The best mobile phone plans in Australia (June 2022)

If you’re in the market for a new phone, there are a couple of categories on this page that’ll be of interest, whether you’re after an iPhone 13—which you can easily sub out for a Google Pixel 6 or another phone—or a more affordable alternative with a great mobile plan.

For those who aren’t in the market for a handset, the rest of these categories are for you, split across best SIM Only and best Prepaid options. Whatever you’re after, from cheap through to data-stuffed, scroll on for the best mobile plans available in Australia this month.

The yardstick plan by which all others are measured for this category is the Circles.Life 100GB Monthly Plan. Ever since it arrived on the scene, this plan forced telcos to compete on lower monthly costs with plenty of data. But this month we’ve chosen a winner that has even more data and better value.

The Belong 100GB Mobile Plan doesn’t have promo pricing, with a fixed $45 monthly fee, but what it lacks in pricing perks, it more than makes up for with data. Get in by 30 June 2022 to nab 100GB of bonus data on top of the 100GB base data. Better still, that 200GB of data sticks around for the first 12 months. If you don’t use it all, roll over as much as you have leftover each month or gift it to other Belong customers.

Compare phone plans below from a daily updating list of popular SIM Only Plans that have at least 70GB of data.

As it turns out, there’s some great variety between SIM Only plans when you up the budget from $15 to $20 a month. And there are a lot of plans that compete around this $20-per-month pricepoint, particularly when it comes to limited-time promo pricing.

When Moose Mobile doesn’t have promo pricing, it tends to fall out of consideration for these categories because the overall value isn’t spectacular. But when it does, Moose tends to nab and keep the top spot. Take the Moose 16.80 SIM Only Promo plan, for instance. It normally costs $23.80 per month but has a $16.80 monthly fee for the first year. That price nets you 20GB of data, which is plenty for everyday users.

Compare phone plans below from a daily updating list of popular SIM Only plans in Australia that don’t cost more than $20 a month (at least initially).

The new iPhone has been out for a while now, which means this category reflects the base model you can pay off today with a Postpaid phone plan. That’s the iPhone 13 which, refreshingly, starts with a 128GB model instead of the 64GB entry-level storage of the iPhone 12. For this category, we try to keep the combined monthly cost of a plan with 24-month handset repayment terms close to $100 (but we do like it when a better-value plan is cheaper).

Vodafone returns once again with an even cheaper overall plan. Pair an iPhone 13 128GB smartphone with the Vodafone $45 Lite+ Plan and you’ll pay a $101.20 monthly fee on 24-month handset repayment terms. This plan includes 30GB of base data and 90GB of bonus data, and if you burn through that 120GB, speeds are capped at 2Mbps. Just get in by 30 June 2022 to nab the bonus-data deal. This Vodafone plan also comes with 100 minutes of calls to 36 selected countries and three months of Amazon Music.

For comparison, check out the daily updating list of popular iPhone 13 128GB plans below that come with at least 10GB of data.

This category technically starts with 30GB as an absolute minimum, which is enough data to meet the average needs of most SIM Only users in Australia. Sticking to plans with around 30GB a month saves money, but the best monthly value for big-data plans is found when you up the budget. Take this month’s winner, for instance.

The Vodafone $85 SIM Only Ultra+ Plan offers users unlimited max-speed data for a reduced price of $65 per month. Signing up before that limited-time deal ends means you pay $65 per month for the life of the plan. This Vodafone plan also includes 30GB of max-speed hotpot data and a bunch of international call inclusions, plus three months of Amazon Music.

Compare phone plans below from a daily updating list of popular SIM Only plans with at least 100GB of data.

If you want to pay off a new handset and have a decent Postpaid plan to pair it with, have a gander at the Woolworths Mobile $25 Mobile Phone Plan with a budget-friendly Samsung Galaxy A12 handset. This no-contract plan costs $37 a month with 24-month handset repayment terms, plus it comes with 22GB of data (up from 18GB and, more recently, 20GB), which is a good amount of data for everyday users.

There are some neat perks, too. For starters, any unused data can be banked between months (500GB, up from 300GB) and you can get 10% off your Woolies shop once a month (up to $50 in savings). You can also gift data to eligible Woolworths Mobile customers.

Below is a daily updating list of popular Postpaid plans from a variety of providers in our comparison engine that come with an Oppo A16s.

For the longest time, we stuck with recommending plans for this category that included streaming services, for video and then music streaming. These days, though, we’re reverting to one of our favourite ongoing perks: 10% off a monthly Woolies grocery shop with Woolworths Mobile. While all of Woolworths Mobile’s plans include this perk, we like the $35 SIM Only plan because it has other great perks, too.

For starters, Woolworths Mobile operates on the Telstra wholesale network, which has great coverage reach. This particular Woolworths Mobile plan also includes unlimited talk and text to 22 selected countries, 500GB of data banking, plus you can gift unused data to eligible Woolworths Mobile customers. In terms of the basics, the $35 monthly cost nets you 42GB of data.

For comparison, check out the daily updating list of SIM Only plans below with at least 40GB of data.

We found a noticeable gap in plans between a $20 monthly SIM Only budget and $15, so we now separate our preferred cheap winner from our preferred best cheapest SIM Only plan. While Circles.Life and Moose Mobile tend to fight it out with two of their cheapest plans, Southern Phone is the unexpected usurper this month.

The Southern Phone Small Plus SIM Only Plan has a $10 monthly fee for the first six months, which temporarily puts it at the same price as Southern Phone’s entry Small SIM Only Plan. The difference, though, is the Small Plus SIM Only Plan has 10GB of data whereas the Small SIM Only Plan only has 2GB. New Southern Phone customers can grab the discount by signing up before 31 July 2022. Note that the price reverts to its $15 monthly fee after those initial discounted six months.

Below is a daily updating list of popular SIM Only plans with at least 1GB of data that don’t cost more than $15 per month (at least initially).

There are a lot of SIM Only plans on this page, which is okay because they tend to offer better value than Prepaid. That said, we want to give some love to Prepaid users, and the best value Prepaid plan you can buy for $50-or-less per month comes from Lycamobile.

The Lycamobile Unlimited Plan XL may max out our $50 cap for this category, but paying that recharge fee every 28 days nets you 100GB of data. Sign up before 30 June 2022, and you’ll also score 20GB of bonus data. That’s not the only perk for this Telstra wholesale network plan, either: it also includes unlimited calls to 53 countries.

For comparison, below is a daily updating list of popular Prepaid plans from our database with at least 30GB of data.

Please note the plan above and the ones below may change daily based on the most popular mobile plans on the Telstra network.

If coverage is your primary concern, you might be looking for the best deal on Telstra’s network (or wholesale network if you prefer Telstra MVNOs). The three network popularity picks (Telstra, Optus and Vodafone) don’t get the same monthly treatment as the rest of our top picks, but our ‘most popular’ plan filter is still a good indication of the best trending deals and is updated every day.

It may have been beaten in the popularity race last month by the Belong 20GB Mobile Plan, but the Boost Mobile $30 Prepaid Plan was back with a slight lead over the Belong 40GB Mobile Plan at the start of the month. That $30 recharge cost for the Boost Prepaid plan lands every 28 days and comes with 20GB of data. The first three recharges come with a bonus 20GB of data, which can be used as part of the next-recharge rollover. This Boost plan also comes with an international call allowance.

Please note the plan and the ones below may change daily based on the most popular mobile plans on the Optus network.

Those who have sufficient Optus coverage but don’t feel like spending a primo on Telstra can suss out the results below to find out which plans on the Optus network are trending right now. Optus tends to take out the top spot on its own network, but that’s not the case again this month.

Southern Phone had a comfortable lead over Optus at the start of the month with its Small Plus SIM Only Plan. This plan comes with 10GB of data for $15 a month. Except that’s the typical monthly pricing; new sign-ups pay a reduced $10 monthly fee for the first six months (offer expires 31 July 2022).

Please note the plan above and the ones below may change daily based on the most popular mobile plans on the Vodafone network.

There aren’t as many Vodafone MVNOs on the scene as there are for Optus and Telstra, but Australia’s third-largest mobile network has plans with great value and plenty of data. For example, have a look at the top trending plans below to score a great deal.

More than Telstra and Optus, the popular pick each month tends to bounce around a bit. Some months it’ll be TPG. Others it will be Vodafone or iiNet. At the start of the month, the TPG 12GB Mobile Plan has a comfortable lead over the still popular iiNet Mobile 40GB Plan. The TPG Prepaid plan costs $10 per monthly recharge for the first six months before reverting to its typical $20 monthly fee. Whichever price you pay, you get 12GB of data.

To compare phone plans, it’s worth understanding the three different types available, all of which should let you keep your number as you switch between providers.

Postpaid mobile plans range from cheap to expensive and bundle a monthly plan with a handset. This is a straightforward way to pay off a new smartphone without having to think about pairing a new handset with a SIM Only or Postpaid plan. Handsets tend to be offered as interest-free monthly repayment terms of either 24 months or 36 months.

SIM Only and Prepaid plans assume you already have a phone. Either you need an unlocked handset or you’ll have to stick with the carrier network that your phone is currently locked to. SIM Only plans are identical to Postpaid plans in terms of data and inclusions, minus the additional cost of handset repayments, which makes them cheaper overall.

Prepaid plans are paid in advance of a month, instead of afterwards like Postpaid and SIM Only plans (except for Telstra Upfront plans, which are paid ahead of usage). The duration of Prepaid plans varies from one day to a full year, but a month is typically broken down into 30 days, 28 days or, rarely, an actual month. Prepaid plans tend to have fewer bells and whistles than Postpaid and SIM Only plans but are a great way to stay in control of monthly costs.

For our best mobile phone plan pick, we only use mobile plans that can be paired with a handset. That narrows down the number of eligible providers dramatically. We then weigh the included data, calls/text (standard national), international (roaming and international calling/texting) and perks (Apple Music, Optus Sport + Fitness, etc.) against the monthly price to find the cheapest plans with the most inclusions.

We use a small selection of premium handsets to compare these plans with, which change as new flagship handsets are released, though we tend to lean towards the latest iPhone handset as they are the most popular (plus, they also tend to be great smartphones). You can read more about how we rate mobile service providers.

For our other categories, we opt for the best-fit plan that offers the best dollar-to-data value. There are times when we also weigh up factors such as network coverage, a telco’s mobile plans review score, or other included perks. Generally, we want to promote the plans that offer the best first-year value with a good mix of pricing and plenty of data.