Greece eSIM: plans from $3 compared, carrier roaming costs and local SIM cards

Greece eSIM plans compared: Airalo, Holafly, Saily and Yesim prices

The four sellers below all sell a plan for Greece. They differ on two things: whether you buy a fixed amount of data or unlimited data by the day, and how long the plan lasts. A fixed plan suits maps, messages and photos. Unlimited suits streaming, video calls and using your phone as a hotspot for a laptop.

Greece eSIM prices side by side

Most travel eSIMs in Greece run on Vodafone or Nova. Cosmote, the third network, has the widest coverage in mountain villages and on small islands, but very few travel eSIMs use it. If you spend a week walking in the Cretan mountains or on a remote island, a Cosmote SIM card bought in town is the safer choice for signal.

Does my phone work in Greece? Roaming costs vs an eSIM

Your phone will work in Greece on roaming with almost any US, UK, Canadian or Australian carrier. The question is the price. Here is what the main carriers charge, from their own roaming pages on November 10, 2026.

On a one-week trip, the AT&T or Verizon day pass costs $84 per phone. The same week costs $27.50 with Holafly's unlimited plan, or $11.52 for 5 GB with Yesim. For a couple, the gap doubles. Roaming still has one advantage: you keep your own number for calls and texts without doing anything.

T-Mobile's plans include some data abroad, but the amount and the speed depend on the plan, and we could not read T-Mobile's roaming pages to check. The same goes for Rogers, Bell, Telus and Optus, which sell daily roaming and multi-day Europe passes: check the price in your carrier's app before you leave. UK travelers on O2 or a plan with EU roaming included can often stay on their own SIM for a short stay in Greece.

eSIM for Greece with unlimited data: what "unlimited" really means

Three of the four sellers have unlimited plans for Greece. They work differently once you pass a daily amount.

• Holafly. Every Greece plan is unlimited, from 1 day to 30 days, at $27.50 for a week. Sharing your connection with a laptop is capped at 1 GB a day.
• Airalo. Its Europe unlimited plans that include Greece give 3 GB a day at full speed, then 1 Mbps, from $10 for 3 days. 1 Mbps is enough for messages and maps, not for video.
• Saily. Unlimited Greece plans from $18.99 for 5 days, with 5 GB a day at full speed before the speed drops.

Yesim showed no unlimited price for Greece on the day we checked, only fixed plans of 1 to 30 GB valid 30 days. For a two-week trip with normal use, 10 GB is usually plenty: Yesim sells it at $19.20, Saily at $21.99.

Greece eSIM coverage on the islands and on the ferries

Greece has three mobile networks, Cosmote, Vodafone and Nova, and 4G covers the towns, beaches and ports that most visitors see. The Greek regulator EETT put 5G coverage at 99.8% of the population in June 2024. Crete, Rhodes, Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, Naxos and Paros all have a good signal in and around the main towns.

The weak point is the sea. On a ferry between two Cycladic islands, the signal comes and goes, and on the long crossings of the Dodecanese you can be without a network for an hour or more. Download your ferry tickets and offline maps before you board. If your phone connects to a ship's own mobile network, that use is billed outside any roaming deal, so keep data roaming off on your home SIM.

On the eastern islands, Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Rhodes, your phone can pick up a Turkish network across the water. Turkey is outside the European roaming zones of UK carriers: in 2017 a British traveler sailing the Greek islands was billed more than £8,000 for 40 minutes on a Turkish network. With a Greece eSIM that does not cover Turkey, the phone simply finds no data. If you roam on your home SIM there, choose a Greek network manually in your phone settings. For the island groups themselves, see our Greek ferry guide and our ranking of the best Greek islands.

Greece SIM card at Athens airport: what is on sale and what it costs

Athens airport lists one SIM seller, Sim Local, by Exit 1 of the arrivals level. A test published in May 2026 found only Vodafone SIM cards on sale, at €35 for 25 GB and €50 for 300 GB, each with 100 minutes of calls, and the arrivals shop closed on the day. No Cosmote or Nova counter was found.

Operator shops in Athens and on the islands sell prepaid packs for less than the airport prices, but you lose time on your first day and need your passport: every prepaid SIM card in Greece is registered with an identity document at the counter. A local SIM makes sense if you want a Greek number, for example to book tavernas or taxis by phone over a long stay. To get from the airport into the city, see our Athens airport guide.

Greece eSIM with calls: phone number, WhatsApp and SMS codes

The Airalo, Holafly, Saily and Yesim plans on this page are data only: they do not come with a Greek phone number and do not receive normal calls or SMS. In practice, that rarely matters in Greece, where hotels, boat-trip operators and most tavernas answer on WhatsApp or Viber.

• Calls and messages. WhatsApp, FaceTime, iMessage and Viber all run over the eSIM data.
• Bank codes and SMS. Keep your home SIM in the phone and switched on as a second line, with data roaming off, so texts can still reach it. Check what your carrier charges for calls you answer abroad.
• A Greek number. Only a local SIM card from Cosmote, Vodafone or Nova gives you one, with your passport.

How to install and activate a Greece eSIM

Check first that your phone is unlocked and supports eSIM: most iPhones since the XS and recent Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones do. Then:

1. Buy the plan a few days before you leave and install it at home, on Wi-Fi.
2. Scan the QR code or use the seller's app. On iPhone: Settings, Mobile Data, Add eSIM. On Android: Settings, Network and internet, SIMs, Add eSIM.
3. Set the eSIM as the line for mobile data, and turn on data roaming for the eSIM only.
4. Turn data roaming off on your home SIM so it never takes over.
5. On landing in Athens or on an island, the eSIM connects to a Greek network on its own.

For the rest of the trip, from the best month to the budget, our Greece trip planner goes through each step.