Philippines eSIM: buy online, QR by email
A Philippines eSIM installs before you fly and roams onto Smart's 5G network: QR by email, refund until activation, no counter and no passport.
12 plans for the Philippines, from 1 GB at $3.99 to 20 GB at $22.99, plus 6 unlimited-data tiers. 5 GB for 30 days costs $9.99 — 5th cheapest of 28 in Asia, against a $10.99 median. Our retail prices from the operator catalogue, checked 12 November 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 23¢ a day. The dearest per day is Unlimited for 3 days at $3.83. Per-day price is not the whole story: a 30-day plan bought for a 3-day trip pays for days you will not use, so compare the full price for your own dates.
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 Philippines
Operator facts from the Airalo catalogue, read 12 November 2026; the entry for Philippines has not changed since . Rules and networks change — check the date before you rely on a line here.
- iPhone with iOS 17.4 or later
- Android 10+ with Google services
Open the email with your QR code on the phone you are installing the eSIM on, and tap Install. The phone adds the profile itself: nothing to scan, nothing to type, no second screen. The same button is on your order page.
On Xiaomi, Redmi, POCO and phones without Google services, such as Huawei, the button does not work yet: install from the QR code or type the code in by hand — both are in the same email.
How one tap works on Android →A Philippines eSIM is a data profile you install before you fly. It roams onto Smart's 5G network, so nothing is bought at a counter. The QR code arrives by email. The plan's days start on first connection, not at purchase.
What you get: package structure on Smart’s network
An eSIM for the Philippines comes in two families on Smart's network. One is a fixed-GB tier, the other unlimited data, each in six steps. The plan cards above carry the current price; the tables here show what each package holds.
| Package | Data | Duration |
|---|---|---|
1 GB - 7 days | 1 GB | 7 days |
2 GB - 15 days | 2 GB | 15 days |
3 GB - 30 days | 3 GB | 30 days |
5 GB - 30 days | 5 GB | 30 days |
10 GB - 30 days | 10 GB | 30 days |
20 GB - 30 days | 20 GB | 30 days |
| Package | Data | Duration |
|---|---|---|
Unlimited - 3 days | Unlimited | 3 days |
Unlimited - 5 days | Unlimited | 5 days |
Unlimited - 7 days | Unlimited | 7 days |
Unlimited - 10 days | Unlimited | 10 days |
Unlimited - 15 days | Unlimited | 15 days |
Unlimited - 30 days | Unlimited | 30 days |
Source: Airalo catalog data, checked 13 August 2026. Both families run on Smart’s network. Coverage spans the main islands by the seller’s own description: Cebu, Bohol, Palawan and Boracay named directly, alongside Luzon (Airalo catalog data, checked 13 August 2026). This data-only eSIM activates on first use, not at purchase (Airalo catalog data, checked 13 August 2026). Installing the profile days ahead of the trip costs nothing.
Once installed, the profile stays installable for 365 days before it expires unused. A top-up bought within 90 days of the plan running out attaches to the same eSIM, rather than forcing a fresh install (Airalo catalog data, checked 13 August 2026). Airalo’s own listing for this eSIM carries no KYC check in the purchase flow — no ID upload on either side of the sale (Airalo catalog data, checked 13 August 2026). That’s the practical mirror of the passport-free purchase described above.
What a travel eSIM skips entirely
A travel eSIM for the Philippines roams onto Smart’s network instead of being bought from it. RA 11934 counts eSIMs as SIMs (Section 3(f)), and Section 4 has end-users register their SIMs with PTEs, the public telecommunications entities that Section 3 defines by reference to RA 7925. The Act states no exception for inbound roamers, and its end-user definition reaches anyone who buys a SIM from the PTEs, “its agents, resellers or any entity”. On our reading, a foreign issuer of a roaming profile is not a PTE, so the foreign-national paperwork does not reach this eSIM; that is this page’s interpretation, not the Act’s words.
There’s no counter to stand at, no passport handed across it, no proof of a Philippine address to produce, and no return ticket shown as ID for the purchase. The registration the law describes is a condition of buying a line directly from a Philippine operator. A roaming profile bought before you fly was never that purchase. Immigration may still ask for a return ticket at the border. That’s a separate check, unrelated to SIM registration, and it applies no matter what connects your phone.
Arrival: Manila, Cebu, Clark — when the plan clock starts
The plan clock starts on first use, wherever you land. That covers Ninoy Aquino International in Manila, Mactan-Cebu International, and Clark International north of the capital — the Philippines' three main international gateways. Install the eSIM profile before you fly, on a working connection. An arrivals hall, with a data-only phone and no local line yet, is the wrong moment to be scanning a QR code.
Confirm the profile shows as installed before boarding. Then leave data roaming off until you land. Turning it on early does nothing but risk a charge on the wrong line, if your phone is still reaching for a home-network tower.
A profile that shows installed but carries no signal at the gate is normal, not a fault. It starts counting only once it actually reaches a Smart tower, which can take a minute or two in a crowded arrivals hall.
Coverage across the islands: where it holds, where it drops
Smart’s network covers the islands Airalo names in its own listing — Luzon, Cebu, Bohol, Palawan and Boracay — on the same towers a local Smart subscriber uses. Coverage follows land, and the Philippines is an archipelago. Crossing between islands by ferry moves you out of tower range for some or all of the crossing, the same gap a local subscriber on the same boat hits.
A Cebu-to-Bohol ferry, or any of the interisland routes through the Visayas, will drop signal mid-channel. It returns once the boat is close enough to the next island’s towers.
Mountainous and rural interior provinces see weaker 4G than the coastal cities and resort towns. That’s standard across Philippine telecom coverage reporting generally. This page holds no dated, route-specific measurement for how an Airalo eSIM performs on any one inland leg. Treat a rural or mountain itinerary as an open question, and check Smart’s own coverage map before relying on it.
Typhoon season runs roughly June through November, peaking August to October. Severe storms have taken down mobile networks region-wide before. Typhoon Rai, known locally as Odette, cut power and phone service across large parts of the Visayas and Mindanao for weeks after making landfall in December 2021 — widely reported at the time. A travel eSIM roaming on Smart’s towers goes dark exactly when those towers do. The storm is the point of failure, not the eSIM or the network technology underneath it.
Dual SIM and the data-only profile: no phone number attached
An Airalo Philippines eSIM carries no phone number, no SMS, and no calling minutes of its own. It’s data only, over Smart’s network (Airalo catalog data, checked 13 August 2026). Anything that verifies you by text to a Philippine number sits outside what this product does. So does a service that needs a local mobile number tied to it. Either one needs a local SIM, with its own registration under RA 11934.
Running it alongside a second line works on any phone built for dual SIM — a physical SIM plus an eSIM, or two active eSIMs on a handset that supports it. Set the Philippines eSIM as the data line. Turn off cellular data, not the whole line, on the home SIM. That stops an app quietly pulling data over a roaming connection at home-carrier rates. Calls and texts on the home line still run at the home carrier’s own roaming rates while you’re in the Philippines — a separate cost, set by that carrier, unrelated to Airalo or to RA 11934. Some phones store several eSIM profiles but keep only one or two active at once. Check that limit under the phone’s own SIM settings before assuming a stored profile switches on by itself.
The rule this page is about: who may buy a line, not what phone you carry
The Philippines does not tax or block your handset. It restricts who may walk up to a counter and buy a Philippine SIM — and what they have to show to do it.
Republic Act No. 11934, the SIM Registration Act, was approved 10 October 2022. It governs who may buy a line, not what phone carries it. For a foreign national, the law names four items to record: full name, nationality, passport number, and address in the Philippines (RA 11934, read 20 October 2026). A tourist — a temporary visitor under Section 9(a) of Commonwealth Act No. 613 — backs that up with three documents listed in RA 11934 itself: a passport, proof of an address in the Philippines, and a return ticket showing the date and time of departure. Skip registration and the line goes dark on its own. Turning it back on needs the paperwork, not a fine. Turkey runs a comparable in-person, passport-bound counter process for its own tourist SIM, though the documents differ.
That makes the Philippines a different trap from Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal and Egypt. There, the risk sits with the handset — a duty, a tax, an IMEI clock. Here it sits with the line.
The “30 days” comes from the law itself
RA 11934 sets the tourist SIM’s validity itself. Section 5 reads: “The SIMs that are registered under Subsection e(1) shall only be valid temporarily for thirty (30) days, and shall automatically be deactivated upon expiration of the validity of the SIM.” Subsection e(1) is the tourist case. What the statute does not set is a limit on how many lines one person may register (RA 11934, read 20 October 2026).
Operator help pages repeat the statute’s number. Globe’s gave the same 30 days when checked on 13 August 2026. Smart’s states that SIM cards registered for tourists “are valid for only 30 days and will be automatically deactivated after this period”, and that keeping the line longer needs an approved visa extension (blog.smart.com.ph, published 12 May 2023, read 20 October 2026). A 90-day figure for TNT circulates in secondary sources; TNT is a Smart brand bound by the same Section 5, and we found no TNT page confirming it.
Google’s AI Overview for this exact question gives a flat 30 days, sourced to Reddit, Globe and Smart (Google results snapshot, fetched 10 August 2026). The number is right, and its real source is Section 5 of RA 11934. Only a per-person line limit, where an operator sets one, is a commercial rule rather than a legal one.
FAQ
How does the eSIM arrive, and how fast?
Will it work on my phone?
Can I get a refund?
Can foreigners register a Philippine SIM?
Do I need to register my SIM card in the Philippines?
Can tourists buy SIM cards in the Philippines?
How long is a tourist SIM valid in the Philippines?
Does a Philippines travel eSIM need to register under RA 11934?
What is the disadvantage of eSIM?
Before you fly: the checklist
- Confirm your phone is eSIM-capable and carrier-unlocked before you leave.
- Install the Philippines eSIM profile at home on a working connection, and confirm it shows as installed.
- Leave activation for arrival — the clock starts on first use, not on purchase.
- Running dual SIM: set the Philippines eSIM as the data line, and turn off cellular data on the home line.
- Buying a physical Philippine SIM instead of an eSIM: bring a passport, proof of a Philippine address, and a return ticket to the counter. RA 11934 requires all three.
- An eSIM for the Philippines skips that paperwork entirely; it roams onto Smart’s network rather than being bought from it.
Sources and freshness
Checked against Republic Act 11934’s full text (read 20 October 2026), Globe’s and Smart’s own tourist SIM registration pages, and Airalo’s Philippines catalog data: 13 August 2026. The 30-day tourist validity is statutory; only an amendment to RA 11934 changes it. Re-read on 22 October 2026: the Official Gazette refused access, so an archived copy of the Act’s PDF was read; the roaming conclusion is now marked as our reading, and the FAQ’s reading date now matches the body. A 90-day figure for TNT circulates in secondary sources and is not confirmed by any TNT page we found.
Sources cited only — expert review pending. For individualized advice, consult a licensed professional.