Unlimited, decoded: what you actually get after the throttle

"Unlimited data": two words that sell, covering very different contracts. Behind the vast majority of unlimited eSIM plans sits a Fair Use Policy: a full-speed data quota, daily or total, beyond which your speed drops, sometimes to 128 kbps, a speed at which a modern web page struggles to load. The connection never cuts off; in that narrow sense, "unlimited" holds. Your actual usage, however, is bounded.

Method

Panel. 44 plans from 15 resellers across nine destinations: Thailand, Japan, the United States, multi-country Europe, Turkey, Morocco, Mexico, Brazil and Canada. Panel built from the independent comparator esimdb, plus the major consumer brands. Inclusion rule: the plan is marketed as "unlimited".

Primary sources only. Every quota, speed and price comes from the reseller's own product page or terms, never from an aggregator. When a reseller publishes no figure, we record it as "undisclosed": that is a finding, not missing data.

Results, destination by destination

Tables contain only primary-source-verified data. "n/s" = not surveyed by us; "undisclosed" = not published by the reseller. The badge rates disclosure: published vague undisclosed speed cap

UNITED STATES

MEXICO

BRAZIL

CANADA

EUROPE (MULTI-COUNTRY)

THAILAND

JAPAN

TURKEY

MOROCCO

The disclosure index

Perhaps the most important finding: 27% of the plans in the panel publish no quota figure at all. The quota is the essential characteristic of the product: buying "unlimited" without knowing its throttle threshold is buying a plan without knowing its volume.

THE CLAUSES, WORD FOR WORD

"8.3. If you purchase an 'unlimited' Data Subscription please note that your data coverage and speed may be subject to a network service provider's fair use policy. This means that in order to ensure a high quality of service for all users, the network service provider reserves its right to impose restrictions or limitations on data usage or speed if your usage is deemed excessive..."HOLAFLY · GENERAL TERMS 8.3 · 2026-07-12 · no figure on any destination · archived source

"...when you use more than 3GB in a day, we'll slow down (or 'throttle') your internet speed to 1 Mbps for the rest of that day. [...] 'day' means each 24-hour period that begins when you activate your eSIM and resets every 24 hours from that activation time."AIRALO · UNLIMITED FAIR USE POLICY · 2026-07-12 · the most complete clause in the panel · archived source

"If the network receives reports of a high level of usage within a short time frame (usually in excess of 3GB of usage per day), the network may apply their fair usage policy and restrict your connection speed for 24 - 48 hours. [...] if 500MB of data or more is used during this day (while the connection speed is restricted), this restriction may be applied the next day as well."MOBAL · HELP CENTER · 2026-07-12 · the only mechanism where using data during the throttle extends the throttle · archived source

THE RESET CYCLE NOBODY COMPARES

When does your quota refill? Clauses diverge, and the difference is concrete. At Airalo, a "day" is a rolling 24-hour window starting at eSIM activation: activate at 10pm on arrival and your quota refills every evening at 10pm. At Saily and Jetpac, it is also a 24-hour cycle. At eTravelSim and Ohayu, the clause says "the next day", without naming a timezone. That detail, which timezone and which hour, is part of our field-test protocol.

What it means for you

Reading rule: when an unlimited seller does not publish its quota, assume the market median, 3 GB/day, and compare prices on that basis. If the seller believes its quota is more generous, nothing stops it from publishing it.

When unlimited is worth it: long stays with steady daily usage. 3 GB/day at full speed comfortably covers browsing, social apps and occasional video calls, and unlimited buys peace of mind: no counter to watch.

How to cite this study

Cerisola, E. (2026). Unlimited, decoded: real quotas and throttled speeds of "unlimited data" eSIMs. Drift Data Index. https://driftamericas.com/data-index/unlimited-decoded/

Full dataset (open, citable): data-unlimited-decoded.json. Reuse permitted with attribution and a link. Press contact: [email protected].

Panel via the independent comparator esimdb (July 8 to 12, 2026). Prices in USD. All trademarks belong to their owners. This study is an objective comparison of essential, verifiable characteristics based on the resellers' public documents. Errors reported to [email protected] will be corrected with a timestamped note.