Buying a SIM card at Benito Juárez, Mexico City (MEX)

Two counters, and therefore a choice

Benito Juárez has Telcel and AT&T Mexico counters in the international arrivals halls of both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. That is worth more than it sounds. At most airports the SIM decision is take-it-or-leave-it; here you pick between two operators, and you know exactly which network you are buying, because you are buying it from them.

No travel eSIM sold for Mexico gives you that. Airalo, Saily and Nomad do not publish which Mexican network their plans roam onto, eSIM Go has no consumer page at all, and we hold no read of eSIMCard's Mexican listing, and the one provider whose listing does name operators — Holafly — is repeating its own marketing, unverified by us. If knowing your network matters — for a trip that leaves the city, or a work phone that has to stay reachable — the counter is the only place you can be certain.

Queues run 10 to 12 minutes at peak. We hold no off-peak figure and no opening hours for either counter.

No ID, and about $8

Mexico asks for no identification to buy or activate a prepaid SIM. The purchase is instant, so the 10 to 12 minutes is the queue itself rather than paperwork at the window.

Our figure for a SIM bought at a Mexican airport is around $8. That is low enough to change the advice this site normally gives. There is no meaningful airport premium to avoid at MEX; the counters are not the expensive option, and a physical SIM with a Mexican number for roughly eight dollars is a sound buy if that is what you want.

What the online market charges

The case for an eSIM in Mexico is not really price at the small sizes — it is that it works on landing, and that it goes further on a long stay. From our Mexican plan data:

• Nomad, 3 GB for 30 days — $7 (verified 17 August 2026)
• Airalo Chido, 3 GB for 7 days — $8.50 (verified 13 August 2026)
• Nomad, 10 GB for 30 days — $15.50 (verified 17 August 2026)
• Airalo Chido, unlimited for 5 days — $17.50 (verified 13 August 2026)
• Airalo Chido, 10 GB for 30 days — $18.50 (verified 13 August 2026)
• Saily, 10 GB for 30 days — $23.99 (verified 16 August 2026)
• Airalo Chido, 20 GB for 30 days — $31 (verified 13 August 2026)
• Airalo Chido, 50 GB for 30 days — $45 (verified 13 August 2026)

That Saily row carried $17.99 here until 16 August, when we read the real price off Saily's own site. At $23.99 it is the most expensive 10 GB month in our Mexico data — $5.49 above Airalo's Chido and $8.49 above Nomad's verified $15.50 — so if you are buying 10 GB, buy it from somebody else.

The $45 figure is $0.90 a gigabyte and the cheapest data in the Mexican market we hold. If you are here for a month, it is the row that decides the question, and it is the one most comparisons never reach.

One thing to watch at checkout. Airalo sells two named Mexican products, Chido and Chido Plus, and the same size appears under both at different prices — a 20 GB month is $31 as Chido and $42.50 as Chido Plus. We cannot tell you what the difference buys, because nothing in the public data explains it. Both names are retail branding, not operators.

Getting out of the airport

MEX is where having data before you walk outside pays off, and the reason is specific.

Authorised taxis. The TAXI AUTORIZADO stands are inside the terminal and sell fixed-rate rides. This is the option that needs no phone at all, and it is the sensible one if your hotel is far out or your data is not working.

Uber and DiDi. Pickup happens from a designated zone outside the terminal, not at the door. The way it is meant to work is that you order from inside, then walk out once a driver is confirmed — which requires you to already be connected while you are still airside or in the hall. Landing with an eSIM live means you can do exactly that instead of queueing first.

Metro. Terminal 1 connects directly to the Mexico City Metro, on Line 1 in the Pantitlán direction. Cheap and functional, and it assumes you know which station you want before you set off.

If you land at AIFA instead

Felipe Ángeles International, at Santa Lucía, now takes some domestic and a few international routes, and it is not the same airport in any practical sense. What we hold for SIM retail there is nothing: no named seller, no queue figure, no hours. Our older note says options are more limited, and we cannot improve on that.

If your ticket says AIFA, arrive with data already installed. It is a long way from the city and not the place to discover there is no counter.

Full Mexican pricing, carriers and the local-versus-eSIM comparison are on the Mexico hub.