Vodafone Unlimited Data Plans: Unlimited Max, Unlimited & Unlimited Lite

Vodafone has a range of unlimited data plans with 4G & 5G coverage. Choose between Unlimited Max, Unlimited and Unlimited Lite download speeds.

In the UK, Vodafone offers a choice of three unlimited data plans, each one differing in the download speeds you’re able to get. The unlimited data plans from Vodafone start from £23/month. For this, you’ll get an unlimited data SIM card which also includes unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and access to 5G coverage.

When buying an unlimited data plan from Vodafone, you’ll need to choose between three different plans. Unlimited Max is Vodafone’s fastest available plan. Meanwhile, Unlimited is capped at a maximum download speed of 10Mbps and Unlimited Lite is capped at a maximum speed of 2Mbps.

Get unlimited data from £23/month →

In this article, we’ll compare Vodafone’s unlimited data plans. We’ll start by comparing the three plans in detail: Unlimited Max, Unlimited and Unlimited Lite. We’ll then take an in-depth look at the download speeds available and at how Vodafone’s unlimited data plans compare to the rest of the market. Finally, we’ll discuss the coverage available and how you can keep your phone number when moving to Vodafone.

Unlimited Data on Vodafone

Vodafone Unlimited Data Plans Compared

In the UK, Vodafone now offers unlimited data on a choice of three different plans.

Starting from £23/month, you can currently choose from the Vodafone Unlimited Max, Unlimited and Unlimited Lite plans. All of them will allow you to download as much as you like, with no hidden limits or fair usage policies.

However, the unlimited data plans differ in the speeds and features available:

• Unlimited Max starts from £33/month and gives you the fastest available speeds on Vodafone’s network, including 5G if you have a 5G-ready phone and 5G coverage where you live.
• Unlimited starts from £23/month and gives you download speeds of up to 10Mbps.
• Unlimited Lite starts from £30/month and gives you download speeds of up to 2Mbps.

You can also get unlimited data on a range of Pay Monthly phones and on mobile broadband, with a range of different offers available.

Key Differences: At A Glance

The following table shows a side-by-side comparison between the Unlimited Max, Unlimited and Unlimited Lite plans. You can read on through the rest of this article for more information about each individual plan.

If you’d like to use unlimited data for work or business, you can get a Vodafone business SIM card with unlimited data. This starts from £9.17/month for the first 6 months, followed by £18.33/month (excluding VAT).

In the rest of this section, we’ll look at each of Vodafone’s unlimited data plans in more detail.

Unlimited Max Plan

Unlimited Max is Vodafone’s flagship unlimited data plan. It gives you unlimited data with the fastest available download speeds.

On Unlimited Max, your download speeds can in theory go all the way up to 1,000Mbps when you’re connected to Vodafone’s 5G network. Alternatively, you can get download speeds of up to 450Mbps when connected to 4G.

In practice, you’ll rarely get these maximum possible speeds. A more typical range of download speeds is 150-200Mbps on 5G and 25-35Mbps on 4G. You can get an estimate of the download speeds in your area by entering your postcode on this page and then tapping on the “Data speed info” button.

Because you’ll get the fastest available speeds, Unlimited Max is perfect for downloading large files and for watching online video in ultra-HD (4K) quality. It’s also perfect if you want to tether to other devices, or if you want to use the Unlimited Max SIM card for 4G or 5G broadband.

Network	Data	Monthly Cost (will rise each April by £1.80)
Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£33.00 per month 12 month contract	See deal

See Unlimited Max plan offers →

At present, you can get an Unlimited Max SIM card for £36/month. If you like, you can add Entertainment to your plan for an extra £7/month. This gives you an inclusive subscription to either YouTube Premium or Amazon Prime for the length of your contract. You’ll also get 100 UK-to-EU minutes every month.

Unlimited Plan

If you don’t need the fastest available download speeds and inclusive roaming outside Europe, Vodafone Unlimited can be a good option that saves you around £4/month. At present, you can get a Vodafone Unlimited plan for £23/month.

On Vodafone Unlimited, the maximum download speed available is 10Mbps. This is equivalent to 4G speed, or the speed of a regular home broadband connection. This will allow you to do the majority of things you’d want to do on you smartphone, including streaming HD-quality video and making HD-quality video calls. However, you won’t be able to stream ultra-HD (4K quality) video. Tethering to multiple devices at the same time can also cause your connection to slow down (as the 10Mbps speed limit collectively applies to all of your tethered devices).

Of course, the 10Mbps speed limit doesn’t apply when you’re using Wi-Fi so you’ll still be able to watch ultra-HD video at home using Wi-Fi if you like.

Network	Data	Monthly Cost (will rise each April by £1.80)
Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data 100Mbps max speed	£23.00 per month 24 month contract	See deal

See Unlimited plan offers →

The Vodafone Unlimited plan is available from £23/month. Like on Unlimited Max, you can also add an entertainment package for an extra £7/month.

Unlimited Lite Plan

If you want a low-cost unlimited data plan where you never need to worry about running out of data mid-month, Unlimited Lite can be a good value option. It starts from only £22/month. This is a saving of £8/month compared to the normal price of the Unlimited Max plan.

The main downside of Unlimited Lite is that download speeds are capped at a maximum of 2Mbps. This is roughly equivalent to the speed of a 3G connection. That’s enough for everyday usage like browsing the web, using social media, instant messaging, listening to music online and watching video in standard-definition quality. However, it won’t allow you to watch HD-quality video and tethering isn’t recommended as the 2Mbps doesn’t go far across multiple devices.

See Unlimited Lite plan offers →

You can get an Unlimited Lite SIM card for £22/month. There’s no option to add an entertainment package to Unlimited Lite.

Fair Usage Policy

Within the UK, there’s no fair usage limit on Vodafone’s unlimited data plans, except that it needs to be “for your personal and non-commercial use”. This differs from some other networks like EE and O2 who impose a fair usage limit for unlimited data (this is 600GB per month on EE and 650GB per month on O2).

If you’re using unlimited data for your work or business, you can choose a Vodafone business unlimited data plan from £9.17/month for the first 6 months, followed by £18.33/month (excluding VAT).

If you’re using a Vodafone Unlimited plan with 4 Xtra Benefits, you can use up to 25GB of data abroad at no extra cost each month.

SIM Cards For 4G & 5G Broadband

You can use Vodafone’s unlimited data SIM cards for 4G or 5G broadband. If you’d like to do this, we’d typically recommend choosing the Unlimited Max plan as this gives you the fastest available download speeds. This is important when you’re sharing the broadband connection with other devices, as each device will have its own additional bandwidth requirements.

Vodafone offers a choice of mobile broadband devices including a USB data dongle and a mobile wi-fi hotspot. Alternatively, if you have your own 4G or 5G mobile broadband device, you can simply use an unlimited data SIM card from Vodafone inside it.

Download Speeds

As mentioned, the primary difference between Vodafone’s unlimited data plans is the maximum download speed available on each one (2Mbps on Unlimited Lite and 10Mbps on Unlimited).

The following table shows a range of online activities and the download speed that’s required to use it on your phone. We’ve also shown whether you’ll be able to use each activity on the Unlimited Lite, Unlimited and Unlimited Max plans:

For most people, we think the regular Vodafone Unlimited plan is a good solid choice as it already supports the vast majority of what you’d do online. It doesn’t support ultra-HD video streaming and it isn’t great for tethering your phone to lots of devices at the same time.

For the ultimate experience, you can upgrade to Unlimited Max to get faster download speeds and inclusive roaming in another 30 destinations outside Europe. The extra speed is by no means necessary for most people but it can make things a little speedier and faster on your phone.

If you’d like to save a bit of money, Unlimited Lite will still support most of the things you’d like to do on your phone. It’s a good choice if you want peace of mind about never running out of data, but you’re restricted in some of the things you can do (e.g. watching HD-quality video). For this reason, it can be somewhat limited compared to what you’ll get on the other plans and may not be suitable for all types of usage.

Comparison to Alternatives

Besides Vodafone, numerous other UK mobile networks also offer an unlimited data plan.

Normally, Three is the cheapest mobile network for unlimited data in the UK. Currently, their unlimited data plans start from just £20/month. This includes 5G coverage at no extra cost, with no speed limits or hidden fair usage limits.

The following table shows a side-by-side comparison of Vodafone’s unlimited data plans and those available on other networks:

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 £1.50	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
Vodafone coverage Unlimited UK mins Unlimited UK texts 100 intl mins	Unlimited data	£22.50 per month 12 month contract	See deal
Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data 100Mbps max speed	£23.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.80	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 10Mbps max speed	£27.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each March by £1.50	See deal
Vodafone coverage Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£30.00 per month 1 month rolling	See deal

It’s important to note that several other mobile networks have a fair usage limit on their unlimited data plans (e.g. restrictions on personal hotspot usage or speed limits after a certain amount of data usage in one month). For more information, see our full guide to unlimited data plans in the UK.

Coverage

4G & 5G Coverage

In the UK, Vodafone offers 99% population coverage on their 4G network. In addition, 5G coverage is available in major urban areas.

Before you sign up to Vodafone’s unlimited data plan, it’s worth double-checking to make sure there’s coverage in your area. You can do this by entering your postcode on Vodafone’s online coverage map:

Check Vodafone Coverage (vodafone.co.uk) →

With 4G coverage, you can normally access download speeds of about 25-35Mbps on Vodafone. To get a more accurate figure for download speeds in your area, tap on the “Data speed info” button after entering your postcode.

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 Vodafone’s unlimited data plans, it’s possible to tether and use personal hotspot without any restrictions. This means you can share your unlimited data allowance with other devices.

One thing, however, that’s worth remembering is that your download speed limit will be shared across all of your tethered devices. For instance, on the 10Mbps unlimited data plan, it’ll only be possible to stream HD-quality video on two devices at the same time (each HD-quality video stream uses around 5Mbps). For this reason, if you regularly use the personal hotspot feature on multiple devices, it might be worth choosing the Unlimited Max plan.

For more information, see our full guide to tethering and personal hotspot usage in the UK.

International Roaming

On Vodafone’s unlimited data plans with 4 Xtra Benefits, you can use up to 25GB of data abroad each month. This is through Vodafone’s Global Roaming Plus which gives you inclusive roaming in 83 destinations. It includes most of Europe, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and more.

If you’re using an unlimited data plan without 4 Xtra Benefits, you’ll pay £2/day to use your phone in Europe and £6/day to use your phone outside Europe.

According to Vodafone, they offer 4G roaming in more destinations than any other mobile network. At the time of writing, 4G roaming is available in 137 destinations. 5G roaming is also available in 68 European towns and cities across Italy, Spain, Germany and Ireland (including Milan, Rome, Naples, Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cork and Dublin).

For more information, see the Vodafone Global Roaming webpage or check the international roaming rates on Vodafone’s website.

Keeping Your Phone Number

It’s a straightforward process to keep your current phone number when changing from another mobile network to Vodafone.

Start by ordering your new unlimited data SIM card from Vodafone’s website. Once you’ve done that, you can request a PAC Code from your old mobile network. You can get one free of charge through your mobile network’s website or app, or by texting PAC to 65075.

Once your new unlimited data SIM card arrives from Vodafone, place it inside your mobile phone. You can then give your PAC Code to Vodafone. They’ll schedule the transfer of your phone number, normally for the next working day after you submit this form.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

More Information

For more information on Vodafone’s unlimited data plans, please see their official website.