Spain eSIM

Our Spain eSIM runs on Movistar and Orange Spain, both on 5G. Those are two of the four national networks, so you get the same coverage a Spanish subscriber gets rather than a restricted visitor layer.

Spain has some of the best mobile coverage in Europe. 5G is live across Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Malaga and Bilbao, and 4G reaches almost everywhere else including most of the Camino routes.

The genuine weak spots are the Pyrenees, parts of inland Extremadura, and the mountain roads of the Sierra Nevada. Download offline maps if you are driving those.

If your phone plan is from an EU country, no. EU roaming rules mean your home allowance already works in Spain at no extra cost.

If you are travelling from the United States, Canada, Latin America, Australia or most of Asia, then yes, unless you want to pay a daily roaming fee or be throttled to a speed that makes Google Maps unusable.

UK travellers should check their own plan. Some UK networks kept free EU roaming after Brexit and others brought back daily charges.

We would rather say this plainly than sell you something you already have.

Our Spain plans start at $1.29. These are checkout prices with no code needed.

For a week in Spain the 3 GB for 15 days plan at $2.10 covers most people. Take the 10 GB for 30 days at $5.99 if you are working remotely or streaming in the evening.

Our unlimited style plans start at $1.29 for a day. You get full speed up to a daily allowance, then a reduced speed for the rest of that day, so the connection never simply stops.

Every travel eSIM sold as unlimited has a daily cap somewhere. The question worth asking any seller is what the number is and what speed you drop to, because plenty of them do not print it.

Public list prices checked on 30 September 2026.

Our 3 GB for 30 days is $2.24. We are a smaller company with far lower marketing costs than the household names, and that is the whole reason for the gap.

Prices change. If one of these is cheaper on the day you read this, buy that one.

Yes. The Canary Islands, Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera are all part of Spain and are covered by the same plan at no extra cost.

This catches people out because the Canaries sit off the coast of Africa and feel like a separate destination. For mobile purposes they are Spain, and Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote all have strong 4G and 5G in the resort areas.

Coverage thins on the volcanic interior, around Teide and on the hiking routes of La Gomera and La Palma. Download your route before you set off.

Yes. WhatsApp works over data, so an eSIM changes nothing about it. Your number, your account and your chat history stay exactly as they are.

Installing our eSIM does not log you out of WhatsApp, does not create a second account, and does not change the number your contacts see. The app simply uses whatever data connection the phone has.

WhatsApp voice and video calls work too, as do FaceTime, Telegram and Signal. An hour of WhatsApp video is roughly 300 MB, which is worth knowing if you call home every evening.

What you do not get is a Spanish phone number. Our plans are data only, so calls and texts to a number need your usual SIM kept active alongside.

On for the eSIM line, off for your home SIM. It feels backwards and it is still correct.

Your eSIM joins a Spanish network as a visitor, so the phone categorises it as roaming even though nothing extra is charged. Leaving roaming off for that line is the single most common reason a new eSIM shows bars but moves no data.

Your home SIM is the one that would actually cost you money abroad, so switch its roaming off. Both iPhone and Android let you set this per line.

They are built for different jobs. Orange Holidays includes a French phone number with calls and texts, which matters if someone needs to reach you on a number. Airalo is data only and sells by country or region.

On price per gigabyte Airalo generally beats Orange, because Orange bundles voice minutes you may never use. Neither is wrong, they just answer different questions.

If you only need data across several European countries, compare the cost per gigabyte rather than the headline price, and look at our Europe plan alongside them. If you genuinely need a European number, Orange is a fair choice and we will say so.

Buy one Europe plan rather than a Spain plan, especially if you are walking the Camino Português, which starts in Portugal and finishes in Spain.

Our Europe eSIM covers 34 countries on one profile, so you cross the border and nothing happens. A Spain only plan stops at exactly the point a Portuguese route becomes interesting.

Coverage along the Camino Francés is good in the towns and patchy on the meseta between Burgos and León. Download the stage maps in the morning while you still have signal.

About 3 GB for normal use. Maps, messaging, restaurant bookings and scrolling do not consume much when you are out all day.

• Light use, maps and WhatsApp and bookings: around 1 GB a week
• Normal use, adding Instagram, taxis and a daily video call home: 3 to 5 GB
• Heavy use, evening streaming or tethering a laptop: 10 GB or more

Spain makes this easier than most places because cafes, hotels and even many plazas have free WiFi. The thing that actually burns data is video, at roughly 1 GB an hour of streaming.

Only if your phone cannot take an eSIM. Madrid Barajas and Barcelona El Prat both have operator desks, but Spanish law requires passport registration for a prepaid SIM, so you are filling in forms after a flight.

An eSIM installs at home before you fly and connects itself while you are still taxiing. You clear passport control with maps and your hotel booking already loaded.

A local SIM does give you a Spanish number, which an eSIM data plan does not. If you need one, for a long stay or a rental deposit, get the physical SIM.

Spain is comfortably connected, including underground.

• Madrid: 5G across the city and in most of the metro
• Barcelona: 5G throughout, strong along the beach and in the Gothic Quarter
• Seville, Valencia, Malaga and Bilbao: 5G in the centres, 4G in the suburbs
• Costa del Sol and Costa Brava: good along the whole coastal strip
• Canary and Balearic Islands: strong in resorts and towns, thinner inland
• Pyrenees, Picos de Europa and inland Extremadura: real dead spots, plan for them

If you are taking the AVE high speed trains, expect the signal to drop in tunnels and return quickly.

Install it at home on WiFi before you travel. It takes a couple of minutes and nothing starts counting until you land.

After you buy, we email a QR code. Open your phone settings, add an eSIM or mobile plan, scan it, and name the line so you recognise it. You can leave it switched off until you arrive.

On landing, switch the line on, set mobile data to it, and turn data roaming on for that line only.

The rule that catches everyone: do it while you still have WiFi. An eSIM is a download, and you cannot download it over a connection you do not have yet.

Validity starts when the eSIM first connects to a Spanish network, not when you buy it or install it. Buy weeks ahead if you like.

If you run out of data you can top up the same eSIM from your account without installing anything new. If the days have run out rather than the gigabytes, you buy a fresh plan instead.

You have 180 days from purchase to install the profile before it lapses unused.

Coming from outside the EU, a Spain eSIM is the cheapest sensible way to land connected. Ours starts at $1.29, runs on Movistar and Orange 5G, and covers the Canaries and Balearics at no extra cost.

Coming from inside the EU, use your own plan. Visiting Portugal or France on the same trip, buy the Europe plan instead of two country plans. Buying the right thing once beats buying the wrong thing twice.