What a cheap SIM card in Singapore is really worth

Start with how long you are actually here

Singapore is a stopover country as often as it is a destination, and that changes the answer. A traveller with eighteen hours between flights and a traveller with three weeks want completely different things, and most pages on this subject write only for the second.

If you are in transit and staying airside, buy nothing. Changi has free WiFi throughout, and the terminals are where you will spend the time. If you are heading into the city for a day or two, the question is whether $4 to $12 is worth not having to think about connectivity. Usually it is — but it is a convenience purchase, not a saving.

What data costs

Singapore is one of the cheaper countries in Asia for travel data, and the range is wide.

Verified rows were read from the provider's own site on 13 August 2026. Indicative rows are from our older records and have not been re-checked since.

The floor is $0.96 a gigabyte, on the 50 GB plan. It is real, and it is the cheapest data in the country — but be honest with yourself about whether you will use fifty gigabytes in Singapore. Most visitors will not come close, and the 10 GB tier around $16 is the practical sweet spot for a week.

The middle of the market is unusually tightly packed. At 10 GB for 30 days, four sellers sit within a dollar of each other, so there is little point agonising over which to pick at that size. The differences that matter are at the ends of the ladder, not the middle.

Unlimited, and the one-day case

Holafly's unlimited passes are indicative at $5.90 for a single day, $20.50 for 5 days, $27.50 for 7 and $73.90 for 30. Airalo's are verified: $11.50 for 3 days, $18.50 for 5, $27 for 7, $34.50 for 10, $48 for 15, $69 for 30.

The one-day pass at $5.90 is the interesting one, because Singapore produces more single-day visitors than almost anywhere. If you are in town for a layover and want maps and ride-hailing without counting megabytes, it is a cleaner buy than a 1 GB plan you will half-use and discard. Past about three days the metered plans win comfortably.

Changi is one of the few airports worth buying at

No ID is required for tourist prepaid in Singapore. That is genuinely unusual — most of Europe registers prepaid SIMs to a passport — and it makes the arrivals counter fast rather than a queue with paperwork attached.

Singtel tourist SIMs are sold at Changi across all terminals from about SGD15, roughly $11, with StarHub and M1 also available. Compare that with a verified 5 GB eSIM at $10 for 30 days and the gap is small enough that convenience decides it. Buy the physical SIM if you want a local number or your phone cannot take an eSIM; buy the eSIM if you would rather walk straight out of arrivals.

The network claim we removed

An earlier version of this page said the international eSIMs all ran on Singtel. That was never established, and it has been taken out.

What we can actually say: Airalo, Saily, eSIM Go and eSIMCard do not publish a host network for Singapore. Nomad and Holafly publish none either: the Singtel and StarHub entries this page used to attribute to their listings came from our own data rather than from the sellers, neither of which names a carrier in any country. Airalo's "Connect Lah!" label is a product name at checkout, not a carrier.

In practice this matters less here than almost anywhere. Singapore is a city-state of roughly 725 km² with comprehensive urban coverage on every operator, so there is no rural gap for a network choice to fall into. Emergency calls work on any Singapore network without an active plan.

What we would buy

Airside layover: nothing. One day in the city: the $5.90 unlimited day pass, or a 1 GB plan at about $4. A week: 10 GB, around $16. A month, or a working stay with a laptop on the connection: the 50 GB plan at $48.

Every size and duration we hold is listed on the Singapore hub, and if your handset's eSIM support is the open question, start with our eSIM compatible phones list.