Is “Unlimited” Really Unlimited? Every Major eSIM’s Fair-Use Policy, From Their Own Terms (2026)

Is “Unlimited” Really Unlimited? Every Major eSIM’s Fair-Use Policy, From Their Own Terms (2026)

Updated August 2026 · Written by a company with a row in this table, held to the same standard

Every provider here sells “unlimited”, and every one reserves the right to slow it down at some point. The differences: how much full-speed data comes first, how slow it goes afterwards, when the meter resets — and whether any of that is printed before you pay. We compared nine policies using only the providers’ own pages, accessed August 2026. Where a provider publishes no number, the cell says so — the blanks are the story.

What “unlimited” means in this market

In travel eSIMs, “unlimited” almost never means unrestricted. It means the data does not switch off: full speed up to a threshold, then a reduced speed until the allowance resets. The mechanic — a fair-use policy, or FUP — exists because mobile networks are shared, and it is defensible. What varies enormously is whether the numbers behind it are disclosed before you buy. How this market got so big is sized in our travel eSIM statistics round-up.

Nine policies, from their own pages

Every cell comes from the provider’s own pages — sales page, help centre, plan document or terms — accessed August 2026. Gaps are not filled with third-party estimates; “publishes no number” is the finding. Policies change; this is a dated snapshot.

The disclosure score

Sort the rows by where the number lives and three tiers appear.

Printed on the sales page

Airalo prints the 3 GB figure in the FAQ on its unlimited-packages page, and its Fair Use Policy page adds that any different threshold “will be clearly set out in the package details before you buy”. Ubigi’s USA product pages carry a dedicated fair-use section with a three-stage graphic — full speed, limit reached, 2 Mbps — and its FAQ contrasts that 2 Mbps with the “128 and 512 Kbps” it says most rivals throttle to. Truely earns partial credit: exact numbers exist, but in the help centre, and its marketing disagrees (below).

Kept in the help docs

Nomad’s figures sit in a help-centre article and per-plan documents rather than as a headline. GigSky’s 2.5 GB threshold lives only in a help-centre FAQ; its consumer Terms of Service say only that speed “will be reduced until the next high-speed data period begins”; no page we could read quantifies the reduced speed. Saily keeps its current rules — 3 or 5 GB per day by destination, then 1 Mbps, resetting at local midnight — inside its Terms of Service (updated July 2026). In fairness to all three: saily.com, truely.com and GigSky’s help pages block automated fetchers; we verified Saily’s and Truely’s wording in a normal browser and GigSky’s through its own public help-centre API.

No daily number at all

Holafly’s Terms and Conditions define unlimited only as “no fixed data allowance that automatically stops data use” and defer to the network provider’s fair-use policy; its FAQ says plans have “no strict daily data limits”. Yet its Europe sales page prints one hard number — hotspot sharing, capped at 1 GB per day. The data cap is undisclosed; the hotspot cap is advertised. Yesim’s help centre states that “Yesim itself does not enforce a Fair Usage Policy” — restrictions come from partner networks, with no overage fees — and no Yesim page we read names a threshold, a speed or an exact reset time. That honestly describes wholesale reselling (see where travel eSIMs actually exit the internet) — but for the buyer, the effect is the same: no number to read.

The contradictions, named plainly

Nomad vs Nomad. The help centre says post-cap speed is “approximately 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps”. Nomad’s own plan document for Joytel-network unlimited plans says “your speed will be throttled to 512 kbps” after the same 2 GB. We are not saying which is correct — we are saying a buyer cannot tell.

Truely vs Truely. Truely’s help-centre policy article (updated 22 August 2025) states: 5 GB of high-speed data per day, then 512 kbps, no cut-offs — framed as a policy update. Its comparison blog, published nine days later and still live, advertises “10GB daily high-speed data before reducing speeds to 512kbps — the most generous policy in the industry”. Two daily caps, both Truely’s, simultaneously.

Holafly vs the crowd. Because Holafly publishes no threshold, third parties fill the vacuum. One 2026 review (eSIM.school) prints crowd-sourced limits varying by destination — from roughly 500 MB–1 GB/day at 128 kbps (Colombia, Peru) to 3–5 GB/day at 1–5 Mbps (Japan, USA) — sourced to Reddit and Trustpilot, not Holafly. Truely’s blog claims “approximately 3-5GB daily” from unnamed “independent testing”. None appear in Holafly’s documentation; they are claims about Holafly, not facts from it. The same review asserts Holafly “blocks hotspot/tethering on all plans” — contradicted by Holafly’s own advertised 1 GB/day sharing. When a provider stays silent, even its critics get it wrong.

Saily vs Saily (mildly). Saily’s blog explainer still states a blanket 5 GB per 24 hours; its Terms of Service, updated July 2026, give the current version — 3 or 5 GB depending on destination, resetting at local midnight. The terms are authoritative; the blog is stale — yet in our August 2026 searches it was the blog, not the terms, that surfaced.

Reset mechanics matter more than they look

Airalo, Nomad and GigSky reset the allowance every 24 hours from activation — GigSky’s FAQ illustrates it: activate at 7 AM, and full speed returns at 7 AM the next day. Your “day” starts when you land, not at an arbitrary midnight. Saily’s terms use calendar midnight in your local time zone, which quietly favours evening-heavy use. Ubigi has no daily maths: one pool for the whole plan period, then 2 Mbps — unless you spend it in the first week. Truely and Yesim’s day passes meter per plan day. None of these designs is wrong; knowing how much data you actually use in a day helps you choose a shape, especially for long stays and remote work, where the post-cap crawl bites hardest.

Our own row, held to the same standard

We sell against every company in this table, so check our row the way we checked theirs. Per our own product pages, accessed August 2026: the United States unlimited plan prints “3 GB per day at full speed”, then 1 Mbps for the rest of that day; the Egypt plan prints 2 GB per day, then 500 kbps. The caps differ by destination — there is no single universal AeroSims cap, and each plan page prints its own numbers. Tethering is fully supported, and hotspot traffic counts toward the same daily allowance.

One concession by our own standard: our pages say “full speed returns the next day” without saying whether that is a rolling 24-hour clock or local midnight. That is a disclosure gap; naming it commits us to closing it. If a daily-capped plan is the wrong shape, our fixed bundles — 10 GB for $8.90 in most countries — have no daily mechanic; our eSIM price index shows how that compares.

Not fraud — but not finished, either

Is “unlimited” plus a fair-use policy deceptive? Not inherently. Data that never switches off, with full speed to a stated threshold, is a legitimate product — for travellers often better than a hard cut-off or queueing for a SIM sales desk on arrival (we weigh that trade in airport SIM vs travel eSIM). It becomes a problem when the threshold is unstated, contradicted across a provider’s own pages, or discoverable only through Reddit threads after purchase. Our position is self-interested and simple: the number belongs on the sales page. Providers that print it deserve the sale; providers that do not deserve the question.

Frequently asked

Is unlimited eSIM data really unlimited?

No. “Unlimited” here means data that never switches off: full speed up to a threshold, then a reduced speed until the allowance resets. The real question is whether that threshold is printed before you pay.

How many GB per day before Holafly slows you down?

Holafly publishes no number. Its terms describe “no fixed data allowance”, its FAQ says “no strict daily data limits”, and it leaves the limit to the network operators. Third-party crowd-sourced figures vary by destination, but none come from Holafly.

When does the daily cap reset — midnight or 24 hours after activation?

It depends. Airalo, Nomad and GigSky state a rolling reset every 24 hours from activation. Saily’s terms use midnight to midnight local time. Ubigi has no daily reset — its data allowance is a total for the whole plan period.

Can I use a hotspot on an unlimited-data travel eSIM?

Usually, but rules differ. Airalo and Truely allow tethering with no separate data cap — it draws on the same data allowance; Ubigi’s USA product pages state “Data sharing allowed” with no separate data cap named. Holafly caps sharing at 1 GB per day on its Europe sales page. Yesim says it depends on the operator.

What speed do you get once you reach the daily data cap?

Published speed limits range from 512 kbps (Truely, and Nomad’s Joytel document) through 1 Mbps (Airalo, Saily) to 2 Mbps (Ubigi). GigSky and Holafly publish none. At the lower speeds video struggles; messaging and maps generally survive.

Do AeroSims unlimited plans have a daily limit?

Yes — printed on each plan page because it varies by destination: 3 GB per day, after which the speed drops to 1 Mbps, in the United States; 2 GB per day, after which it drops to 500 kbps, in Egypt (our product pages, August 2026). Data continues at reduced speed; full speed returns the next day.

Provider figures and quotations were checked against the linked pages in August 2026. Policies and rules change; this page reflects the linked sources as of August 2026. Where pages blocked automated access, we verified wording in a normal browser or via the provider’s own help-centre API. AeroSims figures come from our own product pages, checked August 2026, and are subject to change.