Best prepaid SIM cards for tourists visiting Australia

If you're travelling to Australia for a holiday, work trip or family visit, you'll want to know which is the best prepaid SIM card provider for your needs based on your budget, phone usage habits, coverage requirements and data needs.

Take a tip from a veteran jet-setter: though the romanticised version of a holiday abroad is one of severing all connection to the boring every day, you're still going to need at least one effective line of communication intact. There is no escape from reality. Not truly.

Whatever the case, you're going to need a good SIM plan to accompany you on your travels. Whether you're backpacking on a budget or travelling out to regional and remote areas, we've laid out options for folks with a range of needs.

We'll dive into the best Australian SIM plans for tourists for each category in a sec, but for a quick overview of popular SIM plans that tend to suit most travellers, look at our most popular SIM plans below. 

Unless you're buying it online, you likely won't require any specific documents at all to purchase a prepaid SIM card. You'll just need cash or a card, depending on the retailer.

That said, travellers looking to activate an Australian SIM card may be required to supply additional documentation as part of this process. Some details you may need to divulge include:

• Your full name
• Your passport number
• An Australian address (or the address of the hotel you are staying at)

If you're looking to buy a SIM card in Australia, you likely won't have to search far.

The airport is the first place that travellers to Australia are likely to have the chance to buy a SIM in Australia, though it isn't the only option. These Australian airports will sell you a SIM the moment you touch down:

• Adelaide Airport (ADL)
• Brisbane Airport (BNE)
• Cairns Airport (CNS)
• Canberra Airport (CBR)
• Gold Coast Airport (OOL)
• Melbourne-Tullamarine Airport (MEL)
• Perth Airport (PER) 
• Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) 

Of course, it's not uncommon for airport retail outlets to charge a premium for convenience. If you want a SIM card as soon as possible, you might end up paying a little bit more for it.

Fortunately, you should be able to find a prepaid SIM in many other Australian retailers, including supermarkets, newsagents, post offices and service stations. Here is a list of major retailers that sell SIM cards in Australia.

• Woolworths
• Coles
• ALDI
• IGA Supermarkets
• JB Hi-Fi
• Harvey-Norman
• Officeworks
• The Good Guys
• Bing Lee
• Australia Post

If your smartphone is made by a mainstream brand like Apple or Samsung, chances are it will probably work just fine in Australia. However, if you're using something a little more niche then it might be worth digging into the spec sheet to make sure it'll play nice with Australia's telecommunications infrastructure.

One thing you'll want to look out for here is whether your device is compatible with the GSM standard. Some handsets use a different standard called CDMA. If this is the case, then you might not be able to call or text on an Australian mobile network with that device.

The other big thing you might want to double-check before hopping on a plane is whether your smartphone is able to operate on the frequencies that Australia's mobile networks use.

Australia's 3G networks use the 850MHz, 900MHz, and 2100Mhz frequencies.

Australia's 4G networks use the 700Mhz, 850Mhz, 900Mhz, 1800Mhz, 2100Mhz, 2300Mhz and 2600Mhz frequencies.

Australia's 5G networks use the 700Mhz, 850Mhz, 1800Mhz, 2100Mhz, 2300Mhz, 3500Mhz and 26Ghz frequencies.

Boost Mobile is closely allied with Australia's biggest network, Telstra. So closely allied, in fact, that they have access to the full Telstra network, which covers 99.5% of the population. Considering every other provider on the Telstra network only gets access to part of it, Boost is your best bet for mobile coverage if you don't like the idea of paying Telstra's premium prices.

 Boost Mobile plans range in size from 3GB and 260GB, with prices ranging from as little as $10 to as much as $300. Safe to say, variety is one of this provider's strengths. Boost Mobile offers a variety of plan expiry terms that go all the way up to 365-day-long expiry plans.

Our pick of the lot for travellers visiting Australia is the Boost Mobile $40 Prepaid plan. This SIM-only plan comes with unlimited calls and texts within Australia, unlimited international calls to 20 countries, and 300 minutes to an additional 30 countries. These plans last for 28 days, but if you're staying longer, whatever data you don't use will roll over to the next month.

To see how that compares to other SIM plans, here are the most popular plans around $30 in Australia right now. However, keep in mind that not all of these providers offer the same coverage or international inclusions as the Boost plan above.

 If you're after both data and some international calls, amaysim is pretty hard to beat.

You're going to need a lot of data to share all those happy snaps and Instagram stories, and if you're a particularly heavy data user, you'll need a plan that can keep up with your needs. Each of the Amaysim plans in the widget above comes with a healthy dose of data, unlimited talk and text in Oz, and unlimited international calls and texts to 42 countries. It also runs on the Optus network, which is Australia's second-largest.

For real data gluttons, you'll want to go with the $50 UNLIMITED Plan. You'll get a generous 120GB of data to use, but this gets boosted pretty often with frequent bonus data deals. 

If you're happy to go without international calls, there are even better deals to be had for data lovers. Here are the most popular contract-free plans offering at least 75GB of data. There's often special offers on too, meaning you can nab a great deal while you're Down Under.

We see where your head is at. You've dropped a considerable chunk of money on getting Down Under and you'd much rather spend your remaining funds on the finer things. For you, we'd recommend Lebara as a budget SIM option. This provider runs on the Vodafone network for coverage.

Which their cheapest offer, you'll get unlimited talk and text within Australia, 3GB of data, 300 minutes of international calls to 8 selected countries, and $3 extra international call credit. It's a great match for people looking to stick to Wi-Fi for most of the trip, but who need a little emergency data for peace of mind. And with prices starting from $5, it's great for the old hip pocket.

There's even better value to be had if you open the playing field up to providers that don't offer international calls, but keep in mind some of these SIM plans might not be easy to find at an airport or convenience store. Here are the most popular no-contract plans under $15 in Australia.

You'll not have too big a head-scratching decision with this one. Telstra and Boost Mobile plans are the only two providers available that offer access to the full Telstra network, and you'll need that if you're going to go bush. With that in mind, there are plenty of different plans to choose from, depending on your budget and data needs. Both providers' plans offer some international calls, but only Boost offers unlimited international calls - Telstra only comes with 30 international minutes.

Our pick of the lot for travellers visiting Australia is the Boost Mobile $30 prepaid mobile plan. This SIM-only plan comes with unlimited calls and texts within Australia, unlimited international calls to 20 countries, and 300 minutes to an additional 30 countries.

With that in mind, here are all of Telstra and Boost Mobile's Upfront and prepaid plans, sorted by popularity. Just be aware that Telstra Upfront plans auto-renew at the start of each month, so you'll need to cancel it before you leave. 

If you're only in Oz for a short stay, you'll be happy to hear you don't have to settle with a more expensive 28 or 30-day plan like those listed above. Both Optus and amaysim (which both run on the Optus network) offer shorter-term prepaid plans.

Our top pick is Amaysim's $10 7-day UNLIMITED Plan, which comes with 10GB of data, unlimited talk and text in Australia and even unlimited international calls to 42 countries.

If you'd rather go day-to-day, Optus's Flex plans include a $1 per day subscription plan or $7 per 7 days, each offering 1GB data per day and unlimited Australian talk in text. On the downside, there are no international call inclusions.

If you're looking to decide on a SIM card to buy in Australia, here is a short list of things you should consider and questions to ask yourself.

• Whether it includes enough data for the duration of your stay?
• Does the network the SIM card is associated with meet your coverage requirements? For instance, if you're looking to visit rural and regional areas then Telstra is the way to go.
• Are the expiry terms appropriate? If you're only visiting for a matter of weeks then a long-expiry plan may not be the right fit.
• Will you need to call home during your stay? Picking a prepaid or postpaid plan with included calls might save you some money.

Lastly, it's worth considering whether the mobile provider associated with the prepaid SIM card can get it to you before you travel. Otherwise, you're going to have to get it delivered to a hotel or friend or go out and get it yourself.

In Australia, there are three major networks. In order of size, these are as follows:

• Telstra
• Optus
• Vodafone

There are also several dozen mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), which operate on top of those three major networks. This includes providers like Boost Mobile, Belong, Amaysim, Kogan, Lebara, Mate and Felix. The full list of Australian MVNOs is as follows:

• Amaysim (acquired by Optus)
• Aussie Broadband
• Boost Mobile
• CMobile Blue
• CMobile Red
• Catch Connect
• Coles Mobile
• Dodo (owned by Vocus Group)
• Felix Mobile (TPG Telecom sub-brand)
• Gomo (Optus sub-brand)
• iiNet (acquired by TPG Telecom)
• Internode (acquired by TPG Telecom)
• Lebara Mobile (acquired by Vodafone/TPG Telecom)
• Lycamobile
• Mate
• Moose Mobile
• Numobile
• Pennytel
• ALDI Mobile
• Belong (Telstra sub-brand)
• Tangerine Telecom
• TeleChoice
• Think Mobile
• SpinTel
• Southern Phone
• Vaya (acquired by Amaysim/Optus)
• TPG (merged with Vodafone)

Every tourist's needs are going to be different, however, here's a quick rundown of what we consider the most important plan features.

Our picks are centred on prepaid or no-contract SIMs only with a maximum expiry of 30 days. This is where you can get the most value for money while avoiding any fine print cancellation fees or surcharges for going over your allotted amount of call time or data usage. Trust us ⁠— there's nothing worse than coming back home to find your bank account has taken a hit from holiday expenses and some fees you were up until now blissfully unaware of.

We also focused on options that have wide availability at Australian international airports and major convenience stores, as well as international call inclusions and foreign-language customer support.