Frequently asked questions

A SIM card built into the phone as software. You install a plan by scanning a QR code instead of pushing a chip into a tray, and the plastic SIM you already have stays exactly where it is.

Most phones sold since 2018: iPhone XS and newer, Samsung Galaxy S20 and newer, Google Pixel 3 and newer, and most current Android models. The phone also has to be carrier-unlocked. Our setup guides show where to check on your model — for Android, dialling *#06# and looking for an EID settles it in five seconds.

At home over Wi-Fi, a day or two before departure. Nothing starts running at that point: the clock begins when the eSIM first connects to a network in Thailand. Installing early costs you nothing and saves you doing it on airport Wi-Fi with a taxi queue waiting.

Yes. The eSIM is data-only, so your home line stays active for your number, your SMS codes and your messaging accounts. Point mobile data at the eSIM and leave the rest alone. What you do not get is a Thai number — see below, though for most visitors that never comes up.

It runs on a national Thai network: LTE wherever that network reaches, and 5G in Bangkok and the larger cities. Enough for maps, video calls, uploading the day's photos from a beach bar, and working from a laptop over the hotspot.

No. Both lines run at once. The only setting that matters is which line carries mobile data: point it at the eSIM, and switch data roaming off on your home line so it cannot connect quietly in the background.

Top up in the app. The data goes onto the eSIM already installed in your phone — no second QR code, nothing to reinstall, and no hunting for a phone shop on a small island.

Yes, tethering is included. One plan can carry a laptop, a tablet and everyone else in the beach bungalow.

Yes. The download itself needs Wi-Fi or a working connection, which is why you do it at home. Once installed, it activates on arrival with no connection of its own.

Not on this plan. It carries internet, not a phone line, so ordinary calls and texts stay on your home SIM, as does your number. The plan adds no Thai number. Most visitors never miss one — messaging and internet calls cover nearly everything — but a service that insists on texting a Thai number, a Thai bank being the usual example, cannot reach a data-only line.

Every plan shows its own validity before you buy, and the range covers everything from a beach week to a multi-month stay. The countdown starts when the eSIM first connects in Thailand, not on the day you paid.

It is sold for the country as a whole — Bangkok, the north and the islands are all the same plan. Signal is a separate question. Cities, towns and the main tourist coasts are well covered, while the mountains of the far north, the interiors of the big national parks and open water between islands can drop to little or nothing — from any operator, on any plan. Take offline maps for those stretches. Neighbouring countries are not included; the app sells Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia as separate plans.

Payment runs through the App Store or Google Play, so your card details never reach us. If an eSIM will not install or activate on a compatible phone, message support in the app and we will fix it, or refund it where that is the right answer.

For most trips, yes — and Thailand is a fair fight, because its airport SIM counters are quicker than most countries manage. What the eSIM removes is the queue at the end of a long-haul flight, the passport handed across the counter, and the same errand repeating itself when the plan runs out on an island. You are online at the gate instead, and top-ups happen in the app. A local SIM does give you one thing this does not: a Thai phone number. If you need one — a long stay, a Thai bank account — buy the local SIM as well.