Vietnam is one of the few places to buy on arrival

The local SIM is genuinely the cheap option here

Most countries on this site come down the same way: buy an eSIM before you fly, skip the counter. Vietnam is one of the few that does not.

A tourist data package at a Vietnamese airport runs about $7. That undercuts almost every eSIM plan worth having, and the counters are at all the major international airports — Noi Bai in Hanoi, Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Cam Ranh for Nha Trang, and Phu Quoc. Your passport is required, because Vietnamese prepaid lines are registered to the traveller. Bring the physical document.

The eSIM still wins on one thing, which is that it works the moment you land. If you are arriving late, connecting onward the same night, or simply cannot face a queue after a long-haul flight, the numbers below are what you would be paying for that.

The eSIM ladder

The cheapest verified rate we hold for Vietnam is $0.78 per gigabyte, from Nomad's 50 GB over 30 days at $39, read off Nomad's own site on 17 August 2026. Airalo's Xin Chao 50 GB at $49 is the next one down at $0.98, read off Airalo's own site on 13 August 2026. Until Nomad's prices were checked this page gave the floor as Airalo's $0.98; that was the best verified figure at the time and it is no longer the best.

Nomad's 50 GB at $39 is $0.78 per gigabyte and the best rate in the country. It was read off Nomad's own site on 17 August 2026; an earlier version of this page called it indicative and told you to confirm it before counting on it, and that warning is withdrawn. eSIMCard's rows have been withdrawn: we read its own pages on 18 August 2026, found the figures we held were wrong, and could not store the real ones. See our eSIMCard page.

Saily is now read at source too, and it lands a cent under Airalo at 5 GB, 10 GB and 20 GB. That is not a saving, it is the same price written differently; the two catalogues are interchangeable at those sizes. Saily's range stops at 20 GB, which is where the 50 GB plans from Nomad and Airalo pull away.

A note on the sizes below 5 GB. Airalo's 3 GB is $7.50 for three days and $8 for seven, both of which expire in a week. Saily's verified 3 GB runs a full 30 days for $7.99, which makes it the standout small plan.

Unlimited plans exist — Airalo's verified prices are $11.50 for three days, $18.50 for five, $27 for seven, $34.50 for ten, $48 for fifteen and $69 for thirty — but they are poor value against a $7 local SIM and against a $49 50 GB plan. Fifteen days unlimited costs $48. Thirty days of 50 GB costs $49.

Which network, and why it matters more here

Viettel holds 54.2% of the Vietnamese market, has the widest rural and remote coverage and the strongest national 5G footprint, and is the only carrier with reliable 4G in most remote areas. For a trip built around cities and beaches this is a detail. For the Ha Giang Loop, Sapa trekking routes, the deeper Ha Long Bay karst channels or the rural Mekong Delta waterways — the parts of Vietnam people actually plan trips around — it is the difference between having signal and not.

Now the part earlier versions of this page got wrong. Airalo does not publish a host network for Vietnam at all; Xin Chao is the name on the product, not a carrier, and previous copy that put Airalo on Viettel was inventing it. Nomad publishes no host network for Vietnam either — this page has had it down first as Vietnamobile and then as Mobifone and Vinaphone, and both were wrong; Nomad names no carrier in any country it sells in. eSIMCard's listing names Mobifone; Holafly names nothing either — the GPC Vinaphone entry this page used to carry against it came from our own data rather than from the seller. Saily names nothing at all — this page previously had it down as Viettel and Vinaphone, and reading Saily's own Vietnam pages on 16 August 2026 showed that it promises only a connection from Vietnam's best networks. That was the last Viettel claim anywhere in our eSIM data, and it is withdrawn.

Every one of the remaining claims is the provider's own, unconfirmed. None has been checked against the operator. So if Viettel coverage is the point — and in the mountains it genuinely is — the reliable way to get it is to hand over your passport at a counter and ask for Viettel by name. At $7 that is not a sacrifice.

What to buy, by trip

Cities only — Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hoi An. Free wifi is close to universal in all three big cities and good in airports, hotels, restaurants and cafés. A small eSIM covers the gaps: Saily's verified 3 GB for 30 days at $7.99, or 5 GB for 30 days at $10.99 from Saily and $11 from Airalo, which are the same plan at the same money.

A month, working — the 50 GB plans. Nomad's verified $39, or Airalo's verified $49.

Mountains, islands or the Delta — buy the local SIM. Choose Viettel. Nothing you can install from home substitutes for that.

Emergency calls connect on any Vietnamese network without an active plan. Full pricing across every provider is on the Vietnam hub.