China eSIM:
every plan, ranked by price per GB

What is the best eSIM for China?

It depends on how long you are staying and how much data you get through, which is why we do not name a single winner. As of 28 October 2026 we track 2,596 China plans from 68 providers. The cheapest entry price is $0.29 for 100 MB over 7 Days from AlpineSIM. The best value per gigabyte is $0.26/GB, on a 3 GB plan from Stellar eSIM. Those two facts point at completely different travellers.

How these plans are compared

Each provider's live catalogue is read and normalised onto the same terms: price, allowance, validity, network tier and, where the provider states it, hotspot and top-up support. Everything with a fixed allowance is converted to a price per gigabyte so a 500 MB plan and a 100 GB plan can be compared on one axis. 938 of the 2,596 plans here carry a fixed allowance and a real term, so those are the ones the ranking uses.

Why unlimited plans are ranked separately

1,528 of the plans here are sold as unlimited, and almost all of them carry a fair-use cap in the small print. Dividing a price by an allowance that does not exist produces a number that means nothing, so they sit below the per-GB table with their own cap printed as the provider words it.

Picking by trip length

• A few days. Buy small. Paying for thirty days of validity you will never use is the most common mistake on this page.
• Two weeks. Ten to fifteen gigabytes suits most people, especially if you will hotspot a laptop.
• A month or more. Look for top-up support rather than the biggest allowance. Extending a live plan usually beats buying a second one at full price.

Before you buy

• Dial *#06# and look for an EID. No EID means the phone cannot take an eSIM, whatever the spec sheet says.
• Confirm hotspot is permitted if you plan to share the connection. It is the restriction providers are quietest about.
• 1,965 of these plans advertise 5G. On a short trip the real-world difference is smaller than the marketing suggests.
• Apply the code before paying. Every code on this page is one we hold with that provider, and the price beside it already includes it.