Germany eSIM
The Germany eSIM runs on Telekom, Vodafone and O2, with 1 to 50 GB or unlimited internet, prepaid with no contract and no registration — land in Frankfurt, switch on, you're online.
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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 Germany?
Get connected in under 2 minutes
Set it up before you fly
Buy the eSIM at home while you're still on Wi-Fi. The email arrives within minutes and contains a link that installs the eSIM in one step, plus a QR code and the details to type in by hand if you prefer. There is nothing to configure yourself.
Land and switch on data roaming
Whether you arrive at Frankfurt (FRA), Munich (MUC), Berlin Brandenburg (BER), Düsseldorf (DUS), Hamburg (HAM), Cologne/Bonn (CGN) or Stuttgart (STR): airplane mode off, pick the new line as your data connection in settings and turn on data roaming for it. The line carries the German network operator's name, not the shop's name. You'll be connected within a minute or two.
Use it, top it up when it runs low
Validity starts with the first connection to a German network, not with the purchase. Hotspot is allowed, so you can share with a laptop, a tablet or your travel companion's phone. When data runs low you top up online — the same eSIM stays in place, nothing to install again.
Check Device Compatibility
Make sure your device supports eSIM before purchasing
How much data do you need in Germany?
So you can work it out instead of guessing: how much an hour costs in the apps you actually use on holiday.
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.
Which networks will you be on in Germany?
Your phone picks whichever German network carries best where you happen to be standing — Telekom, Vodafone or O2.
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.
The eSIM isn't tied to one operator. When you switch on in Germany, your phone connects to whichever of the three big networks — Telekom, Vodafone or Telefónica/O2 — has the best signal where you are. You're already online in the arrivals hall at Frankfurt, Munich or Berlin Brandenburg. There is nothing to configure, no manual APN, no extra app. If a spot still gives you nothing, one of two things almost always fixes it: airplane mode on for ten seconds and off again, or turning off automatic network selection in your mobile settings and picking a different German network by hand.
How far the networks reach varies a lot inside Germany. Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig are densely covered and 5G is normal in the city centres; the same holds for the classic destinations — Heidelberg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the Moselle villages, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Rügen and Sylt — at least in the town centre itself. Out in the countryside it gets patchy: current coverage studies put roughly 13 percent of Germany's land area in the poorly served category, least of it in Schleswig-Holstein, most of it in wooded, hilly Hesse. You notice it in the Bavarian Forest, the Harz, the Eifel, the Sauerland, the Black Forest away from the valleys, and in parts of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg. And the railway stays the sore spot: you have signal along the main ICE lines, but tunnels, cuttings and regional routes cut the connection again and again. That hits every SIM equally, German or foreign.
eSIM or a local SIM card in Germany?
| Compared | Simbye eSIM | Local SIM card |
|---|---|---|
| ID and registration | Not required — you buy the eSIM online and use the German networks as a guest from abroad | Mandatory since 1 July 2017: no German prepaid SIM card is activated without a passport or ID card, online via video or postal ident |
| When you get online | The moment the plane touches down in Frankfurt or Munich — you set it up back home | Only after finding a shop, the ID check and activation; and on Sundays almost every shop in Germany is closed |
| At the airport | Nothing to do, you head straight for the ICE or the S-Bahn | Unlike in Asia there are no rows of SIM stands at German airports; you go hunting for an electronics store, supermarket or kiosk |
| Buying and paying | Online in advance by card or PayPal, no cash needed | On the ground often cash or a German Girocard only; foreign credit cards are regularly declined in small shops |
| Data and topping up | 1 to 50 GB or unlimited internet, 7 to 180 days; top up online any time with nothing to install again | Fixed bundles on the card; credit comes from a supermarket voucher or an online account that often needs a German bank account |
| Phone number | None — data only, no calls, no SMS over the network | A German number is included, but with an ID check and usually a minimum top-up |
| Your home number | Stays reachable, your normal SIM stays in the phone | Swap the card and you're no longer reachable on your own number, unless your phone takes two cards |
| Validity | Starts with the first connection to a German network | Runs from activation, even if you only arrive days later |
Why roaming on your own contract gets expensive in Germany
To your operator back home, Germany is foreign territory — whether you're coming from the US, Turkey, Brazil, Japan, India or the Gulf. You're billed either per megabyte or through a day pass that charges again for every single day of the trip, including the day you only opened the map twice. Over two weeks that turns into its own line in the travel budget, and you only see the total on the bill after you get back.
The second case is contracts that are unlimited at home but capped once you travel. That cap is reached after a few days of navigation, maps and video; after which you're throttled or buying an expensive add-on from your own operator. At that point a second line with its own allowance is simpler: your phone contract stays untouched and the data comes from the German eSIM.
The third case is the one almost nobody writes about, and it's more common than the first two: people who are in Germany for a while but can't or don't want to get a German contract. Students before they've registered with the authorities, contract workers on site, family visits stretching over weeks. A German prepaid SIM card requires the ID check; a contract additionally requires a German address and bank account. A rechargeable data eSIM skips both — without a German phone number, which has to be said out loud.
Where the networks actually reach
Germany has three networks: Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica/O2. In Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig coverage is dense, 5G is the normal state of affairs in the city centres, and all three perform respectably. In Heidelberg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, along the Moselle, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, on Rügen and on Sylt you have signal within the town.
Leave that behind and it turns patchy. Current coverage studies classify roughly 13 percent of Germany's land area as poorly served. Schleswig-Holstein comes out best, wooded and hilly Hesse comes out worst. You feel it in the Bavarian Forest, the Harz, the Eifel, the Sauerland, the Black Forest away from the valleys, and in parts of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg. Hiking in a German forest regularly means half an hour with no signal. If you navigate, download the maps first.
The sorest point is still the railway. You have signal along the main ICE lines, but tunnels, cuttings and regional routes cut the connection again and again; the operators themselves name the rail network as one of their biggest open construction sites. That hits every SIM equally, German or foreign — if your phone drops offline on the ICE, it isn't your eSIM.
German prepaid cards need ID — this one doesn't
Since 1 July 2017 every prepaid SIM card in Germany has to be registered to a person. Without a passport or national ID — shown in the shop, or verified online by video or postal ident — the card stays blocked. That's why grabbing a SIM at a kiosk doesn't work here the way it does in many other countries. You buy this eSIM online and use the German networks as a guest from abroad, so the registration requirement doesn't apply to you.
And the second thing, said plainly: this is a data-only plan. You don't get a German phone number, so you can't make calls or receive SMS over the network. Leave your own SIM in the phone and active — that keeps you reachable on your home number while maps, bookings and messengers run on the eSIM's data. If what you need in Germany is a real number for calls, a data plan is the wrong product.
Your eSIM in Germany at a glance
- Networks
- T-Mobile Germany + Vodafone Germany + O2 Germany
- 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
The apps you actually need in Germany
Germany isn't a country where you need twenty special apps — but a few things work differently from what you may be used to. The default taxi app is FREE NOW, not Uber. Food comes from Lieferando. And cash is still very much in play: around half of people in Germany report having been somewhere in recent months where they couldn't pay by card — a bakery, a kiosk, a small pub, the odd taxi driver. Carry 20 to 50 euros in cash and you skip the whole problem. For individual cities the local transport apps are worth having alongside DB Navigator: BVG Fahrinfo and Jelbi in Berlin, MVGO in Munich, hvv switch in Hamburg. You can register with an email address and pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal — no German phone number needed. If you're driving: Clever Tanken shows fuel prices nearby (German filling stations are legally required to report their prices), and EasyPark covers app-based parking in many cities. All of it runs on the eSIM's data, and none of it asks for a German number.
DB Navigator
Deutsche Bahn's app: live timetables, platform changes, delays — and you buy tickets for many cities and regional transport networks in it, not just long-distance trains.
To pay you need PayPal, Apple Pay or a credit card that supports 3-D Secure; direct debit only works with a European bank account. The Deutschlandticket is officially sold only to people living in Germany, so as a visitor buy single or day tickets instead.
FREE NOW
The taxi app that works almost everywhere in Germany. It dispatches real taxis, plus chauffeured rental cars in the bigger cities.
Uber only operates in a portion of German cities, not nationwide, and in smaller towns there is often no ride-hailing at all. Then it's a phone call to the local taxi office — which needs a voice line, and this data eSIM can't make calls.
Lieferando
By far the largest food delivery service in the country, over 60 percent of the market runs through it. In big cities Wolt and Uber Eats deliver as well.
Outside the cities often nobody delivers at all. Far from every restaurant offers cash at the door, so expect to pay by card up front.
FlixBus
Long-distance coaches between almost every German city, usually far cheaper than the ICE, ticket straight in the app.
The stop is usually the coach station on the edge of town, not the main railway station — budget an extra half hour. The ticket is digital only, so load it into the app before departure in case the coach station has no signal.
NINA
The federal government's official warning app: storms, floods, WWII bomb disposals, major incidents and road closures. Exactly the information that otherwise only goes out in German on local radio.
It warns, it doesn't call anyone. The emergency number in Germany is 112 — dial it on your normal SIM, because this eSIM is data only and has no phone number.
In Germany almost everything runs through it: friends, landlords, restaurants, tradespeople, plenty of small businesses are reachable on WhatsApp and nowhere else.
Set WhatsApp up with your own number before you travel. This eSIM has no phone number, so no SMS verification code can arrive on it. Once WhatsApp is set up, chats and calls run over the data.
Frequently Asked Questions about Germany eSIM
Data, calls, real phone numbers, top-ups and setup — everything you need to know before you buy a Simbye eSIM.
