2026 Reference · roaming costs

International Roaming Charges by Carrier & Country (2026)

Mobile roaming is one of travel's most opaque costs — ranging from a few dollars a day on a pass to over $2,000 per GB on the default pay-per-use rate. This page sets out what the major carriers charge, what regulators have done about it, and how the numbers compare. Carrier figures link to their official pages.

Updated 16 June 2026By Cellesim Research Download CSV

$10–12
per day — US carrier roaming pass
$2.05
per MB — AT&T pay-per-use default
~$2,099
per GB at pay-per-use rates
€1.10
EU wholesale data cap per GB (2026)

US carrier roaming passes

The big three US carriers all sell daily or multi-day roaming passes rather than charging per-MB by default for travelers on eligible plans.

Carrier passPriceWhat you get
AT&T International Day Pass$12 / day+$6 per extra line · 210+ destinations · unlimited talk/text/data
Verizon TravelPass$12 / day$6/day in Mexico & Canada · 5GB high-speed then 3G · 210+ destinations
T-Mobile 1-Day Pass$10 / day2GB high-speed data + unlimited calling · 215+ destinations
T-Mobile 10-Day Pass$355GB high-speed data
T-Mobile 30-Day Pass$5015GB high-speed data
Source: official AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile pages (linked below). Prices current as of June 2026 and vary by plan.

The bill-shock rate: pay-per-use

Without a pass, data abroad reverts to a punitive per-MB rate. AT&T publishes $2.05/MB, which works out to roughly $2,099 for a single gigabyte. These figures are computed directly from the published per-MB rate.

Data usedCost at $2.05/MB
1 MB$2.05
100 MB$205
500 MB$1,025
1 GB~$2,099
Computed from AT&T's published $2.05/MB pay-per-use rate (×1,024 MB per GB). Other carriers' default rates differ but are comparably high.

EU: roam like at home

Within the EU/EEA, retail roaming surcharges are banned under Regulation (EU) 2022/612, extended through 2032. Travelers use their home allowance at no extra charge (subject to fair-use limits). Behind the scenes, the wholesale price one operator may charge another for data is capped and falling each year:

YearWholesale data cap / GB
2022€2.00
2023€1.80
2024€1.55
2025€1.30
2026€1.10
2027€1.00
Source: Regulation (EU) 2022/612 (EUR-Lex).

UK: charges returned after Brexit

UK customers lost EU roam-like-at-home after Brexit. Most networks reintroduced daily EU charges of roughly £2–£2.59, with O2 a notable exception. From 1 October 2024, Ofcom requires carriers to send roaming-cost alerts — a response to research finding 19% of holidaymakers were unaware they could face extra charges abroad.

UK networkEU roaming (approx.)
EE~£2.59 / day in the EU (50GB fair-use cap)
Vodafone~£2.57 / day in the EU (25GB cap)
Three~£2.00 / day in the EU (12GB cap)
O2No daily EU charge for Pay Monthly (roam-like-at-home retained)
UK per-day figures are drawn from carrier and comparison sources and drift between plans and dates — verify on the carrier's own roaming page before relying on them.

Methodology & notes

US carrier prices are taken from the carriers' official roaming pages (linked below) and reflect eligible-plan pricing as of June 2026. The per-GB bill-shock figure is an explicit arithmetic computation from AT&T's published $2.05/MB rate, not a separate measurement. EU figures come from the regulation text on EUR-Lex; UK per-day figures are approximate, sourced from carrier and comparison pages, and should be re-checked before citation as they change with plans and promotions.

Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page.

Sources

  1. 1AT&T — International Day Pass
  2. 2AT&T — International pay-per-use rates ($2.05/MB)
  3. 3Verizon — TravelPass FAQ
  4. 4T-Mobile — International roaming passes
  5. 5EU — Roaming Regulation 2022/612 (EUR-Lex)
  6. 6European Commission — Roaming policy
  7. 7Ofcom — Mobile roaming alert protections (Oct 2024)

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