Planning a trip to Brazil, but you want to avoid expensive roaming charges and still surf the internet with your smartphone? Then a digital eSIM is just right for you. You can get them before you fly to South America and continue surfing right after landing.
What is an eSIM and is my smartphone compatible?
An eSIM is a digital SIM card that can be loaded directly onto a compatible device without the need for a physical SIM card. This type of SIM card is particularly convenient for travellers because it is easy and quick to buy and activate online without having to worry about a physical SIM card.
You will find numerous providers of eSIM plans on the Internet. With most of them, you buy a one-off prepaid plan for a certain number of days and data volume. After expiry, there are no further costs and you do not need a subscription.
Unfortunately, not all smartphones support an eSIM. You have good odds with an iPhone 11 / 12 / 13, but also with an Android smartphone, e.g. Google Pixel 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 or Samsung Galaxy S20, S21, or Note 20. You can find a list of smartphones that support eSIM here: Which devices support an eSIM?
If your Android smartphone does not support eSIM profiles, eSIM.me is a physical SIM card that you can use with eSIM profiles.
Most eSIM providers only offer data volume and no free minutes. Since these are also prepaid plans, outgoing calls are generally not supported. With some smartphones, e.g. iPhones, you can still be reached via your normal SIM card and make calls.
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Plans Compared
Here you can easily find the right plan. Simply select your travel period and the required data volume, and you will be shown the appropriate eSIM plans:
Cheapest Providers
The prices are quite similar at quite a few providers. If you only need 1 GB for a week, the price seems to lie at roughly €3. You can pay slightly less by using eSIM4Travel‘s 10% coupon. If you’re staying in Brazil for a longer period, Monty eSIM offers a very attractive price of €8 for 3 GB. It may be worth paying €11 at Amigo for 6 GB if you think that the 3GB may not be enough. And if you want a huge amount of data, ETravelSim offers 10 GB for €15, and you can even get a 5% discount.
There are also some promotions that would get you free data, at least once. Red Bull Mobile offers a global eSIM with 1GB of data for free.
Without Duration Limit
If you are staying in Brazil for a longer period of time, are there regularly, or want to be as flexible as possible, you can buy data volume from BNESIM without an expiry date. However, the price is so high (over €8 for 1 GB) that this doesn’t really make sense. Instead, check out the Pay-as-you-go alternatives.
Without Data Limit
The best option for unlimited plans is Firsty. The plans cost between €1.40 and €1.90 per day, depending on the total duration selected. The speed isn’t super fast (i.e. enough for pretty much anything you’d do on your phone except maybe streaming), but the price is totally acceptable. For full-speed internet, prices start at €3 per day.
Pay-as-you-go
If you don’t use much data or are only in Brazil for a very short time, it may make sense to use YESIM. They only charge €4/GB, which is not only relatively cheap, but you also only pay as much as you use. So if you, e.g. only use 90 MB, you’d only pay 36 cents.
For Several Countries in South America
If you are planning to visit Brazil on your trip but also other countries in South America, it can be worth choosing a plan that covers several or all countries of South America. In our eSIM comparison, you can simply select other countries besides Brazil.
ESIM4TRAVEL’s Latin America 17 plan is a good choice, costing US$5.31 (~€4.53) for 1 GB for a week. MontyeSIM also has a cheap plan, which even only costs US$4.99 (~€4.26) – however, it does not include some countries, such as Paraguay. Always make sure to see if the countries you are visiting are included in your plan.
The Best Network in Brazil
There are four mobile network operators in Brazil: Vivo, TIM, Claro Mobile and Oi Mobile. With Vivo, TIM and Claro you can’t go wrong on the coast and in the big cities. If you are moving inland, it is advisable to check the network coverage of the respective provider with nperf beforehand.
Buy Local SIM Cards
Classic SIM cards can also be bought locally, but of course, they are not as convenient and are not much cheaper. TIM offers, e.g. 1.5 GB per week for R$25 (~€4) for tourists.