Best eSIM for China

Price and gigabytes are the easy part. These four things decide whether your first day goes smoothly, and most listings don’t spell them out:

• Where your data exits. A roaming eSIM reaches the internet outside the mainland, and the country matters. ChatGPT, Gemini and some other AI tools don’t serve Hong Kong, so a plan exiting there may not reach them.
• Whether it really roams. Some eSIMs sold for China use a Chinese carrier’s local routing. Those can stay behind the same filters as a Chinese SIM, so check before you buy and don’t assume. Our table will show each plan’s real behaviour.
• Daily limits. “Unlimited” usually means a fast daily allowance and then a crawl. Read the small print.
• Hotspot. If you need your laptop online, check this first, because hotspot sharing is often the first thing limited.

Do it at home, on your own Wi-Fi, a day or two before you fly. You’ll scan a QR code or tap an install link, and the plan appears as a second line on your phone. Most plans start counting when they first connect in China, not when you install them. Check yours, because some start on installation.

When you land, go to your phone’s cellular settings, set the eSIM as your data line, and turn on data roaming for that line only. Keep your home SIM switched on for SMS codes, with its own data roaming off, so you don’t pay your carrier as well.

Then turn hotel Wi-Fi off when you need a blocked app. That one habit fixes most “my eSIM stopped working” moments, because your phone quietly prefers Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi in China stays inside China.

Not everyone needs one. If you only use WeChat, Alipay and Apple Maps, and you’re happy to stay off Google and WhatsApp for a while, Chinese networks already do the job. If you’re staying for months, want a Chinese phone number or need to use food delivery apps, a local SIM card will likely make more sense, and you can keep an eSIM alongside it for the apps that are blocked.

Check your phone first, too. Phones sold in mainland China generally don’t support eSIMs, and neither do many carrier-locked phones. An eSIM can’t help if your phone won’t accept one.

The plan is to buy the same plan length from each brand, then run them on one phone in one city on the same day, with medians for speed and each app checked on the eSIM’s mobile data with Wi-Fi off. Until that’s happened, the table shows each seller’s own listing and claims, with the date we read them, and no results of ours.

Some well-known brands are left out on purpose. If a seller’s own China page says its plan relies on a built-in tool or a location-changing feature to reach Google, Instagram or WhatsApp, it isn’t in the table. We don’t recommend tools for getting around the filters, and this table compares plans that should work without one.

We earn a commission if you buy through our links once they’re live, at no cost to you. That doesn’t change the order or the results. The affiliate disclosure has the details, and the method page explains the rest.