Bulgaria SIM Cards and eSIMs: Prices, Networks and Where to Buy

Mobile data in Bulgaria is cheap: €7.67 buys 15 GB on A1's network, less than a sandwich and a coffee at a London station. Many UK plans now charge by the day in the EU, and a local eSIM often works out cheaper by the end of a long weekend. These are the eSIMs and prepaid SIMs I'd pick for a weekend or a week in Sofia, what each costs in euros and where to buy one.

Do you need a SIM card in Bulgaria?

Bulgaria is in the EU. Since Brexit, UK networks sit outside the EU's roam-like-at-home rules, so each one sets its own price for using your plan here. Most charge a daily fee for Europe, and a few plans still include it at no extra cost. Open your network's app before you buy anything. If Bulgaria is included, keep your UK SIM and you're sorted.

If you pay by the day, do the sum. Over a four-day trip, A1's €7.67 eSIM beats any roaming fee above about €1.90 a day, and Yettel's €10.23 eSIM beats anything above about €2.60 a day.

In Sofia you'll mostly want data for maps and for ordering a cab. Uber doesn't run here, so you'll book a licensed yellow car through a taxi app in Sofia such as TaxiMe or OK Taxi, and that needs data from the arrivals hall onwards. The metro needs no app and no data: you tap a contactless card or phone at the barrier and pay €0.80 for the metro into town.

Bulgaria SIM card and eSIM prices compared

These are the data deals I'd look at first, all in euros from the operators' own pages. Every one of them is data only, with no Bulgarian number.

For a weekend I'd buy the Yettel eSIM, because I can set it up on the sofa at home and land online. A1's pack is the cheapest way in if you only need maps and messages. Data2Go wins on price per gigabyte, but it's a physical SIM from a Vivacom shop, so it suits a heavy user staying a week more than a Friday-to-Sunday visitor.

The best Bulgaria eSIM for a short trip

An eSIM is a SIM you download onto your phone from a QR code. The new line sits next to your UK one, and you switch it on when the plane lands. For a weekend in Sofia it's what I tell every visiting friend to get.

Yettel tourist eSIM

Five days of unlimited data on the Yettel tourist eSIM covers a long weekend of maps, photos and video calls without counting a single megabyte, and the 25 GB after that lasts out the month. Buy it online before your flight from the UK and the QR code arrives by email.

It's data only, with no calls or texts, and it works only on Yettel's network inside Bulgaria. Yettel texts you when you've used 80% of the data and again at 100%.

A1 data-only SIM or eSIM

A1 sells a data starter for €7.67 with 15 GB, as a physical SIM or an eSIM, on its prepaid mobile internet page. It needs no registration, so there's no passport check. The card can't send texts and it only works on A1's network in Bulgaria. On a city break, neither matters.

International eSIM apps

If you already have an eSIM app on your phone, Airalo's Bulgaria plans run on A1's network and cost under €10 for 15 GB, priced in dollars. Revolut sells eSIMs for Bulgaria inside its app, which is handy if that's already the card you travel with. Neither asks for ID. Airalo also sells a regional Europe eSIM covering 41 countries, so check its country list if you're heading on to Greece or Romania.

Bulgarian SIM cards with a phone number

A physical SIM with a Bulgarian number makes sense on a longer trip, such as a five-day Sofia itinerary with day trips, where you'll ring guesthouses and restaurants that only answer the phone. Bulgaria has three networks selling prepaid SIMs: Vivacom, A1 and Yettel, which used to be Telenor.

Vivacom's 12 GB package is the one I'd buy for a stay of a week or more. You get 800 minutes on the fastest network in the country, and about 6.7 GB of the data works in other EU countries too.

A1's Holiday Plus pack looks cheap at €3.07. Its 1,500 MB disappears in a day of maps and photos, though. Its add-ons cost €5.11 for 2,000 MB over 10 days or €15.33 for 5,000 MB over 30 days. For data alone, the A1 data starter gives ten times as much for €4.60 more.

Best mobile network in Bulgaria: Vivacom, A1 or Yettel

Vivacom has the fastest 4G and 5G of the three, A1 has very good coverage and a 5G network of its own, and Yettel runs the smallest network. In central Sofia any of them is fine for maps and video calls. The gap opens up in the mountains.

Every eSIM app in this post rides on one of those three networks, so an Airalo eSIM on A1 gets the same signal as an A1 SIM bought in a shop.

Signal in the mountains and ski resorts

For a ski trip to Bansko or Borovets I'd pick A1 or Vivacom, the two networks strongest in the resorts. The Mtel banner on the hotel in this Borovets photo is A1 under its old name.

Before a hike on Vitosha mountain, I download the route and an offline map of the area while I'm still on hotel Wi-Fi. The phone then works as a map on the high paths even where the signal drops.

Where to buy a SIM card in Sofia

Sofia Airport has SIM shops in the arrivals hall, straight after baggage claim. They're the easiest place to buy. They're also the dearest, and the same packs cost less in the operators' own shops in town. If you want a number, I'd buy an eSIM for the first day, ride into the centre and pick up the SIM there.

Bring your passport. Operator shops register a prepaid number to your ID before they hand the SIM over. Newsagent kiosks and petrol stations also sell starter packs that you activate yourself.

Using a Bulgarian SIM or eSIM outside Bulgaria

Bulgaria borders Greece, Romania, Turkey, Serbia and North Macedonia, and plenty of visitors carry on to Thessaloniki from Sofia or Bucharest from Sofia. Yettel's tourist eSIM and A1's data starter both stop working at the border. Vivacom's Data2Go SIM lets you use 19.7 GB of its data in other EU countries. That covers Greece and Romania.

Serbia, North Macedonia and Turkey sit outside the EU, so Data2Go's EU allowance stops at those borders. For a loop through the Balkans, a regional eSIM that lists all your countries saves a SIM swap at every border.

Setting up your phone and topping up

iPhones from the XS and XR onwards take an eSIM, and so do Google Pixels and Samsung Galaxy S models from the last few years. On Android you scan the QR code in your SIM settings. Yettel's instructions have iPhone users type in the activation code from the email instead, under Add eSIM in the mobile settings, and it takes a couple of minutes.

With an eSIM, your UK SIM stays put. I leave the UK line switched on for calls and bank texts, set the Bulgarian line as the one for mobile data, and turn data roaming off on the UK line so it can't start charging. Contactless payments don't need any of this, so paying by card in euros works the same whichever line is on.

Vivacom's Data2Go packages start at €4 and you buy them by texting a code to 1236. A1 add-ons go through the *123# menu or a text to 1730. On Yettel, *#123# shows what's left. Any operator shop will also top up a prepaid SIM over the counter.