Best eSIM for Colombia

Prices in Colombia

Read Airalo’s row with the conditions below in mind; the dollar it saves buys a verification step. How the three providers compare across all fifteen destinations is in our main eSIM comparison.

Which network you get

Colombia is the one country where Airalo names no local operator at all:

• Airalo’s network field reads “Airalo”, its own brand, with a 4G badge. Its package panel states that identity verification is required with “only passport allowed”, that “the IMEI of the device using the eSIM should be automatically collected and registered to ensure access to the network”, and that you have 90 days from purchase to start the eSIM.
• Holafly lists Telefónica (Movistar), with 5G where available and hotspot sharing capped at 1 GB a day.
• Saily does not name its network; it states 5G depending on the local provider and limitless hotspot sharing, with no identity check.

Buying a local SIM instead

Tigo is now the operator behind both the Tigo and Movistar brands: Movistar Colombia’s prepaid site redirects to Tigo’s store.

• Tigo’s “Travel to Colombia” eSIM: COP 100,000 for 30 days of unlimited data, unlimited calls in Colombia and free WhatsApp and Facebook, bought online and installed in minutes on an unlocked eSIM phone. The page does not state which document is needed, and the activation page could not be loaded from outside Colombia.
• Tigo’s ordinary prepaid packages start from COP 9,000, with 20 GB for COP 20,000 over 20 days when we checked.
• Claro’s eSIM page states that identity is validated by one-time code and facial recognition; its prepaid page publishes no SIM price. We found no operator or airport page stating counters at Bogotá airport.

Before you land

Colombia registers phones, not just SIMs. The ministry’s guidance says a phone that uses a Colombian network must have its IMEI registered with an operator, that the operator sends a message and allows 20 days before blocking, and that phones in international roaming are exempt. So a visitor on a home SIM is unaffected; a visitor who installs a Colombian SIM or Airalo’s eSIM, which registers the IMEI itself, is inside the system.

• Airalo: complete the passport verification before you travel and start the eSIM within 90 days. Saily allows 180.
• These are data-only plans. Keep your home SIM active for the text messages your bank and your airline send, with data roaming switched off on it.
• Carry your onward reservation in a form that opens without a connection: the check-in desk asks for it before the eSIM is on. Colombia’s onward-ticket rules are on their own page, and the free checker covers your passport.