France's ID rule binds operators, not you
France asks nothing of you for a roaming eSIM: the identity duty sits on operators and attaches to a contract you never sign. Mainland France and Corsica only.
Where this profile does not reach:Does not include overseas territories (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, French Guiana, Mayotte) or Monaco — choose a dedicated eSIM for those.
12 plans for France, from 1 GB at $3.99 to 20 GB at $17.99, plus 6 unlimited-data tiers. 5 GB for 30 days costs $7.99 — 27th cheapest of 56 in Europe, against a $7.99 median. Our retail prices from the operator catalogue, checked 28 September 2026.
Get the eSIM
By data
Unlimited data — you pick the days
Data only: the profile carries no phone number, your own stays as it is. Not sure of the size? Work it out from your trip. Terms and refunds.
Payment and guarantees
What travellers say
What it costs per day
Cheapest per day: 3 GB for 30 days at 20¢ a day. The dearest per day is Unlimited for 3 days at $3.66. Short plans always cost more per day: validity is rounded up, and unused days are paid for anyway.
How much data to buy
Four ways people use a phone abroad, sized against this country’s own plans. The gigabytes are an estimate built from published per-hour rates — nobody measured your phone.
The hours behind each row are our assumption, not yours — put your own in and the same rates do the arithmetic.
Where a row shows a range, the cell is sized on the lower number, which assumes the evening runs on hotel Wi-Fi. On mobile data around the clock, read the upper number and take the next size up. The per-hour rates and the 15% added for background traffic are listed with their sources in the calculator.
What applies in France
Operator facts from the Airalo catalogue, read 28 September 2026. Rules and networks change — check the date before you rely on a line here.
The rule on this page: who it binds, and who it does not
France's identity rule binds operators, not travellers. Article L34-1 II bis of the Code des postes et des communications électroniques names its addressee in the opening words. «Les opérateurs de communications électroniques sont tenus de conserver»: operators are required to retain. That version has been in force since 15 June 2025 (legifrance.gouv.fr, read 8 September 2026). Article L32 15° defines an operator as a person running a public electronic communications network. The same definition covers a person supplying an electronic communications service to the public.
The penalty in the code keeps that addressee. Article L39-3 I 3° punishes an operator, or its staff, for failing to verify and retain civil identity data. The figure is one year of imprisonment and a €75,000 fine. That version is in force since 13 June 2026 (legifrance.gouv.fr, read 8 September 2026). The offence came in with article 29 of LOI n° 2025-532 of 13 June 2025. The same article extended the retention duty to prepaid interpersonal communications services (legifrance.gouv.fr, read 8 September 2026). The requirement is real, and on the way into the code it changed addressee and machinery. An operator verifies, and a décret en Conseil d'Etat sets the conditions. We read CPCE articles L32 to L40-1, L34-1 to L34-6, R10-12 to R10-22 and D98-3 to D98-14. No article we read there asks a traveller to register a line, and none punishes a user for an unregistered one.
What a tourist eSIM steps around, and where the line runs
Your roaming profile never reaches the hook this rule hangs on. Article R10-13 II defines the retained data by the moment it is collected. The user supplies it «lors de la souscription d'un contrat ou de la création d'un compte», on signing a contract or opening an account. That version is in force since 21 October 2021 (legifrance.gouv.fr, read 8 September 2026). Article L34-1 II bis 1° then counts five years of retention from the end of that contract. That figure sits in the 15 June 2025 version of L34-1 (legifrance.gouv.fr, read 8 September 2026). You hold neither contract nor account with a French operator, so the rule finds nothing to grip.
European roaming law shows the same shape from the other side. Regulation (EU) 2022/612, article 2 § 2, calls the French network the «réseau visité». It places the retail relationship with the roaming provider (eur-lex.europa.eu, read 8 September 2026). One limit belongs next to that sentence, because the regulation governs roaming inside the Union. The catalogue does not record whose network issues this profile (checked 8 September 2026). The line still runs at the counter. Walk into a French shop, sign a French prepaid contract, and the duty in L34-1 II bis 1° attaches to that operator.
What you get: a prepaid data profile, and the APN to type
You get a prepaid data profile sold under the name Élan (catalogue checked 8 September 2026). The catalogue records the plan type as data, and lists no phone number with it. Nothing in it promises calls or texts on this line (checked 8 September 2026). It records no identity check at purchase, which is what a law aimed at operators produces at the till. It names no French network for this profile, and we name none either.
The APN behaves differently on the two systems: iOS sets it automatically, and Android needs it typed by hand. The string is globalapnfr.com on both (catalogue checked 8 September 2026). **On Android, enter globalapnfr.com before you leave home.** A profile that installs cleanly can still move no data when that string is wrong. Better to find that out on your own sofa than in an arrivals hall.
Package shapes, and the wall your trip will hit
Two package shapes are sold, and they fail differently. Fixed data starts at 1 GB for 7 days at $3.99 (catalogue checked 8 September 2026). It ends at 20 GB for 30 days at $17.99 (catalogue checked 8 September 2026). Between those sit 2 GB for 15 days at $5.99, and 3 GB for 30 days at $5.99. Above them sit 5 GB for 30 days at $7.99, and 10 GB for 30 days at $11.99. Those four tiers were checked on 8 September 2026. Every fixed pack carries two limits at once, and whichever runs out first ends the plan.
Unlimited data is sold by day tier, where the calendar is the only wall. The tiers run 3, 5, 7, 10, 15 and 30 days (catalogue checked 8 September 2026). They are priced at $10.99, $14.99, $18.99, $23.99, $40.99 and $56.99 (catalogue checked 8 September 2026). A ten-day trip on a seven-day tier goes dark on the morning you need a boarding pass. Count the days from landing to departure, and treat that number as the floor.
The fork between the two shapes turns on how well you know your own use. A fixed pack asks you to predict gigabytes and days together, and it ends on whichever of the two you get wrong. **If your gigabytes are a guess, take the unlimited tier above your day count.** If they can be estimated, take the fixed tier above both that estimate and the dates.
When the day count starts, and what to do before you fly
The clock starts on first connection, not at checkout. The catalogue records activation as first usage, and an install window of 365 days (checked 8 September 2026). Installing early therefore costs no days, and it clears the one job you cannot do at the gate. **Install the profile at home, and leave the line switched off until you want it running.**
Everything fiddly is easier while wi-fi is still behind you. Install the profile, and name it so it is easy to find in a hurry. On Android, type the APN in at the same time. Leave the new line switched off, and leave the home SIM as it is. On a fixed-GB pack that discipline protects both counters at once, and on an unlimited day tier it pushes the whole window forward.
Landing day: switching the line on
Landing needs one deliberate action, and it takes about a minute. Open the phone's mobile data settings, select the France profile, and switch its data on. **Turn data roaming off on your home SIM at the same time, and leave that line enabled.** Bank codes and login texts keep arriving on the home number, and no data runs over it while roaming stays off.
A phone that shows no service after that has a short list of causes. Check that the France line is enabled, and selected for data rather than merely installed. On Android, check the APN reads globalapnfr.com exactly, with no stray character (catalogue checked 8 September 2026). Then switch flight mode on and off, let the phone search again, and restart the handset before trying anything larger.
Out of gigabytes: the top-up
The France plan is rechargeable (catalogue checked 8 September 2026). Top-ups are bought on your order page here, so there is no shop to find and no second profile to install. **Top up from the order page while there is still data to load it with.** Whether a top-up also extends the days on a package is not recorded in the catalogue, and we did not test it.
Reaching that page from inside France is itself protected. Regulation (EU) 2015/2120, article 3 § 1, gives end users a right to the applications and services of their choice. It was read on eur-lex.europa.eu on 8 September 2026. No act we read lets a French network cut you off from the store you bought from.
Coverage: what the catalogue names, and what it does not
This profile covers mainland France and Corsica, and stops there. The catalogue excludes the overseas territories: Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, French Guiana and Mayotte. It excludes Monaco too (checked 8 September 2026). **Buy a dedicated eSIM for any of those, as a separate line.** A Paris plan does not wake up in Fort-de-France.
The legal verdict on this page is a mainland verdict as well. R10-22 CPCE routes the overseas territories separately, and we did not read that route. The range itself was read on legifrance.gouv.fr on 8 September 2026. The catalogue names no network for France either, so coverage by region is not something this page can promise (checked 8 September 2026). The firm line is the plan's own boundary: mainland France and Corsica.
Two lines, and the handset in your pocket
France sets no limit on how many lines a traveller carries. Nothing in the CPCE articles listed earlier caps lines per person, or per passport. Article L33-1 opens on a regime of freedom for networks and services, not one of permits. That version is in force since 11 March 2023 (legifrance.gouv.fr, read 8 September 2026). ARCEP records that prior notification was abolished by ordonnance n° 2021-650 of 26 May 2021 (extranet.arcep.fr, read 8 September 2026).
Your handset needs no registration on arrival either. The only IMEI mechanism ARCEP publishes is the blocking of a stolen terminal, within 4 working days of an official theft declaration. The declaration is transmitted by police or gendarmerie (arcep.fr, read 8 September 2026). Calls over messengers carry no risk on this network. Regulation (EU) 2015/2120, article 3 § 3, makes providers treat all traffic equally, whatever application is used. It was read on eur-lex.europa.eu on 8 September 2026.
FAQ
Do you have to register a tourist eSIM in France?
Will anyone ask for your passport when you buy?
Can you make calls or send texts on this eSIM?
Which package should you buy for your trip?
What happens when your gigabytes run out?
Does this eSIM work in Monaco, Guadeloupe or Reunion?
When does your day count start?
Before you fly: the checklist
- Install the profile before you fly; the catalogue gives an install window of 365 days (checked 8 September 2026).
- On Android, enter the APN globalapnfr.com by hand; on iOS it is set automatically (catalogue checked 8 September 2026).
- Leave the line switched off until you want the clock running, because activation is on first usage (catalogue checked 8 September 2026).
- Count your days from landing to departure and take the tier above that number.
- On landing, switch data on for the France line and switch data roaming off on your home SIM.
- If the phone shows no service, check the France line is selected for data, re-check the Android APN, then restart the handset.
- Keep your home SIM enabled for calls and bank codes; this plan is recorded as data with no number (catalogue checked 8 September 2026).
- Buy a separate eSIM for Monaco or any overseas territory; this one covers mainland France and Corsica (catalogue checked 8 September 2026).
- Top up from your order page, before the counter reaches zero.
- Carry no paperwork for the eSIM: no article we read in the CPCE asks a traveller to register a line (read 8 September 2026).
Sources and freshness
CPCE, article L34-1 (in force since 15 June 2025, amended by LOI n° 2025-532 of 13 June 2025, art. 29) — retention duty on operators — the document, read 8 September 2026.
CPCE, article R10-13 (in force since 21 October 2021, Décret n° 2021-1361) — data given on signing a contract or opening an account — the document, read 8 September 2026.
LOI n° 2025-532 of 13 June 2025, article 29 — prepaid extension and the new offence — the document, read 8 September 2026.
CPCE, article L39-3 (in force since 13 June 2026) — one year and €75,000 for an operator that fails to verify — the document, read 8 September 2026.
CPCE, article L32 — definitions, including 15° Opérateur and 6° bis interpersonal communications service — the document, read 8 September 2026.
CPCE, article L33-1 (in force since 11 March 2023) — networks and services are free, subject to stated rules — the document, read 8 September 2026.
ARCEP extranet FAQ — prior declaration abolished by ordonnance n° 2021-650 of 26 May 2021; operator status follows actual activity — the document, read 8 September 2026.
ARCEP consumer sheet — stolen phone: terminal blocked within 4 working days of the official theft declaration — the document, read 8 September 2026.
Regulation (EU) 2022/612, article 2 § 2 — roaming provider, visited network, roaming customer — the document, read 8 September 2026.
Regulation (EU) 2015/2120, article 3 § 1 and § 3 — open internet, equal treatment of traffic — the document, read 8 September 2026.
Sénat, amendment n° 194 to the narcotrafficking bill — the seller-side wording absent from the promulgated text — the document, read 8 September 2026.
What we did not check: Whether the décret en Conseil d'Etat under L34-1 II bis 1° had been published by 8 September 2026: Légifrance still serves R10-13 in its 21 October 2021 version while L39-3 is marked in force since 13 June 2026, and we could not separate the two readings from primary sources. Senate amendment n° 194 to the same bill proposed a direct duty on prepaid sellers with a €15,000 fine, and that wording is absent from the promulgated article 29 (senat.fr, read 8 September 2026); we did not trace which secondary sources still repeat it. How retention rules apply in the overseas territories: R10-22 CPCE routes outre-mer separately and we did not read that route. Codes outside the CPCE, such as the Code de la sécurité intérieure and the Code des douanes, were not searched, so the findings of no line limit and no device registration rest on the CPCE ranges and ARCEP pages listed above. Non-EU roaming providers sit outside Regulation (EU) 2022/612, and the catalogue does not record whose network issues this profile, so we cite no text covering that case. Légifrance returns 403 to direct fetches, so every quote comes from its rendered official pages rather than a byte-level check against source HTML. Whether a top-up extends the days on a package, and which packages top-ups are sold in, are not recorded in the catalogue and we did not test them. We did not test the network in France and did not measure speed, and the catalogue names no French host network for this profile.