Best eSIM for Africa: What It Really Costs, Country by Country

Africa is the most uneven place in the world to buy travel data

We sell data for 44 African destinations. Across those 44, the price of a mid-sized plan spans a range you will not find on any other continent.

At the cheap end sit Réunion and Mayotte, then Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa and Egypt. At the expensive end sit Angola, Gambia, Cape Verde and Mauritania. Between the cheapest and the most expensive of those, for the same data over the same month, the multiple is about thirteen.

Nothing about the page you are buying from signals this. The plans look identical, the install works the same way, the coverage claim reads the same. Only the number changes, and it changes far more than most travellers expect.

So the useful skill for Africa is not picking a brand. It is knowing roughly which tier your destination sits in before you look, so that a high price reads as normal for that country rather than as a reason to keep shopping, and a low one reads as normal rather than as something suspicious.

The cheap corner: North Africa, South Africa and the Indian Ocean

If your trip is to the north of the continent or the far south, travel data is priced much like Europe and you can stop worrying about it.

Réunion and Mayotte are the cheapest African destinations we sell, at roughly the same level as France. Tunisia is next, then Algeria, Morocco, South Africa and Egypt, all clustered close together and all inexpensive by any standard.

This tier also has the deepest range. These are the destinations where you can buy a half-gigabyte starter for the price of a coffee to test that everything works before committing, where larger sizes exist if you need them, and where single-day options are available for a short stopover.

Egypt and Morocco are worth a special note, because both sit on the edge of more than one region and can be reached from more than one direction. If your trip pairs either with somewhere outside Africa, check the price on the standalone country plan before assuming a wider regional plan is the better buy. For a trip that is only Morocco or only Egypt, the country plan is the cheaper answer every time.

Where it gets expensive, and it is not a mistake

Move into central, west and much of east Africa and the price climbs steeply. Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Senegal and Nigeria form a middle band. Beyond them, Tanzania, Seychelles, Zambia, Malawi, Chad, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and most of west Africa cost several times what the northern tier does for the same data.

The most expensive destinations on the continent, Angola, Gambia, Cape Verde and Mauritania, cost more for a month of modest data than a month of data across most of Europe.

Travellers who have only bought data for Europe or Asia tend to assume a number that high means they have landed on a bad seller. It does not. That is simply what data costs in those countries, and comparing three sellers will mostly show you three similar numbers.

What this does mean is that the sizing advice that works elsewhere does not transfer. In an expensive destination, buying a large plan just in case is a real cost rather than a small hedge. Buy closer to what you actually expect to use, and top up if you run short, rather than buying headroom you will probably throw away.

It also means the entry point matters. In the cheap tier you can start with a half-gigabyte test purchase for pocket change. In the most expensive destinations the smallest plan on offer already costs more than a full month in Tunisia, so there is no cheap way to test the water. Check your device is ready before you buy, not after.

The multi-country plan covers 29 of 44 destinations

There is one regional option for Africa. It spans 29 destinations, which sounds comprehensive until you notice that we sell 44.

Fifteen African destinations are not on it at all: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Libya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone.

Read that list again if you are planning a specific trip, because it contains some genuinely popular destinations. Ethiopia and Rwanda are both common stops on an east Africa route and neither is included. Mauritius is a major holiday destination and it is not included. Algeria is not included even though its neighbours Tunisia and Morocco are.

The regional option is also limited in shape. It comes in three sizes only: a small one-week plan, and two month-long plans at moderate sizes. There is no large regional plan for Africa, so a long trip with heavy use cannot be solved by simply buying a bigger one.

None of that makes it a bad product. It makes it a specific one, for a specific kind of trip, which the next section is about.

The arithmetic: buying per country almost always wins

This is the part that surprises people, so here it is plainly.

At the smaller of the two month-long regional sizes, every single one of the fifteen covered destinations that sells that same size is cheaper bought on its own. Not most of them. All fifteen.

At the larger month-long size, twenty-three covered destinations sell the equivalent country plan, and twenty-one of them are cheaper bought alone. The two exceptions are Sudan and Côte d'Ivoire, where the regional plan genuinely is the better buy.

The gaps are not small either. In Tunisia, Morocco, South Africa or Egypt, the country plan costs roughly a quarter of the regional plan for the same data. Even in Nigeria, which sits well up the price range, buying the country plan alone still comes in under the regional price.

So the regional plan is not really a discount, it is a convenience product. It earns its price when you are crossing several borders in one trip and would otherwise be buying, installing and tracking four or five separate plans with four or five separate expiry dates. An overland route through Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi is exactly that trip. A week in Cape Town is not.

The honest rule: one or two countries, buy them individually. Three or more covered countries in one trip, price the regional option against the sum and decide whether the admin saved is worth the difference, which for the cheaper countries it usually is not.

Unlimited data is not sold everywhere in Africa

Unlimited plans exist for 26 of the 44 African destinations. For the other eighteen there is no unlimited option at any price.

Those eighteen are Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan.

If your plan for a trip was to avoid thinking about data by buying unlimited, check that list before you build the trip around it. Several of those are countries where data is expensive, which is exactly where an unlimited plan would have been most useful, and it is the combination people are least prepared for.

Where unlimited is available it behaves the way it does everywhere else on the site: a set amount at full speed each day, then a reduced speed until the allowance resets the next day. In an expensive African destination, run the numbers against a fixed plan before assuming unlimited is the better value, because the gap between the two is wider here than in Europe.

Single-day plans are similarly patchy, available in 24 of the 44. For a one-night layover in a country without them, the smallest week-long plan is the fallback.

The networks you'll be on, and what 4G-only really means

Your eSIM connects to local networks, and in Africa those are strong, well-known operators. South Africa has MTN and Vodacom on 5G alongside Cell C and Telkom. Kenya runs Airtel and Safaricom. Nigeria has MTN on 5G with Airtel and Glo. Egypt is Orange and Etisalat, both 5G. Morocco is Orange Morocco and IAM. Tanzania is Vodacom and Airtel, both 5G.

Across the 44 destinations, 16 reach 5G and most of the rest top out at 4G. That split matters less than it sounds. For maps, messaging, ride-hailing, mobile money and photos over WhatsApp, which is most of what a trip here actually needs, 4G is entirely sufficient and you will rarely notice the ceiling.

The one destination to plan around properly is the Central African Republic, which tops out at 3G. That is fine for messaging and simple maps and poor for anything heavier, so download what you need in advance.

The more useful mental adjustment is that coverage in Africa is concentrated rather than uniform. Cities, main roads and tourist areas are well served. Distance from those and it thins, sometimes quickly. This is not a property of travel eSIMs, it is what the local networks themselves look like, and a local SIM would behave the same way.

Practical version: download offline maps for any long drive before you set off, and do not assume you will be able to look up a booking reference from the middle of a national park.

Pick by trip

The method is the same everywhere: list your actual stops, check each against what a plan covers, and buy the smallest thing that fits. In Africa there is a second step, which is to check the price per country before you commit, because it varies so much more than you expect.

Here is where that lands for the routes people actually take.

• One country in the north, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt or Algeria: buy that country's own plan. It is inexpensive and the regional option costs several times more.
• South Africa only, or Cape Town and the Garden Route: the country plan again. South Africa is among the cheapest destinations on the continent.
• Kenya and Tanzania safari loop: both are covered by the regional option, but both also sell their own plans. Price the pair against the regional one, and note that Tanzania is considerably dearer than Kenya.
• East Africa including Ethiopia or Rwanda: neither is on the regional list, so you will need country plans for those legs regardless of what else you buy.
• West Africa overland: this is the strongest case for the regional option, because the individual countries are expensive and you will cross several borders.
• A single expensive destination such as Angola, Gambia or Cape Verde: buy small and top up. There is no cheap plan here, so headroom you do not use is money gone.
• Mauritius, Seychelles or Réunion: Réunion is startlingly cheap and the other two are not. Réunion and Seychelles are on the regional list; Mauritius is not, so it always needs its own plan.
• A stopover of a day or two: check whether that country sells a single-day plan, since 20 of the 44 do not, and fall back to the smallest week-long option if it does not.
• A trip pairing Egypt or Morocco with somewhere outside Africa: compare the standalone country plan against whichever wider regional plan covers your other stops. For those two the country plan is often the cheaper half of the trip.