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.
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 pass | Price | What 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 / day | 2GB high-speed data + unlimited calling · 215+ destinations |
| T-Mobile 10-Day Pass | $35 | 5GB high-speed data |
| T-Mobile 30-Day Pass | $50 | 15GB high-speed data |
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 used | Cost at $2.05/MB |
|---|---|
| 1 MB | $2.05 |
| 100 MB | $205 |
| 500 MB | $1,025 |
| 1 GB | ~$2,099 |
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:
| Year | Wholesale data cap / GB |
|---|---|
| 2022 | €2.00 |
| 2023 | €1.80 |
| 2024 | €1.55 |
| 2025 | €1.30 |
| 2026 | €1.10 |
| 2027 | €1.00 |
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 network | EU 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) |
| O2 | No daily EU charge for Pay Monthly (roam-like-at-home retained) |
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
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