An eSIM is a SIM card that arrives as a code instead of a piece of plastic. Modern phones have a small chip built in that can hold several mobile lines at once, and an eSIM is one of those lines.
Nothing is posted to you and nothing is swapped out. The SIM you already have stays where it is, and the travel line sits beside it.
You install it from a QR code, a one-tap link on a recent iPhone, or by typing in two values by hand. All three are on your order page.
You buy a plan for the place you are going, install the eSIM on your phone before you fly, and it connects to a local mobile network when you land. We are not a mobile network: the plan runs on the networks of local operators in each destination.
It carries mobile data only. Your own number stays on your own SIM, so calls and texts still reach you at your carrier’s usual rates.
For most plans the days start when the eSIM first connects to a network at your destination, not when you buy it. That is why installing at home on wifi is the easy way: you land already online.
If your iPhone is on iOS 17.4 or later, open your order page on that iPhone and tap the install button. iOS takes over and does the rest.
Otherwise use the QR code: Settings → Mobile Service (called Cellular on some versions) → Add eSIM → Use QR Code, then point the camera at the code on another screen.
If the iPhone you are installing on is the one showing the code, take a screenshot of it first. When the eSIM setup asks you to scan, choose that picture from your photos instead.
Do this on wifi, before you fly. An eSIM installs once, so do not delete it afterwards.
The iPhone XR and XS and everything newer, including both eSIM-capable iPhone SE models. That is a fact about the hardware.
The iPhone X, the 8 and anything older have no eSIM at all, and nothing we sell will work on them.
The one-tap install button on the order page needs iOS 17.4 or later. Older iPhones with eSIM use the QR code or the manual details instead.
Ask us — a person answers, usually within one working day.