Compare Pay As You Go Networks: Prices & Coverage

Looking for the cheapest Pay As You Go tariff in the UK? Our interactive comparison table allows you to compare Pay As You Go mobile networks by price and coverage.

If you’re looking for a Pay As You Go network in the UK, you’re spoilt for choice with nearly 20 different mobile networks to choose from.

With the UK having one of world’s most competitive marketplaces for mobile communication, it’s never been easier to change mobile networks to take advantage of a cheaper deal. Just order a free Pay As You Go SIM card and insert it into an unlocked smartphone to take advantage of lower rates.

When choosing a new Pay As You Go mobile network, there are two primary considerations you need to think about. Firstly, there’s the price: you’ll want to make sure you’re not paying more than you need to. Secondly, there’s the coverage: you’ll want a mobile network that gives you fast and reliable coverage.

Before choosing a new mobile network, it’s worth being aware there are actually two different types of Pay As You Go tariff:

Traditional Pay As You Go	Pay As You Go Bundles
Best for light users who don’t have a smartphone.	Best for regular users and smartphone users.
Pay on a per-minute, per-text and per-megabyte basis. Rates are typically higher compared to a bundle.	Get a 30-day bundle with calls, texts & data. Pay a fixed monthly amount which is known in advance.
Typically, your credit doesn’t expire providing you keep your SIM card active.	Unused allowances expire after 30 days, after which you’ll need to buy another bundle.
No credit check & no contracts to sign.	No credit check & no contracts to sign.

In this article, we’ll mainly be comparing traditional Pay As You Go tariffs where you pay for usage on a per-minute, per-text and per-megabyte basis.

If you’re a regular mobile user or if you use a smartphone, you might be better off buying a 30-day bundle. For more information, see our guide to the UK’s best value Pay As You Go bundles.

Cheapest Pay As You Go Tariffs

The cheapest Pay As You Go tariffs we’d typically recommend are 1pMobile and O2’s Classic Pay As You Go:

1pMobile 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB. Minimum top-up of £10 every 120 days. Uses the EE network. 99% coverage, 3G & 4G internet, check coverage here. Keep your current number. It’s easy to transfer your number to 1pMobile. 1pMobile offers the lowest Pay As You Go rates available in the UK. With a super-straightforward tariff of 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB, customers of 1pMobile are able to access high-speed 3G & 4G coverage from EE. The main thing to be aware of before joining 1pMobile is the minimum top-up requirement. In order to keep your SIM card active, your phone needs to be topped up by at least £10 every 120 days. This means you’ll need to top-up your phone with at least £30 per year, though you retain complete flexibility on when and how to spend the credit. 1pMobile is a fairly new network, but is backed by the sister company of Utility Warehouse. Read our in-depth review of 1pMobile for more information. Order 1pMobile SIM card (Free with £10 top-up) →

O2 3p/minute, 2p/text, 1p/MB. No minimum top-up requirement; use phone every 6 months. Uses the O2 network. 99% coverage, 3G & 4G internet, check coverage here. Keep your current number. It’s easy to transfer your number to O2. Out of the mainstream mobile networks, O2 is our recommended network for low Pay As You Go rates. On O2’s Classic Pay As You Go tariff, you’ll pay just 3p/minute, 2p/text and 1p/MB. There is no minimum top-up requirement or regular monthly subscription: you just need to use your SIM card for a chargeable activity at least once every 6 months. On Classic Pay As You Go, you’ll also have full access to O2 Priority customer offers (e.g. including a free coffee from Caffè Nero each week and a £5 main course from Pizza Express). You’ll also have access to 99% population coverage, including on O2’s 2G, 3G and 4G network. Order O2 Classic SIM card (Free) → Two other mobile networks, Three and iD Mobile, also charge the same 3p/minute, 2p/text and 1p/MB rate. However, we’d typically recommend choosing O2 over both of these options as you’ll generally have access to better coverage and you’re also able to benefit from O2 Priority offers.

For a full comparison of other traditional Pay As You Go tariffs, please read on for the full comparison table below.

Pay As You Go Prices and Coverage: Comparison Table

In the table below, we’ve listed the Pay As You Go prices on each UK mobile network. We’ve also listed the coverage provider for each network and provided a link where you’re able to check the coverage on that network. You can use the table below in conjunction with our other guides when choosing a new Pay As You Go mobile network.

To sort the table, you can tap on the relevant column heading.

Network	Mobile Internet (per day)	Calls (per minute)	Texts (per SMS)		Picture Message (per MMS)	Voicemail	Special Rate (per minute)	Coverage Provider
1pMobile	~10p (estimated from 1p/MB)	1p	1p	…	30p	1p per minute	20p + service charge		EE
Three	~10p (estimated from 1p/MB)	3p	2p	…	40p	3p per minute	45p + service charge		Three
ASDA Mobile	~50p (estimated from 5p/MB)	8p	4p	…	25p	8p per minute	8p + service charge		EE
CMLink	~50p (estimated from 5p/MB)	8p	6p	…	-	- per minute	8p + service charge		EE
Co-Op Mobile	~£1 (estimated from 10p/MB)	8p	4p	…	25p	4p per minute	21p + service charge		EE
EE	Data usage requires 30-day bundle	35p	15p	…	40p	35p per minute	44p + service charge		EE
giffgaff	~50p (estimated from 5p/MB)	15p	5p	…	16p	8p per call	25p + service charge		O2
iD Mobile	~10p (estimated from 1p/MB)	3p	2p	…	5p	3p per minute	45p + service charge		Three
Lebara Mobile	~90p (estimated from 9p/MB)	19p	19p	…	45p	19p per minute	45p + service charge		Vodafone
Lycamobile	~£1.20 (estimated from 12p/MB)	19p (12p to landline)	19p	…	-	0p per call	23p + service charge		O2
O2 Big Bundles	£1 (fixed, for 50MB/day)	35p	15p	…	45p	35p per call	55p + service charge		O2
O2 International	£1 (fixed, for 50MB/day)	35p	15p	…	45p	25p per call	55p + service charge		O2
T-Mobile	£1 (fixed, for 500MB/month)	40p	15p	…	30p	40p per minute	44p + service charge		EE
Tesco Mobile Triple Credit	~£1 (estimated from 10p/MB)	25p	10p	…	25p	15p per minute	25p + service charge		O2
Tesco Mobile Lite	~£1 (estimated from 10p/MB)	8p	4p	…	25p	8p per minute	25p + service charge		O2
Vectone Mobile	~90p (estimated from 9p/MB)	19p (12p to landline)	19p	…	25p	10p per minute	12p + service charge		EE
Virgin Mobile	£2 (fixed, for 200MB/day)	£2/day (max 200 mins)	£2/day (max 200 texts)	…	30p	26p per call	36p + service charge		EE
Vodafone Big Value Bundles	£2 (fixed, for 50MB/day)	35p	14p	…	45p	35p per minute	45p + service charge		Vodafone
Vodafone Pay As You Go 1	£1 (fixed, for 500MB/day)	20p (max £1/day)	20p (max £1/day)	…	20p	20p per minute	45p + service charge		Vodafone
VOXI	Data usage requires 30-day bundle	30p	14p	…	45p	30p per minute	45p + service charge		Vodafone

Sources: 1pmobile.com, three.co.uk, mobile.asda.com, cmlink.com, thephone.coop, ee.co.uk, giffgaff.com, idmobile.co.uk, mobile.lebara.com, lycamobile.co.uk, o2.co.uk, o2.co.uk, ee.co.uk, tescomobile.com, tescomobile.com, vectonemobile.co.uk, virginmedia.com, vodafone.co.uk, voxi.co.uk. Last updated on 18th November 2019.

If you’d like to compare charges for picture messaging (MMS), voicemail and special rate phone numbers, hover your mouse over the “…” column or tap on it to reveal charges.

Remember: if you choose to buy a Pay As You Go bundle, you won’t actually pay the rates listed in the table above. Instead, your 30-day bundle will include a certain allowance for accessing the mobile internet, calling and texting. The rates listed in the table above are only for customers using traditional Pay As You Go.

For more information about each type of charge, please read on for a full explanation and comparison.

We endeavour to keep the information on this page as up-to-date as possible. However, prices can sometimes change without us being aware. If you know of any changes to the pricing listed above, please contact us by leaving a comment at the bottom of this article.

Background Information

Mobile Internet

On traditional Pay As You Go, mobile data charges currently start from 1p/MB. This equates to paying £10 for 1GB of data (you should then add the cost of your phone calls and text messages to this).

Typically, a cheaper way to access mobile internet on-the-go is by buying a Pay As You Go bundle. For the same £10/month, you can get about 4GB of inclusive mobile data (4GB is equal to 4,000MB). You’ll also get an allowance of minutes and texts included, making the bundle much better value for users of a smartphone.

The following table shows what you’re currently able to get for a £10 Pay As You Go bundle:

Network	Minutes	Texts	Data	Monthly Cost
	Unlimited	Unlimited	6GB	£10.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	4GB	£10.00
	600	Unlimited	4GB	£10.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	3GB	£10.00
	250	Unlimited	3GB	£10.00
	250	Unlimited	1GB	£10.00

If you’re a light user, not using the internet every day, it can sometimes be more economical to use traditional Pay As You Go. For instance, if you were to use 10MB of data per day, the cheapest tariffs on traditional Pay As You Go would be the following:

At A Glance: The Cheapest Networks For Mobile Internet
1pMobile	1p/MB (10p/day for 10MB)
Three	1p/MB (10p/day for 10MB)
iD Mobile	1p/MB (10p/day for 10MB)

It’s worth being aware that traditional Pay As You Go tariffs can charge for data in two different ways: either ‘per megabyte’ or ‘per day’. In the table above, we’ve assumed 10MB of data consumption per day. If you know how much data you actually use, you can tailor the comparison by entering your daily data usage here.

If you don’t use mobile data very often, but tend to use large amounts on the days when you do (e.g. when travelling), Vodafone’s Pay As You Go 1 tariff is the ideal option. Vodafone will charge you £1/day on traditional Pay As You Go for up to 500MB of data, unlimited minutes and unlimited texts.

Phone Calls

On traditional Pay As You Go, you’ll be charged for outgoing phone calls on a per-minute basis. The standard per-minute rate will apply for phone calls to a UK mobile or landline (most phone numbers beginning with 01, 02, 03 or 07).

The following table shows the cheapest per-minute rates available on UK Pay As You Go networks:

At A Glance: The Cheapest Networks For Making A Phone Call
1pMobile	1p per minute
Three	3p per minute
iD Mobile	3p per minute
ASDA Mobile	8p per minute
CMLink	8p per minute
Co-operative Mobile	8p per minute
Tesco Mobile Lite	8p per minute

Different rates will apply when you’re calling special-rate phone numbers (see below for more information). Calls to voicemail and international phone calls are also charged at a different rate. Our in-depth guide to UK phone numbers can help you to understand the relevant charges. You’ll never be charged to receive an incoming phone call in the UK.

On a Pay As You Go bundle, you can typically get unlimited minutes for around £10/month (e.g. on giffgaff’s £10 goodybag). Therefore, it will certainly be cheaper to use a Pay As You Go bundle if you make a large number of phone calls from your mobile.

Please note: most mobile networks have a minimum charge for outgoing phone calls. This is normally equivalent to the cost of a one-minute call. For instance, if your mobile network charges 35p/minute, the minimum call charge will typically be 35p per call. Some mobile networks will round up the length of your phone calls to a complete minute before working out how much to charge you. For instance, a 61-second phone call might be rounded up to 2 complete minutes.

Text Messages (SMS)

A SMS text message is able to contain up to 160 characters, and you’ll normally be charged for text messages on a per-SMS basis.

If the length of your text message exceeds 160 characters, your message will be split up and sent as multiple SMS. In this case, you’ll also be charged for every additional SMS sent (e.g. you’ll be charged double if your text message is split into 2 SMS messages).

The following Pay As You Go mobile networks have the lowest per-SMS charge:

At A Glance: The Cheapest Networks For Texting
1pMobile	1p per message
Three	2p per message
iD Mobile	2p per message
ASDA Mobile	4p per message
Co-operative Mobile	4p per message
Tesco Mobile Lite	4p per message

In recent years, the cost of sending a SMS message has become much less important as many people have moved towards using smartphone messaging apps (e.g. iMessage, WhatsApp, Snapchat or Facebook Messenger). When you’re using an instant messaging app for your smartphone, you can send messages through the app without incurring a SMS charge (you just need to pay your normal data charges for accessing the internet).

Picture Messages (MMS)

On most 3G and 4G enabled handsets, you’re able to send a picture message over the mobile network using MMS functionality (Multimedia Messaging Service). The cost of sending a picture message can range from 5p to 45p per MMS and each MMS message can be up to 300KB in size.

At A Glance: The Cheapest Networks For Sending A Picture Message
iD Mobile	5p per picture message
giffgaff	16p per picture message
Vodafone Pay As You Go 1	20p per picture message
ASDA Mobile	25p per picture message
Co-operative Mobile	25p per picture message
Tesco Mobile Triple Credit/Rocket Pack	25p per picture message
Tesco Mobile Lite	25p per picture message
Vectone Mobile	25p per picture message

You can see MMS charges in the table above by tapping the … column.

To avoid paying MMS charges, you can use a smartphone messaging app such as iMessage or WhatsApp. You won’t be charged for sending a picture message through these applications – you’ll just pay your normal charges for accessing the internet.

Voicemail

Most mobile networks offer a voicemail service for when you aren’t able to receive an incoming phone call. The voicemail service will activate automatically when your phone is switched off, or when you miss or reject an incoming phone call.

With voicemail, you’ll normally be charged twice for the service: once when an incoming caller leaves a message on your voicemail, and again when you later listen back to the voicemail recording.

At A Glance: The Cheapest Networks For Accessing Your Voicemail
1pMobile	1p per minute
Three	3p per minute
iD Mobile	3p per minute
Co-operative Mobile	4p per minute
giffgaff	8p per call

You can see voicemail charges in the table above by tapping the … column.

Voicemail charges will normally be included within the minutes allowance when you buy a Pay As You Go bundle.

Special Rate Phone Calls

If you’re calling a special rate phone number (phone numbers beginning with 084, 087, 09 or 118), you’ll be charged differently to when you’re making a normal phone call.

With special rate numbers, the charge is divided into two separate parts. Firstly, there’s a per-minute access charge from your mobile phone network (you can save money by choosing the network with the lowest per-minute access charge). Secondly, there’s a service charge from the company you’re calling (this will always be the same regardless of which network you’re calling from).

The following Pay As You Go networks currently have the lowest per-minute access charge:

At A Glance: The Cheapest Networks For Making A Special Rate Call
ASDA Mobile	8p/minute access charge + service charge
CMLink	8p/minute access charge + service charge
Vectone Mobile	12p/minute access charge + service charge

The company you’re calling on the special rate phone number should inform you about the service charge for calling the number.

You can see the charges for calling a special rate phone number in the table above by tapping the … column.

Coverage Provider

In the UK, only four companies hold a license to build and maintain their own mobile network infrastructure. These four companies are EE, O2, Three and Vodafone. They each license some spectrum from the Government and maintain a network of mobile phone masts across the country.

All other companies offering a mobile phone service are known as mobile virtual network operators (or MVNOs for short). They piggyback on infrastructure from one of the four coverage providers. Therefore, on these ‘virtual networks’, you’ll get identical coverage to what is available on the host network. To give an example, customers using ASDA Mobile get the exact same coverage as customers using EE.

The level of coverage offered by a Pay As You Go network depends solely upon which coverage provider they’re using. We’ve therefore listed the coverage provider for each network in the table above for ease of comparison.

If you’d like to quickly check the coverage in your area on each of the four coverage providers, please select a logo to see the relevant online coverage map for your area:

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For more information, please see our in-depth guide on how to check and compare mobile phone coverage in the UK.

Handset Compatibility

Providing your handset is unlocked, it should work on any mobile network in the table above. The only exception is for 2G-only handsets which will not work on Three or any other network using coverage from Three (this is because Three doesn’t offer any 2G coverage).

If you already have a handset that’s unlocked, you can order a free SIM card from most of the mobile networks above. The SIM card will slot inside your existing unlocked smartphone and you’ll be able to transfer your existing phone number to it.

If your smartphone is currently locked to a mobile network, please see our step-by-step guides to unlocking an iPhone and unlocking a Samsung Galaxy. Alternatively, see our overview of handset unlocking.

Bundles & Credit Expiry

On the majority of traditional Pay As You Go services, your credit won’t expire providing your SIM card remains active. This makes it perfect for people who rarely use their handset (e.g. if your mobile phone is mainly used for emergencies). Typically, you’ll need to use your SIM card at least once every 6 months to keep it active. However, this varies depending on your mobile network between 84 days and 270 days. On 1pMobile, you’ll also need to top-up your SIM card at least once every 120 days.

On certain mobile networks (which include Delight Mobile, iD Mobile, Lebara Mobile, Lycamobile and Vectone Mobile at the time of writing), your Pay As You Go credit will expire a certain amount of time after top-up (e.g. 90 days from top-up).

For customers who convert their credit into a Pay As You Go bundle, the allowances included on the bundle will normally expire after 30 days. For instance, the following Pay As You Go bundles are currently available for £10 per month:

Network	Minutes	Texts	Data	Monthly Cost
	Unlimited	Unlimited	6GB	£10.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	4GB	£10.00
	600	Unlimited	4GB	£10.00
	Unlimited	Unlimited	3GB	£10.00
	250	Unlimited	3GB	£10.00
	250	Unlimited	1GB	£10.00

For more information, please see our comparison of Pay As You Go bundles. You can also read our in-depth reviews of the bundles from ASDA Mobile, EE, giffgaff, O2, Three and Vodafone.

Order ASDA Mobile SIM Card (Free) →
ASDA Mobile’s £10 bundle comes with 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 4GB data (coverage from EE)

Keeping Your Phone Number

If you’re changing mobile networks, it’s super easy to keep your existing phone number. Simply ask your old mobile network to provide you with a PAC Code and then give this code to your new network. The transfer process normally takes about one working day. For more information, see our guide to moving your phone number between networks.

More Information

For more information, please see our full guide to the UK’s best Pay As You Go deals. You can also read our in-depth reviews of every UK mobile network.