Original research · October 2026 update
Travel eSIM
Price Index.
3 providers · 3 destinations · Index 98.3
The matched basket fell 1.7% from its August baseline after two Yesim prices changed in Vietnam. The other 16 headline prices were unchanged.
Commercial disclosure: all three providers are affiliate partners. No provider paid for inclusion, approved the analysis, or influenced the calculations.
What changed
Four findings from the October update.
These are descriptive results from a fixed, six-plan basket. They compare advertised price - not network quality, checkout availability, or the whole eSIM market.
The matched index fell
The October basket was 1.7% below the August 2026 baseline of 100.0.
Only two cells changed
Yesim Vietnam fell from $22.80 to $19.20 for 10 GB and from $30.00 to $26.40 for 20 GB.
Vietnam still cost more
Vietnam’s matched basket averaged $23.26, versus $15.60 for Thailand.
Two wins were one cent
Saily led Airalo by $0.01 in the Thailand and Vietnam 10 GB cells. Features can matter more than the badge.
Definition
What this index measures - and what it does not.
The headline index follows a fixed basket: 10 GB and 20 GB fixed-data plans valid for exactly 30 days, from each of three providers in each of three destinations. Every one of those 18 allowance-duration cells was available in the baseline release and carries equal weight of 1/18.
We exclude 5 GB because Yesim did not expose a comparable 5 GB observation for Thailand or Vietnam. We also exclude “unlimited” from the headline because daily high-speed allowances and throttling rules are not equivalent.
Plans are matched on destination, advertised data allowance and usage-validity period. They are not matched for network coverage, activation deadline, routing, tethering, voice or SMS, bundled extras, or service quality.
This is not a coverage score, speed test, customer-service ranking, market-share measure, or census of every eSIM brand and local SIM. It is a price benchmark for three affiliate providers this site continuously monitors.
Matched basket
Destination price levels
Mean advertised price in the six-plan basket: three providers × two data allowances. USD, 30-day validity.
The 18 prices behind the October index
Every value below has separate acquisition and product URLs in the v2.0 data.
| Destination | AAiralo | SSaily | YYesim | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 GB | 20 GB | 10 GB | 20 GB | 10 GB | 20 GB | |
| Turkey | $15.50 | $22.50 | $15.99 | $22.99 | $16.80 | $25.20 |
| Thailand | $11.00 | $18.00 | $10.99 | $19.99 | $13.20 | $20.40 |
| Vietnam | $18.00 | $29.00 | $17.99 | $28.99 | $19.20 | $26.40 |
Provider basket means
A lower mean does not make a provider universally better. Airalo won three matched rows, Saily two, and Yesim one; two wins were separated by one cent.
20 GB unit-price effect
Average reduction in price per GB when moving from 10 GB to 20 GB across nine exact provider-destination pairs. Individual reductions ranged from 9.1% to 31.3%.
Separate series
“Unlimited” is not one comparable product.
These prices are useful, but combining them with fixed-data plans would hide material differences in high-speed allowances and throttling.
| Destination | Airalo | Saily | Yesim | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 days | 30 days | 15 days | 30 days | 15 days | 30 days | |
| Turkey | $39.00 | $69.00 | $48.99 | $71.99 | $44.40 | $68.40 |
| Thailand | $39.00 | $49.00 | $38.99 | $48.99 | $37.20 | $50.40 |
| Vietnam | $48.00 | $69.00 | $48.99 | $71.99 | $46.80 | $68.40 |
Its published default fair-use policy describes 3 GB of high-speed data per 24 hours, followed by up to 1 Mbps; individual package details can differ.
Official fair-use policy ↗Its terms state that standard unlimited plans receive a full-speed allowance every 24 hours and may be speed-restricted after that allowance is used.
Official service terms ↗Yesim says partner mobile operators can apply their own fair-use restrictions. The relevant package terms should be checked before purchase.
Official unlimited-plan help ↗A dash means no exact-duration observation was retained in this release. It does not mean the provider offers no other unlimited product.
Reproducible by design
Methodology
The observation CSV, formula, calculated results, source manifest, and normalized production snapshot are published for independent recalculation. The August baseline remains available separately.
- 01
Universe
Airalo, Saily, and Yesim prices for Turkey, Thailand, and Vietnam. The set reflects providers continuously monitored by eSIM Trip Plan and is not the entire market.
- 02
Collection
We recorded the publicly displayed USD price for each eligible plan, excluding coupon codes, cashback, and checkout-only discounts. Airalo was acquired through its official product feed, Saily through its official page, and Yesim through its official catalogue API.
- 03
Matching limits
The basket retains fixed-data plans with exactly 10 GB or 20 GB and exactly 30 days of validity. It does not claim equivalence in coverage, routing, activation, tethering, extras, or service quality. Missing cells are never interpolated.
- 04
Baseline and formula
This is an unweighted Jevons matched-cell index. Every cell has weight 1/18. For release t: It = 100 × exp[(1/Nt) Σ ln(pi,t/pi,0)]. All baseline relatives equal one, so August 2026 is 100.0.
- 05
Missing and replacement policy
The headline publishes only when all 18 unchanged cells are present. Otherwise we report missing or replaced cells and label any result as a partial common-cell index. A material change in allowance, validity, plan type, FUP, voice/SMS, or local/regional status creates a replacement cell.
- 06
Versioning and limitations
Published CSVs are immutable; corrections receive a new version. The October release retains the normalized production snapshots and their hashes, but not complete raw upstream responses. Promotion status was not captured row by row.
Open data
Inspect it. Recalculate it. Cite it.
The observations, calculation output, source manifest, and normalized source snapshot are published for scrutiny. Provider trademarks and underlying provider-page content remain their owners’ property.
October 2026 observations
One row per recorded public price, with source time, acquisition endpoint, product URL, snapshot ID, index flag, and comparability note.
Download v2.0 CSVRelease files
- Calculation summary JSON ↗
- Source manifest JSON ↗
- Normalized source snapshot JSON ↗
- August 2026 baseline v1.1 CSV ↗
Use v2.0 for the current level and August v1.1 as the baseline comparison.
Complete v2.0 data dictionary
- observed_at_utc
- ISO 8601 UTC timestamp from the saved destination snapshot
- destination
- Enum: turkey, thailand, or vietnam
- provider
- Enum: airalo, saily, or yesim
- plan_type
- Enum: fixed or unlimited
- data_gb
- Numeric fixed allowance in GB; blank for advertised unlimited
- validity_days
- Integer advertised usage-validity period in days
- price_usd
- Numeric publicly displayed price in US dollars
- currency
- ISO currency code; USD in this release
- public_price_basis
- provider_displayed_price; not a guaranteed checkout total
- promotion_status
- not_recorded; no later inference
- reference_price_usd
- Crossed-out/reference price; blank because it was not retained
- coupon_applied
- Boolean; always false under the collection rule
- cashback_excluded
- Boolean; always true under the collection rule
- source_method
- Official product feed or official provider page/API
- acquisition_source_url
- Official endpoint actually used by the project parser
- product_url
- Official plan or destination URL saved with the observation
- source_snapshot_id
- Identifier of the saved normalized production snapshot
- source_status
- fresh for every October observation
- included_in_headline_index
- True only for the exact 10/20 GB, 30-day fixed-data cells
- note
- Human-readable plan or comparability caveat
eSIM Trip Plan editorial team (2026). Travel eSIM Price Index (3 providers, 3 destinations): October 2026 update, v2.0. Prices observed 1 October 2026; published 2 October 2026. https://esimtripplan.com/research/travel-esim-price-index
The compiled dataset and original charts are available under CC BY 4.0. Credit eSIM Trip Plan and link to this canonical page.
Provenance
Nine official destination sources
These are direct, non-affiliate provider URLs. The v2.0 CSV separately records the acquisition endpoint and saved product URL; the immutable normalized snapshot preserves the published October observations.
- Airalo · Turkeywww.airalo.com/turkey-esim
- Saily · Turkeysaily.com/esim-turkey/
- Yesim · Turkeyyesim.tech/country/turkey/
- Airalo · Thailandwww.airalo.com/thailand-esim
- Saily · Thailandsaily.com/esim-thailand/
- Yesim · Thailandyesim.tech/country/thailand/
- Airalo · Vietnamwww.airalo.com/vietnam-esim/
- Saily · Vietnamsaily.com/esim-vietnam/
- Yesim · Vietnamyesim.tech/country/vietnam/
eSIM Trip Plan has affiliate relationships with the three providers in this dataset. Those relationships define the commercial provider set we monitor, but do not enter the formulas. No provider paid for inclusion, approved this analysis, or supplied a ranking. The index is a mechanical calculation from the disclosed observations.