Best eSIM for Indonesia and Bali

Prices in Indonesia

Airalo wins on price by under half a dollar; Saily wins on what its page is willing to state. How the three providers compare across all fifteen destinations is in our main eSIM comparison.

Which network you get

Indonesia is the one country where the three providers sit on three different networks:

• Airalo shows Tri (3, Hutchison) as its primary network with two others it does not name on the page. No 5G or hotspot statement.
• Saily states that its “Indonesia plans run on Telkomsel’s 4G LTE and 5G networks”, with coverage in Jakarta, Bali and most islands, and hotspot use with no restrictions.
• Holafly lists XL (Excelcom) and Telkomsel, with 5G where available and hotspot sharing capped at 1 GB a day. It flags weak coverage on remote islands, Raja Ampat, Komodo and the Rinjani trails.

Buying a local SIM instead

Prepaid registration is mandatory and, for foreigners, done against a passport.

• The ministry (Komdigi) states that foreign nationals register with a passport or a valid residence permit, with a limit of three prepaid numbers per identity per operator, and that SIMs are sold inactive until registration is validated.
• XL sells a Tourist eSIM online: 14 GB for Rp46,000, 30 GB for Rp70,000, 55 GB for Rp100,000, up to 150 GB for Rp168,000, each valid 30 days. The purchase page asks you to “prepare your passport, email, and device ID (IMEI)”.
• Telkomsel’s tourist prepaid product page redirected to a “page not found” when we checked, although its support pages still describe a Rp100,000, 25 GB, 30-day card collected at Telkomsel outlets in Bali and Lombok. Treat it as unconfirmed until Telkomsel’s own page is back.

Before you land

One Indonesian rule matters for anyone who buys a local SIM: foreign phones are subject to customs IMEI registration. The official pages that describe it, on the customs service’s regional sites, could not be loaded when we checked, so we do not quote its terms here; a travel eSIM bought abroad is the route that does not depend on it.

• Install on Wi-Fi at home; Airalo allows 365 days from purchase to start, Saily 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. Indonesia’s onward-ticket rules are on their own page, and the free checker covers your passport.