International roaming plans from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, against a travel eSIM

What are international roaming plans?

International roaming plans are what US carriers sell so your existing phone line keeps working abroad: your number, your calls and texts, and a data allowance, billed on your normal account. Without one, you pay per use, and AT&T's pay-per-use page lists data at $2.05 per MB in most countries.

The alternative is to leave your home line alone and buy a travel eSIM, a prepaid data plan you install as a second line. This page sets the carriers' own passes against that option. We read AT&T's, Verizon's and T-Mobile's pages on 9 November 2026. Carrier prices are per line and exclude taxes and fees unless stated. We have not tested any of the passes.

What is AT&T's international roaming plan?

AT&T sells the International Day Pass. For customers on an eligible unlimited plan it costs $12 a day on land, plus $6 for each additional line used on the same calendar day. AT&T says it covers 210+ destinations. On land, it gives you your plan's talk, text and high-speed data; AT&T marks "unlimited" with an asterisk and says coverage and speeds vary by destination.

The charge is triggered by use. AT&T says the 24-hour period starts the first time you use data, send a text, or make or accept a call in an included destination. There is also a $20-a-day version for cruises, which on ships includes 500 MB of data a day before speeds may drop.

What does Verizon international roaming cost?

Verizon has two options for most travellers:

TravelPass

$12 per line per day in 210+ countries and destinations, $6 a day in Canada and Mexico, plus taxes and fees. A 24-hour session starts automatically when you use your device in a TravelPass country. Each session includes 5 GB of high-speed data, then unlimited data at 3G speeds for the rest of that session

International Monthly Plan

$100 for trips of nine days or longer, with 20 GB of high-speed data, then 3G speeds, plus unlimited texting and 250 minutes

Verizon says TravelPass is automatically added to Unlimited Plus and Unlimited Welcome plans, and can't be added to Unlimited Ultimate, which already includes international data, talk and text.

What are T-Mobile's international roaming plans?

T-Mobile works differently, because many of its plans include some roaming for free. Its roaming page lists unlimited basic data and unlimited texting in 215+ countries and destinations, with calls at $0.50 a minute. High-speed data depends on the plan:

• up to 15 GB on T-Mix Loaded, Experience Beyond or Go5G Next;
• up to 5 GB on T-Mix More, Experience More, Max or Go5G Plus;
• up to 5 GB in 11 European countries on Go5G or Magenta.

For more high-speed data, T-Mobile sells International Passes, each with free calls and data you can use as a hotspot, in 215+ countries:

A qualifying plan is required, and only one pass can be active at a time; starting a new one ends what is left of the old one.

What does a ten-day trip cost: roaming plan or travel eSIM?

Take a ten-day trip to Spain on one line. The carrier figures come from the pages above. The eSIM prices are from our own readings of each provider's site in August 2026 and may have moved since; the Spain guide has the full set.

For data, the gap is large. Ten gigabytes on an eSIM cost about a tenth of AT&T's or Verizon's daily passes over ten days, and less than a third of T-Mobile's pass. Even unlimited eSIMs come in at roughly a quarter of the $120 daily-pass total. The same pattern holds in Japan, where the same Airalo and Nomad 10 GB plans were $17.50 and $16 in August.

What the eSIM does not give you is your own number on the same plan. You can keep the home line switched on with data roaming off, but be careful with it: AT&T says sending a text or making or accepting a call in an included destination starts a Day Pass charge, and Verizon says a TravelPass session starts when you use your device in a TravelPass country.

When is a carrier's international roaming plan worth it?

There are real cases:

• You are on T-Mobile and need little data. If your plan already includes 5 GB or 15 GB of high-speed data abroad, you may need to buy nothing at all.
• You need to call a lot on your own number. Passes include calls; most travel eSIMs are data only.
• Your phone can't take an eSIM, or is locked to your carrier. Check our eSIM compatible phones list. A locked phone will refuse another company's eSIM.
• Very short trips. For a single day, a $10 or $12 pass with nothing to install may be worth the difference.
• Your employer pays. Then simplicity wins.

For anything longer than two or three days, mainly spent on maps, messaging and browsing, a travel eSIM is usually far cheaper. The cheapest eSIM page ranks plans by cost per gigabyte, and the best eSIM for international travel covers multi-country trips.

What about an "international phone plan"?

An international phone plan is a monthly plan with roaming built in rather than bought per trip. Of the plans on the pages we read, Verizon's Unlimited Ultimate includes international data, talk and text, and T-Mobile's higher plans include up to 15 GB of high-speed data in 215+ countries. These make sense if you travel every month. For a trip or two a year, paying for roaming in every month's bill is usually dearer than a pass or an eSIM when you need one. We have not compared the monthly plan prices here.

How do you use a travel eSIM without paying for roaming twice?

1. Install the travel eSIM before you leave, on Wi-Fi.
2. On arrival, set the eSIM as your cellular data line.
3. Turn data roaming on for the eSIM line if its instructions say so, and off for your home line.
4. Leave the home line on if you want texts, but avoid calls on it unless you have a pass or know the rate.

That keeps AT&T's or Verizon's daily charges from starting just because an app synced in the background.