Thailand is the cheapest data market we track

The numbers, first

Thailand has the cheapest mobile data of any country we track. The floor is $0.24 per gigabyte — Nomad's 50 GB over 10 days at $12, read off Nomad's own site on 17 August 2026. No other country in our data goes below $0.58, and the next cheapest rate in Thailand itself is Airalo's 50 GB over 30 days at $27.50, or $0.55 a gigabyte.

That changes what the question is. Elsewhere you are choosing between a good deal and a bad one. Here the absolute difference between the cheapest sensible plan and the dearest sensible plan is a few dollars, so buy on how much data you actually want rather than agonising over per-gigabyte rates.

Unusually, the whole Thai ladder above is verified rather than indicative — Saily's, Airalo's and Nomad's plans were all checked at source. Saily and Airalo sit within pennies of each other at 10 and 20 GB, so there is nothing to agonise over between them, and Nomad joins them within a dollar at 3, 5 and 10 GB.

The 50 GB row is where Nomad separates itself. An earlier version of this page carried it as a warning rather than a recommendation: we said $12 for 50 GB looked like a stale or mistyped price, because it sat below Nomad's own 10 GB listing. That doubt was based on our own bad record, not on anything wrong with the plan. We had the 50 GB down as a 30-day plan when it runs for 10, and we had the 10 GB at $9 when it is $10. Both are now read off Nomad's site. The plan is real: $12, 50 GB, ten days.

The ten-day window is the only thing to weigh. If your trip is longer, the 24 cents does not help you — Airalo's 50 GB over 30 days at $27.50 is the plan that fits, or you buy the Nomad twice.

What each kind of trip should buy

A long weekend in Bangkok: Saily's 1 GB for seven days at $2.99, or Airalo's 3 GB for three days at $5.50 if you navigate by phone constantly.

Two weeks island-hopping: Airalo's 10 GB for fifteen days at $10.50, or its 20 GB for fifteen at $17.50. Photos and maps eat more than people expect once you are moving daily.

A month in Chiang Mai working: Airalo's 50 GB at $27.50. That is under a dollar a day for enough data to run a laptop hotspot for ordinary work, and over a full month it beats buying Nomad's ten-day 50 GB three times over. Nomad's unlimited month at $33 is the other option if you would rather not count gigabytes at all.

Unlimited plans exist — Airalo's verified prices are $9.50 for three days, $15 for five, $21.50 for seven, $31 for ten, $39 for fifteen and $49 for thirty, and Nomad's verified prices are $16 for ten days, $21 for fifteen and $33 for thirty — but in Thailand they are still hard to justify. Nomad's unlimited month at $33 costs $5.50 more than Airalo's 50 GB, and very few travellers get through 50 GB in a month.

The airport SIM is not the bargain it once was

A tourist package at a Thai airport runs $10–20 for seven to thirty days of data, sometimes with a local Thai number attached. Passport registration is required and takes about two minutes at the counter — Thailand does not sell anonymous prepaid SIMs.

By global standards that is still cheap. Against the eSIM ladder above it is mediocre. For $10–20 you could have 10 GB, 20 GB or, at the top of that band, most of the way to 50 GB, without queuing or handing over your passport.

The one thing a local SIM still buys

A Thai phone number. Some local businesses — tour operators, beach clubs, guesthouses — take bookings only on a local number, and every international travel eSIM on this page is data-only. If a Thai number matters to your trip, that is the reason to visit a carrier counter, and it is a good one. It is not a price argument.

Coverage, and what nobody will tell you

AIS has the wider reach across the islands. For a Bangkok-only trip the networks are close enough that it does not matter; for a trip built around Krabi, Koh Tao or the smaller southern islands, it does.

That is a fact about Thailand's operators, not about any eSIM you can buy. None of the five providers we hold Thai plans for — Saily, Airalo, Nomad, eSIM Go and eSIMCard — publishes which Thai network its plans roam onto. Any page telling you to pick a travel eSIM because it lands on AIS is telling you something it cannot know. If a specific network genuinely matters for where you are going, buy a physical SIM at a carrier shop and ask for that carrier by name.

Every Thai plan and price we hold is on the Thailand hub.