1 · The short answer
Every travel eSIM sells Riyadh as part of its Saudi Arabia plan, so the question is which Saudi plan fits a Riyadh trip. We priced the six that get most of the traffic on the same day, for a short business visit, a working week and two weeks with trips out of the city, and looked at what your phone does between the airport, the metro and Diriyah.
Unlimited data at full speed for 2 weeks at $22.99, less than any rival here charges for 7 days. 30 days at $50.99. Nothing renews.
3 days of unlimited at $12 on stc, the largest Saudi network, for a short business trip. Ringo Light sells no 3-day plan.
15 days of unlimited at $54 on its Red Sand plan on Zain, 3 GB a day at full speed, then 1 Mbps.
Days, not gigabytes, on Mobily, installed from a QR code. $27.90 for a week; sharing limited to 1 GB a day.
Prices read on 28 September 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi 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.
2 · The prices, charted
US dollars, 28 September 2026. Ringo Light sells 2 weeks, the others 15 days. Nomad stops at 10 days ($33). Ubigi sells no Saudi unlimited; its bar is its Middle East plan, 30 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps.
The 30-day plan at each brand. Ringo Light is unlimited data at full speed. Airalo and Saily give 3 GB a day at full speed, then 1 Mbps. Ubigi's month is its Middle East plan, 60 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps. Nomad sells no 30-day unlimited.
Holafly sells no buckets. Ringo Light sells no bucket either: its 2 weeks is unlimited and lasts 2 weeks, not 30 days.
3 · Side by side
Swipe to compare →
Get Ringo Light for Riyadh, from $22.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
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.
4 · What to do in Riyadh, and what your phone does for you there
Six places for a first trip to Riyadh, from the mud-brick old town to the towers of Olaya and the cliffs outside the city. The city has strong 4G and 5G everywhere; the desert track at the end does not.
5 · Getting online at King Khalid International
Flights to Riyadh land at King Khalid International, about 35 kilometres north of the city centre. Every terminal has 4G and 5G from the moment the plane taxis in, so install your eSIM at home, leave it switched off, and turn it on for data when you land. You then have maps and messages before passport control, and a ride booked before you reach the kerb.
A Riyadh Metro line serves the airport terminals, and ride apps such as Careem and Uber pick up outside arrivals. Your maps app shows which is faster to your hotel at that hour.
6 · Getting around Riyadh on your phone
Riyadh is built for cars and spread over a huge area, so most visitors live on two apps: a ride app and a maps app. The Riyadh Metro now crosses the city on six lines, with stations at Olaya, the King Abdullah Financial District and the airport, and route apps plan journeys on it. Both need data the whole time you are out.
stc, Mobily and Zain all have 5G across the city, so for Riyadh itself the network your eSIM uses barely matters. Signal only thins once you leave the city for the desert: the track to the Edge of the World and the roads towards Al Qassim.
Riyadh Season, the city's winter festival of concerts, food and fairs, fills Boulevard City and the other zones each autumn and winter. Tickets are sold in an app and shown on your phone at the gate, so data matters there too.
7 · Which plan fits a Riyadh trip
Two or three days of meetings: Nomad sells 3 days of unlimited at $12 and Airalo and Holafly at $12.50. Ringo Light sells no 3-day plan.
A week: seven days of unlimited costs $25 at Nomad, $27 at Airalo and $27.90 at Holafly. Ringo Light sells no 7-day plan, but its 2 weeks of unlimited data at full speed costs $22.99, less than any of those weeks. You simply have days left over.
Two weeks or a month, with AlUla, Jeddah or an Umrah after Riyadh: Ringo Light 2 weeks at $22.99 or 30 days at $50.99 covers all of Saudi Arabia on one eSIM. For about two weeks, Airalo asks $54, Saily $54.99 and Holafly $57.90.
8 · What Ringo Light is
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 Saudi Arabia, Riyadh included, it sells two trips, both unlimited data at full speed: 2 weeks at $22.99 and 30 days at $50.99. Nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email in seconds and installs in one scan, no app.
If you want a fixed amount of data instead, Nomad sells 10 GB for 30 days at $18, less than our 2 weeks. Ringo Light sells no buckets. The card to buy it is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table.
9 · Pick by trip
Nomad unlimited, 3 days, $12, on stc. Ringo Light sells no 3-day plan.
Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $22.99. It costs less than a 7-day plan at Nomad ($25), Airalo ($27) or Holafly ($27.90).
Ringo Light 2 weeks at $22.99 covers the whole country on one eSIM.
Ringo Light unlimited, 30 days, $50.99. Airalo asks $97 for the month.
Nomad 10 GB for 30 days at $18.
10 · Frequently asked questions
11 · How we compared, and our sources
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Riyadh 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.
- Airalo: www.airalo.com/saudi-arabia-esim?currency=USD, Red Sand unlimited read on the site in dollars, 28 September 2026, network Zain from the same page; buckets from esimdb.com/saudi-arabia/airalo, 28 September 2026; Red Sand 15 day and 30 day unlimited rechecked on esimdb.com/saudi-arabia/airalo on 12 October 2026, unchanged at $54 and $97
- Holafly: esim.holafly.com/esim-saudi-arabia/, read on the site in dollars, 28 September 2026; network Mobily from the same page
- Saily: esimdb.com/saudi-arabia/saily, listing dated 16 June 2026
- Nomad: esimdb.com/saudi-arabia/nomad, listing dated 20 September 2026; network stc from nomadesim.com, which served euro prices
- Ubigi: esimdb.com/saudi-arabia/ubigi, listing dated 16 September 2026; its Middle East plan is used for unlimited
- Ringo Light: our own catalogue, the prices the checkout charges on 28 September 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.
