3 SIM only: which Three plan includes roaming, and what it costs

What 3 SIM only plans does Three sell?

Three sells 3 SIM only plans on 30-day, 12-month and 24-month terms, and on the longer terms you pick a tier as well as a data size. Its SIM only pages said deals start "from only £9", 12-month plans from £11 and 30-day plans from £19 when we read them on 10 November 2026. The live shop would not load for us, so the figures below come from Three's Three Your Way price guide for plans taken from 19 April 2026 (the version dated 27 August 2026), which lists every combination.

On 12 months the same tiers run £15 to £31 for Lite, £20 to £36 for Value and £25 to £41 for Complete. Lite+ appears only with unlimited data, at £33 on 24 months and £35 on 12. Three marks the 24-month Lite 25GB and 120GB plans as half price for the first six months. Advertised deals on the shop may differ from the guide, and we could not check them.

This is desk research. We have not bought a Three plan.

Which 3 SIM only deals include roaming?

This is the line that matters for travel. Three's price guide puts it plainly:

• Lite and Lite+: no roaming built in. Lite+ is Lite plus the Full Speed Add-on.
• Value: inclusive roaming in Go Roam in Europe only, 49 destinations.
• Complete: inclusive roaming in all Go Roam bands, which Three counts as over 160 destinations, plus a bundled streaming subscription.

On a Lite plan taken on or after 18 December 2025, Three charges £2.75 a day to use your allowance in Europe and £8 a day in its two worldwide bands. Or you buy a pass: a 7-day Go Roam in Europe pass is £12. Our Three roaming guide lists every pass and band.

So the price gap is the roaming fee. On 24 months, Value costs £5 a month more than Lite at every data size, which is £60 a year. That is five 7-day Europe passes. If you spend more than about five weeks a year in Europe, Value pays for itself; fewer, and Lite plus a pass is cheaper.

Complete costs another £5 a month over Value. Its extra is the worldwide bands, which include the USA, Australia, Turkey, Japan and Thailand.

All tiers share Three's roaming fair use: up to 12GB of data a month in Go Roam destinations, then a surcharge of 0.3p per MB. Three also says Go Roam is meant for UK residents on short trips, and it may suspend roaming if you roam for two complete months in a rolling 12 months.

How much do 3 SIM only prices rise?

Every April, by a fixed amount set by data size, for customers who joined or upgraded on or after 18 December 2025. Three's guide lists £1.80 a month for plans of 4GB or less, £1.90 for 5GB to 99GB, and £2.30 for 100GB and over. It also says the monthly price already includes a £5 discount for paying by Direct Debit. Three's daily roaming charges rise separately each 1 April, by January's CPI plus 3.9 percent, except on 24-month Lite 25GB and 120GB plans taken from 31 May 2025.

Can you get a 3 SIM only plan as an eSIM?

Yes. Three's eSIM page says eSIM is available on SIM Only plans and is the default SIM type for new customers, with a physical SIM still offered for most devices. On Android phones without automatic activation, Three emails a QR code and a separate confirmation code.

What about 3 SIM only pay as you go?

Three's pay as you go range is separate from these plans. It is monthly data packs with no contract, and an eSIM you can download straight away. We covered it, with prices as of October 2026, on our Three UK SIM card page. For a visitor, that is the more realistic route than a 12 or 24-month contract.

When is a travel eSIM cheaper than Three roaming?

On Value or Complete, inside your included bands, it isn't: you already pay for that roaming in the monthly price.

On Lite, it depends on the trip. A week in Spain is £12 with the Europe pass, or up to £19.25 in daily charges. Airalo's verified Spain prices were $8 for 5GB over 7 days and $13 for 10GB, and Nomad's $14 for 10GB over 30 days (read on their own sites in August 2026). The 5GB plan undercuts the pass, since a pound buys more than a dollar. The 10GB plans are close enough to £12 that keeping your number is the better reason to choose.

Further out, the gap opens. A 7-day Go Roam Around the World pass for the USA is £30, against $21.50 for Airalo's 10GB over 7 days. For Turkey or Thailand, in Three's Around the World Extra band, the 7-day pass is £42. Airalo's 10GB over 7 days was $14.50 in Turkey and $10 in Thailand.

The pass keeps your UK number and calls working. The eSIM doesn't. Keep the Three line for calls with data roaming switched off, as our data roaming guide explains. The cheapest eSIM table has the rest, and O2 SIM only deals are the comparison on another network.

Which three SIM only tier would we choose?

Value, if Europe is where you usually travel: £60 a year buys it outright. Complete makes sense only if you go long-haul several times a year, and even then, check the 12GB monthly cap before you plan on streaming.