E sim in the UK: what is an e sim, how to get an esim, and what an esim contract, esim payg, pay as you go esim or esim pay as you go uk plan costs
An eSIM is the same plan as a plastic SIM with the card taken out of it: the profile is downloaded to the handset instead of posted. That matters for price in exactly one way, which is that it removes the wait, and it matters for switching quite a lot more, because a switch that used to take a day now takes minutes. What it does not do is change what the plan costs, and any seller charging a premium for it is charging for the convenience rather than the airtime.
- median published unlimited data SIM, per month
- £22
- sellers with a price they will show a plain reader
- 5
- plan types in the record
- 3
Every seller figure on this page was fetched from that seller's own page and matched word for word before it was published, with the date we checked.
- 5 seller pages readevery figure matched verbatim to the seller's own page
- Quoted and dated, never estimatedlast verification pass 2026-09-10
- 3 plan types in the recordeach one a measured row of this hub's own plan
What sellers publish, and what could not be read
| Seller | Unlimited data, per month | Cheapest plan, per month | Mid-tier plan, per month | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lycamobile | £12.5/30 days, the UK Plan Unlimited row on the seller's own ladder | £7.5/30 days, the UK Plan Super Extra row at 75 GB | lycamobile.co.uk | September 2026 | |
| SMARTY | £20/month, rolling monthly, unlimited data | £6/month, 5 GB, the cheapest plan on the ladder | £12/month, 100 GB | smarty.co.uk | September 2026 |
| Ecotalk | £22/month, unlimited data, one month term | £12/month, 10 GB, one month term | £14/month, 30 GB, one month term | ecotalk.co.uk | September 2026 |
| Utility Warehouse | £23/month, Unlimited Max, a from figure | £5/month, 10 GB, a from figure | uw.co.uk | September 2026 | |
| Vodafone | £23/month, unlimited data, 24 month plan | vodafone.co.uk | September 2026 | ||
| EE | Page refused a plain read, so unknown (checked September 2026) | ||||
| giffgaff | Page refused a plain read, so unknown (checked September 2026) | ||||
| iD Mobile | Page refused a plain read, so unknown (checked September 2026) | ||||
| Lebara | Page refused a plain read, so unknown (checked September 2026) | ||||
| O2 | Page refused a plain read, so unknown (checked September 2026) | ||||
| Three | Page refused a plain read, so unknown (checked September 2026) | ||||
| VOXI | Page refused a plain read, so unknown (checked September 2026) |
How to get an eSIM without paying more for it
- Find your current monthly charge and your end date. Both are on the bill and on the account page. Without them you cannot tell whether a quote is a saving or a sideways move, and you cannot tell whether leaving costs anything.
- Write down what you actually used last month. Not what you think you use. Most people pay for an allowance they never reach, and on every published ladder here the gap between tiers is real money.
- Decide term or rolling, before you look at numbers. A 24 month price and a rolling monthly price are different products at similar figures, and the cheaper headline is usually the longer tie.
- Ask what happens in April. Most UK sellers raise prices during the term. Ask for the increase in writing, as a figure, before you sign anything.
What an eSIM changes, and what it does not
The plan is the plan. Lycamobile advertises instant eSIM alongside the same UK Plan ladder it sells on plastic, at 12.5 GBP over 30 days for unlimited and 7.5 GBP for 75 GB, and the eSIM is a delivery method rather than a tariff. Where a seller does price an eSIM differently, ask what the difference buys, because the airtime underneath is identical.
The real change is the switch. A plastic SIM arrives when it arrives; an eSIM profile is downloaded, so the gap between deciding and being on the new network closes to minutes. If you are switching to escape a rise or a contract that has ended, that gap is the whole friction, and removing it is worth more than a pound or two on the tariff.
Which sellers here support one
Of the five sellers whose pages could be read for this record, Lycamobile states instant eSIM on its own deals page. The other four sell SIM plans without printing an eSIM line on the page we read, which is recorded as an absence rather than as a refusal: an eSIM option that exists in a checkout we cannot read is not something this record can claim either way.
The eight sellers whose pages could not be read at all almost certainly support eSIM, and this site will not say so on their behalf. That is the same rule applied to a feature as to a price: what we publish is what a seller published, on a date.
eSIM on pay as you go
Pay as you go and eSIM go together well, because both are about not being tied. Lycamobile's 30 day plans are the clearest published example in this record: a rolling allowance with no credit check, delivered instantly, at a figure printed on the page. The trade-off is that a 30 day price can move at 30 days notice.
If you want an eSIM without a term, ask the seller two things: whether the eSIM can be moved to another handset without a charge, and what happens to the remaining allowance if you leave mid-month. Neither answer is on any published page in this record.
Questions people ask before they switch
- What is an e sim?
- A SIM profile downloaded to the handset instead of a plastic card posted to you. The plan, the allowance and the price are the same product either way; what changes is that the switch takes minutes rather than days.
- How to get an esim?
- Choose a plan with a seller that supports it and download the profile during setup, usually by scanning a code. Lycamobile advertises instant eSIM on the deals page read for this record; the other sellers here do not print an eSIM line on the page we could read.
- Does an esim contract cost more?
- It should not. The airtime underneath is the same plan. Lycamobile prices its eSIM plans off the same ladder as its plastic SIMs, at 12.5 GBP over 30 days for unlimited.
- Can I get esim pay as you go in the UK?
- Yes. Lycamobile's published 30 day plans are pay as you go and it states instant eSIM on the same page. Ask what happens to your allowance if you leave mid-month, because that is not published anywhere in this record.
Ask several sellers for a price
What this costs by plan type
Cite or embed this figure
The the seller's own published monthly price for an unlimited-data SIM in the UK SIM only market was £22 in September 2026, across 5 checked network price pages recorded in SIM Only Deals Compare Price Record.
Cite as: "SIM Only Deals Compare Price Record", updated 2026-09-10, https://simonlydealscompare.co.uk/esim-uk/.