The best eSIM for Nepal in 2026. Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Nepal, priced on the same day: who is cheapest for two weeks or a month, and signal on the treks.
Prices read on 28 September 2026. Six travel eSIMs sell a Nepal plan and get most of the traffic for this search. We priced all six on the same day, for a few days in Kathmandu, two weeks that add Pokhara and Chitwan, and a month with a trek, and read the fine print on unlimited. Here is where each one wins, including where it is not us.
Ringo Light: Unlimited with no speed cap, one payment, and cheaper than Holafly. 2 weeks at $96.99 or 30 days at $183.99, one payment each, no daily cap, nothing renews. Holafly asks $126.90 for 15 days and $288.90 for the month. Airalo is cheaper than us: $79 for 15 days and $99 for 30 days, $17.99 and $84.99 less, with 3 GB a day at full speed.
Airalo: Cheapest unlimited for two weeks or a month. 15 days at $79 and 30 days at $99 on Ncell, 3 GB a day at full speed, then 1 Mbps. Also the cheapest 3 days at $17.
Nomad: Cheapest data bucket. 10 GB for 30 days at $24, level with Airalo, and 20 GB that lasts 45 days for $36, on Ncell.
Holafly: Two networks, Nepal Telecom and Ncell. The only brand here that names both of Nepal's networks. Days, not gigabytes: $65.50 for a week; sharing limited to 1 GB a day.
Model: Airalo Buckets or unlimited days; Holafly Unlimited days only; Saily Buckets only; one 1 GB plan listed; Nomad Buckets only; Ubigi Buckets; Asia and World plans cover Nepal; Ringo Light Unlimited trips: 2 weeks or 30 days.
Unlimited, 3 days: Airalo $17; Holafly No 3-day plan; 1 day $26.50, 5 days $52.90; Saily No unlimited plan; Nomad No unlimited plan; Ubigi No unlimited plan; Ringo Light No 3-day plan.
Unlimited, 7 days: Airalo $35; Holafly $65.50; Saily No unlimited plan; Nomad No unlimited plan; Ubigi No unlimited plan; Ringo Light No 7-day plan; 2 weeks $96.99.
Unlimited, 2 weeks: Airalo 15 days $79; Holafly 15 days $126.90; Saily No unlimited plan; Nomad No unlimited plan; Ubigi No unlimited plan; Ringo Light $96.99.
Unlimited, 30 days: Airalo $99; Holafly $288.90; Saily No unlimited plan; Nomad No unlimited plan; Ubigi No Nepal plan; World plan 60 GB a month, then 2 Mbps, $120, renews; Ringo Light $183.99.
10 GB, 30 days: Airalo $24; Holafly No buckets; Saily Not listed on the day; 1 GB for 7 days $9.99; Nomad $24; Ubigi Asia plan $42; Ringo Light No buckets; 2 weeks starts with 10 GB, $96.99.
20 GB, 30 days: Airalo $36; Holafly No buckets; Saily Not listed on the day; Nomad 20 GB for 45 days $36; Ubigi Asia plan, 20 GB a month $29, renews; Ringo Light No buckets; 30 days starts with 20 GB, $183.99.
Full speed on unlimited: Airalo 3 GB a day, then 1 Mbps; Holafly No daily cap stated; sharing 1 GB a day; Saily No unlimited plan; Nomad No unlimited plan; Ubigi World plan: 60 GB, then 2 Mbps; Ringo Light No speed cap; starts with 10 or 20 GB, adds 10 GB once at 80%, charged.
Networks: Airalo Ncell; Holafly Nepal Telecom, Ncell; Saily Not named by Saily; Nomad Ncell; Ubigi Ncell; 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.
Most first trips to Nepal run two weeks or longer: Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan, and often a trek. Only three of the brands we priced sell unlimited data for Nepal at all. For about two weeks, Airalo asks $79 for 15 days, Ringo Light $96.99 for 2 weeks and Holafly $126.90 for 15 days. For a month, Airalo asks $99, Ringo Light $183.99 and Holafly $288.90. Airalo is the cheapest for both, by $17.99 for two weeks and by $84.99 for a month.
Read what unlimited means before you pick. Airalo gives 3 GB a day at full speed, then 1 Mbps, which is enough for maps, messages and photos but slow for video. 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 $96.99 top-up. A heavy two weeks with us costs $193.98 and a heavy month $280.98, against $79 and $99 at Airalo. For most people in Nepal, 3 GB a day is plenty, and Airalo is the better buy.
For a short trip, Ringo Light sells no 3-day or 7-day plan. Airalo sells 3 days of unlimited at $17 and a week at $35.
Nepal has two mobile networks: Nepal Telecom, the state operator, and Ncell. Both cover Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan and the towns on the main highways with 4G. Airalo, Nomad and Ubigi ride Ncell. Holafly is the one brand here that names both networks. Saily does not name its network on its listing.
On the trekking routes, signal is patchy for every brand, ours included. No travel eSIM builds its own towers: they all ride the same two networks, and in the high valleys those networks come and go. Holafly's own page warns of weak or no coverage on parts of the Everest, Annapurna and Manaslu routes, and that is true of every plan in this table. Many teahouses on the main trails sell Wi-Fi. Download offline maps and your trek route before you leave Kathmandu or Pokhara, and do not pay for a month of unlimited on the assumption that you will use it at altitude.
Nomad, $24 for 10 GB. Level with Airalo for 10 GB, and the best big bucket: 20 GB that lasts 45 days for $36, on Ncell. Good for a long trek where you will be offline for days at a time.
Airalo, $24 for 10 GB. Its Patancell plan on Ncell, 20 GB for 30 days at $36, buckets from $5 for 1 GB.
Ubigi, $42 for 10 GB. That is its Asia plan, which covers Nepal; its Nepal plan stops at 3 GB. The Asia plan also sells 20 GB a month for $29, renewing until you cancel.
Saily, 1 GB only. Its listing shows one Nepal plan, 1 GB for 7 days at $9.99, and is from May; saily.com would not load for us.
Ringo Light, no buckets. Our 2 weeks starts with 10 GB for $96.99 and our 30 days with 20 GB for $183.99. For a fixed amount of data, Nomad, Airalo and Ubigi are all far cheaper in Nepal. Buy Ringo Light for unlimited with no speed cap, 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 Nepal it sells two trips, both unlimited data at full speed with no speed cap: 2 weeks at $96.99, starting with 10 GB, and 30 days at $183.99, starting with 20 GB. Each adds 10 GB once at 80%, charged at $96.99. One payment, nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email in seconds and installs in one scan, no app.
Nepal is in neither our Asia nor our Global plan, so this trip is the only Ringo Light plan that works here. Airalo is $17.99 cheaper for two weeks and $84.99 cheaper for a month. Ringo Light beats Holafly on both lengths and is the only unlimited here with no daily speed cap; if that is not what you need, buy Airalo.
The card to buy it is just below this article.
A few days in Kathmandu. Airalo unlimited, 3 days, $17. Ringo Light sells no 3 days.
Two weeks in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan. Airalo unlimited, 15 days, $79. Ringo Light at $96.99 only if 3 GB a day at full speed will not be enough for you.
A trek of ten days or more. Nomad 20 GB for 45 days at $36, or Airalo or Nomad 10 GB for $24. You will be offline for much of the trail on any plan.
A month, working from Pokhara. Airalo unlimited, 30 days, $99. Ringo Light costs $183.99 for 30 days with no speed cap; Holafly $288.90.
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 Nepal, and what your phone needs for it. Eight places most first trips include, from the Kathmandu Valley to Pokhara, the Everest trail and Chitwan, with the one thing your data does for you at each. The valley and Pokhara have good 4G; on the trails, download before you go.
Boudhanath Stupa, Kathmandu. One of the largest stupas in the world and the heart of Tibetan Buddhism in the valley. Come at dusk, when pilgrims walk clockwise around it under the prayer flags. Pathao and inDrive work in Kathmandu. A ride app shows the fare before you get in.
Swayambhunath, the Monkey Temple, Kathmandu. A hilltop stupa on the west side of the city, reached by a long stairway full of monkeys. The terrace looks out over the whole valley. Keep your phone in a zipped pocket on the stairs: the monkeys grab anything loose.
Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu. Nepal's holiest Hindu temple, on the Bagmati River, where open-air cremations take place on the ghats. Only Hindus may enter the main temple; everyone can watch the evening aarti from the far bank. Put the phone away at the cremation ghats. Families are grieving a few steps from you.
Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Bhaktapur. An old Newar royal city east of Kathmandu, with a palace of carved windows and pagoda temples around its squares. Stay for the evening, when the day visitors leave. Camera translation reads the menus in the small places around the squares.
Phewa Lake, Pokhara. The lake at the edge of Pokhara, with a small island temple and the Annapurna range behind it on clear mornings. October and November bring the clearest skies. Pokhara is where most treks start. Download your offline maps and trek route here, on good signal.
Sunrise from Poon Hill, Ghorepani, Annapurna region. A short trek from Pokhara climbs to this viewpoint above Ghorepani, where the sun comes up over Dhaulagiri and the Annapurnas. You need an Annapurna Conservation Area permit. Signal comes and goes on the trail. Many teahouses sell Wi-Fi if you need to send word home.
Namche Bazaar, Khumbu, Everest region. The Sherpa town in a horseshoe of mountains on the way to Everest Base Camp, where trekkers spend a rest day to get used to the altitude. Most people fly to Lukla and walk up in two days. Flights to Lukla are often delayed by weather. Keep an eye on your airline's messages and do not plan a tight connection home.
Chitwan National Park, Sauraha, the Terai. Lowland forest and grassland where one-horned rhinos, deer and crocodiles live, seen by jeep or dugout canoe from Sauraha. The cooler months, October to March, are the best time to go. Signal fades inside the park. Send your pickup time to your lodge before you head in.
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Nepal 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/nepal-esim?currency=USD (unlimited in dollars on the site; buckets from esimdb.com/nepal/airalo, updated 28 September 2026).
Source for Holafly: https://esim.holafly.com/esim-nepal/ (dollar prices from the page data, the page shows euros; networks and the trekking coverage warning from the same page).
Source for Saily: https://esimdb.com/nepal/saily (listing dated 15 May 2026, one 1 GB plan; saily.com refused the fetch).
Source for Nomad: https://esimdb.com/nepal/nomad (listing dated 17 September 2026; network from nomadesim.com/nepal-esim).
Source for Ubigi: https://esimdb.com/nepal/ubigi (listing dated 17 September 2026; network from cellulardata.ubigi.com/nepal).
For two weeks or a month of unlimited data, Airalo: $79 for 15 days and $99 for 30 days on 28 September 2026, against $96.99 and $183.99 at Ringo Light and $126.90 and $288.90 at Holafly. For 3 days, Airalo at $17. For a 10 GB bucket, Airalo and Nomad at $24.
Airalo, Nomad and Ubigi ride Ncell. Holafly names both Nepal Telecom and Ncell. Saily does not name its network on its listing. Both networks cover Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan.
Every brand has a limit somewhere. Airalo slows you to 1 Mbps after 3 GB a day. Holafly states no daily cap for your own phone and limits sharing to 1 GB a day. Ringo Light has no speed cap: it starts with 10 or 20 GB and adds 10 GB once at 80%, charged. Saily, Nomad and Ubigi sell no unlimited plan for Nepal.
In the villages, often; between them and high up, often not. Every eSIM here rides Nepal Telecom or Ncell, and signal on the trekking routes is patchy on both, whichever brand you buy. Many teahouses sell Wi-Fi. Download offline maps before you set out and tell someone your schedule.
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