Bulgaria is cheap for data — here is the arithmetic

EU visitors first: you already have this

Bulgaria is an EU member, so roam-like-at-home applies. If your SIM is from anywhere in the EU or EEA, your domestic data works here at domestic prices and there is nothing to buy. Bulgaria's partial Schengen status has no bearing on roaming — that is a border-control question, not a mobile one.

Everyone else — the UK, US, Canada, Australia — will pay daily roaming rates without a local plan, and the plans below are cheap enough that it is not a close call.

Bulgaria is one of Europe's cheaper markets, not one of its worst

A correction first. An earlier version of this page told readers Bulgarian data bottomed out at $1.35 a gigabyte, and that this was poor value by European standards. Both halves were wrong. The verified floor is $0.72 a gigabyte, on Airalo's 50GB for 30 days at $36, read from its own site on 13 August 2026 — squarely mid-table for the EU.

The old figure was wrong for an instructive reason: it was calculated from the small plans. Bulgaria's ladder runs to 50GB, and the rate falls at every step.

Every row above has been checked at the seller's own site. Two sets of figures moved when we read them. Nomad's 3GB month is $9 rather than the $7 this page used to print, and its 10GB month is $16 rather than $14. Saily's whole Bulgarian range came in at roughly half what we had: $1.99 rather than $3.99 at 1GB, $4.99 rather than $8.99 at 3GB, and three larger plans this page did not know existed. At 5, 10 and 20GB Saily now lands exactly one cent under Airalo.

For most trips the sweet spot is around 5GB or 10GB — $6.99 and $11.99 from Saily, $7 and $12 from Airalo, which is less than a round of drinks in Sofia either way. Buy 20GB or 50GB only if you are working from a laptop or staying a month; the rate is better, but the total is not.

Holafly's verified unlimited starts at $11.90 for three days and $20.50 for five, against Airalo's $11.50 and $18.50. In a country this cheap, unlimited is hard to justify.

The local SIM: fine, but no longer the cheap option

Sofia Airport sells prepaid SIMs from Vivacom and A1 stores in Terminal 2 arrivals, and a tourist data package runs about $9. In town, Vivacom, A1 and Yettel have stores in Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna, and some pharmacies and convenience shops stock prepaid SIMs too. A passport is required for registration.

That $9 airport pack now sits above a verified 5GB eSIM at $7 and only a little under 10GB at $12. Unless you want a specific carrier, or a Bulgarian number for calls and local services, the eSIM is the better buy — which was not true a few years ago.

Which network, and where the signal stops

Vivacom has the fastest 4G and 5G speeds and broad nationwide coverage; A1 Bulgaria is competitive with it. Yettel is the third option.

What you cannot do is choose between them through an eSIM. Airalo does not publish a host network for Bulgaria or for any other country — its Bulgarian plans are sold under the name Bultel, which is a product name at checkout. Neither do Saily or Nomad — an earlier version of this page said both listed A1 and Vivacom, and those entries were errors in our data. Holafly names nothing either: its own Bulgarian listing carries no carrier, and the A1, Vivacom and Yettel line this page used to attribute to it came from our own data rather than from the seller. If you want Vivacom specifically, the way to get it is a Vivacom SIM from a Vivacom shop.

Coverage is strong in the cities and along the Black Sea resorts. It drops on the remote Rhodope hiking trails, in the Rila mountains above the ski resort bases including the Musala summit area, under some of the deeper coastal cliffs, and in rural villages in the north-west.

Full plan lists are on the Bulgaria hub.