Data IndexA quarterly view of travel eSIMs.
DriftAsia’s research and data programme: quarterly market reports, specialised studies and public methods. Current edition: Q4 2026.
Median of 12 destination competitor medians, USD/GB.
Median of 12 destination competitor medians, USD/GB.
Asia and Middle East panel; equal destination weight.
DriftAsia is excluded from competitor medians.
The current edition: Q4 2026
Read the external market first: two primary volume bands, a fixed 12-destination panel and ten competing providers. Understand where destination prices differ, which provider comparisons have limited coverage, and how the own brand sits against the market.
One region, different destination medians
Compare the two main volume bands country by country. These prices describe the external competitive panel; DriftAsia is excluded from the medians.
Common scale: $0 to $2.50 per GB
- China
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Malaysia
- Philippines
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Thailand
- United Arab Emirates
Thailand eSIM field campaign
108 valid tests across 16 locations. Start with the six-provider speed comparison, then explore installation, validity and customer support.
Speed & networks
Speed, latency and Thai networks, compared across six common locations.
Read the study →
eSIM support
What five support teams said about top-ups and Internet routing.
Read the study →
Real-world validity
A two-day timeline separates installation, validity and first data use.
Read the study →
Purchase & installation
Five September purchases, with the current DriftAsia flow kept separate.
Read the study →Research behind the programme
eSIM Price per GB · Q4 2026
Frozen USD benchmark, coverage, destination comparisons and offer-selection limits.
Specialised connectivity research
Latency, internet disruptions, unlimited-plan conditions and eSIM compatibility.
Public inputs, explicit limits
Inspect the benchmark dataset and the V2 method before reusing any figure.
Methodology in brief
The V2 methodology is designed to select the cheapest eligible publicly payable offer per provider × destination × tier. Price per GB is payable price ÷ actual delivered GB; an external competitor median is calculated for each destination. Own brands are excluded. Regional brand gaps receive equal destination weight.
Primary tiers are 10–<20 GB and 20–<50 GB. The 50–100 GB tier is secondary. Minimum external competitor counts are seven for the primary tiers and four for 50 GB; an eligible own-brand offer is required for a brand gap.
Q4 is a validated aggregated benchmark. Individual offer selection cannot be independently re-audited from the frozen snapshot alone. The published aggregate calculations remain inspectable in the regional dataset.
Read the V2 method and Q4 audit limits →Data and downloads
The public regional dataset exposes the frozen validated aggregates, provider coverage, method, provenance and Q4 limitations. All benchmark prices and price-per-GB values are in USD. CSV contains the 36 destination × tier aggregate rows; it is not an offer-level catalogue.
Limitations and transparency
Q4 2026 is published from the frozen validated benchmark dataset used for this edition. The methodology is designed to select the lowest-priced eligible public offer for each provider, destination and tier. However, the frozen Q4 snapshot does not retain plan names, source URLs or duration metadata for every observation, so that offer-level selection cannot be independently re-audited from the published snapshot alone.
This limitation applies to the auditability of individual offer selection, not to the published aggregate calculations derived from the frozen Q4 dataset.
Unknown remains unknown. This edition does not demonstrate a universal validity of at least 30 days. Plan names, duration, source URLs and provider-specific collection timestamps cannot be supplied where the frozen data does not retain them.
The 12-destination panel does not represent every country, offer or service. Duration, networks, speed, support and conditions may differ. Prices can change after the snapshot date; this benchmark is not a live offer catalogue or a measure of network quality.
Q4 2026 is the first official V2 baseline. Trend status: INSUFFICIENT_HISTORY. No Q3-to-Q4 comparison or reconstructed V1/V2 trend is published. Q1 2027 is the first possible QoQ comparison, subject to a valid comparable dataset.