Giffgaff Unlimited Data Plans: £25 Always On Data & £35 Unlimited 5G Data

giffgaff offers a choice of two unlimited data plans: the £25 goodybag with Always On data and the £35 golden goodybag with 5G.

In the UK, giffgaff now offers a choice of two unlimited data plans. You can choose the £25 goodybag with Always On data which gives you 4G coverage and uncapped speeds on the first 80GB per month. Alternatively, the more expensive £35 golden goodybag gives you unlimited data at 5G speeds with a 650GB per month fair usage limit.

In this article, we’ll review and compare giffgaff’s unlimited data plans in the UK. We’ll start by comparing their £25 Always On data plan to their £35 unlimited data plan. We’ll then look at the fair usage limits, the download speeds you can expect on giffgaff and how the plans compare to other networks. Finally, we’ll look at the coverage available on giffgaff and how you can keep your current phone number when moving to the network.

Giffgaff Unlimited Data Plans

In the UK, giffgaff now offers a choice of two goodybag plans with unlimited data:

• The £25 Always On goodybag gives you 4G coverage on giffgaff. You’ll get uncapped download speeds on the first 80GB per month. After this, there’s a maximum speed of 384kbps between 8am and midnight (equivalent to a basic 3G connection).
• The £35 unlimited data golden goodybag gives you 5G coverage on giffgaff. You’ll get uncapped download speeds on this plan, subject a fair use limit of 650GB per month.

The following table shows a side-by-side comparison of the two plans:

	£25 Goodybag	£35 Golden Goodybag
Monthly Price:	£25 per month	£35 per month
Contract Length:	No contract – cancel anytime	No contract – cancel anytime
Inclusive Allowances
Minutes:	Unlimited minutes	Unlimited minutes
Texts:	Unlimited texts	Unlimited texts
Data:	Always-On data	Unlimited data
Speeds:	Uncapped 4G speeds (first 80GB per month) 384kbps maximum (after 80GB, from 8am to midnight)	Uncapped 5G speeds (650GB fair use)
Goodybag Features
5G Coverage:	✘ No	✔ Yes
2G, 3G & 4G Coverage:	✔ 99% coverage	✔ 99% coverage
Purchase Method:	Recurring purchase (from saved card details) Manual purchase (from top-up voucher or credit)	Recurring purchase (from saved card details)

Order giffgaff SIM card (Free) →

As the £35 plan is a golden goodybag, you’ll need to switch on the “recurring goodybag” feature inside your giffgaff account. This means your plan will automatically renew every month until you cancel the renewal.

The £25 plan is a regular goodybag so you can buy it automatically if you wish. Alternatively, there’s the option of buying it manually from a top-up voucher or from your Pay As You Go credit.

Fair Usage Policy

Within their fair usage policy, giffgaff says their mobile service should only be used for “private, personal, and non-commercial purposes”. In addition, the following fair usage policy also applies for usage in the UK:

• On the £25 goodybag with Always On data, there’s a 384kbps speed restriction once you’ve used 80GB of data in one month. This speed restriction applies between 8am and midnight each day and can make it difficult to stream things like online video.
• On the £35 goodybag with unlimited 5G data, giffgaff says they’ll continuously monitor the amount of data you’re using. They say you should “avoid regularly tethering to 12 or more devices or regularly using unreasonably large amounts of data, including but not limited using around 650GB of data twice within a 6-month period”.

If you’re using your giffgaff SIM card abroad in a European country, you’ll be subject to a 20GB per month fair usage limit for roaming. Further usage beyond the 20GB limit will be charged at 0.36p/MB for the remainder of your goodybag, You should also avoid using your SIM card in Europe for more than 63 days in any four month period.

Download Speeds

On the £25 goodybag with Always-On data, you’ll have access to uncapped 4G speeds for the first 80GB per month. In theory, it’s possible to get peak download speeds of up to 300Mbps but actual download speeds will normally be closer to 25Mbps.

If you use more than 80GB of data in one month, your maximum download speeds will be restricted to 384kbps between 8am and midnight each day. This maximum download speed is roughly equivalent to 0.4Mbps, or the approximate speed of a basic 3G connection. It’s enough for browsing the web, using social media and instant messaging applications. However, things like streaming video from the internet are unlikely to work smoothly at this speed. If you want to restore full-speed 4G data, you can choose to renew your £25 goodybag early.

If you have the £35 goodybag with unlimited data, you’ll have access to uncapped 5G download speeds. This is subject to you having a 5G-ready device, as well as 5G coverage in your area. The maximum download speed on 5G can be as high as 1,000Mbps (1Gbps) but average speeds of 150Mbps will be much more common.

In certain areas where the mobile network is congested, giffgaff also operates a traffic management policy called Traffic Flow. This applies to approximately 2.5% of their network and impacts around 0.15% of giffgaff members with the heaviest data usage on their network. If giffgaff believes you are “using more than your fair share of network resource”, they can apply an “upper speed restriction of 100kbps for a period of 30 minutes”.

Comparison to Alternatives

Besides giffgaff, there are also many other networks offering unlimited data in the UK. As long as you’re happy to sign up for a contract, you can get unlimited data for as little as £15/month elsewhere (e.g. on Three’s unlimited data plan which also includes 5G).

Network	Data	Monthly Cost
Three coverage Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£15.00 per month 1 month contract	See deal
Three coverage Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£16.00 per month 1 month rolling	See deal
Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£20.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by RPI inflation plus 3.9%	See deal
Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£22.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.50	See deal
Vodafone coverage Unlimited UK mins Unlimited UK texts 100 intl mins	Unlimited data	£22.50 per month 12 month contract	See deal
O2 coverage Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£25.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by CPI inflation plus 3.9%	See deal
O2 coverage Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£25.00 per month 18 month contract	See deal
Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data 100Mbps max speed	£27.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each March by £1.50	See deal
Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data 10Mbps max speed	£30.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.80	See deal
Vodafone coverage Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£35.00 per month 1 month rolling	See deal

If you’re looking for unlimited data without a contract, this is also available on the unlimited data plans from Lebara Mobile, SMARTY, Superdrug Mobile and VOXI. For instance, SMARTY currently offers unlimited data for £16/month with uncapped 4G download speeds on the Three network.

For more information, see our full guide to unlimited data in the UK.

Coverage

4G & 5G Coverage

giffgaff uses O2 as their network coverage provider. This means customers joining the giffgaff network will get the same coverage as customers on O2.

At the time of writing, this means giffgaff offers 99% population coverage on 2G, 3G and 4G. You can check the coverage in your area by entering your postcode on giffgaff’s online coverage map:

Check giffgaff coverage (giffgaff.com) →

The average download speed on giffgaff’s 4G service is around 20Mbps but this can vary substantially depending on your location and handset.

In addition, if you’re using a 5G-ready phone, you’ll be able to access 5G coverage on your unlimited data plan from giffgaff.

For more information, see our full guide to coverage on O2.

Tethering & Personal Hotspot

Tethering or personal hotspot refers to the process of sharing your smartphone’s internet connection with another device (e.g. with your laptop or tablet).

On both of giffgaff’s unlimited data goodybags, you can use tethering and personal hotspot to share your data with other devices. However, giffgaff says you shouldn’t tether to more than 12 devices if you’re using the £35 golden goodybag with unlimited data.

On giffgaff’s £25 goodybag with Always On data, your download speeds will be restricted to a maximum of 384kbps if you’ve already used more than 80GB of data in the current month. This applies from 8am to midnight each day. Whilst you’re still able to use tethering and personal hotspot, the speed may not allow you to do very much on other devices.

International Roaming

If you’re travelling abroad, you can use your giffgaff goodybag allowances in 37 European destinations at no extra cost.

On both of giffgaff’s unlimited data goodybags, a fair usage policy of 20GB per month applies in Europe. If you exceed the 20GB limit, you’ll be surcharged at a rate of 0.36p/MB (equivalent to £3.60 per gigabyte). This is charged against your Pay As You Go credit on giffgaff.

If you’re travelling outside Europe, you won’t be able to use your giffgaff goodybag allowances. Instead, you’ll pay giffgaff’s international roaming rates which range from 20p to £5 per megabyte (equivalent to £200 to £5,000 per gigabyte). For this reason, it might be cheaper to use a different mobile network when you travel outside Europe.

For more information, see our guide to using your mobile phone abroad.

Keeping Your Phone Number

If you’re switching from another mobile network to giffgaff, it’s a straightforward process to keep your current phone number.

Start by ordering your free SIM card from giffgaff. Once you’ve done that, request a PAC Code from your current mobile network. You can get one using their website or app, or by texting PAC to 65075.

When your giffgaff SIM card arrives in the post, activate it and fill out the number transfer form on giffgaff’s website. Once you’ve done that, your phone number will normally be scheduled for the next working day.

For a step-by-step guide on transferring your phone number to giffgaff, please select your current mobile network from the drop-down menu below:

It isn’t possible to transfer Pay As You Go credit from another network to giffgaff so you should try to use it up before moving your phone number over.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Information

You can see the giffgaff website for further information about their £25 goodybag and their £35 golden goodybag. You may also find it of interest to read our full giffgaff review.