eSIM Bulgaria
Bulgaria eSIM on the A1, Vivacom and Yettel networks, 1 to 50 GB or unlimited, prepaid without a contract or registration – online by QR code the moment you land in Sofia or Burgas.
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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 Bulgaria?
Get connected in under 2 minutes
Set it up at home
The eSIM arrives by email. Install it while you are still on Wi-Fi, using the link or the QR code. Nothing starts yet: validity begins with your first connection in Bulgaria.
Switch it on after landing
Whether you arrive at Sofia (SOF), Burgas (BOJ), Varna (VAR) or Plovdiv (PDV): airplane mode off, data roaming on for the new line, wait a moment. Your phone finds A1, Vivacom or Yettel by itself. There is no APN to enter.
Browse and top up
Browse, navigate and share by hotspot; you can see your usage in the Simbye app. When data runs low you top up right there – same eSIM, no new QR code.
Check Device Compatibility
Make sure your device supports eSIM before purchasing
Which networks will you be on in Bulgaria?
You never pick a network – in Bulgaria your phone books itself onto A1, Vivacom or Yettel on its own.
Average measured mobile internet performance, nPerf barometer (measured 01.01.2025–31.12.2025). What you actually get depends on where you are, the time of day and your phone.
You never choose a network. Once you have arrived in Bulgaria and switched on data roaming for the Simbye line, your phone connects to one of the three networks by itself – A1, Vivacom or Yettel – and can switch again on the road. There is no APN to type in anywhere. Only if one spot keeps failing is it worth going into settings once and picking one of the three by hand.
All three are nationwide networks. In Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas and Ruse, along the Black Sea coast from Albena through Golden Sands and Nessebar down to Sozopol, and in the ski towns of Bansko, Borovets and Pamporovo you normally get solid 4G, and 5G in the bigger cities. Coming in by road you are online from the border: at Kapitan Andreevo opposite Kapıkule, at the Danube Bridge at Ruse and at Kulata towards Greece. On the Trakia motorway (Sofia–Burgas), the Hemus (Sofia–Varna) and the Struma you stay online almost the whole way. It only thins out in the mountains and in small villages – more on that below.
eSIM or a local SIM card in Bulgaria?
| Compared | Simbye eSIM | Local SIM card |
|---|---|---|
| ID required | No, you buy online and install it yourself | Yes, Bulgaria registers every prepaid card against a passport or ID card |
| When you are online | Right after arrival, because you set it up at home | Only after finding a shop, queuing and registering at the counter |
| Where you get it | Email with a link and a QR code | A1, Vivacom or Yettel shop, kiosk or electronics store |
| Language at purchase | English, everything settled beforehand | Often Bulgarian only at the counter, forms in Bulgarian |
| Payment | Online in advance, in your own currency | On the spot in euros – Bulgaria replaced the lev in January 2026 |
| Phone number | None, data only, no calls and no SMS | Bulgarian +359 number with calls and SMS |
| Topping up | Any time in the app, same eSIM | Voucher from a kiosk or the operator app in Bulgarian |
| Your existing SIM | Stays active, people still reach you on your number | Has to come out, nobody at home can reach you |
What roaming on your own contract really costs in Bulgaria
What you pay for data in Bulgaria depends entirely on your home provider and your tariff, and the range is huge. Plenty of contracts bill abroad per megabyte. Where an allowance is included at all, it is usually capped, and the cap often sits far below what a trip actually burns: maps running all day, photos into the family group, video calls home, a series on the balcony in the evening. Prepaid tariffs frequently carry only a few hundred megabytes for use abroad. And you cannot watch the meter running – the bill turns up weeks later.
A separate prepaid line takes the guesswork out. You pay once for a fixed amount of data, there is no contract behind it and nothing to cancel; when the trip ends, the plan ends. Your usual SIM stays switched on the whole time, so people still reach you on your own number while the Bulgarian data runs on the second line. Whether you drive in from Turkey, Serbia or Romania or fly in from further away, you know the number before you leave instead of arguing about a bill afterwards.
How far the three Bulgarian networks actually reach
Coverage is dense in the cities: Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Ruse, Stara Zagora and Veliko Tarnovo. Along the Trakia motorway between Sofia and Burgas, the Hemus between Sofia and Varna and the Struma down towards Kulata and the Greek border you stay online almost the whole way, and the same goes for the road in from Kapitan Andreevo. On the Black Sea coast – Albena, Golden Sands, Nessebar, Sveti Vlas, Sunny Beach, Sozopol – there are plenty of masts, but at the height of summer a great many people share the same cell in the evenings, and it can crawl.
It thins out as soon as you leave the main roads. On the hike to the Seven Rila Lakes, in the Pirin mountains above Bansko, on the paths across Vitosha near Sofia, at the Belogradchik rocks and in many Rhodope villages the signal drops out completely for stretches. The same goes for the Danube plain away from Ruse and Vidin. Plan for it: download the offline map beforehand, screenshot addresses and tickets, and do not count on an internet call from a summit.
Bulgaria registers every prepaid card – your eSIM is not affected
In Bulgaria every prepaid card is tied to a person. In an A1, Vivacom or Yettel shop you hand over your passport or ID card and your details are recorded; without that there is no card. At the airport and in small kiosks this eats time, and the forms are usually in Bulgarian.
Your Simbye eSIM is a roaming line on those same three networks. You sign up for nothing and show no ID. The honest trade-off: you also get no Bulgarian phone number. Anything that sends an SMS code to a +359 number – paying for parking by text to 1302 and 1303, some local apps – will not work. For those you need either a real Bulgarian card or an app that takes card payment, such as URBO City.
Your eSIM in Bulgaria at a glance
- Networks
- A1 Bulgaria + Vivacom Bulgaria + Yettel Bulgaria
- 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 Bulgaria eSIM
Data, calls, real phone numbers, top-ups and setup — everything you need to know before you buy a Simbye eSIM.
