: Airalo $20.50; Holafly $19.90; Saily No 3-day plan; 5 days $27.99; Nomad No 3-day plan; 5 days $18; Ubigi No 3-day plan; Ringo Light No 3-day plan; 2 weeks $18.99.
Unlimited, 7 days: Airalo $39.50; Holafly $39.50; Saily No 7-day plan; Nomad No 7-day plan; 10 days $33; Ubigi 25 GB, then 2 Mbps, $24; Ringo Light No 7-day plan; 2 weeks $18.99.
Unlimited, 2 weeks: Airalo 15 days $62; Holafly 15 days $63.50; Saily 15 days $59.99; Nomad No 2-week plan; 10 days $33; Ubigi 15 days, 30 GB, then 2 Mbps, $46; Ringo Light $18.99.
Unlimited, 30 days: Airalo $99; Holafly $111.90; Saily $98.99; Nomad No 30-day plan; Ubigi 60 GB, then 2 Mbps, $68; Ringo Light $34.99.
10 GB, 30 days: Airalo $24; Holafly No buckets; Saily $23.99; Nomad $21; Ubigi $15; Ringo Light No buckets; 2 weeks starts with 10 GB, $18.99.
20 GB, 30 days: Airalo $38; Holafly No buckets; Saily $38.99; Nomad $33; Ubigi 25 GB $25; Ringo Light No buckets; 30 days starts with 20 GB, $34.99.
Full speed on unlimited: Airalo 3 GB a day, then 1 Mbps; Holafly No daily cap stated; sharing 1 GB a day; Saily 3 GB a day, then 1 Mbps; Nomad 2 GB a day, then 1 Mbps; Ubigi A fixed amount, then 2 Mbps; Ringo Light No speed cap; starts with 10 or 20 GB, adds 10 GB once at 80%, charged.
Networks: Airalo Vi; Holafly Airtel, Jio; Saily Not named by Saily; Nomad Airtel; Ubigi Jio, 4G; Ringo Light Local partner network.
Renews?: Airalo No; Holafly No; Saily No; Nomad No; Ubigi Monthly plans do; Ringo Light No, one payment; the trip ends when it ends.
App needed: Airalo Yes; Holafly No, QR code; Saily Yes; Nomad Optional; Ubigi Optional; Ringo Light No, the eSIM arrives by email.
India is rarely a short trip. The Golden Triangle alone takes a week, and most people add Rajasthan, Varanasi or the south. Unlimited data costs more in India than almost anywhere else we have priced: for 15 days, Saily asks $59.99, Airalo $62 and Holafly $63.50, and Ubigi $46 for 30 GB at full speed. For a month, $68 to $111.90. Ringo Light charges $18.99 for 2 weeks and $34.99 for 30 days, one payment each, nothing renews.
Read what unlimited means before you pick. Airalo and Saily give 3 GB a day at full speed, then 1 Mbps. Nomad gives 2 GB a day. Ubigi gives 30 GB for 15 days or 60 GB for the month, then 2 Mbps. Holafly states no daily cap for your own phone and limits sharing to 1 GB a day. Ringo Light has no speed cap: the 2 weeks starts with 10 GB and the 30 days with 20 GB, and when you have used 80% we add 10 GB once and charge the $18.99 top-up. A heavy two weeks with us costs $37.98, still under every rival's 15 days; a heavy month costs $53.98, against $68 at Ubigi, the cheapest rival month.
For a short trip, Ringo Light sells no 3-day or 7-day plan, though our 2 weeks at $18.99 costs less than the 3 days at Airalo ($20.50) or Holafly ($19.90). Nomad sells 5 days of unlimited at $18. Cheaper still, Airalo's Asia-wide Asialink plan, which covers India, sells 3 days of unlimited at $11.50, with the same 3 GB a day.
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 is the one brand here that names both Jio and Airtel. Nomad rides Airtel, Ubigi Jio on 4G, and Airalo's India plan names Vi, the smallest of the three private networks. For Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Mumbai and Goa, all of them work. In the hills and on the Kerala backwaters, coverage thins on every network.
A travel eSIM also skips India's SIM paperwork. A local SIM means showing your passport and visa at a counter and waiting for it to be activated. An eSIM bought before you fly is installed at home and works when you land.
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. Its listing is from July; saily.com would not load for us.
Airalo, $24 for 10 GB. Its India plan, 20 GB for $38, buckets from $4 for 1 GB.
Ringo Light, no buckets. Our 2 weeks starts with 10 GB for $18.99 and our 30 days with 20 GB for $34.99. For 10 GB, Ubigi is cheaper; for 20 GB or more, Ubigi and Nomad are both cheaper in India. Buy Ringo Light for unlimited, not for a bucket. We would rather you read that here than at checkout.
Ringo Light is our own data eSIM, sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. For India it sells two trips, both unlimited data at full speed with no speed cap: 2 weeks at $18.99, starting with 10 GB, and 30 days at $34.99, starting with 20 GB. Each adds 10 GB once at 80%, charged at $18.99. One payment, nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email in seconds and installs in one scan, no app.
The card to buy it is just below this article.
A few days in Delhi. Airalo's Asialink, 3 days unlimited, $11.50, or Nomad 5 days at $18. Ringo Light sells no 3 days, but its 2 weeks costs $18.99.
Two weeks around the Golden Triangle and Rajasthan. Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $18.99, less than any rival charges for two weeks.
Two weeks, light use, budget first. Ubigi 10 GB for 30 days at $15.
A month, working from Goa. Ringo Light unlimited, 30 days, $34.99, starting with 20 GB and adding 10 GB once for $18.99. Ubigi 25 GB at $25 if a fixed amount is enough.
You need your own number to keep ringing. None of these travel plans does that. The full Ringo, which Ringo Light funds, ports the number you have.
What to do in India, and what your phone needs for it. Eight places most first trips include, from Delhi and Agra to Goa and Kerala, with the one thing your data does for you at each. The cities have good 4G and 5G; on the water and in the hills, download before you go.
The Taj Mahal, Agra. The white marble tomb Shah Jahan built for his wife, at the end of a long garden of pools. Go at sunrise, before the heat and the crowds; it is closed on Fridays. Buy the entry ticket online on your phone and show the QR code at the gate.
Humayun's Tomb, Delhi. The red sandstone garden tomb that came before the Taj Mahal, and far quieter. Pair it with the Red Fort and Old Delhi on the same day. Uber and Ola both work in Delhi. A ride app spares you haggling over the fare.
Amber Fort and the Hawa Mahal, Jaipur. A hilltop palace fort above Jaipur, with a mirrored hall inside. On the way back, stop at the pink honeycomb facade of the Hawa Mahal in the old city. Check the ride app price before you agree a rickshaw fare, so you know what fair looks like.
City Palace on Lake Pichola, Udaipur. A palace of white towers along the lake, in the city many call the most romantic in Rajasthan. Take the boat out at sunset. Save offline maps: the old city lanes around the palace wind in every direction.
The ghats of Varanasi, Varanasi. Stone steps run down to the Ganges for miles, busy with bathers, boats and prayer. Take a rowing boat at dawn, and watch the evening aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat. GPS drifts in the lanes behind the ghats. Drop a pin on your guesthouse before you walk in.
The Gateway of India, Mumbai. The basalt arch on the harbour, finished in 1924, with the Taj Mahal Palace hotel beside it. Ferries to the Elephanta Caves leave from the jetty in front. Mumbai's local trains are the fastest way north. The m-Indicator app shows every train and platform.
Palolem Beach, South Goa. A curve of sand under coconut palms, with fishing boats pulled up on the beach. The season runs from November to March. Most people get around Goa by rented scooter. Offline maps help on the dark roads at night.
The Kerala backwaters, Alappuzha. A network of lakes and canals lined with palms, best seen from a houseboat for a night. Boats leave from Alappuzha, also called Alleppey. Signal can fade out on the water. Download your maps and a playlist before you board.
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for India on 28 September 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.
Source for Airalo: https://www.airalo.com/india-esim?currency=USD (unlimited in dollars on the site; buckets and the Asialink plan from esimdb.com/india/airalo, 28 September 2026).
Source for Holafly: https://esim.holafly.com/esim-india/.
Source for Saily: https://esimdb.com/india/saily (listing dated 2 July 2026; saily.com refused the fetch).
Source for Nomad: https://esimdb.com/india/nomad (listing dated 21 September 2026; network from nomadesim.com/india-esim).
Source for Ubigi: https://esimdb.com/india/ubigi (listing dated 17 September 2026; network from cellulardata.ubigi.com/india).
Source for SIM rules for tourists: https://www.indembassybern.gov.in/page/introduction-of-sim-cards-for-the-foreign-tourists/ (Embassy of India, Bern).
For two weeks or a month of unlimited data, Ringo Light: $18.99 for 2 weeks and $34.99 for 30 days on 28 September 2026, against $62 for 15 days and $99 for 30 days at Airalo. For 3 days, Airalo's Asia-wide Asialink plan at $11.50. For a 10 GB bucket, Ubigi at $15.
Holafly rides Airtel and Jio, Nomad Airtel, Ubigi Jio, and Airalo's India plan Vi. Saily does not name its network on its listing. Jio and Airtel are the two largest networks and cover the cities and main tourist routes.
Every brand has a limit somewhere. Airalo and Saily slow you after 3 GB a day, Nomad after 2 GB, Ubigi after its fixed full-speed amount. Holafly states no daily cap for your own phone. Ringo Light has no speed cap: it starts with 10 or 20 GB and adds 10 GB once at 80%, charged.
Yes, with paperwork. The Embassy of India in Bern describes BSNL SIMs for e-Visa tourists at the airport against a copy of the e-Visa and the first page of the passport, valid 30 days. Shops in town also ask for your passport and visa. An eSIM bought before you fly skips the counter and works when you land.
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