Airalo in Bulgaria: cheap, deep, and with one plan you should never buy

The prices, checked

Airalo sells eighteen Bulgaria plans and we read all of them off Airalo's own site on 13 August 2026. That makes this one of the few provider pages on this site where the numbers are not estimates.

Unlimited is sold separately: $11.50 for 3 days, $18.50 for 5, $27 for 7, $34.50 for 10, $48 for 15 and $71 for 30.

Bulgaria is one of the cheaper markets Airalo operates in. The same 5GB, 30-day plan costs $10.50 in Slovakia and $7 here; 10GB over a month is $16 there and $12 here.

Never buy the 1GB

The $4 entry plan is the worst value Airalo sells for Bulgaria, and it is the one the search results push you towards. It gives you one gigabyte and three days. Fifty cents more buys 3GB over the same three days. A dollar more buys 3GB over a week. Two dollars more buys 5GB over a week.

Read down the per-gigabyte column and the picture is stark: $4.00 a gigabyte at 1GB, $1.20 at 5GB, $1.10 at 10GB, and $0.72 at 50GB. The floor is a fifth of the entry rate. There is no trip to Bulgaria on which the 1GB plan is the right purchase, because the next size up costs almost nothing more.

The duration premium is similarly small. Going from 7 days to 30 at 10GB costs one dollar. If there is any chance your trip stretches — a night added in Plovdiv, a slow bus from Bansko — buy the longer window.

Against the rest of the market

Nomad's prices have now been read at its own checkout too, so only the Saily and Holafly figures are still indicative. Saily takes the 1GB slot on price and duration. Nomad takes unlimited, by fifty cents at five days and by more at seven and ten. Everywhere else Airalo is cheaper, sometimes heavily: its 5GB for 30 days costs $7 where Nomad's 3GB for 30 days costs $9.

Against Holafly, unlimited goes Airalo's way at five and ten days. Holafly's 25-day plan at $68.90 is nominally under Airalo's $71, but Airalo's runs for thirty days, which is $2.37 a day against $2.76.

What "Bultel" is, and what we don't know

Airalo's Bulgaria plans appear at checkout under the name Bultel. That is Airalo's own retail label for the local product, not a mobile operator, and it tells you nothing about coverage.

Airalo does not publish a host network for Bulgaria, or for anywhere else. We hold no carrier for it, and we are not going to infer one from what other providers claim. If knowing exactly which Bulgarian network you are on matters to you, no travel eSIM can answer that — a local prepaid SIM can.

Coverage, and the alternatives

Bulgarian coverage is solid across the cities and the coast and thins in known places: remote Rhodope hiking trails, the Rila massif above the ski resort base areas including the ground around Musala, some steep Black Sea coastal cliffs, and rural villages in the north-west. Those gaps affect every provider on this page, Airalo included.

A Bulgarian prepaid SIM costs around $9 at the airport, from Vivacom, A1 or Yettel, but registration requires a passport or national ID. An eSIM requires no document, which is why most short-trip visitors use one. And if you live in the EU or EEA, roam-like-at-home already covers Bulgaria at your domestic rates — check that allowance before spending anything. Full comparison on our Bulgaria hub.