What a cheap SIM card in Romania actually costs

First, check whether you need to buy anything

Romania is in the EU. If your mobile plan comes from an EU or EEA country, roam-like-at-home applies and your domestic allowance works here at no extra cost. Nothing on this page beats free. Check your operator's fair-use cap for roaming data, then stop reading.

Everyone else — British, American, Canadian, Australian, Asian visitors — pays full freight, and that is who the rest of this page is for.

What a gigabyte actually costs

Romania is inexpensive by European standards, but only in bulk. The small plans cost three to four times the rate of the large ones.

The Airalo rows were read from Airalo's own site on 13 August 2026 and the Nomad rows from nomadesim.com on 17 August 2026. Indicative rows come from our older records and have not been re-checked, so read them as the shape of the market rather than a quote you can hold anyone to.

Two things follow from that table. The floor is $0.90 a gigabyte, on Nomad's 50 GB plan, with its 20 GB at $1.00 close behind and Airalo's best at $1.35. And Romania does not stop at 20 GB. An earlier version of this page said no provider sells a larger bundle here, and priced Nomad's 10 GB at $14 rather than $16 and its 20 GB at $22 rather than $20. All three claims were wrong: the real Nomad prices are $16 and $20, and it sells 50 GB over 30 days for $45.

Unlimited, and whether it earns its price

Airalo's verified unlimited ladder runs $11.50 for 3 days, $18.50 for 5, $27 for 7, $34.50 for 10, $48 for 15 and $69 for 30 days. Holafly's unlimited prices are verified: $20.50 for 5 days, $36.50 for 10. Holafly sells six windows and no others — 3, 5, 7, 10, 15 and 30 days — so the 25-day plan this page used to list does not exist.

The arithmetic is unforgiving. Airalo asks the same $27 for seven days of unlimited data as it does for a metered 20 GB stretched over fifteen. Unless you are tethering a laptop or streaming daily, 20 GB is not a limit you will reach in a fortnight, so the metered plan is the better buy for most trips. Unlimited earns its keep on short, heavy trips — a three-day work visit where you are on video calls — and rarely otherwise.

The counter, the passport and the $13 question

Airport SIMs in Romania run about $13, roughly 60 lei. At Bucharest Henri Coandă (OTP) they are sold through the Relay store in arrivals, which stocks Orange. No eSIM is sold at the airport. In town, Orange, Vodafone, Digi and Telekom all have stores in central Bucharest, including on Calea Victoriei.

A passport is required to register a prepaid SIM in Romania. That is a legal requirement rather than a formality some shops wave through, so build it into your arrival plan.

At $13 for a tourist bundle whose allowance is not published, the counter is not obviously good value against a verified 5 GB eSIM at $11 with no queue and no document check. The local SIM wins in one clear case: a stay long enough that a Romanian number is itself useful, for deliveries, local bookings, or anything that texts a verification code to a Romanian prefix.

Which network — and what we do not know

Orange Romania has the widest national footprint and the broadest 5G, and it is the one to ask for at a counter if you are heading into the Carpathians or the Danube Delta. Digi is the budget choice and well regarded for raw data.

For the eSIMs, be sceptical of network claims — including the ones this site used to print. Airalo does not publish a host network for Romania; "Noroc" is the name the plan is sold under at checkout, not a carrier. Holafly does not publish one either; the Romanian operators once shown against its rows came from our own data rather than from Holafly. Nomad and Saily publish no host network for Romania either, whatever earlier versions of this page said. Do not choose a plan on the strength of a carrier name.

Where the signal drops

The gaps in Romania are rural and vertical: remote Carpathian trails above 1,600 m, the reed channels of the Danube Delta once you are away from the villages, and very remote rural villages in the Moldova region. No eSIM fixes any of that, because an eSIM uses the same masts a local SIM does. Emergency calls work on any Romanian network without an active plan.

What we would buy

If you hold an EU or EEA plan, nothing. For a weekend on light use, the cheapest entry points are under $4.50 and either will do. For a normal week or two, the 10 GB tier at $16 to $18 is the sensible middle. For heavy use or a full month, go to 20 GB at $20, where the rate drops to $1.00 — or to Nomad's 50 GB at $45 if you would rather buy the cheapest gigabytes in the country and not think about it.

The full ladder of sizes and durations sits on the Romania hub. If you have not established whether your handset takes an eSIM at all, our eSIM compatible phones list is the place to settle it before you pay for anything.