eSIM Austria
Austria eSIM on the A1, Magenta and Drei networks, from 1 to 50 GB or unlimited, prepaid with no contract and no registration – you are online the moment you land at Vienna Airport.
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2GB highspeed/day, then unlimited at 1Mbps
Your Selection
Your plan only starts counting when the eSIM first connects at your destination — so you can buy today and travel in three weeks.
How does Simbye eSIM work for Austria?
Get connected in under 2 minutes
Set it up before you fly
You buy the eSIM, get the email and set everything up at home on Wi-Fi – one tap on the link or the QR code from the mail. The clock does not start there: it starts when the eSIM first connects in Austria.
Switch it on after you arrive
Whether you land at Vienna-Schwechat, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz, Linz or Klagenfurt, or arrive by train via Salzburg or Kufstein: airplane mode off, set mobile data to the Simbye line and switch data roaming on for it. One or two minutes later you are on one of the three networks.
Keep an eye on your data
You can see your usage any time in the app or on your order page. When it runs low, you top up in seconds – same eSIM, nothing to reinstall. Using the hotspot for a laptop, tablet or a travel companion's phone is allowed.
Check Device Compatibility
Make sure your device supports eSIM before purchasing
Which networks will you be on in Austria?
Your eSIM picks the Austrian network on its own – nothing to set up, no operator to choose.
Average measured mobile internet performance, nPerf barometer (measured 01.04.2025 – 31.03.2026). What you actually get depends on where you are, the time of day and your phone.
Austria has three networks of its own: A1, Magenta (formerly T-Mobile Austria) and Drei. Your eSIM can use all three. After you land, your phone picks the one with the best signal by itself and switches again later if another one fits better. There is nothing to enter and nothing to choose. Only if reception is odd in one spot can you go into your settings and try one of the three networks manually.
In the cities – Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Villach and Bregenz – at Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck airports and along the motorways and main rail lines, coverage is dense, 5G included. In the tourist regions of Tyrol, in Salzburger Land, in Carinthia around Lake Wörthersee and in Styria near Schladming you are fine in the villages and at the lifts. Narrow side valleys, high alpine terrain in the Hohe Tauern and hiking trails away from the lifts are the exception: there the signal is weak or simply absent.
eSIM or a local SIM card in Austria?
| Compared | Simbye eSIM | Local SIM card |
|---|---|---|
| ID required? | No. You buy online and you are done in minutes. | Yes. Austrian prepaid cards have had to be registered since 2019 – with ID in the shop, by post ident or by video identification. |
| When do you have internet? | Set up by QR code before you fly, live on the first connection in Austria. | Only once you have found a tobacconist, a shop or a vending machine – after a late flight, possibly not until the next day. |
| What do you pay? | A fixed amount up front, no bill afterwards. | Starter pack plus credit. Whatever you do not use is gone on departure day. |
| Phone number | None. Data only, no calls and no SMS over the network. | An Austrian +43 number, with calls and SMS depending on the plan. |
| Keep your own line? | Yes. Your usual number stays active and the eSIM runs alongside it as a second line. | Only with two SIM slots, otherwise you have to take your own card out. |
| Language when buying | German or English, calmly from home. | German is spoken in the shop. English usually works in Vienna, in smaller towns not always. |
| Topping up | Any time from the app, on the slopes or on the Railjet. | Buy a credit voucher at a petrol station, a tobacconist or a supermarket. |
| If something goes wrong | Email support, replacement link and QR code within a few hours. | Back to the shop, and only during opening hours – on Sundays almost everything in Austria is closed. |
Why roaming on your home contract gets expensive in Austria
Roaming is the expensive, opaque option. Many home plans bill a day pass for every day you are abroad, others charge per megabyte, and almost none tell you where you stand while you travel – you find out on the invoice. Travellers from Turkey, the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Balkans, the Gulf states and Asia all run into the same thing in Austria: the line works, but every look at the map costs.
Even plans that simply keep running abroad almost always cap how much data you may use outside your home country. Two weeks of navigating, uploading photos and hanging a laptop off the hotspot every evening gets you there faster than you would think – and past that cap each gigabyte is billed separately.
The second reason has nothing to do with roaming. Since 2019 an Austrian prepaid card only comes with registration and an ID check. If you would rather skip that, if you need a clean second line for a work phone, or if you simply run out of data on day ten, you buy data here prepaid and are done in a few minutes. And we will say just as plainly what you do not get: no Austrian phone number, no SMS, no calls over the network.
Where the networks actually reach
In Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Villach and Bregenz you will barely notice a difference between A1, Magenta and Drei. 4G is practically everywhere, 5G in the cities and along the main corridors: the West motorway Vienna–Linz–Salzburg, the South and Tauern motorways, the Inn valley and Brenner routes. On the train between Vienna and Salzburg you have signal almost the whole way – in long tunnels such as the Arlberg or under the Tauern the connection can drop.
It gets more interesting in the mountains. In the big ski areas – Sölden, Ischgl, St. Anton, Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Zell am See-Kaprun, Schladming, Kitzbühel, Nassfeld – coverage is dense, because tens of thousands of people are out there at once in winter. A1 traditionally covers the most ground and reaches furthest into the side valleys.
It thins out where hardly anyone lives: the far ends of the Ötztal, the Lechtal or the Defereggental, the Hohe Tauern away from the roads, hiking trails with no lift beside them. At many mountain huts you have no signal at all, and no eSIM changes that. Download your map, your ticket and your route plan before you set off.
Registration duty: it applies to the prepaid card in the shop, not to your eSIM
In Austria, prepaid cards have had to be registered to a person since 1 September 2019. If you pick up a card at a tobacconist or a petrol station, you then have to identify yourself – in a shop, by post ident or by video identification. Without that registration the card gets switched off.
Our eSIM is not an Austrian prepaid card; it connects as a guest to the A1, Magenta and Drei networks. That is why the registration does not apply: buy it, set it up by QR code, go online. And we will name the trade-off plainly – you get no Austrian phone number, you cannot receive SMS and you cannot make calls over the network. If you genuinely need your own +43 number, for a local service or an official errand, there is no way around a registered prepaid card.
Your eSIM in Austria at a glance
- Networks
- A1 Austria + T-Mobile Austria (Magenta) + H3G Austria (Drei)
- Setting it up
- A link in your email, or the QR code — one tap is enough
- Network technology
- 4G/LTE — and 5G where the network already offers it
- APN and settings
- Nothing to set. The eSIM brings everything with it
- Hotspot
- Allowed — for a laptop, tablet or a travel companion
- Adding more data
- Top up any time, without setting anything up again
- Calls and texts
- Not included — WhatsApp calls run over the data
- Your own number
- Stays in the phone and stays reachable
- Contract
- None. The plan ends by itself
- Worth knowing
- Prepaid instead of a contract — useful as a second line, or when your own data allowance is used up
Frequently Asked Questions about Austria eSIM
Data, calls, real phone numbers, top-ups and setup — everything you need to know before you buy a Simbye eSIM.
