Below you will find the cheapest mobile plans in Australia from over 30 providers but if you just want the cheapest, these are the most popular plans available under $20 per month:
Compare cheap mobile plans under $20 per month
Published on June 19, 2025
In this guide, we're looking at the cheapest mobile phone plans from among the more than 30 mobile providers we track. All include unlimited talk or text and can be postpaid or 'monthly' prepaid plans (28-day, 30-day, or monthly recharges).
Consider basing your choice on intro discounts, rather than long-term prices. Many providers offer new customers significant discounts for an initial period, sometimes as much as 50% off. With no lock-in contracts, you can swap providers before the discount ends and repeat the process.
Most popular cheap mobile plans under $20 per month
If you're looking to spend under $20 per month, you'll be looking at a lot of prepaid plans and postpaid SIM-only plans with limited-time discounts (typically for the first six months). Still these days, you can find a lot more data under $20 per month than you used to. Some discounted deals offer as much as 40GB per month for under $20 per month which is more than enough data for most people.
Here are the most popular prepaid and postpaid plans under $20 per month.
Expert Advice: Go small or pay more
"The cheapest mobile plans are often found with smaller brands which, due to their low running costs, can offer better value than the Big Three. And there are no lock-in contracts, so feel free to sign up for an introductory offer then jump ship to another carrier before the regular price kicks in."
Digital Content Editor
Cheapest mobile plans in Australia
These are the very cheapest mobile plans in our database.
If you don't need too much data, you can save even more money in the long-run. Some of the cheap mobile plans below offer the occassional discount but they are also the cheapest over 24 months.
These plans are best suited for people who don't like to switch their plan too often and who want consistently great value.
Cheap mobile plans with 'unlimited' data
In Australia, mobile plans with 'unlimited' data might not be what you assume. Also called 'infinite' or 'endless' data, most offer full internet speed until you hit your monthly limit, after which your connection is slowed to anywhere between 2Mbps and a crawling 256Kbps, depending on the provider. This has the benefit of avoiding unexpected overage fees if you go past your data allowance, but might not be what you're looking for in an unlimited data mobile plan.
The only option that comes close is the Unlimited Mobile Plan from felix mobile.
This plan does really give you unlimited data in terms of how much you can use – but it's all speed capped at 20Mbps. While 20Mbps is still fast enough to stream HD video and do just about any other phone-y things you have in mind, downloading large files is going to be a drag.
This plan currently offers 50% off for the first three months, after which the ongoing price is $40 per month.
Which network offers the best coverage?
Of the three mobile networks, Telstra's has the widest coverage, followed by Optus and then Vodafone. But of course, it's not quite that simple.
Optus and Vodafone grant full network access to their MVNOs, though it's up to the MVNO to purchase 4G or 5G access.
But Telstra limits its resellers to the Telstra 'Wholesale' network. The Wholesale network still has the second-largest 4G footprint in Australia (just), but a much smaller 5G footprint. The only MVNO to operate over the full Telstra network is Boost Mobile.
Here's a quick look at mobile network coverage in Australia:
Aside from Telstra, Boost Mobile is the only provider that operates on the full Telstra network.
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Expertise: Our editorial team has years of experience covering technology and the Australian telco market. We dig into the minutiae of phone plans, terms and conditions and simplify it for you.
Independence: We review phone plans on their merits, not based on whether or not we make money from them. You can always trust that if we recommend a plan, it's because it's great value for money, regardless of our commercial relationships with suppliers.
Data-driven: Our comparison engine looks at more than a hundred plans from 30 providers to size them up on features such as data, price and inclusions. The power of our comparison engine and the breadth of our database means you get more choices and more ways to compare.
How we choose the best cheap mobile plans
When it comes to cheap phone plans, price is the most important variable. If you're a budget-conscious consumer looking at this page for guidance, we want our recommendations to best meet your needs. For that reason, we consider cheap plans to be anything less than $40/month, in terms of ongoing cost after any potential intro discount has ended.
Beyond price, the other big factors we consider are network coverage and monthly data per dollar. Given the overlap between Australia's major mobile networks, we typically privilege the latter when it comes to picking out the best cheap mobile plans. If you live in an area where you've got decent coverage from Optus, Vodafone and Telstra, we want to be able to point you towards the cheap mobile plan that offers the best bang for buck.
Finally, we also consider whether or not any decent deals are available for a given mobile plan and whether or not that provider includes any notable extras (like international calls) or suffers from any shortcomings. Our provider reviews and our sister site WhistleOut are valuable resources for us here.
Cheap mobile plan FAQs
Cheaper mobile plans are not directly penalised when it comes to coverage, but there can be some differences. For the most part, the cheapest plans from MVNOs are limited to 4G at 100Mbps, while more expensive plans have 5G (often limited to 150Mbps or 250Mbps).
But in terms of actual coverage, the only difference is for Telstra MVNOs. These providers operate over the Telstra 'Wholesale' network, which is almost identical to the full network for 4G, but has a much smaller 5G footprint.
If you want unlimited talk, text, and data for a cheap price, you've got one main option: Felix Mobile. Felix Mobile has a single plan with all of the above for $35 per month.
There is one catch, however. Speeds are capped to 20Mbps. 20Mbps is still fast enough for most online activities, including streaming video, but it may be a bit slow when you're downloading apps.
Long-expiry mobile plans can work out to be cheaper in the long run compared to a month-to-month plan, but you'll need to pay a lot more upfront. The upshot is you can take care of your mobile bill in one single payment. The downside is you might burn through your data months ahead of schedule, if you're not careful.
Telstra's cheapest postpaid plan is the $65 Basic Upfront Mobile plan. This plan includes 50GB of monthly data, standard talk & text, unlimited SMS to international numbers, 30 minutes of international calls and 5G connectivity with uncapped download speeds
If you're looking for a cheap mobile plan by Telstra but prefer prepaid, you'll want to look for the 3GB SIM Starter Kit. This plan comes with 3GB of data, standard talk & text, 100 international texts and 7-day expiry.
Although the shape of the market changes from week to week, the mobile network with the cheapest mobile plans is usually Vodafone. Providers on the Optus network aren't far off though. Telstra's network also has some pretty cheap plans, but often with less data than providers on the other two.
As a rule, it's usually better and cheaper to have too much data than not enough. Knowledge is power when it comes to choosing the right mobile plan, so it may be worth using an app like My Data Manager to start tracking how much of your monthly data you use. Once you have a better idea of how much data you actually need, finding a plan that offers that amount at the lowest possible price becomes significantly easier.
Changing mobile providers is usually easy and quick. There are legal requirements in place to make the process as painless as possible. Not only do you get to keep your number, your new and old provider handle transferring it across and have a time limit on how long it can take. And you should have little-to-no time during which you have no active phone service at all.
If you're not on a contract, it's usually totally free to make the switch. Providers have a right to charge an $8 porting fee, though we're not aware of any that actually do.
It's hard to gauge customer support, particularly with smaller brands. There are only a few publicly available surveys in Australia that measure this, and they can usually only gather data on big names because smaller brands have so few customers in comparison. But if you're curious, we'd recommend the bi-ennial Telco Satisfaction Survey from CHOICE as one source of data.
Your best option is often to look up online reviews to see if there are any trends you can spot – negative or positive experiences that follow a theme. This can sometimes be an indicator of whether a provider has systemic issues with customer service.
You can also check the annual report from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman to see if the number of complaints a provider received increased or decreased vs. the previous report.
Fewer and fewer providers in Australia actually charge you for the SIM card itself. At most, you can expect to pay $1 to $10 for a prepaid SIM card but that typically includes a small amount of calls, text and data as well.
On the other hand, no provider in Australia charges an upfront cost for a postpaid SIM card. You simply sign up to a month-to-month plan and the SIM card will be delivered to your door in a matter of days. After that, you’ll recieve your first bill one month after you’ve signed up but you won’t pay anything for the SIM card itself.
