If you’re after a mobile phone plan that’s SIM-only or prepaid data, has international calls, is good for kids, or comes with a new handset, we’ve got you covered. But if you're in a hurry, here's a quick look at some of the most-popular SIM-only plans in our database over the last seven days:
Best mobile phone plans in Australia (June 2025)
In this best mobile plans guide:
Our relationships with telcos
We have commercial agreements with some providers in our database. When you click a 'Go to Site' button, we receive a small payment from that brand – this is how we can afford to keep comparing internet and mobile plans. But we still compare and highlight plans we receive no payments for because we believe this helps you find one that best suits your needs.
Each month, we pick the best mobile plans from our database of more than 30 mobile providers. The categories include SIM-only (postpaid), prepaid, international calls, kids phone plans, iPhone plans, and Samsung Galaxy plans. Scroll on to discover the best mobile plans for March 2025.
Best SIM-only mobile phone plan
Some of the best mobile phone plans in Australia are postpaid SIM-only picks. SIM-only plans let users pay at the end of the month. The more you pay, the more data you get. This month, Dodo has our pick for best SIM-only plan.
Plan basics:
- Data: 50GB
- Intro cost: $29 per month with no eventual price jump
- Total cost over first 24 months: $696
- Network: Optus 4G
- 50GB of data
- No eventual price jump
- Competitive ongoing pricing
- eSIM support
- No international inclusions
- Expensive PAYG roaming (not active by default)
- No data sharing
- No data banking or rollover
- Limited to 4G
Spintel's $29 Mobile Plan this month's pick for best SIM-only postpaid plan. It comes with a healthy 50GB and, while there's no introductory discount, this also means you don't have to watch out for an eventual jump in price. Speaking of which, $29 is a competitive ongoing price for this much data.
The plan is limited to 4G, which could limit coverage in some areas. But in terms of speed, it should perform similarly to 5G plans from other Optus MVNOs, given they all place speed caps on their plans.
For popular SIM-only alternatives from our database, the plans below have at least 30GB of data.
Best prepaid mobile phone plan
For us, the best mobile plans for prepaid users are ones that include enough data for everyday and heavy users, which is why we look for one with at least 30GB of data. This month, Felix has our pick for best prepaid plan.
Plan basics:
- Data: 50GB
- Intro cost: $12 recharges for four months, then $30 ongoing
- Total cost over first 24 months: $648
- Network: Vodafone 5G – capped at 150Mbps
- Prepaid expiry: One month
- 50GB of Vodafone 5G data
- Three months of promo pricing
- Competitive ongoing pricing
- No excess data fees
- Unlimited data banking
- Monthly recharge cycle
- 7-day full refund (if you’re unhappy)
- eSIM supported
- Tree planted per active customer
- Max 150Mbps main data speeds (fast, but a cap is a cap)
- 1.5Mbps post-allowance speeds
- Vodafone 5G network availability
- No international inclusions
- No data sharing
- Mobile phones not offered
- Average number of support pathways
felix's 50GB Mobile Plan this month's pick for best SIM-only postpaid plan. It comes with a healthy 50GB and a four-month intro discount – though its ongoing price of $30 is also competitive for this much data.
The plan includes 5G, which isn't the norm in this price bracket. Admittedly, the Vodafone network does have the lowest 5G coverage, but if you live in a large population centre you should be fine. And these days 4G coverage is almost identical to Optus, so no worries there.
There are no overage fees for excess data. Instead, you're capped at 1.5Mbps for the rest of your billing period and can opt to purchase additional data if you need it.
For other prepaid inspiration, check out a list of popular mobile plans from our database with at least 50GB of data per recharge.
Best mobile phone plan with international calls
TPG's 50GB Medium Plan
Some of the best mobile phone plans in Australia have international calls. And the best of those also have great base and extra inclusions for use in Australia. TPG is a regular monthly winner for best mobile plan with international calls because its 50GB plan doesn't tend to change much and is one of the few with unlimited international inclusions.
Plan basics:
- Data: 50GB
- Intro cost: $17.50/mth for first 6 months, then $35/mth ongoing
- Total cost over first 24 months: $735
- Network: Vodafone 5G (150Mbps)
- 50GB of Vodafone 5G data
- Six months of promo pricing
- Competitive ongoing pricing
- Unlimited call minutes and SMS to 31 destinations
- Monthly recharge cycle
- eSIM supported
- WiFi calling supported
- Max 150Mbps main data speeds
- Potential excess data fees
- Vodafone 5G network availability
- PAYG international roaming
- No data sharing
- No data banking
- Mobile phones not offered
The TPG 50GB Medium Plan is a prepaid plan that acts like a SIM-only one, thanks to monthly recharges. New customers pay $17.50 per monthly renewal for the first six, before the prepaid plan reverts to its typical $35 monthly recharge fee. TPG NBN customers can save $5 per month by bundling their internet with this prepaid plan. Whichever price you’re paying, this TPG prepaid plan includes unlimited talk and text in Australia, plus 50GB of Vodafone 5G data (capped at 150Mbps).
Specific to this category, this TPG plan also includes unlimited call minutes to 31 selected destinations: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Vatican City.
If this plan doesn't suit your needs, the list below includes other popular plans from our database with various international calling inclusions.
Best mobile phone plan for kids
Kogan Mobile's Small Monthly Plan
The best phone plans for kids give parents control over spending, which means prepaid over SIM-only. These prepaid plans offer a bit of data with unlimited talk and text in Australia. This month, Kogan has our pick for best mobile plan for kids.
Plan basics
- Data: 15GB
- Price: $20 per month – no eventual price jump
- Total cost over first 24 months: $480
- Network: Vodafone 4G
- Prepaid renewal: Monthly
- 50% off for the first three recharges
- Family bundling available
- eSIM supported
- Optus 4G Plus coverage
- 8GB might not be enough for everyone
- No international inclusions
- No roaming inclusions
- No data sharing
- Limited to 4G
- No data banking or rollover
- No data sharing
The Kogan Mobile Small Monthly Plan is our current pick for best phone plan for kids. It has a decent data allowance and has a monthly expiry, meaning you only pay 12 bills per year, as opposed to the 13 with a 28-day plan. It also has no intro discount, which is a mixed blessing – on the one hand, you don't get any extra pocket change. But on the other, there's no eventual price jump to worry about.
But the lack of 5G shouldn't be a big deal – 4G is more than fast enough for phone usage and your little ones won't be disadvantaged when it comes to phone or SMS reception. This plan also supports eSIM devices.
For a look at more popular prepaid plans from our database, check out the list below.
Best iPhone plan
Vodafone's $49 Small Plan
If you’re in the market for the best mobile phone plans in Australia, pair a plan with one of the best smartphones – the iPhone 16.
There are only three real competitors when it comes to plans in this space: Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone. Barring special deals, Vodafone tends to offer the best data-for-dollar value. It also has great 4G coverage these days, thanks to a network sharing deal with Optus. But its 5G coverage is harder to gauge because the telco doesn't publish clear 5G statistics.
You can check out plan pricing for each iPhone model below, as well as more plan details.
Plan basics:
- Data: 100GB (apparently this is "small")
- Network: Vodafone 5G
- 50GB of Vodafone 5G base data + 50GB of bonus data
- 12, 24 or 36 months of promo pricing
- Uncapped 5G speeds
- No excess data fees
- Great $5 roaming
- eSIM supported
- WiFi calling supported
- 2Mbps post-cap speeds
- Vodafone 5G network availability
- No international inclusions
- No data banking
- Can spend less in the long run by buying an iPhone 16 outright and signing up to a cheap SIM-only plan from a smaller provider
The Vodafone $49 Small Plan is one of the best mobile phone plans in Australia if you’re looking to pair a SIM-only plan with an iPhone. This Vodafone plan comes with unlimited talk and text in Australia plus endless data. You normally get 50GB of base Vodafone 5G data, but this plan currently comes with 50GB of bonus data (100GB total per month).
In terms of price, it’s $39 per month for 12, 24 or 36 months, based on your handset repayment terms, plus the cost of the iPhone. While there aren’t any international inclusions, this Vodafone plan does have uncapped 5G speeds, eSIM and WiFi calling, plus the telco's great $5 international roaming.
Below is a list of 36-month iPhone 16 plans from Vodafone, Optus and Telstra, sorted by minimum total cost over the life of the plan.
Best Samsung Galaxy mobile plan
Some of the best mobile plans in Australia are pairable with the most popular Samsung handsets, like the Samsung Galaxy S25. Vodafone offers the best data-for-dollar value here, compared to the plans from Optus and Telstra. If coverage is a concern, know that Vodafone has very similar 4G coverage to Optus these days, thanks to a network sharing agreement. But its 5G footprint is still smaller.
Plan basics:
- Data: 100GB
- Intro cost: $69.52/mth for 36 months
- Total cost over 36 months: $1,437.96 (Samsung Galaxy S25 256GB)
- Network: Vodafone 5G
- 50GB of Vodafone 5G base data + 50GB of bonus data
- 12, 24 or 36 months of promo pricing
- Uncapped 5G speeds
- No excess data fees
- Great $5 roaming
- eSIM supported
- WiFi calling supported
- 2Mbps post-cap speeds
- Vodafone 5G network availability
- No international inclusions
- No data banking
- Can spend less in the long run by buying a Galaxy S25 outright and signing up to a cheap SIM-only plan from a smaller provider
The Vodafone $49 Small Plan nabs another win because of an ongoing deal that’s too good to ignore. Let’s recap. You get unlimited national talk and text and 50GB of base data. Vodafone is also currently offering 50GB of bonus data. If you burn through all those gigabytes, there aren’t any excess data fees, but speeds are capped at 1.5Mbps until your next billing month.
Instead of a $49 monthly fee, new customers pay $39 per month for the plan, plus the cost of the Samsung Galaxy mobile phone. The same perks for BYO device SIM-only users apply here: eSIM, WiFi calling, and a great international roaming optional extra. Optus and Telstra also let you pair a Samsung Galaxy S25 256GB (and other models) with an eligible SIM-only plan, but those bundles are more expensive.
For comparison, here’s a snapshot of popular Samsung Galaxy S25 256GB plans from our database, ranked by minimum total cost over the life of the plan.
What to look for in a mobile plan
What type of plan do you need?
The first question to answer before getting to which mobile plan is right for you is whether you’re using an existing mobile phone or want a new one. If you want a new one, you’ll either have to purchase a compatible prepaid handset or pair a SIM-only mobile plan with a new iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel or other option. New-model mobile phones can be bought outright or paid off over 12, 24 or 36 months from participating telcos like Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.
For those happy to use their existing mobile phone, choose between prepaid or SIM-only mobile plans. Prepaid plans are great for people who want to control their spending and aren’t overly interested in perks. While prepaid plans are paid in advance of use SIM-only plans are paid at the end of a billing month (except for Telstra Upfront plans).
SIM-only plans are always monthly offerings, but prepaid mobile plans have a range of durations. The ones we cover on this page are roughly monthly, which can be 28 days, 30 days, or an actual month. But you can also get short-expiry (e.g. 7 days) or long-expiry prepaid plans, which can last up to a full 365 days.
With SIM-only mobile plans, you’re more likely to find telcos that offer data banking or data rollover for carrying over unused gigabytes or capped plan speeds if you exhaust your max-speed allocation. Coverage is an important consideration, too. Telstra has the largest mobile network followed by Optus and Vodafone. The latter two are almost identical in 4G coverage, but Optus has the wider 5G footprint. If you live in a populous part of Australia, the chances are good you can pick between all three.
That trio may be the respective network owners, but there are dozens of telcos that use their networks to offer more competitively priced plans. Effectively, you might be able to get the coverage perks of the network you want without having to pay a premium for it.
Pretty much every mobile plan comes with unlimited national talk and text, but other features like international calls and messaging are rarer. It’s a similar story for international roaming if you like to travel and want the option to use mobile data abroad. There are a range of other perks to help separate closely competing plans, with eSIM being one of the better ones that uses a digital SIM rather than needing to wait for a physical SIM card to arrive.
Our methodology
We used to track more SIM-only plans in our database than prepaid ones, but we still lean on the former mobile plan type because of its greater versatility and popularity with Aussies. Generally, SIM-only plans tend to have more perks and simplified payment structures for determining first-year value thanks to monthly billing cycles.
Our categories are built to cover the most popular use-cases in Australia. Everyday mobile plans are for those with typical data needs, backed by ACCC data averages and with plenty of extra gigabytes to spare. Cheap mobile plans are great for people who are constantly WiFi connected or otherwise don’t use a lot of mobile data each month.
We also want to acknowledge the popularity of big-data plans given the prevalence of video streaming services and potentially data-draining social media platforms. Because it’s common for people to upgrade their mobile phones every two to three years, we wanted to include a category for them, too, using the cheapest flagship iPhone model for comparisons (given its popularity).
Prepaid plans are becoming more popular with mobile providers, which is why we have a dedicated category. The same is true of 5G plans, which are becoming more common as the mobile network owners continue to expand their respective 5G networks. Speaking of network owners, our final categories are there to recognise the popularity of the big three—Telstra, Optus and Vodafone—while simultaneously highlighting there are more telcos operating on those Australian mobile networks.
As for specific plan winners, we typically use data minimums and monthly price caps to create a shortlist of contenders. At the start of each month, we check for new potential category winners, even if there’s a long-running promotional period that may make a telco’s plan seem like an ongoing shoo-in. Contenders are separated from victors by evaluating first-year value, dollar-to-data pricing, and we also rely on an in-depth schema for the prepaid and SIM-only providers we track.
Frequently asked questions about mobile phone plans
There are dozens of mobile providers in Australia, all of which operate on the Telstra, Optus or Vodafone mobile networks. We track around 30 of the most popular Australian telcos to offer a better selection of options when comparing mobile plans.
It’s tricky to pin down the best mobile service provider in Australia without considering your specific needs and the coverage requirements of where you live. Mobile plans on the Telstra network have the best coverage for 4G, but only barely. Optus network plans are generally a great mix of price, data and inclusions. And Vodafone network plans are among the comparatively cheapest. There are dozens of mobile providers on those three networks, though, so you can save money by avoiding the big three.
The cheapest way to get a mobile phone plan is to go with a prepaid plan. Long-expiry prepaid plans are a cheap way to lock in a competitive price for a year with a chunk of annual data that you can spread out over 12 months.
For the cheapest monthly mobile plan costs, it’s best to hang onto your iPhone or other smartphone for as long as possible. That way, you can switch between prepaid or SIM-only plans without having to worry about a handset repayment fee each month. That said, using interest-free payments is a practical way to pay off a new handset over 12, 24 or 36 months if you’d rather not pay the full cost of a mobile phone upfront.
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