What Is the Cheapest SIM Card in Austria? (2026)

Top 5 Prepaid SIM Plans at a Glance (2026)

Sources: HoT, LIDL Connect, spusu, A1 and yesss! provider websites. Checked: October 1 2026.

What Are the Top 5 Cheapest Mobile Plans in Austria?

Each provider's cheapest tariff, from the catalogue above. Checked: October 1 2026.

What Are the Best High-Data Prepaid SIM Packages in Austria?

Every catalogue tariff with 50 GB or more for €10 or less, best € per GB first. Checked: October 1 2026.

Should You Get an Austrian SIM or a Travel eSIM?

If you live in Austria, an Austrian SIM or contract wins on a local Austrian number, cheaper large-data plans (around 100 GB for under €10), and easier registration for banking and contracts. If you are only visiting for days or weeks, a travel eSIM activates instantly with no Austrian ID and no shop visit.

For stays under about one month or pure tourism, use a travel eSIM like Airalo (instant, no paperwork). For moving or long-term stays, get an Austrian SIM once you can register. Many residents do both: a travel eSIM on day one, then an Austrian SIM after arrival. See our best mobile network guide to compare coverage before you choose.

Which Travel eSIM Should You Buy for a Short Stay?

Sources: Airalo, Holafly and Nomad checked 1 October 2026; Saily, SimOptions and Airalo Europe checked 14 September 2026. Dollar plans are billed in US dollars. Verify on the provider site before you buy.

For a week or two in Austria, Nomad sells 1 GB over 7 days for €3.95 and lists both A1 and Drei as its Austrian networks, which helps in the Alps. Airalo Austria charges €4.00 for 1 GB over 3 days and €26.50 for 50 GB over 30 days. For unlimited data across the trip, the Airalo Europe regional plan covers 41 countries at €10.50 for 3 days or €63.00 for 30 days.

All six are data only and eSIM only. None of them is an Austrian contract, so none of them triggers the Austrian ID registration rule, and you can activate one before you fly. The trade-off is the number. A travel eSIM gives you no +43 number, and SimOptions ships some Austria plans with a foreign number instead (+420 Czech, +33 French), which an Austrian bank or delivery service will not text a code to. Read the word unlimited carefully too: Saily caps it at 5 GB a day, then throttles to 1024 kbps. Holafly runs on the Drei network, lets you share 1 GB a day as a hotspot, and prices in US dollars, so your card issuer may add a foreign-transaction fee on top.

Cheaper starters exist for light users. HoT smart MINI costs €1.90 for 550 MB over 30 days, plus €1.99 for the SIM or eSIM. spusu charges €4 per GB and gives the SIM or eSIM free, and a Lidl Connect starter is €1.99 with no activation fee. One catch worth knowing before you plan an eSIM-only arrival: a Magenta KLAX starter costs from €10, but a new prepaid customer must begin on a physical SIM and convert to eSIM afterwards.

Which Austrian SIM Gives a Visitor a +43 Number?

Sources: A1 shop, Drei and Magenta websites. Checked October 1 2026. Magenta does not publish the EU Tour starter price online.

A visitor who needs a real +43 number has three operator packs to choose from. A1 B.free Travel is an eSIM with 50 GB, of which 20 GB work elsewhere in the EU, plus 2,000 minutes and texts. It costs €12.90 for 2 weeks or €17.90 for 4 weeks on the A1 shop, with no commitment.

On a physical SIM, the Drei Telefonie Startpaket gives 16 GB plus 1,000 minutes and 1,000 SMS for €9.90, valid 30 days. Units you do not use in that window expire. Magenta sells a KLAX EU Tour starter with 35 GB usable across the EU, but only in a Magenta shop, and it renews at €19.90 per 4 weeks if you leave credit on the card.

All three are Austrian contracts, so each needs the photo-ID registration before it carries traffic. A traveller with a passport registers in an operator shop on the spot; the online routes assume Austrian banking or ID Austria. If you only need data, a travel eSIM skips that step.

Should You Get a Prepaid or Contract SIM in Austria?

A contract also carries fees the monthly price leaves out. A1 bills an annual fee of €34.90 once a year in advance on the tariffs that carry it, so check the tariff sheet. Magenta dropped its Servicepauschale for every contract signed since 6 November 2023. Drei lists a one-off activation fee of €9.90 for new customers on its classic tariffs without a service package.

A prepaid Wertkarte has no annual fee and no exit fee; the one-off cost is the starter pack, from €1.99 at HoT and LIDL Connect. Add the annual fee to twelve monthly payments before you compare a contract with a prepaid tariff. A €34.90 fee adds about €2.91 a month to the headline price.

Is There an Austrian SIM Plan With No Contract That You Can Pause?

Source: Drei up product page. Checked: October 1 2026.

Yes. Drei up is a network-operator plan that runs month to month from an app, with no minimum term. It starts at €6.90 for 10 GB on up Start, and you can pause it at any time: payments stop, and your number stays reachable for up to 12 months. A pause set at least 5 days before the next payment date stops that payment.

Ordering suits a newcomer without Austrian banking. The Drei up English page lists Apple Pay, Google Pay, Mastercard, Visa and SEPA direct debit as payment methods. You choose an eSIM or a posted SIM card, activate it in the app, and get help by live chat, Monday to Saturday, 8 am to 6 pm. Porting an Austrian number in is free, but Drei says a foreign number cannot be ported.

The trade-off is service. Everything runs through the app, so there is no shop counter for plan changes. For a contract-free plan bought over the counter, a prepaid Wertkarte does the same job.

Which Austrian SIM Carries Unused Data Over to the Next Month?

spusu does, with a feature it calls daten.trans.fair. On spusu legendär, the data you do not use in a month is added to the next month as extra data, up to 100 GB. Unused minutes and SMS count too, at 1 MB each. The carried-over data works in Austria only, not while roaming, so it does not raise the 17 GB EU allowance.

The spusu legendär contract summary adds the other terms worth knowing. There is no minimum term and no activation fee. You pay a €9.90 contract fee when you order, and spusu credits it back once the SIM is active. You have 6 months to activate the SIM, and the monthly fee only starts then. Past the allowance, spusu charges 4 cents per minute or SMS and €4 per GB.

spusu legendär runs on 4G without a speed cap, up to a theoretical 300 Mbit/s. For 5G, spusu sells the separate spusu 5G legendär. We could not confirm on spusu's site whether every spusu tariff includes the rollover, so check the contract summary of the tariff you pick.

What Are the SIM Card Registration Requirements in Austria?

Every SIM card in Austria has required a valid photo ID before it activates since 1 January 2019. The rule sits in § 97 Abs 1a TKG 2003 together with the Identifikationsverordnung, and TKG 2021 carried it forward as § 166 Abs. 2 TKG 2021: the operator must check your identity before the contract starts, and an older unregistered card had to be registered before its first top-up after 1 September 2019. The RTR (Austrian telecom regulator) enforces it with fines of up to €50,000 against the operator. Prepaid and contract SIM cards both carry the same registration rule, so no SIM in Austria works without registration: the country allows no anonymous, unregistered cards.

The operator records four details: first name, surname, academic title, and date of birth. You prove them with a passport, a national ID card, or a driving licence, and a non-EU visitor uses a passport. Four routes complete the check: an ID check in a shop, FotoIdent video identification, ID Austria, or Austrian online banking. Tourists and other non-residents can register an Austrian SIM, but the last three routes assume you already live here, so in practice a visitor with no Austrian address registers in a shop.

Registration happens differently depending on where you buy. Supermarket SIMs (Hofer, Spar) usually require online registration within a set window after purchase, done through the provider's website or app by photographing your ID. Provider-run shops (A1, Magenta, Drei stores) instead handle in-store activation on the spot, so the SIM is live before you leave. Miss the deadline and the network operator can suspend the number until you finish, so register on the day you buy.

Who pays for the ID check is the murky part. RTR states that the law is silent on the question. An operator's own online registration is normally free, but a third-party retailer may charge for it. Secondary sources report about €6.25 at Hartlauer and up to €10 at post offices; no operator publishes those figures, so treat both as reported rather than as list prices.

Registration attaches to the contract, not to the card. An Austrian operator eSIM therefore needs the same ID check as a plastic SIM, while a foreign travel eSIM is not an Austrian contract and the rule does not catch it at all. One consequence outweighs the rest: an unregistered SIM cannot be topped up, so the card dies the moment its starter credit runs out.

Three details catch newcomers. Some online ID checks reject non-EU residence permits, so a third-country national is safest with a passport or a shop visit. The bank-ident route only works with an Austrian bank such as Erste Bank, Bank Austria, the Volksbanken or a Hypo. And a SIM ordered online from abroad usually cannot be registered until you are in Austria. Children can have a registered prepaid SIM from age 7, signed for by a parent. Operator shops register for free; the highest fee on record is the €40 charged at a Vienna Airport kiosk.

Where Can You Buy a SIM Card in Austria on Your First Day?

You can buy a prepaid SIM (Wertkarte = prepaid SIM) at a Trafik (a licensed tobacconist and press kiosk, on almost every street corner), at supermarket checkouts, at petrol stations, at electronics chains, at operator stores, and online from each provider. The cheapest route is the supermarket: Hofer sells HoT across 530+ stores, Lidl sells Lidl Connect, and Spar, Billa, and Penny stock A1, Magenta, and Drei starter SIMs (2026).

For hands-on help, go to an A1, Magenta, or Drei store, where staff activate the SIM on the spot and A1 shops offer English-language support. MediaMarkt and Hartlauer also sell every network's SIM.

The airport is the expensive way to start. Traveltomtom documented the arrivals-hall Wowww store at Vienna Airport in 2026 quoting €65 for 100 minutes plus 100 MB and charging a €40 registration fee on top, with EETY packs running €29.99 to €59.99. The BIPA next door sold a Drei pack with 4-10 GB for 30 days at €9.90. That same 30-day tier costs €9.90 at BIPA against €5.90 at Hofer. No source measures an average airport premium, so read those quotes as examples, not as a rate: buy at the airport only if you need data before you reach a supermarket, or start on a travel eSIM instead.

Sundays decide the ranking. Supermarkets and operator shops are closed on Sundays and public holidays, so a reader who lands on a Sunday buys at a petrol station or a station BIPA, where eety and Drei packs hang on the rack. The rule of thumb: the supermarket wins on price, the operator shop wins on service. If you read German and have Wi-Fi, buy at the checkout and register in the app; if you want help in English, go to an A1 or Magenta shop.

Whatever you buy, bring your passport: an Austrian SIM only starts working once you register it against a valid photo ID.

How Do You Top Up and Keep an Austrian SIM Active?

Sources: A1, spusu, Drei, Magenta provider terms. Checked 14 September 2026.

Austria runs on Ladebon vouchers rather than scratch cards. They come in €10, €15, €20, €25, €30, €40 and €50, and Trafiken, supermarkets, petrol stations, and electronics shops all sell them. Online top-up is more flexible: any whole euro from €5, paid by EPS online banking or card, with an optional auto top-up every 30 days. An unregistered SIM cannot be topped up at all.

The size of the top-up decides how long an idle card survives. A1 B.free stays active for a maximum of 13 months without one, and only a single payment of €20 or more restores another 13 months: two payments of €10 do not. spusu keeps credit valid for 12 months, then takes a €2.00 a month non-usage fee until the balance is gone and removes the card from the network. If you leave Austria for good, claim your money back: Drei and Magenta refund residual credit for up to 6 months after deactivation.

How Do Austrian SIM Card Providers Compare?

What Tips Should Residents Know When Choosing a SIM Card?

• If you travel frequently within the EU, all Austrian plans include EU roaming at no extra charge under the EU roam-like-at-home rules. Check the roaming data allowance, as it may be lower than your domestic allowance.
• HoT SIM cards are available at every Hofer supermarket checkout, making them the easiest option for day-one connectivity.
• If you live in a mountainous region or commute through rural areas, A1 has the most reliable coverage. yesss!, the budget brand on the A1 network, offers a cheaper alternative with the same coverage. You can also bundle with an A1 home internet plan for additional savings.
• Keep your Austrian phone number: it anchors many services, including your bank account and your digital ID. You port it between providers for free, and the move takes 1 to 3 business days.

Which Austrian Mobile Network Has the Best Coverage?

Coverage is each operator's own figure, not an RTR measurement: RTR publishes coverage maps, not per-operator percentages. 4G as share of population: A1 (A1 Group, June 2025), Magenta (end of 2022), Drei (October 2023). 5G: A1 by population, Magenta (magenta.at) and Drei (drei.at) by homes and businesses, so the three are not directly comparable. Test scores: connect Mobilfunknetztest, December 2025.

Coverage reach and measured quality are two different rankings. The connect Mobilfunknetztest 2025/2026, measured by umlaut and published in December 2025, scored Magenta 976 of 1,000 for its eighth consecutive win, ahead of A1 at 954 and Drei at 929. Both leaders were graded überragend, Drei sehr gut. Check your own street on the regulator's coverage map at frq.rtr.at.

Which Networks and Brands Lead the Austrian Mobile Market?

Source: RTR Telekom Monitor, press release of 11 June 2026. Shares are of SIM cards in use at the end of 2025. Host networks: RTR provider list, as of October 2026.

Austria has three network operators, and they still hold most of the market. The regulator RTR counts A1 at 36.2% of SIM cards, Magenta at 24.9% and Drei at 20.1% at the end of 2025. The smaller providers grew from 18.0% to 18.8% in a year. HoT is the largest of them at 9.9%, ahead of spusu at 5.5%.

The brand list is shrinking too. A1 closed its budget brand bob on 12 July 2026 and moved its customers to A1 with the same number, tariff and price, so you can no longer buy a bob SIM. eety is a brand of Hutchison Drei and uses the Drei network, which matters if you pick it for coverage. The regulator's own list of mobile providers (October 2026) puts Lycamobile on the A1 network, alongside yesss!, XOXO and Wowww!, and spusu and LIDL Connect on Drei.

3G is gone. The operators started switching it off in early 2024, so data runs on 4G and 5G only. HoT says older phones without 4G still make calls over 2G, with weaker voice quality and almost no data. If you bring an old phone, check that it supports 4G and VoLTE before you buy a SIM.

Which Network Does Each Austrian SIM Brand Use?

Every Austrian SIM brand rides one of three networks: A1, Magenta or Drei. The brand on the packet tells you the price and the service, the network tells you the coverage. So yesss! and Lycamobile give you A1 coverage, HoT and S-Budget Mobile give you Magenta, and spusu, LIDL Connect, eety and educom give you Drei.

Owner and network are separate questions too. LIDL Connect is sold at Lidl but its contract partner is Hutchison Drei, and S-Budget Mobile at Spar is a Magenta product. HoT puts new customers on Magenta, while some older customers still run on Drei, according to the RTR provider list. If a friend on the same brand has good signal where you live, check that you would land on the same network before you copy the choice.

How Do You Switch to a Cheaper Mobile Plan in Austria?

Switching providers in Austria is straightforward. Number portability (Rufnummernmitnahme) is free by law and handled by your new provider, under rules set by the RTR, the Austrian telecom regulator. The entire process typically takes 1 to 3 business days. Unlike cancelling first and signing up later, porting keeps your number and auto-ends the old contract, so there is no coverage gap.

1. Step 1: Check your current contract end date. Log in to your provider account or call customer service. Prepaid users can switch immediately. Contract users must wait for their minimum term to end, or pay an early termination fee.
2. Step 2: Request number portability with your new provider. When you sign up with the new provider, select the option to keep your existing number. This is free and required by the RTR.
3. Step 3: Buy your new SIM or order online. Prepaid SIMs are available at supermarkets (Hofer, Spar), electronics stores, or directly from provider websites.
4. Step 4: Activate with your passport. All SIM cards in Austria require identity verification. Bring your passport or EU national ID card.
5. Step 5: Your old contract auto-cancels. Once number portability completes, your previous provider automatically ends your service. No separate Kuendigung (cancellation letter) is needed when porting.

The paper you need from the old provider is the NÜV-Info (Nummernübertragungsinformation, often called the porting code), requested in its customer portal or by phone; you then enter it with your new provider. Under the 2022 amendment to the NÜV, the old contract ends with a successful port, but the old provider may still bill the fees up to the end of a minimum term. Since 3 November 2025 you can instead ask to keep the old contract running, and the old provider must give it a free replacement number.

Important cancellation rule: Austrian mobile contracts auto-renew after the minimum term, but switch to a monthly rolling basis. After the initial 24 months, you can cancel with one month notice at any time. Send your Kuendigung (cancellation) in writing, either by email or registered letter.

Frequently Asked Questions About Austrian SIM Cards