Roaming in the USA: Three, giffgaff, EE, O2 and more

Most UK mobile plans don't include the USA. On Three Your Way, using your phone there starts a daily roaming charge of £8, £7 if you joined or upgraded between 1 October 2021 and 17 December 2025, or £5 on a 24-month SIM Only Lite plan, unless you're on Complete. A 7-day Go Roam Around the World pass costs £30. Three Pay As You Go includes the USA, while giffgaff plans don't work there: you pay 20p per MB from your credit or buy a USA travel data add-on (as of 26 October 2026).

Does your UK plan include the USA?

Few plans include the USA at no extra cost (as of 26 October 2026, Three, EE, O2, Vodafone):

• Three Your Way Complete (joined or upgraded from 22 June 2025): up to 12GB a month. The other Three Your Way plans don't include the USA (Value covers Europe only).
• Three Pay As You Go: your credit, or part of your Data Pack or add-on allowance.
• EE Full Works, Full Works for iPhone and Full Works Plus: fair use of 50GB outside the UK.
• O2 Plus Plan with the O2 Travel Inclusive Zone (phone plans and 12- or 24-month SIM Only, not 30-day SIM Only) and O2 Ultimate.
• Vodafone Mobile 30GB, 100GB and Unlimited Premier, and the SuperMobile Premier plans: up to 25GB a month.

Three roaming in the USA

The USA is a Go Roam Around the World destination. What you pay depends on your plan and on when you joined or upgraded (as of 26 October 2026, Three price guide, roaming abroad).

Three Your Way: £8, £7 or £5 a day, unless you're on Complete

Three Your Way Complete includes the USA, like every Go Roam destination, within a fair use limit of 12GB a month. Above 12GB, if you still have UK data left, Three adds a surcharge of 0.3p per MB. This applies if you joined or upgraded from 22 June 2025. Before that, Complete plans came with 28 or 56 Daily Go Roam passes, depending on contract length (Three Your Way).

On other Three Your Way plans, except the 24-month SIM Only Lite plans below, the daily roaming charge is £8. Three applies it automatically the first time you use your UK allowance in the USA (a call, a text or any data), and it unlocks your UK minutes, texts and data for 24 hours. This is the rate for plans taken out or upgraded on or after 18 December 2025, charged since 1 April 2026. If you joined between 1 October 2021 and 17 December 2025, your daily rate is lower: £7 in the USA. If you joined before October 2021, Three lists your roaming charges in its older price guides (Go Roam, roaming abroad).

Three SIM Only Lite: £5 a day

Three's 24-month SIM Only Lite plans with 25GB or 120GB, taken from 1 June 2025, are Three Your Way Lite plans. Their daily charge in the USA is £5, it works the same way, and Three says it won't rise each April.

Go Roam passes and Data Travel Passes

On every Three Your Way plan, you can buy the same passes for the USA. A Go Roam Around the World pass lets you use your UK allowance: £12.50 for 3 days, £30 for 7 days, £60 for 14 days. It starts the first time you use your allowance in a Go Roam destination. A Worldwide Data Travel Pass gives you separate data instead: 18GB for 7 days at £26, or 40GB for 14 days at £54 (as of 26 October 2026). You can buy more than one pass of any length; Three uses them in the order you bought them.

At £8 a day, the 7-day pass at £30 costs far less than seven daily charges (£56). At £7 or £5 a day the gap is smaller (£49 or £35). The Data Travel Pass is the cheapest week if 18GB is enough and you mostly need data. Go Roam Around the World Extra passes (from £17.50 for 3 days) also work, but only pay off if your trip also takes in an Extra destination such as Japan.

Three Pay As You Go: the USA is included

On Three Pay As You Go there's no daily charge. In the USA you use your credit at standard rates (35p a minute, 15p a text, 10p per MB) or part of your Data Pack each month at no extra cost. The roaming share is 6GB of the 40GB pack (£10), 12GB of the 100GB pack (£15), 18GB of the 200GB pack (£20) and 30GB a month on Unlimited (£35, or £90 for 3 months). If that isn't enough, the 1 Day Data Add-on gives you 5GB in Go Roam destinations for £5 and the 14 Day Data Add-on 18GB for £20. You need an active Data Pack to add one (as of 26 October 2026, Three Pay As You Go price guide, roaming on Pay As You Go).

Three's data roaming limit

Three sets a worldwide data roaming limit of £45 excluding VAT (£54 including VAT) a month, on Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go. Three Customer Services can change or remove it (your data roaming limit).

giffgaff in the USA

giffgaff classes the USA as Rest of the World, and your giffgaff plan doesn't work there. Instead, you pay from your credit (giffgaff help). Without an add-on, giffgaff charges its Rest of the World rate of 20p per MB, though it says rates can differ by destination (giffgaff rates, add-ons, as of 26 October 2026).

For data, giffgaff sells travel data add-ons for 23 destinations outside the EU, the USA among them. The USA add-on doesn't cover Alaska or Hawaii. Each add-on is valid for 30 days from the day you buy it, and you can buy as many as you need. Outside the EU you need one add-on per country. Add-ons are sold only in the giffgaff app, which shows the price (travel data add-ons).

giffgaff's credit spend cap stops you spending more than £45 on credit in a month, but it's off by default. Turn it on before you fly (credit spend cap).

Roaming in the USA: every UK network compared

Prices including VAT (as of 26 October 2026). Sources: Three, Three Pay As You Go, EE, EE Pay As You Go, Vodafone, Vodafone Pay as you go, O2, O2 Travel, O2 Pay As You Go, Tesco Mobile, Sky Mobile, iD Mobile, SMARTY, VOXI, Lyca Mobile, giffgaff, giffgaff add-ons.

Roaming or eSIM: what will your USA trip cost?

The calculator asks whether roaming in the United States is already included in your plan. Answer “Yes” only if your allowance and fair use limit cover the whole trip: it then shows no cost. Answer “Not sure” and it calculates as if the USA isn't included, and names your network's plans that include it, such as Three Your Way Complete. Three appears three times: pick the entry for when you joined or upgraded, or SIM Only Lite. For Three Pay As You Go it doesn't ask: it shows you're covered.

For passes and daily charges that use your UK allowance (Three, EE, Vodafone, Sky), it reminds you that your allowance applies. It adds more passes only where the network confirms you can buy them again, as with Three or O2. Lyca Mobile Pay As You Go allows 5 purchases of each USA add-on in 30 days, and the calculator says so when that falls short. Where the network doesn't say (EE Pay As You Go, iD Mobile, Lyca Mobile Pay Monthly), it counts one per period and shows “Not enough data for your trip” if that falls short. Without a pass, it uses the per-MB rate, shown as “More than £500” above that amount.

The other networks in brief

EE: without a pass there's no data in the USA. The Roaming Pass costs £6 for 24 hours, £30 for 7 days or £50 for 15 days, and you can only buy it once you've arrived (EE price guide).

O2: without a Bolt On, O2 stops your data abroad and you pay nothing. Data Roaming Bolt Ons cost £6 for 1GB, £13 for 3GB or £18 for 5GB. O2 Travel, once you've added it (text TRAVEL to 23336), costs £7 a day on the days you make a call, send a text or use data (Bolt Ons, O2 Travel).

Vodafone: see our guide to Vodafone roaming in the USA.

Sky Mobile: Roaming Passport Plus costs £2 per 24 hours and starts automatically when you make a call, send a text or use more than 10MB of data in a day. Sky also caps data roaming spend at £45 a month, and you can remove the cap at sky.com/settings (Sky price guide, Roaming Passport Plus). Sky VIP Diamond customers get Free Global Roaming in the USA instead (Free Global Roaming).

When an eSIM makes sense for the USA, and when it doesn't

An eSIM is usually worth it in these cases:

• You're on Three Your Way without Complete and staying more than a week: 14 daily charges at £8 cost £112, the 14-day pass £60.
• You're on O2 Pay As You Go (£7.20 per MB, no add-on) or EE Pay As You Go (900MB for £52.25).
• You're with giffgaff: your plan doesn't work in the USA, so compare the add-on price with an eSIM.

Our eSIM for the United States is data only, with no local number, so your UK number stays on your SIM. You install it before you fly, and it activates when you arrive. You can get a refund within 14 days if it hasn't been activated, and every purchase earns 4% cashback in SimCoins. You need an eSIM-compatible phone.

With the eSIM set for mobile data, turn off data roaming on your UK line. On Three, Vodafone or Sky, a call or text from your UK number still starts the daily charge. WhatsApp and FaceTime calls use the eSIM's data instead.

You don't need an eSIM from us if:

• Your plan includes the USA and its fair use limit covers your trip, such as Three Your Way Complete or EE Full Works.
• You're on Three Pay As You Go and your Data Pack's roaming share covers your trip, or on Tesco Mobile using little data (1p per MB).
• You need a US phone number: our eSIM is data only.
• Your phone doesn't support eSIM or is locked to your network.

Best eSIM for the USA — eSIM providers for the USA side by side

Before you fly: step by step

1. Check in your network's app whether your plan includes the USA.
2. On Three, buy your pass before you first use your phone in the USA. On EE, you buy it after you land. On giffgaff, buy the USA add-on in the app and turn on the credit spend cap.
3. Or install the eSIM at home over Wi-Fi by scanning its QR code.
4. When you land, choose the eSIM for mobile data and turn on data roaming for the eSIM only.
5. With no pass and no eSIM, turn off data roaming and use Wi-Fi.

Vodafone roaming in the USA — the £8 daily charge, Premier plans and Pay as you go Extras

Best eSIM for North America — if your trip also takes in Canada or Mexico