eSIM Senegal
The Senegal eSIM from 9,95€ runs on the Yas Senegal network, comes with 1 to 3 GB and is prepaid, with no contract and no registration – you are online right at Blaise Diagne airport.
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 Senegal?
Get connected in under 2 minutes
Install it before you fly
After your purchase the eSIM arrives by email: a link to tap or a QR code to scan. Install it calmly at home on Wi-Fi. The validity is not running, — it starts with your first connection in Senegal.
Switch it on after landing
Whether you land at Blaise Diagne near Diass (AIBD, code DSS), at Cap Skirring or at Ziguinchor in Casamance: turn off airplane mode, able data roaming for the Simbye line and select it as your mobile data line. Turn mobile data off for your usual line, otherwise your phone keeps going online over your home contract in the background. After a minute or two Yas appears on screen — on some phones still under the former name Free.
Get going
There is no access point to type in and nothing to have unlocked. Hotspot is allowed, so you can share with a laptop or tablet. If data runs low you top up the same eSIM — no reinstall, no new QR code.
Check Device Compatibility
Make sure your device supports eSIM before purchasing
Which networks will you be on in Senegal?
Your Senegal eSIM locks onto the Yas network — Expresso are not available to switch to.
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 da, your phone.
There is nothing to configure. Once you switch off airplane mode after landing, our phone finds the network on its own and registers with Yas Senegal — the operator that was called Free Sénégal until the end of 2024. On screen, ou may see Yas, or still the former name Free; both are the same network. You do not type in an access point (APN). Three switches matter: turn on data roaming for the Simbye line, set that line as your mobile data, turn mobile data off for your usual line — otherwise your phone keeps going online over your home contract in the background. If nothing happens after two minutes, toggle airplane mode for ten seconds or search for the network by hand. And to be straight with you: this is the one network you g, there is no automatic fallback to or Expresso.
The network follows the cities and the coast. You are well covered in Dakar with Plateau, Almadies, Ngor and Yoff, along the road out to the airport near Diass, in Thiès and on the Petite Côte with Mbour, Sale, Somone, plus Touba, Kaolack, Saint-Louis, in the south, Ziguinchor and Cap Skirring. On the national roads in between, ou usually have a signal, with short gaps. It thins out where hardly anyone lives: in the bolongs and on the islands of the Sine-Saloum, in Niokolo-Koba National Park, on the tracks of the Ferlo and in parts of the Casamance hinterland. Save, our maps for those stretches offline beforehand, a dead spot stays a nuisance rather than a problem.
eSIM or a local SIM card in Senegal?
Senegal answers itself once you land: every SIM sold there has to be registered to a name, paid in CFA francs you must get hold of first, sorted in French or Wolof — the eSIM skips all three.
| Compared | Simbye eSIM | Local SIM card |
|---|---|---|
| Ready before you travel | Buy it, get it by email, install it at home on Wi-Fi | Only after landing, in a shop or at the airport |
| ID required | No, ou are a guest on the network with your eSIM | Yes, every SIM card in Senegal must be registered to a name, with passport or ID |
| Paying | Online by card, in your own currency | Cash in CFA francs, so withdraw or exchange first |
| Phone number | None, data only | A Senegalese number with calls and texts |
| Your usual number | Stays active, reachable for the people at home | Only if your phone can run two lines at once |
| Effort after landing | Airplane mode off, data roaming on, done | Queue, fill in a form, ha, our ID copied, wait for activation |
| Topping up | Any time online, same eSIM | Credit via Wa, Yas Money or a kiosk, usually with a local number |
| If something goes wrong | Written support in English and German | Explain it in the shop, usually in French or Wolof |
Why roaming on your home contract gets expensive in Senegal
Senegal is in West Africa and falls into the highest international zone with most providers — billed per megabyte, or through a day pass you pay for every da, ou touch. You do not notice it while chatting; you notice it the first time you open a map in a taxi or upload your photos from Lac Rose.
The usual workaround is to turn data off and hope for Wi-Fi. In practice that means standing at a junction in Dakar hunting for a signal so you can explain to the driver where you want to go. The things that actually matter on a trip to Senegal — ordering a Yango, finding the track to the lodge, replying to your guide on WhatsApp, opening the boarding pass for the flight home — need data outdoors, not in the hotel lobby.
A data eSIM turns that around. You pay a fixed amount up front in your own currency, install it at home on Wi-Fi and switch it on after landing. Prepaid means exactly that: no contract, no registration, no bill afterwards. Your usual number stays active on the other line, so people can still reach you — your bank, our family, a colleague. Calls and texts on that number still bill at your provider's roaming rates, on international roaming you often pay for incoming calls too. What goes away is the data bill, that is the expensive part.
Senegal eSIM: where the network reaches, where it does not
Blaise Diagne airport (DSS) sits near Diass, a good 40 kilometres outside Dakar. Along that axis — airport, motorwa, city — you normally have a signal, as you do in Dakar itself across Plateau, Medina, Almadies, Ngor and Yoff. The Petite Côte with Mbour, Sale, Somone, where many beach holidays happen, is well covered too.
Travel further and it gets patchier. Saint-Louis, Touba, Kaolack and Thiès have coverage, so do most of the roads between them. The Djoudj bird sanctuar, the salt flats at Lac Rose and above all the Sine-Saloum are another story: once the pirogue turns into the bolongs with nothing but mangroves on either side, ou will have nothing for a while. The same goes for Niokolo-Koba National Park in the south-east and for much of the Ferlo.
In Casamance, Ziguinchor and Cap Skirring have coverage, but the journey there does not, all the way — whether you take the overnight ferry from Dakar or drive overland through the Gambia corridor. Practical advice: save, our maps offline, keep a screenshot of your accommodation's address including the neighbourhood, tell people at home you will be out of reach for a few hours. Then a dead spot is exactly what it is — a break, not a problem.
How much data do you need in Senegal?
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, reception.
What does an eSIM for Senegal cost?
Simbye offers 2 plans for Senegal from €9,95 to €13,95 — prepaid, no contract.
Plans for Senegal range from 1 GB to 3 GB.
Validity runs from 7 to 15 days and starts with your first connection in Senegal.
| Plan | Validity | Price | Per travel day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | 7 days | €9,95 | €1,42 |
| 3 GB | 15 days | €13,95 | €0,93 |
- Networks
- Free
- 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
- Roaming on your home contract gets billed here — this eSIM is prepaid, so nothing is added afterwards
Frequently Asked Questions about Senegal eSIM
Data, calls, real phone numbers, top-ups and setup — everything you need to know before you buy a Simbye eSIM.
