With a Pay As You Go bundle, you’ll convert your credit into a one-month allowance of minutes, texts and mobile data. Compare the UK’s best value bundles.

If you’re currently looking for a Pay As You Go bundle in the UK, there are more than 80 Pay As You Go bundles to choose from across 13 providers.

When you buy a Pay As You Go bundle, you’ll convert your Pay As You Go credit into a one month allowance of minutes, texts and mobile data. This will usually save you money compared to traditional Pay As You Go, unless you happen to be a light user spending less than £5 per month.

The benefit of Pay As You Go bundles is that you’ll retain complete control over how much you spend. There’s also no need to sign a contract or to undergo a credit check to get one. You also have the flexibility to stop your bundles or to change them at any time (including moving back to traditional Pay As You Go).

In this article, we’ll compare the Pay As You Go bundles that are currently available in the UK. We’ll also look at the best value plans available, the different providers you can choose from, and the different features that are available.

Recommended Bundle: 20GB data for £10 on giffgaff
(includes 4G & 5G coverage on O2, with 1GB extra data from third month)
Benefits:
  • No contract & no credit check
  • Pay a fixed monthly price for minutes, texts & data
  • Switch your bundle, or move to traditional Pay As You Go at any time
Cheapest PAYG Bundles:

What Are Pay As You Go Bundles?

In the UK, there are two different types of Pay As You Go plan: monthly bundles and traditional Pay As You Go. The following table shows a comparison of the two options:

Pay As You Go Bundles Traditional Pay As You Go
Best for smartphone and regular mobile users. Best for light users who don’t have a smartphone.
Get a one month bundle with calls, texts & data included. Pay a fixed amount which is known in advance. Pay on a per-minute, per-text and per-megabyte basis. Rates are typically higher compared to a bundle.
Unused allowances expire after a month, after which you’ll need to buy another bundle. Your credit doesn’t expire providing you keep the SIM card active.
No credit check & no contracts to sign. No credit check & no contracts to sign.

Most Pay As You Go mobile customers will now choose to buy a bundle as it offers much better value for regular usage. For instance, a £10 monthly top-up will buy you 20GB of data on giffgaff. You’ll also get unlimited minutes and unlimited texts included in your bundle. For comparison, traditional Pay As You Go customers will only get up to 1GB data for £10 (this is without any inclusive minutes or texts).

If you’re a light mobile user wanting to spend less than £5 per month, see our guide to Pay As You Go SIMs for light usage.

Recommended Bundles

For most people, we’d currently recommend giffgaff’s £10 golden goodybag:

giffgaff

giffgaff is a highly popular Pay As You Go network amongst readers of our website. They offer Pay As You Go bundles with O2 coverage, including access to 5G at no extra cost.

At present, the most popular bundle is giffgaff’s £10 golden goodybag. This gives you 20GB of data, along with unlimited minutes and texts. From your third month onwards, this will be boosted with an extra 1GB to give you a total of 21GB per month. You’ll also get access to O2’s 5G network on this plan.

If you need an even larger data allowance, giffgaff has a range of competitive bundles with even more data. For instance, you can get 35GB data for £15/month and 100GB data for £20/month. It’s also possible to get Always-On data on giffgaff from £25/month.

Order giffgaff SIM card (Free) →

Compare Pay As You Go Bundles

To compare all of the currently available Pay As You Go bundles, you can use the following interactive comparison tool. Simply choose how much data you want. You can also filter by the coverage provider or by individual networks.

How much data do you want on your plan each month?

Which networks would you be happy to take a plan from?

Showing 81 of 81 price plans that match your criteria

NetworkMinutesTextsDataMonthly
Cost
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimitedNo data£4.00
Lycamobile1,0001,0005GB£5.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimited3GB£5.00
1pMobileUnlimitedUnlimited2GB£6.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited2GB£6.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited1GB£6.00
iD MobileUnlimitedUnlimited1GB£6.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimited5GB£7.00
1pMobileUnlimitedUnlimited4GB£7.50
Tesco Mobile5005,0002GB£7.50
1pMobileUnlimitedUnlimited10GB£8.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimited10GB£8.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited5GB£8.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited4GB£8.00
iD MobileUnlimitedUnlimited4GB£8.00
LycamobileUnlimitedUnlimited6GB£9.90
VOXIUnlimitedUnlimited45GB£10.00
1pMobileUnlimitedUnlimited25GB£10.00
LycamobileUnlimitedUnlimited25GB£10.00
£5 for 3 months
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited20GB£10.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited15GB£10.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimited15GB£10.00
ThreeUnlimitedUnlimited12GB£10.00
O2UnlimitedUnlimited10GB£10.00
Tesco Mobile5,0005,00010GB£10.00
EEUnlimitedUnlimited8GB£10.00
O2UnlimitedUnlimited8GB£10.00
VodafoneUnlimitedUnlimited8GB£10.00
iD MobileUnlimitedUnlimited6GB£10.00
VOXIUnlimitedUnlimited75GB£12.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited26GB£12.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited25GB£12.00
1pMobileUnlimitedUnlimited50GB£12.50
Tesco Mobile5,0005,00015GB£12.50
ThreeUnlimitedUnlimited40GB£13.50
VOXIUnlimitedUnlimited105GB£15.00
1pMobileUnlimitedUnlimited100GB£15.00
LycamobileUnlimitedUnlimited50GB£15.00
£6.50 for 3 months
LycamobileUnlimitedUnlimited40GB£15.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited35GB£15.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited30GB£15.00
O2UnlimitedUnlimited30GB£15.00
EEUnlimitedUnlimited25GB£15.00
O2UnlimitedUnlimited25GB£15.00
VodafoneUnlimitedUnlimited25GB£15.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimited25GB£15.00
Tesco Mobile5,0005,00025GB£15.00
iD MobileUnlimitedUnlimited20GB£15.00
ThreeUnlimitedUnlimited80GB£18.00
iD MobileUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited£20.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited£20.00
VOXIUnlimitedUnlimited300GB£20.00
1pMobileUnlimitedUnlimited200GB£20.00
LycamobileUnlimitedUnlimited100GB£20.00
£10 for 3 months
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited100GB£20.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited80GB£20.00
EEUnlimitedUnlimited50GB£20.00
LycamobileUnlimitedUnlimited50GB£20.00
O2UnlimitedUnlimited50GB£20.00
VodafoneUnlimitedUnlimited50GB£20.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimited50GB£20.00
Tesco Mobile5,0005,00050GB£20.00
O2UnlimitedUnlimited40GB£20.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited£22.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited£24.00
1pMobileUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited£25.00
LycamobileUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited£25.00
£15 for 3 months
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited100GB£25.00
ASDA MobileUnlimitedUnlimited100GB£25.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited80GB£25.00
O2UnlimitedUnlimited150GB£30.00
VodafoneUnlimitedUnlimited150GB£30.00
EEUnlimitedUnlimited125GB£30.00
O2UnlimitedUnlimited125GB£30.00
Tesco Mobile5,0005,000100GB£30.00
ThreeUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited£31.50
EEUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited£35.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited£35.00
VOXIUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited£35.00
giffgaffUnlimitedUnlimited150GB£35.00
VodafoneUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited£40.00

You can scroll through the complete list to see the Pay As You Go bundles that match your criteria. If you’re unsure how much data you want on your plan, see our guide to mobile download limits.

Pay As You Go Bundle Providers

The following table shows a list of UK mobile networks that currently offer Pay As You Go bundles. It also shows the cheapest available bundle on each network, the underlying coverage provider and any extra benefits you’ll get when joining:

Mobile Network Plans From Coverage Provider Key Features
ASDA Mobile £4/month Vodafone
EE £10/month EE
  • Unused data rolls over for one month
giffgaff £6/month O2
  • Extra 1GB from third goodybag (£10+ plans)
iD Mobile £6/month Three
Lebara Mobile £5/month Vodafone
  • Inclusive international calls
Lycamobile £5/month O2
  • Inclusive international calls
O2 £10/month O2
  • Access to O2 Priority app & offers
  • Unused data rolls over for one month
Tesco Mobile £7.50/month O2
Three £10/month Three
  • Access to Three+ app & offers
Vodafone £10/month Vodafone
  • Access to VeryMe Rewards app
  • Unused data rolls over for one month
VOXI £10/month Vodafone
  • Endless social media from £10
  • Endless video streaming from £15

It’s also possible to get SIM-only plans with no contract and no credit check (for instance, on Honest Mobile, SMARTY and Superdrug Mobile). Although they have some similarities to the Pay As You Go bundles mentioned in this article, they won’t allow you to pause your plan. You also won’t be able to move to traditional Pay As You Go. For this reason, you’ll have a little bit less flexibility on these plans.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Pay As You Go bundles?
With a Pay As You Go bundle, you’ll convert your Pay As You Go credit into a one month allowance of minutes, texts and mobile data. This will normally save you money compared to traditional Pay As You Go.
How much do Pay As You Go bundles cost?
In the UK, you can get a Pay As You Go bundle with unlimited minutes & texts for as little as £4 on ASDA Mobile.

However, for most people wanting to use their smartphone on-the-go, we’d recommend choosing a Pay As You Go bundle with inclusive data from £5 per month.
What are the best Pay As You Go bundles?
At present, we recommend giffgaff’s £10 golden goodybag which gives you 20GB data for £10. You’ll get 4G & 5G coverage from O2, along with an extra 1GB data from your third month onwards.

If you’re looking for a smaller data allowance, you can also consider ASDA Mobile’s £5 bundle with 3GB data.
Can I use Pay As You Go without topping up every month?
Yes. If you don’t want to buy a bundle every month, you can get a traditional Pay As You Go plan instead. This is ideal for light mobile users not wanting to top-up every month.

On traditional Pay As You Go plans, rates currently start from 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB.

More Information

For more information, see our guide to free Pay As You Go SIM cards. You can also read our other guides on Pay As You Go and SIM-only deals in the UK.

Your Comments 187 so far

We'd love to hear your thoughts and any questions you may have. So far, we've received 187 comments from readers. You can add your own comment here.

    • Ken replied:

      Hi Ross,
      Thanks for your comment. Sadly, I haven’t done any research into those providers, nor have I tried them myself so I’ve got nothing further to share! Hopefully someone else reading this might have some feedback however?
      Ken

    • John replied:

      There is no link to fresh mobile via the above address.
      Fresh mobile has closed. According to money saving expert.com

  • Stengo Monkford said:

    I want unlimited data. I’m with gift gaff, it’s £25″a month and after you use so much data(took approximately a week)you are no longer on the fast speed connectin. It’s pathetic. I’m downloading a mobile game at 56 mb, and its took 45 mins and I’m only 60% complete. Any better networks with better deals you’d recommend?

  • Tony said:

    Hello,
    over the past few years i’ve quite often referred to your website when changing or comparing networks here in N. Ireland. Just wanted to say your site is much appreciated for your clear and no nonsense info on the sometimes confusing world of mobile networks,
    regards Tony.

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