Best Cheap Cell Phone Plans

Here is a quick breakdown of the plans we highlight on this page:

• Best cheap cell phone plan: Tello’s Value plan only costs $14 a month and lets you roll over unused data.
• Best unlimited plan: US Mobile’s Unlimited Premium Dark Star plan costs as low as $29 per month when paid annually or $44 per month when paid monthly. You get truly unlimited high-speed data every month, along with 100GB of hotspot data–all on AT&T's network. 
• Best coverage: Visible’s $25 plan gets you truly unlimited data on Verizon’s network, but your data speeds might slow down occasionally when the network gets busy.
• Best bundle deal: Xfinity Mobile is available for Xfinity internet customers only, but if you qualify, you can get an Unlimited plan for as cheap as $40 per month for one line, and $20 for additional lines.
• Best family plan: The AT&T Unlimited Starter® SL plan drops from $65.99 to $35.99 per month if you bundle four or more lines together. Similar plans from T-Mobile and Verizon cost around $15 more each month.

These aren’t your only cheap options, either. Plenty of budget cell phone providers—such as Mint Mobile or Red Pocket—are out there.

You get an array of affordable phone plans with Tello, a prepaid cellular carrier big on flexibility and affordability. Tello's Value 5GB plan falls right into the sweet spot between price and power. For a ridiculously low monthly price of $14, you get unlimited talk and text over T-Mobile’s network and a respectable 5GB of premium cellular data. That’s not a ton, but it’s enough to let you use your maps app while driving, scroll through TikTok while you’re bored at the DMV, or play online games like Hearthstone.

Another cool thing about Tello is that you can technically make unused data from one month roll over and accumulate into the next month—at least up to a total of 5GB of hotspot data and 35GB of wireless data. If you manually renew or charge your plan at least 24 hours before the end of your current billing cycle, all of your unused data will carry over to the next month. You just need to make sure to keep the same plan for the trick to work.

US Mobile currently offers one of the best deals in the world of low cost phone plans with its Unlimited Premium Dark Star plan: $29 a month for unlimited talk, text, and premium data. No high-speed data caps here. You also get 100GB of designated high-speed hotspot data. “This one actually might have been the best. I had better coverage and less frequent slowdowns when I used US Mobile in my area.” Tim Tincher, a former US Mobile customer who often switches between MVNOs depending on the best deals on offer.

The only catch is that you have to pay for a year in advance ($348) to get the biggest discount. Otherwise, you could opt for the Unlimited Starter plan for $25 per month. While this may hurt in the short term, the benefit is that you don’t have to worry about paying your cell phone bill for an entire year. And it’s not like you’re getting a cheap throwaway plan either—all US Mobile plans come with unlimited data, which is plenty of room to stream music and TV shows. With Unlimited Starter, you also get a generous 20GB of hotspot data, which can really come in handy if you need to get some work done without a Wi-Fi connection.

When you sign up, you can choose whether to have your US Mobile plan use T-Mobile's network (Light), Verizon’s network (Warp), or AT&T's network (Dark Star). Before making a decision, make sure to check out our wireless coverage guide to see what network works best for you. Just know that Dark Star plans offer faster speeds, more data, and more perks.

Visible exclusively uses Verizon’s awesome network to provide wireless coverage for its customers. “I got tired of paying the high prices with Verizon. Visible is way cheaper and for my usage I haven't noticed any difference in coverage or performance,” says Bison Messink, a current Visible customer. Although the plan technically costs $25 a month, Visible almost never actually charges the full $25 for this unlimited plan. You can usually cut the price down to $20 a month if you keep an eye out for any promotional deals when you sign up for your plan. Hesitant? You can try out the cheap phone plan for 15 days for free.

Verizon offers more coverage in rural areas of the country than any other network, which makes Visible an even easier recommendation if you live outside of a major city. “I now Face-Time while running all over the San Diego area, including very large rural parks and even on the beach,” says Jessica Santero, a current Visible customer. Santero previously used Mint Mobile, but wasn’t satisfied with the lack of network coverage. She decided to switch to Visible after travelling to Yosemite National Park with her family and almost getting lost on a trail with her dad. The only person in her family who had service was her brother, who had Visible and was able to locate them using his 1 bar of GPS. “Overall, [I’m] 100% satisfied and am planning on staying with them for a long time.”

Instead of giving users a high-speed data cap every month (like US Mobile), Visible offers unlimited data with the caveat that your speeds can slow down when the network gets busy. “You could tell when the network was bogged down and it sometimes took a little longer for songs to load in the car or for my feed to refresh,” says Tim Tincher, a former Visible customer. Despite the slower speeds, Tincher was happy with the overall value of the plan, but switched to another provider for a better deal. “It was nice because I was able to get a pretty cheap monthly rate with them without having to be on a family plan or something.”

If you’re an Xfinity internet customer, Xfinity Mobile’s standalone cell phone doesn’t offer much value on its own. Xfinity's Unlimited plan costs $40 per month for unlimited talk, text, and data. But what sets Xfinity apart is the fact that you can bundle a family plan together along with your internet plan. Usually family plan discounts are reserved for major carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, but Xfinity customers can get the family plan discount without paying for the big brand name.

With a family plan of four or more lines, you can get additional lines down to $20 a month. It’s also worth mentioning that you get a lot of perks you usually find only with major carriers, such as phone upgrades and major discounts on new phones.

What makes Xfinity especially tempting right now is the fact that you get a free Unlimited Intro plan for a year when you sign up for any Xfinity Unlimited plan. All in all, Xfinity Mobile falls right in between a major carrier cell phone plan (like Verizon) and a cheaper carrier (like Tello).

On its own, the AT&T Unlimited Starter SL plan costs $65.99 a month, but the price drops down to $35.99 a month per line when you get a family plan of four or more lines together. The total savings on this plan adds up to $380 every month.

The price is still higher than some of the others on this list, but the plan comes with perks you can’t get from US Mobile or Visible—including prioritized data from the parent network, ensuring you get the best possible coverage at all times. You also get phone trade-in deals, which means you can nab a free iPhone 15 from AT&T when you sign up for an unlimited plan.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when deciding on low-cost phone plans:

• Bundle your mobile with internet: You can also get up to a $20 discount with a major carrier like T-Mobile and Verizon if you bundle your wireless mobile plan with internet.
• Compare prices: Make sure you’re not paying more for less by comparing prices with other carriers to make sure you get the best deal.
• Look at your data cap: Most “unlimited” cell phone plans come with a high-speed data cap, which basically means after you pass the cap, your data speeds slow down dramatically. Choose a cell phone plan with a high-speed cap that matches your data usage.
• Make sure your area is covered: Not all mobile providers have reliable service in every part of the U.S. Check out coverage maps before signing up for a cell phone plan.
• Family plans: Many carriers offer a discount for opening two or more lines on a plan, giving you a significant discount on your monthly bill.

Every cell phone plan we recommend uses at least one of the three major networks: AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon. These networks stretch across the United States but can offer wildly different experiences depending upon your exact location. For example, a Verizon customer in Des Moines, Iowa might have a wildly different experience than a T-Mobile customer in the same city.

The best way to find out what coverage to expect in your neighborhood is by entering your zip code in our coverage map and swap between the networks to see what network offers the best coverage for you.

We use OpenSignal as a secondary source for coverage experience. In the January 2024 report, OpenSignal had Verizon as the most reliable coverage network in the country. Since those results track with our experience, we recommend Verizon’s network over AT&T and T-Mobile for coverage.

OpenSignal invented a new metric called Coverage Experience that measures the quality of coverage over heavily populated regions of the United States. According to OpenSignal, the score reflects “the experience users receive as they travel around areas where they would reasonably expect to find coverage.”

All three of the cellular carriers get high rankings for 4G LTE experience. But Verizon edges to the lead—suggesting that it’s the best pick if you’re looking for coverage in a rural area or other part of the country where cell service might otherwise be spotty.

As the data shows, you’re far less likely to connect to a cellular carrier’s faster, lower-latency 5G network than to a 4G LTE network. But if you do want 5G, then stick with a prepaid plan that works over T-Mobile’s network, since T-Mobile has the widest 5G coverage in the country.

Data speeds refer to the speed your internet connection gets on your phone when connected to a specific network. Faster data speeds mean you can download apps more quickly, you can get more up-to-date traffic info on your GPS app, and YouTube videos load more quickly.

As of January 2024, T-Mobile still holds the championship belt for the fastest data speeds on average. OpenSignal’s Download Speed Experience metric measures users’ everyday experiences with 4G and 5G wireless networks, and T-Mobile blows the competition out of the water.

Reviews.org uses price-comparison tools to compare and contrast every cell phone plan, but price is just the beginning. To get down to the nitty-gritty value of a cell phone plan, we factor in the value of things like high-speed data caps, 5G coverage, performance, phone trade-in programs, and other features.

After getting a comprehensive view of what each cell phone plan offers, we try to get hands-on experience with as many cell phone plans as we can. When we can’t, we reach out to folks in different areas of the country to give us their personal experience. With all those considerations, we can make reliable recommendations.

Reviews.org makes money when readers click our sponsored links, but I researched and wrote this piece independently. Our brand partners do not read our pieces or pre-approve our pieces before they are published.