eSIM Bulgaria
Bulgaria eSIM from 1,95€ 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.
The Simbye eSIM uses 3 networks in Bulgaria: A1 · Vivacom · Yettel.
Source: nPerf averages, 01.01.2025 – 31.12.2025.
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?
The eSIM is the simpler route in Bulgaria — it installs at home and needs no registration, whereas every Bulgarian prepaid card is tied to a passport at the counter, often with the forms only in Bulgarian.
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.
How much data do you need in Bulgaria?
So you can work it out instead of guessing: how much an hour costs in the apps you actually use on holiday.
Just staying reachable
1–3 GB
Messages, the map now and then, checking mail. Everything else runs on the hotel Wi-Fi.
An ordinary holiday
5–10 GB
Navigating, social media, uploading photos, a few videos in the evening.
Out a lot, or a laptop along
20 GB and up
Streaming in the evening, video calls home, keeping a laptop or tablet online through your phone.
Data used per hour
The Netflix and Spotify figures come from the providers themselves (Netflix Help Center, Spotify Support, retrieved 28 Aug 2026). The rest are network-operator estimates (o2, Vodafone, EE) and vary with picture quality and reception.
What does an eSIM for Bulgaria cost?
Simbye offers 9 plans for Bulgaria from €1,95 to €46,95 — data packs from €1,95, unlimited from €18,95. Prepaid, no contract.
Plans for Bulgaria range from 1 GB to 50 GB, plus unlimited options.
Validity runs from 7 to 180 days and starts with your first connection in Bulgaria.
| Plan | Validity | Price | Per travel day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | 7 days | €1,95 | €0,27 |
| 3 GB | 30 days | €3,95 | €0,13 |
| 5 GB | 30 days | €5,95 | €0,19 |
| 10 GB | 30 days | €11,95 | €0,39 |
| 20 GB | 30 days | €17,95 | €0,59 |
| Unlimited | 7 days | €18,95 | — |
| Unlimited | 15 days | €32,95 | — |
| 50 GB | 180 days | €37,95 | €0,21 |
| Unlimited | 30 days | €46,95 | — |
- Networks
- A1 + Vivacom + Yettel
- 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.
