By You can get a 5G Pay As You Go SIM card from £5/month with no contract and no credit check required.
If you’re using a 5G-ready phone in the UK, you’ll also need a 5G-ready plan to take advantage of the faster speeds available. At present, there are nine UK mobile networks offering 5G Pay As You Go plans. These allow you to get connected on your mobile from £5/month with no contract and no credit check.
In this article, we’ll review and compare the UK’s best value 5G Pay As You Go plans. We’ll start with an overview of our recommended networks, before looking at the plans available on each mobile network in more detail.
| 5G Pay As You Go Plans: | From £5/month |
|---|---|
| Recommended Deal: | 80GB data for £10 on SMARTY Pay As You Go (with no contract, no credit check & 5G coverage from Three) |
| With EE Coverage: |
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| With O2 Coverage: |
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| With Three Coverage: | |
| With Vodafone Coverage: |
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5G Pay As You Go Deals
At present, SMARTY and giffgaff are our recommended providers if you’re looking for a 5G-ready Pay As You Go plan.
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SMARTY
At present, you can get 5GB data for £6, 15GB data for £7, 80GB data for £10 and unlimited data for £16 on SMARTY. All of SMARTY’s Pay As You Go plans include unlimited UK minutes and unlimited UK texts. You’ll also get 5G coverage (powered by Three’s 5G network), inclusive EU roaming and the promise of no annual price rises. |
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giffgaff
The most popular 5G-ready plan is giffgaff’s £10 golden goodybag. This comes with 15GB of data, unlimited UK minutes and unlimited UK texts. Heavy data users can upgrade this to 30GB data for £15 and 100GB data for £20. As a giffgaff member, you’ll get access to O2’s 4G & 5G network. |
Compare 5G Pay As You Go Deals
At present, there are nine UK mobile networks offering 5G coverage on Pay As You Go.
The following table shows a list of 5G Pay As You Go providers, the starting price on each network and the coverage provider it uses:
| Mobile Network | 5G Plans From | Coverage Provider |
|---|---|---|
| 1p Mobile | 1p/minute, 1p/text & 1p/MB | EE |
| ASDA Mobile | £5/month | Vodafone |
| giffgaff | £6/month | O2 |
| Lebara Mobile | £5/month | Vodafone |
| Lycamobile | £5/month | O2 |
| SMARTY | £6/month | Three |
| Three | £10/month | Three |
| Vodafone | £10/month | Vodafone |
| VOXI | £10/month | Vodafone |
Unfortunately, it isn’t currently possible to get 5G coverage if you’re using a Pay As You Go plan from EE, O2, Tesco Mobile or Vectone Mobile. Instead, you can consider getting 5G from one of the networks listed above. For instance, giffgaff can give you access to O2’s 5G network.
Contents
5G Pay As You Go Bundles: By Network
In the following section, we’ll look at the 5G Pay As You Go plans on each mobile network in more detail.
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1p Mobile
On 1pMobile, you’ll pay just 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB. There are no regular monthly charges for keeping your SIM card active but you’ll need to top-up your SIM card with at least £10 of credit every 120 days. If you’re a heavy data user, you can buy a 30-day boost. For instance, you can get 2GB data for £6, 10GB data for £10 and 50GB data for £15. This may be cheaper than paying the 1p/MB rate (which works out as £10 per GB).
For more information, see our 1p Mobile review. |
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ASDA Mobile
The following table shows ASDA Mobile’s 5G Pay As You Go plans:
You can also choose from a range of 5G-ready unlimited data plans on ASDA Pay As You Go. However, the £20 and £25 plans have a speed limit in place so you won’t be able to get the full benefits of 5G coverage unless you choose the £30 plan.
If you choose an ASDA Mobile SIM card costing less than £10 per month, you’ll only have access to Vodafone’s 3G and 4G networks.
For more information, see our ASDA Mobile unlimited data review. |
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giffgaff
For the best value usage, consider getting a golden goodybag from £10 per month. This will give you a larger data allowance when you set your bundle to recur automatically:
If you’re happy with having a smaller allowance of data, you’ll also get 5G coverage on giffgaff’s regular goodybags from £6 per month:
With regular goodybags, there’s no obligation to set your goodybag to recur automatically. In addition, you can buy a regular goodybag from a top-up voucher or from your Pay As You Go credit.
For more information, see our giffgaff review. You can also read our guide to golden goodybags on giffgaff. |
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Lebara Mobile
On Lebara, you’ll get 4G & 5G coverage from the Vodafone network. You’ll also get an inclusive allowance of UK minutes, UK texts and international minutes for calling 42 destinations. At present, Lebara Mobile offers the following 5G Pay As You Go plans:
As a special offer for November 2024, you can get 3 months half price on all of Lebara’s standard Pay As You Go plans. To get this, you’ll need to enter the KEN3 voucher code at checkout. In addition, you can get a further 10% discount when you sign up for a 12-month plan on Lebara. This would involve a 12 month commitment but you’ll benefit from a fixed monthly price and there’s still no credit check required.
For more information, see our guide to Lebara Mobile’s SIM-only deals. |
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LycamobileIf you’re using a 5G-ready Android device, you’ll now be able to access 5G on the Pay As You Go plans from Lycamobile. This is powered by O2’s 5G network.
Unfortunately, Lycamobile’s 5G service is not currently available to customers with an iPhone.
For more information, you can read our Lycamobile review. |
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SMARTY
Some of the most popular Pay As You Go plans available on SMARTY include 5GB data for £6, 15GB data for £7, 80GB data for £10 and unlimited data for £16. The following table shows SMARTY’s best Pay As You Go plans:
For more information, see our SMARTY mobile review. |
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Three
Unfortunately, Three charges a lot more for their Pay As You Go plans, compared to their Pay Monthly SIM cards. For instance, you can get 40GB data for £8 and unlimited data for £22 on a Pay Monthly contract with Three. Alternatively, SMARTY offers unlimited data for £16 with no contract, no credit check & 5G coverage from Three.
For more information, see our guide to Three’s 5G network and Three’s Pay As You Go plans. |
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Vodafone
This following table shows Vodafone’s 5G-ready Pay As You Go plans:
If you choose a Vodafone Big Value Bundle costing less than £10/month, you’ll only have access to Vodafone’s 3G and 4G networks on it. In general, we wouldn’t recommend choosing Vodafone if you’re looking for a 5G-ready Pay As You Go plan. This is because it’s comparatively expensive and there are much cheaper options available elsewhere. For instance, both ASDA Mobile and Lebara Mobile offer much cheaper plans with access to 5G coverage on the Vodafone network.
For more information, see our guide to Vodafone’s Pay As You Go bundles. |
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VOXI
On VOXI, you’re getting 5G coverage from the Vodafone network so you’ll be able to get 5G coverage in the same places as customers on Vodafone. The following table shows VOXI’s 5G-ready Pay As You Go plans:
VOXI’s endless social media gives you unlimited usage of Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook Messenger without eating into your regular data allowance. VOXI’s endless video gives you unlimited usage of TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, My5, TVPlayer and UKTV Play without eating into your normal data allowance.
For more information, see our guide to 5G on VOXI and our in-depth VOXI review. |
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If you’re looking for a traditional Pay As You Go plan with 4G & 5G coverage from EE, you can 
On 
In the UK, 
In the UK, Three offers 5G at no extra cost on all of 
In the UK, Vodafone offers 
Other Mobile Networks
On the other Pay As You Go mobile networks, it isn’t currently possible to get 5G coverage:
- EE Pay As You Go customers are restricted to 3G & 4G speeds. You’ll need to get an EE Pay Monthly SIM card for access to 5G coverage. EE are yet to announce when 5G will be made available to Pay As You Go customers.
- O2 Pay As You Go is still restricted to 3G & 4G coverage. If you’re looking for 5G, consider ordering a SIM card from giffgaff instead. giffgaff offers 5G coverage from the O2 network on all of their plans.
- Tesco Mobile Pay As You Go customers currently receive 3G & 4G coverage from the O2 network.
- Vectone Mobile Pay As You Go customers currently receive 3G coverage from EE.
More Information
For more information, you can also read our in-depth guides to 5G coverage in the UK and 5G SIM-only deals. We’ve also got a full comparison of the UK’s best Pay As You Go SIM cards.
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