The short answer
Your O2 plan can reach Turkey for £7 a day (about $9), billed only when the phone is used. For most trips I would buy Ringo Light: 3 days at $8.99, 2 weeks at $16.99, 30 days at $26.99, unlimited data at full speed. O2 wins on what a plan gives you: the same number, calls and texts, and no eSIM slot required.
Three days at $8.99, two weeks at $16.99 or a month at $26.99, paid once, with no throttling for Istanbul maps or a hotel laptop. I read O2 Travel at £7 on each day of use in Turkey, held to 2Mbps.
Calls and texts keep reaching your UK number, the charge shows on the O2 bill, and nothing is downloaded before the flight. A handset with no eSIM slot still works. Ringo Light is data only, and I count that as a real gap.
Prices read on 31 October 2026: O2, 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 eSIM for Europe and the best eSIM for Europe, all brands priced.
The prices, charted
US dollars, 31 October 2026. A fortnight of daily charges is the ceiling for O2 here, since only days of use are billed. Rate used: the ECB reference rate dated 30 October 2026, published latest on 31 October, £1 = $1.34.
O2's page shows no month-long bolt-on, so a Turkish month is thirty days at £7. Dollar figures use the ECB rate dated 30 October 2026, with £1 = $1.34. Ringo Light is one payment across the thirty days.
A weekend break in Istanbul at each, converted at the ECB reference rate of 30 October 2026, £1 = $1.34. Only O2 also carries your calls and texts.
Side by side
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Head to head
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- Airalo vs Ringo Light for Turkey
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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.
O2 Travel vs Ringo Light in one paragraph
For getting online in Turkey, Ringo Light is cheaper on every length I compared: $8.99 against about $28 for three days, $16.99 against about $131 for two weeks, $26.99 against about $281 for a month. O2 Travel earns credit for what it keeps simple. The same number rings, texts arrive, there is no eSIM to install, and the cost lands on a bill you already pay. For one night in Istanbul I would take the bolt-on. For a fortnight on the coast or a longer stay, I would buy Ringo Light.
Price: the same trip at each
I checked O2's page on 31 October 2026. It names Turkey among the 75 places where the Travel bolt-on works, at a fixed £7 for each day of use. A charge runs 24 hours from the first call, text or data session. Three days is £21 (about $28), two weeks £98 (about $131), thirty days £210 (about $281). There is no monthly option on the page. Dollar figures for O2 come from the ECB reference rate of 30 October 2026, the freshest on 31 October, with £1 = $1.34.
Ringo Light prices are in US dollars, and the buyer sees the amount in their own currency at checkout before paying. You pay $8.99, $16.99 or $26.99 once. The gap is $19.01 on three days, $114.01 on two weeks and $254.01 on a month. One £7 day is close to the whole 3 day Ringo Light price, so I see O2 winning on convenience, not on cost.
Data and speed at each
O2 gives unlimited data on the bolt-on but holds roaming speed at 2Mbps, and it names no fair use limit. I think that is enough for Google Translate in a Grand Bazaar haggle, maps in Sultanahmet and chat apps. A film on the ferry across the Bosphorus, a video call to home or a laptop on a tether will drag. Ringo Light is unlimited at full speed, with no per day cap quoted. Fair use policy, see Terms.
Calls, texts and your own number
Staying on your O2 number means the SIM keeps working as at home, and the page says calls to the UK and within Turkey are unlimited. Calls to other countries use standard roaming rates, and receiving a call or text will not start the daily fee. If your bank texts a code to the UK number, it still arrives, and that is the row where I would not argue with O2. Ringo Light has no number. Calls use data apps and your number stays on your own SIM next to it.
Setup and billing
Text TRAVEL to 23336 or add the bolt-on in My O2, and check first whether it is already active. The daily fee begins on your first call, text or data session and sits outside any Spend Cap. I would sort it out at home, not in the queue at Istanbul Airport. Ringo Light arrives by email once paid and goes on with one QR scan over home Wi-Fi. Switch it on for data when you land. Your phone needs eSIM.
What Ringo Light is, and what it is not
Ringo Light is Ringo's data eSIM, sold to help fund the full Ringo, the one plan that works in every country. I write for Ringo, so weigh that. For Turkey it sells three trips, 3 days at $8.99, 2 weeks at $16.99 and 30 days at $26.99, all unlimited data at full speed, paid once and never renewed.
No phone number comes with it, so it does not replace the O2 line for calls, and the handset must have an eSIM slot. O2 is the neater way to keep one bill. Ringo Light costs less for the same days in Turkey, and that is the part I look at first.
My ranking of the travel eSIM brands for Turkey is at /blog/best-esim-for-turkey. The card to buy Ringo Light is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table.
Which to pick
- ✓Ringo Light, for most Turkish trips. From $8.99 for three days to $26.99 for a month, unlimited and full speed, against £7 for every day of use at O2. This is my pick.
- ✓O2 Travel, for a quick stopover. One £7 day, no setup, your own number answering.
- ✓O2 Travel, if your handset has no eSIM. It rides on the plan already in the phone, which matters when there is no eSIM slot.
- ✓Both, on a long working stay. Ringo Light carries the data and your own SIM carries the calls. I would set it up this way.
Pick by trip
I would buy Ringo Light, 3 days, $8.99, against £21 of O2 Travel, about $28.
I would buy Ringo Light at $16.99, unlimited at full speed. O2 across fourteen days is £98, about $131.
Ringo Light at $26.99, which leaves room for the laptop. O2 would be £210, about $281.
O2 Travel. One £7 day beats installing anything, and I would skip the eSIM here.
I would keep O2 Travel on, or add Ringo Light for data with your own SIM still in the phone.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
O2, Ringo Light, European Central Bank, Ringo Light
We priced O2 and Ringo Light for Turkey on 31 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: Other eSIM brands. Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad and Ubigi cover Turkey as well and are ranked at /blog/best-esim-for-turkey. Here I weigh your O2 plan against Ringo Light and nothing else. Left out: What else O2 sells for roaming. O2 has separate terms for Europe and bills standard rates off its list, and I left that out. Turkey sits on the Travel bolt-on list, so I used that figure. The O2 roaming overview page was not found on the day.
- 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
- Ringo Light: ringoesim.com/turkey, 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 30 October 2026, the latest published on 31 October 2026, used for the dollar figures (£1 = $1.34)
- Ringo Light: our own catalogue, the prices the checkout charges on 31 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.
