Airalo in Colombia: the prices we can prove, and the market that undercuts them

What Airalo charges in Colombia

Every Airalo figure on this page was read off Airalo's own site on 13 August 2026, and every Nomad figure off Nomad's own site on 17 August 2026. The Saily and Holafly prices are still indicative listings, so read those comparisons as directional rather than exact. eSIMCard is no longer in them at all — its rows were withdrawn on 18 August 2026 after we read its site and found our figures wrong.

Unlimited is a separate ladder: $12.50 for 3 days, $20.50 for 5, $29.50 for 7, $35 for 10, $49 for 15 and $91.50 for 30.

One thing the grid hides: Airalo sells Colombia as two packages, Chimba and Chimba+, and they are mixed together above. Chimba+ accounts for only three of those plans — 1GB over 7 days at $4.50, 2GB over 15 days at $8.00, and 3GB over 30 days at $10.50. Every other price in the grid, and the whole unlimited ladder, is Chimba. Unlike several other countries, the two do not sell the same allowance at two prices here, so there is no cheaper duplicate to hunt for; the names simply tell you which shelf a plan sits on. What separates the two packages beyond that is not stated by Airalo.

Hotspot tethering is supported. No plan includes calls or SMS, which costs you less in Colombia than in most places — WhatsApp is the default channel for taxis, guesthouses and restaurants alike.

Extra days are nearly free. Extra gigabytes are not.

Read a column downwards and the validity pricing is generous. Stepping from 15 days to 30 costs 50 cents at 5GB and a dollar at both 10GB and 20GB. The 3GB plans are blunter still: $10.50 buys either a week or a month. That is not a mistake in the listing — the week is Chimba and the month is Chimba+, two separate products that happen to land on the same price — but from a buyer's point of view the 7-day version has no reason to exist. Take the long validity at every size.

Read across, and the arithmetic turns. Ten gigabytes over 30 days is $28 while five is $16: the second five costs $12 after the first five cost $16, and that is the whole of the volume discount in the mid-range. The rate only breaks properly at the top. The 50GB month at $49 is $0.98 per gigabyte, under a third of what the 5GB plan costs per gigabyte, and it is the only plan above 20GB anyone in our Colombia data sells. If you are working from Medellín for a month, that is the one.

A neat coincidence sits at $49: the same money buys either 50GB across 30 days or unlimited data for 15. Unless you are streaming heavily, the metered plan is twice the trip.

Where the market beats it

Colombia is not a country where Airalo is the cheap answer. On 30-day metered plans it is the most expensive of the three main metered sellers at every size we hold:

The Saily column is an indicative listing we have not verified, so treat a 50-cent gap there as noise. The Nomad column has been read at source, and it has moved. An earlier version of this table understated all four Nomad prices, by fifty cents at the smallest size and by nine dollars at the largest, which made the 10GB row look like a $9 saving on Airalo. The real saving at that size is $3, and at 20GB it is $2. Airalo is still the dearer of the two at every size, but not by the margins this page previously reported.

At the entry end, Airalo's Chimba package charges a verified $4 for 1GB over three days, which is now the cheapest starting price we can stand behind in the country. An eSIMCard row used to sit below it; that row has been withdrawn.

Unlimited is the one place Airalo looks competitive. Holafly's indicative prices undercut it on short trips — $11.70 against $12.50 for 3 days — but from 10 days onwards Airalo is cheaper, and by 30 days it is $91.50 against $97.90. Both are eye-watering next to $49 for 50GB.

The network nobody will name

Airalo does not publish a host network for Colombia. It does not publish one for any country, so there is no field on the product page to check and nothing in our data to report. Whatever your phone attaches to in Bogotá, you find out on arrival.

The rest of the field is only marginally better. Saily and Nomad publish no host network here either. Where eSIMCard shows Claro or Movistar Colombia against a plan, that comes from its own listing and has not been confirmed by anyone here; Holafly's rows once carried the same names, but those came from our data rather than from Holafly, which publishes no host network in any country. It is a lead, not a fact, and no recommendation on this page rests on it.

That gap matters in specific places. Coverage on the Caribbean coast and through the main cities is not the problem; the interior trails of Tayrona have dead zones, the Amazon has signal in Leticia and nothing in the jungle around it, and stretches of the Llanos and the higher Andean walking routes above 3,000m drop out. If your trip depends on one of those, no travel eSIM can promise you a network, because none of them will tell you which one you are getting.

What we would do instead

A Colombian prepaid SIM runs about $10 at an airport counter and needs no ID at all — you pay and walk out. Claro, Movistar, Tigo and WOM all sell them, and you get a local number and a carrier you chose.

So: for a week or two of ordinary use, Airalo is a well-built product at a price Colombia does not justify — Nomad's verified $25 or Saily's indicative $19.99 at 10GB, or a local SIM if you would rather pick the network. For a month of heavy work, Airalo's Chimba 50GB at $49 has no competitor here and the price is verified, which is worth something on its own. Full provider comparison on the Colombia hub, and the wider market on cheapest eSIM.