Cheap SIM cards and eSIMs for Greece

Most EU visitors should buy nothing

Greece is in the EU, so an EU or EEA phone plan roams here under roam-like-at-home rules. If your contract was bought in Germany, France, Ireland, Poland or anywhere else in the bloc, the cheapest SIM card for Greece is the one already in your phone. Check the fair-use data cap on your tariff and stop reading.

Everyone else — UK, US, Canada, Australia, most of Asia — has to buy something, and this is what it costs.

What data actually costs here

Airalo's Greek prices below were read off its own site on 13 August 2026, Saily's off Saily's own site on 16 August 2026, and Nomad's off nomadesim.com on 17 August 2026. The rest are indicative figures from our plan data: numbers we hold but have not confirmed at the provider, so treat them as a guide rather than a quote.

Saily's larger Greek plans are deliberately absent from that table, because they are no longer cheap: its verified 10 GB / 30 days is $22.99 and its 20 GB / 30 days is $35.99, above Airalo at both sizes and well above Nomad. The 3 GB month above is the only Saily plan a price-led reader should look at here.

Two things fall out of that table. The cheapest way in is small and short — Airalo's verified $4.00 for 1 GB over three days. And the cheapest gigabytes are at the top, not the bottom.

The floor is 62 cents a gigabyte

Nomad's 50 GB for 30 days at $31 works out at $0.62/GB, the cheapest rate in our Greek data, and it is a price read off Nomad's own store on 17 August 2026. Airalo sells the same allowance for $42, or $0.84/GB. An earlier version of this page named that Airalo plan as the floor and put Nomad's 20 GB at $22; the Nomad ladder was never checked then, and it is cheaper than we said at 20 GB as well as larger at the top. Its 20 GB is $21, or $1.05/GB, and Airalo's 20 GB at $35.50 is $1.78/GB.

Whether $42 is the right purchase is a separate question from whether it is the best rate. Two weeks of maps, messaging and a normal amount of scrolling rarely passes 10 GB. If that is you, Nomad's verified 10 GB at $18 or Airalo's at $20 is the sensible buy and the floor is academic. But nobody in Greece should be told the market tops out at 20 GB, because it does not.

Holafly sells only unlimited here, from $11.90 for three days to $73.90 for thirty — both verified. Airalo's verified unlimited runs $11.50 for three days to $69 for thirty, and Nomad's runs $11 for three days to $33 for ten. Unlimited is worth it if you tether or stream; on a per-day basis it is expensive against a metered plan.

Which network you get, honestly

This is where most pages about Greek eSIMs, including the earlier version of this one, went wrong.

Airalo does not publish a host network for Greece. Its Greek product is sold under the name Meraki Mobile, which is a package name and not a carrier, so any page that puts Airalo on a named Greek network is guessing. Saily publishes nothing either — its Greek pages name no carrier, only "a reliable connection from the country's best networks", so an earlier version of this page was wrong to put it on Cosmote and Vodafone. eSIMCard lists Cosmote and Vodafone Greece on its own product pages, and it is the only seller that lists anything. Nomad and Holafly publish no host network at all, in Greece or anywhere else, so earlier versions of this page were wrong to put Nomad on Cosmote and Holafly on Cosmote, Nova and Vodafone. The remaining listing is eSIMCard's own claim and we have not independently confirmed it, so do not choose a plan on the strength of it. Check the network stated on the product page at checkout.

What is not in dispute is the ranking of the Greek networks themselves. Cosmote has the largest network, the only deployed 5G, and the best island coverage in the Cyclades. If you can pick, pick Cosmote.

The local SIM, and where the signal stops

Greece is one of the easy countries: no ID is required at most retail outlets, so a prepaid SIM is an instant counter purchase. Cosmote, Vodafone Greece and Wind Hellas are sold at Athens International, at Heraklion, and at carrier stores nationwide. The airport tourist package runs about $15. We do not hold what allowance comes with it, so we cannot rank it per gigabyte — but at that price it is not obviously beating a $12 eSIM, and it costs you a queue on arrival.

The real argument for buying local is Cosmote by name. Ask for it specifically at the counter, which is the one thing an eSIM cannot reliably give you.

Coverage gaps to plan around: the smaller Cyclades and Dodecanese islands — Folegandros, Sikinos, Kastelórizo — plus the interior mountains of the mainland and Crete. Some Aegean ferry routes between islands have no signal at all, so download your tickets and maps before boarding.

Full plan tables and coverage notes are on the Greece hub, and our method is on how we test.