The best prepaid phone plans on the market can cut your monthly bills down to size significantly and forgo those pesky 3-year contracts that are now commonplace at the larger carriers. Overall, prepaid phone plans are lightweight, cheaper, and much more flexible for consumers. Generally speaking, all you need is an unlocked device ready and you're good to go. Let us help you out, then, with an extensive roundup of the best prepaid phone plans on the market, including options for individuals, families, and even cheap unlimited data options.
We select our choices for the best prepaid phone plans on the criteria that we think are most important to our readers - price, coverage, data allowance, and any handy perks that the carrier may offer. While there's no set 'best' prepaid plan for everyone, we're confident that our choices will tick a lot of the boxes for most customers.
For example, those who want a healthy set amount of data per month may want to check out Visible Wireless or US Mobile - two excellent prepaid carriers that offer incredible value unlimited data plans. Those who want to switch up their plan regularly may find Tello's flexible design-your-own-plan to be compelling. Lastly, as a great all-round option for most people, it's hard to go wrong with Mint Mobile's excellent selection of plans - all of which offer competitive prices across the board.
If you find yourself stuck when choosing the best prepaid phone plans for you, then at the bottom of the page is a handy 'FAQ' section that's there to provide a bit of extra guidance.
Firstly, here's a quick overview of the best prepaid phone plans with links to the relevant carrier pages. Below that, you'll find a detailed breakdown for each one with the specific reasons why we picked it. If you'd like to see more options - including what the big carriers are offering - then we recommend heading on over to our main best cell phone plans to see an overview of the market as a whole. Don't forget to consider options like the Tello promo codes currently available too.
Recent updates
Amended entries for Boost Mobile and US Mobile to reflect recent price and plan amendments.
The best prepaid phone plans: top picks
- Mint Mobile - best for overall value
- Visible - best unlimited prepaid plan
- US Mobile - cheapest unlimited plan on market
- Tello - best for flexibility
- AT&T prepaid - best for big carrier value
- Red Pocket - superb AT&T alternative
- Boost Mobile - best for flexible family options
The best prepaid phone plans
Sitting at the top of our best prepaid plans phone guide is Mint Mobile, a superb carrier that balances a nice feature set with affordable and flexible prices. There are a few caveats with Mint Mobile, which we'll get into, but overall this carrier has one of the best bang for the buck offers going right now.
Ranging from $15 a month for the entry-level 5GB data plan to $30 a month for the unlimited plan, Mint Mobile has a bit of everything for everyone - and at dirt cheap rates. Unlike other prepaid carriers, you pay upfront for a multi-month plan with Mint Mobile (3, 6, or 12 months), with the longer service options averaging out to the lowest prices. As you'd imagine, the big drawback here is that you'll potentially have to pay out a relatively large sum upfront if you want a full year of service. It is, however, worth it if you're ready to commit as that's where the real value is.
Solidifying Mint as the top choice right now is Mint's commitment to offering an even better value option for its customers. Recently, the carrier upped its data allowances across all plans, which in some cases equates to 10GB in extra data per month. In the case of the unlimited data plan specifically, you're now getting a soft cap of 45GB of data at 5G speeds as opposed to 35GB, which is good, but still not quite uncapped - unlike our following choice.
Read more about our service in our Mint Mobile plans guide.
If you're looking for an unlimited data prepaid plan on a budget then you really can't go wrong with Visible Wireless. This Verizon subsidiary specializes in offering generous unlimited plans for a solid price - and its two prepaid options keep getting better and better.
For example, over the past year or so, not only has the basic Visible plan dropped from a baseline price of $30 per month to just $25, but the premium Visible Plus plan has also received new features including faster hotspot data and a free smartwatch line. In addition, Visible now supports a yearly payment method that drives average monthly prices down even further if you pay for an annual plan upfront.
As always, however, the core appeal of Visible Wireless remains the fact that both its plan offer unlimited data, talk, and text on the greater Verizon 5G network. If you get good coverage with Verizon, then Visible is going to offer you a superb value option versus the parent company with no extra fees or a long-term contract.
Read more about our service in our Visible wireless plans guide.
Right now, the absolute cheapest unlimited data plan on the market is US Mobile's Unlimited Flex plan, which averages out at an almost unbelievable $15 per month when you pay $180 upfront for a whole year of service.
As you'd imagine, it's not the most fleshed-out of prepaid plans - you have to pay $30 per year extra for mobile hotspot, and you only get 10GB of premium data - but it's absolutely unbeatable right now when it comes to price.
If you'd prefer a more feature-laden plan, then US Mobile also has some great options in its line-up. For example, it's Unlimited Premium plan includes 100GB of premium 5G data, international calling, and 50GB of hotspot allowance for a decent price of $32.50 per month if you go for the annual plan. It's a plan that's in direct competition to Visible's Plus plan, although the latter will likely be a little quicker overall being on Verizon's most rapid wide-band 5G network.
The prepaid carrier Tello has been on our radar for a few years now - and it's always offered a fantastic service - but recent price adjustments have really warranted an entry on our best prepaid plans list. For example, the basic 1GB data plan is now just $9 per month (down from $10), while the 5GB data plan is just $14 per month - much more reasonable versus the $19 it originally debuted at.
Tello is also home to another superbly priced prepaid unlimited plan, with its current offering coming in at just $25 per month - $5 cheaper than Mint, and the same price as the basic Visible unlimited plan. It's worth noting, however, that the Tello unlimited plan caps out at 25GB of data for 5G speeds and only comes with 5GB of mobile hotspot allowance so it's not the most fully featured prepaid unlimited plan on the market despite its rock-bottom price.
The main selling point at Tello, arguably, is the service's superbly flexible build-your-own approach to plans. For example, you can choose to cut down on your data, texts, and minutes allowance based on your usage and you'll only pay for a month at a time. If you're unsure about how much data you'll need and so on, then Tello can be a good choice since you're never locked in.
Read more about this carrier with our handy Tello guide.
AT&T stands out amongst most major carriers by offering some really competitive prepaid options to go along with its other more traditional post-paid options. Unlike its major competitors, AT&T has the option for both upfront multi-month subscriptions (like Mint), or the more usual pay-per-month options that you normally see with prepaid options.
Its buy upfront options include a 12-month subscription that can net you 16GB of data for just $25 a month - an excellent choice compared to the other big carriers and one that's recently had its data upped from just 8GB. Of course, you could also opt to go for the monthly service, which while being pricier, does resemble its post-paid plans in that they offer better perks like 5G access, family plan savings, and free calls to Mexico and Canada (on the 15GB plan and up).
We have a separate page on the best AT&T prepaid plans if you'd like to read more.
As good as AT&T’s own prepaid options are, there are other smaller carriers operating on its larger network that are even cheaper still. Take Red Pocket, for example, which could be a good option for you if you’re looking for a super basic plan with a small data allowance.
Right now, Red Pocket’s best prepaid plans start at just $9 per month for its 1GB plan and range up to its unlimited plan for $25 per month. As with other prepaid carriers (notably Mint Mobile), Red Pocket has the option to pay for a full year of service upfront in exchange for cheaper monthly rates on average which makes it a flexible all round choice. Overall, it’s one of the cheapest carriers on the market right now - particularly on the wider AT&T network where decent prepaid choices seem to be rarer.
Boost Mobile used to be more of a traditional prepaid carrier with cheap set-data plans as well as unlimited plans but it's switched up its line-up recently to solely focus on the latter now. In short, if you're looking for an unlimited data prepaid plan on the T-Mobile network, you'll find competitive options across the board with Boost Mobile.
Perhaps the biggest selling point for Boost, however, is the carrier's unique 'Infinite Access' plans, which bundle in one of the latest Apple or Samsung devices alongside an unlimited data plan for a starting price of just $65/mo. That alone is cheaper than some standalone plans at the major carriers so there's some serious value on offer at Boost. Even better still, the Infinite Access plan also offers a free upgrade every year if you stick with it, which seems like an amazing deal in our books considering how little you're paying overall.
Best prepaid phone plans: FAQ
What is the best prepaid phone plan?
Mint Mobile and Visible Wireless are the standout options right now if you're looking for the best prepaid phone plans.
Mint Mobile is the one we'd go for if you're looking for excellent value on a single line and flexible data allowance options. Based on price, simplicity, and the generosity of its data allowances, we think Mint Mobile is really hitting it out the park when it comes to value right now - especially with its recently increased data allowances.
If you're going unlimited, however, then you may want to consider Visible Wireless. This service has a completely unlimited data plan for just $25 per month, which is pretty amazing when you consider you get unlimited talk, text, and mobile hotspot (capped at 5Mbps) on its basic plan.
How do prepaid phone plans work?
In a very brief nutshell, prepaid plans differ from the traditional 'postpaid' options by not tying you down to a long-term contract. The name prepaid itself refers to the way in which most prepaid companies will charge you upfront at the beginning of the month for a plan. Generally speaking, with postpaid plans you'll sign up to a long-term plan and pay it in installments, whereas with a prepaid plan you'll renew your plan each month.
However, the lines have blurred in recent years and some prepaid companies (like Mint), offer longer-term options across multiple months, meaning the distinction between 'prepaid' and 'postpaid' has lessened somewhat in recent times.
So, these days, prepaid plans generally refer to those being offered by smaller companies - or 'MVNOs' to give them their official designation. On the whole, these smaller companies offer much cheaper plans than the big three (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) with no lengthy contracts, but don't actually operate the networks they run their services on. Put simply, they rent service from one of the big three - a policy which has both benefits and drawbacks. The most obvious benefit of not operating your own network is far lower running costs. By not paying for expensive upkeep or things like physical stores, MVMOs can normally get away with charging a lot less for their prepaid plans. The downside of this, however, is that the bigger carriers will always prioritize their own customer's cellular service when the local network is busy. This can mean prepaid plan users are often subject to slower data speeds on average - a process that's called 'deprioritization'.
Note, while deprioritization is common on all prepaid phone plans, your mileage is going to vary a lot depending on your local area.
Are prepaid phone plans worth it?
If you're looking to save money then the answer is definitely yes. On average, most prepaid phone plans come in at around half the price of the equivalent cell phone plan at one of the 'big three' networks. That's a saving that simply cannot be ignored if you're budget-conscious, and you also won't be subject to credit checks or lengthy contracts - which means you're much more able to switch up your service should you want to.
However, before you sign up for a prepaid phone plan you'll definitely want to consider the potential drawbacks. We've already briefly mentioned deprioritization - which means you can potentially get slower data speeds when the local area is experiencing heavy traffic. If you're a data-heavy user especially then this one could be an issue, depending on your location.
It's also worth mentioning that prepaid phone plans generally don't have many customer perks like free streaming service subscriptions. You also don't tend to get access to big deals on handsets. The best Verizon deals, for example, offer options for free devices and trade-in rebates, which you might not get by going with a smaller company.
Who has the cheapest prepaid phone plan?
The cheapest prepaid plan that money can buy is something like Ultra Mobile's pay-as-you-go plan, which is currently $3 per month for 100 minutes, 100 texts, and 100MB of data. This is, to be frank, a very barebones plan but could be a decent option if you're a super light user as the extra calls, texts, and data are relatively reasonably priced at 3 cents per minute, 1 cents per text, and 3 cents per 100MB respectively.
For a slightly more fleshed-out plan, something like Tello's build-your-own-plan setup can be a good choice. You can get a 1GB data plan with 100 minutes and free text for $7 per month with this service - and you can easily tailor your plan each month if you require any more data or such.
If you're looking for a guide on this subject specifically, we'd also recommend heading on over to our page on this month's best cheap cell phone plans for not just recommendations, but also some handy tips on saving money too.
