France is the most visited country in the world, and on our price list it is also among the cheapest in Europe for mobile data. The table below sets our live France prices against the ones Airalo publishes, taken from their own France page on the date shown. Every one of the seven rows we both sell comes out cheaper with us, and at five and ten gigabytes our price is close to half of theirs. The headline is unlimited data. Of the 161 destinations where we sell unlimited, France is the cheapest at every length, three days, a week, a fortnight and a month, and a week of it costs less than the twenty-gigabyte month. The catch is not in France at all but at its edges: one of our two cheapest Europe plans leaves France off its list, Monaco and Andorra are on no multi-country plan, and the overseas departments are separate destinations with their own prices. This guide covers when unlimited is the buy, the one detail to check on a Europe plan, what a day trip over the border needs, Paris underground, and the six-month plan for people who keep coming back. It ends with a plan for each common French trip.
How the prices compare for France
Lumbus prices are live from our catalogue. Airalo prices are the public list prices on their own websites, in US dollars, checked on 29 September 2026. Where another provider is cheaper, the table says so.
| Plan | Lumbuslive price | Airalo |
|---|---|---|
| 1GB | $3.99 · 7 days$3.99/GBCheapest | $4.00 · 3 days$4.00/GB |
| 3GB | $4.99 · 30 days$1.66/GBCheapest | $7.50 · 7 days$2.50/GB |
| 5GB | $5.99 · 30 days$1.20/GBCheapest | $11.00 · 30 days$2.20/GB |
| 10GB | $8.99 · 30 days$0.90/GBCheapest | $17.00 · 30 days$1.70/GB |
| 20GB | $15.99 · 30 days$0.80/GBCheapest | $23.00 · 30 days$1.15/GB |
| Unlimited · 7 days | $14.99 · 7 days$2.14/day3GB/day at full speed, then 1MbpsCheapest | $23.50 · 7 days$3.36/day3GB/day at full speed, then 1Mbps |
| Unlimited · 30 days | $55.99 · 30 days$1.87/day3GB/day at full speed, then 1MbpsCheapest | $59.00 · 30 days$1.97/day3GB/day at full speed, then 1Mbps |
Lumbus is the cheapest option in 7 of the 7 plans compared.
Not in this table yet: Holafly, Saily, and Nomad. Their prices are added once checked.
Price pages checked: Airalo (29 September 2026)
The cheapest unlimited data we sell, anywhere
Unlimited data usually costs a premium for peace of mind. In France the premium mostly disappears. A week of French unlimited comes in under the price of the twenty-gigabyte month, three days of it cost only a sixth or so above the five-gigabyte month, and across our whole catalogue no destination has a cheaper three days, week, fortnight or month.
For comparison, most of Europe charges about half as much again for the same week. In the UK, our second-cheapest, a week costs a little more than in France.
The allowance is the same everywhere we sell it: every 24 hours you get three gigabytes at full speed, and after those, one megabit per second until the next allowance arrives. Across seven days that adds up to as much as twenty-one gigabytes at full speed, beyond what most visitors get through in a week, for less than a twenty-gigabyte month you would have to ration.
The arithmetic turns back towards fixed data at about two weeks. Twenty gigabytes for a month, topped up once with ten more, undercuts a fortnight of unlimited by about a seventh, and a month of unlimited costs about two thirds more than the fifty-gigabyte month, which is more data than a month of ordinary use needs.
- Three to seven days: unlimited. A week of it costs less than the twenty-gigabyte month.
- A fortnight: the twenty-gigabyte month, topped up with ten more if you need it.
- A month: the fifty-gigabyte month, well below a month of unlimited.
- A single day: the one-day plan, two gigabytes, the cheapest thing we sell for France.
Seven rows, seven wins: reading the table
Each row in the table above compares the same amount of data, so look at the validity as well as the price. Their smallest plan runs three days against our week, for a fraction more than ours. Their three gigabytes run a week against our month, and ours costs about two thirds of theirs.
The five- and ten-gigabyte months are where most trips land, and ours cost a little over half of theirs. The twenty-gigabyte month comes to about seven tenths.
Both unlimited rows are like for like: each side gives the same three gigabytes of full-speed data per day and the same one megabit per second once it is used. Our week of unlimited costs about a third less than theirs, and our month about a twentieth less.
Outside the table, our three days of unlimited cost under two thirds of their three-day price, and at fifty gigabytes the two months are within a few per cent of each other, ours slightly lower.
The Europe plan that leaves France out
If France is one stop on a longer European trip, a Europe plan is often the right buy, and at three and five gigabytes our two cheapest Europe plans are priced exactly like the France plan. But they are not the same list. One of them covers France. The other covers thirty-five destinations, including Ukraine, Moldova, San Marino and the Vatican, and France is not one of them.
That is easy to miss when a plan is called Europe and you are going to Paris. Before you pay, open the coverage list and look for France by name. The plan that has it also covers Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the UK and Gibraltar.
Above five gigabytes, for France alone the France plan works out cheaper: the Europe plan with France costs about a third more at ten gigabytes and a little under half as much again at twenty. As soon as a second country joins the trip, it wins at every fixed size.
- France plus any of Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands or the UK: the cheapest Europe plan that includes France.
- Check the coverage list for France by name before paying.
- France alone, above five gigabytes: the France plan.
Day trips across the border, at French prices
Mainland France borders eight countries, Monaco and Andorra among them, and a lot of holidays in France include a day over one of those borders or through the Channel Tunnel: Geneva from Annecy or Chamonix, Basel from Alsace, San Sebastián from Biarritz, the Friday market in Ventimiglia from Nice or Menton, Kehl on the tram from Strasbourg, Brussels or Luxembourg from the north-east, London on the Eurostar.
A France plan stops at each of those borders. Near them, your phone may also drop onto a network on the other side while you are still in France, which on a France-only plan simply means no data until it comes back. On the Riviera, Menton sits right against the Italian border, and a phone on its seafront can hop to an Italian network without you taking a step.
There are two clean ways to handle it. For a single day across, add a one-day plan for that country; for Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany and Belgium it costs exactly what the French one-day plan costs. For a trip that keeps crossing, buy the Europe plan that includes France instead: at three and five gigabytes it costs the same as the France plan and every one of those neighbours is on it.
If you are on French unlimited and only crossing for a day, keep it and add the one-day plan for the other side. France’s own unlimited is cheap enough that pairing it with a day plan costs less than a week of unlimited on the Europe plan.
- One day over the border: the one-day plan for that country.
- Crossing back and forth all trip: the cheapest Europe plan that includes France.
- On French unlimited: keep it, and add a one-day plan for the day across.
Monaco and Andorra: two neighbours that need their own plan
Two of France’s neighbours are on none of our multi-country plans. Monaco, a short train ride from Nice, runs its own network, and a France plan is not promised to work there. Near the border your phone may keep a French signal, but inside the principality nothing is guaranteed. Monaco’s own plans are among the most expensive we sell: its cheapest option, one gigabyte for a day, costs more than eight times France’s two-gigabyte day plan. For an afternoon in Monte Carlo, many people simply download what they need before the train and go without.
Andorra, up in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, is the other. Its one-gigabyte week costs exactly what France’s does, which makes it the right buy for a day or two of shopping or a ski trip in from Toulouse or Perpignan. Every bigger Andorra plan costs roughly two and a half to four times the French price, and its unlimited is over four times the French week.
- Monaco: download before you go, or buy its one-day plan. No France or Europe plan covers it.
- Andorra: the one-gigabyte week, at the French price.
Paris underground: 4G in every Métro tunnel
Since June 2020 the whole Paris Métro and RER network has had 4G, not only in stations but on platforms, in trains and through the tunnels between them. The equipment is shared by all four French networks, and a France eSIM runs on those same four, so it keeps working underground.
Expect 4G rather than 5G below ground. It is more than enough for maps, messages, music and checking the next connection, which is most of what anyone does on the Métro.
Above ground, Paris has strong coverage from all four networks, and the airports have free Wi-Fi. A day at Disneyland Paris tends to run heavier on data, because the park’s own app is where the ride wait times live. Install the eSIM before you fly, since an arrivals hall is a bad place to discover you need a connection to install it.
Corsica, the overseas departments and the rest of French territory
Corsica is part of mainland France for your phone: the same four networks, the same France plan. The ferries south to Sardinia take you into Italy, which the Europe plan with France covers.
The overseas departments and territories are a different matter. Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion, Mayotte, Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin are separate destinations with their own plans, and a France plan does not cover them. Several are priced like France up to ten gigabytes. French Polynesia and New Caledonia are in another league, at roughly seventeen and twenty-five times the French price for the same five gigabytes. Saint Pierre and Miquelon and Wallis and Futuna are not sold at all.
EU phones, British phones and everyone else
On a contract from an EU or EEA country, France is covered at home prices, so you may not need to buy anything for France itself. Everyone else does. British contracts lost that protection with Brexit, and most now add a daily charge for EU use, so check yours rather than assuming. Travellers from the United States, Canada, the Gulf or Asia are billed by their own operators for roaming, usually well above what local data costs.
For those visitors, the useful question is which shape to buy, and in France the answer leans towards unlimited more often than anywhere else we sell.
Holiday homes and repeat visits: the six-month plan
A lot of people come back to France again and again, to family, to a flat in Paris or a house in the Dordogne or Provence. For them the plan to know is fifty gigabytes that stay valid for six months. It costs a little under a third more than the fifty-gigabyte month and less than buying that month twice.
Its six months count from the first time the eSIM connects in France rather than from the purchase, so one plan can cover a spring visit and a summer one. Like the monthly plans, it takes top-ups if a stay runs heavy.
Orange, SFR, Bouygues and Free: the four networks
France has four mobile networks, Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile, and all four run 5G. A France eSIM uses whichever is strongest where you are and switches between them as you travel, so a quiet valley in the Alps or a stretch of coast in Brittany is served by whichever network built there.
In the cities and along the main roads, coverage is dense. In the mountains and some rural areas it thins, and in the high Alps and Pyrenees there are stretches with no signal at all. Download offline maps before you set off into either.
Paris, Provence or the Alps: a plan for each trip
Each line assumes normal use: maps, transport, messaging and photos, with photo backup on Wi-Fi. Go one size up for a laptop or a shared connection.
Buy and install before you travel. Nothing starts until the eSIM first connects to a French network, so there is no cost to buying weeks early.
- A long weekend in Paris: three days of unlimited.
- A week in Paris, Nice or Provence: seven days of unlimited, cheaper than the twenty-gigabyte month.
- Two weeks on the road in France: twenty gigabytes for a month, with a ten-gigabyte top-up in reserve.
- A month in France: the fifty-gigabyte month.
- France plus Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium or the UK: the cheapest Europe plan that includes France.
- A day in Geneva, San Sebastián or Ventimiglia from a French base: the one-day plan for that country.
- An afternoon in Monaco: download before you go, or its one-day plan.
- A ski week in Andorra from France: the Andorra one-gigabyte week for the Andorran days.
- A day in Paris on the Eurostar: the France one-day plan.
- A holiday home you keep returning to: fifty gigabytes valid for six months.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best eSIM for France?
For most trips of up to a week, French unlimited: it is the cheapest unlimited we sell anywhere, and a week of it costs less than the twenty-gigabyte month. For longer trips, the twenty-gigabyte month, topped up as needed. Against Airalo, the table above shows us cheaper on every one of the seven rows we both sell, unlimited included, and on unlimited both sides give the same full-speed allowance each day. If the trip adds Switzerland, Italy or Spain, take the cheapest Europe plan that includes France.
Is French unlimited worth it for a short trip?
Yes, for a stay of up to about a week. Three days of French unlimited cost barely more than the five-gigabyte month, and seven days come in under the twenty-gigabyte month, so unlimited is often the cheaper way to stop thinking about data. Each day includes three gigabytes at full speed; after that the speed drops until the allowance renews 24 hours on. For two weeks or more, the twenty-gigabyte month with a top-up is cheaper.
Which Europe eSIM should I buy if my trip includes France?
The cheapest Europe plan that includes France, and check the list before you pay, because the other low-priced Europe plan has no France on it. At three and five gigabytes the one with France costs exactly what the France plan costs, and it also covers Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the UK. Above five gigabytes it costs more than the France plan alone, so it pays once a second country is on the trip.
What do I buy for a day trip from France to Geneva or San Sebastián?
A one-day plan for the country you are visiting: Switzerland for Geneva or Basel, Spain for San Sebastián, Italy for Ventimiglia, Germany for Kehl. Each costs exactly what the French one-day plan costs. If you will cross borders several times, the cheapest Europe plan that includes France is simpler, and at three and five gigabytes it costs the same as the France plan.
Can I use my France plan in Andorra?
No. Andorra runs its own network and is on none of our multi-country plans. Its one-gigabyte week costs exactly what the French one does, which suits a day or two of shopping or skiing. Bigger Andorra plans cost roughly two and a half to four times the French price, and its unlimited costs over four times the French week.
Is there mobile signal on the Paris Métro?
Yes. Since June 2020 the whole Métro and RER network has had 4G, in stations, on platforms, in trains and through the tunnels. It is shared by all four French networks, which are the ones a France eSIM uses, so your data keeps working underground. Expect 4G rather than 5G below ground, which is plenty for maps, messages and music.
Is Corsica covered by a France plan?
Yes. Corsica is served by the same four French networks as the mainland, so a France plan works there exactly as it does in Paris or Nice. The ferries to Sardinia take you into Italy; for a trip that includes both islands, one plan can cover France and Italy together: the cheapest Europe plan with France on its list.
I am taking the Eurostar from London for a day in Paris. What should I buy?
The two-gigabyte France day plan, the cheapest thing we sell for France and enough for a day of maps, messages and photos. Install it at home before you travel. If the day in Paris is part of a longer UK trip, the Europe plan with France on its list covers both countries, and at three and five gigabytes it costs no more than the UK plan.
How much data does a Paris city break use?
Three or four days of maps, the Métro, restaurant bookings and photos come to a few gigabytes at most, with hotel Wi-Fi covering the evenings. In France that makes three days of unlimited the easy answer: it costs barely more than the five-gigabyte month, so you never need to think about it. For a full week, seven days of unlimited come in under the twenty-gigabyte month.
Do British visitors need an eSIM in France?
Usually, yes. Since Brexit most British tariffs charge by the day, or sell an optional bolt-on, for using your phone in the EU, and the data on those comes with a fair-use cap. A France eSIM replaces that for the trip, and French unlimited costs less for a week than the twenty-gigabyte month. Check your own tariff first, because a few British plans still include EU roaming.
Orange, SFR, Bouygues or Free: which network will I be on?
All four. A France eSIM uses whichever of Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free Mobile is strongest at that spot, changing network as you move. All four run 5G, which you get where it is available and your phone supports it, with 4G everywhere else, including under the streets on the Paris Métro.
Which plan suits a holiday home in France?
Fifty gigabytes valid for six months, if you visit more than once in that time. It costs a little under a third more than the fifty-gigabyte month and less than buying the month twice. The six months run from the first connection in France, so a spring stay and a summer stay can share one plan, and it takes top-ups if a visit runs heavy.
Can I tether a laptop on French unlimited?
You can. The hotspot is included, and it shares the day’s three gigabytes at full speed between the phone and everything connected to it, then slows until the allowance renews. That covers email, documents and video calls on most working days. Heavy uploads or several people streaming will reach it; for that, a large fixed plan gives you more full-speed data to spend when you choose.
Can I buy a France eSIM after I land at Charles de Gaulle?
Yes. The airports have free Wi-Fi, and you can buy and install there. It is easier at home, though, because installing takes a few minutes and a stable connection, and the paid period begins at the eSIM’s first connection to a French network, not at purchase. Buying before you fly costs nothing and means you land connected.