Study ranks UK 46th globally for the average cost of mobile broadband data
Comparison site Broadband Genie has today published a new study, which analysed 3,446 SIM-only mobile phone tariffs across 234 “countries” to identify the average cost per GigaByte (GB) of data (mobile broadband) for each. The United Kingdom ended up ranking 46th with an average of $0.27 (£0.20) per 1GB of data – behind Italy and France, but in front of Germany and Spain.
The new study essentially examined the monthly subscription price of various packages and, if no data cap was available or the plan offered “unlimited” usage, then they instead used whatever the Fair Usage Policy (FUP) of the provider set out (i.e. many mobile operators will often set a flexible limit in their FUP, which for example in the UK is often c.400-750GB per month). But experiences do still vary and this is not an exact science.
Naturally, there is another big caveat to consider with this study, which is the fact that it only looks at the raw numbers and doesn’t appear to do any weighting for the different sizes of each economy or Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Likewise, there’s no accounting for the technological maturity and network performance of each market, or whether such operators are commercial or state funded. Suffice to say, the results should be taken with a pinch of salt.
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The results show that the UK ranks 46th with an average of $0.27 (£0.20) per 1GB of data, which places us well behind the likes of Italy that ranks 6th ($0.05/GB), Portugal 12th ($0.10/GB) and France 25th ($0.15/GB). But on the other hand, we’re well in front of Germany in 79th ($0.46) and Spain on 54th ($0.30). The USA also sits further down than all of them in 94th place.
Globally, Syria was found to offer the cheapest data ($0.01/GB), while Saba is the most expensive ($11.06/GB). But the latter isn’t a “country” and is instead a special municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea.
Price per GigaByte of mobile data by country (2026)
| Rank | Country | Price Per 1GB (USD) |
| 1 | Syria | $0.01 |
| 2 | Israel | $0.02 |
| 3 | Singapore | $0.03 |
| 4 | Iran | $0.04 |
| 5 | Kyrgyzstan | $0.05 |
| 6 | Italy | $0.05 |
| 7 | India | $0.06 |
| 8 | Fiji | $0.07 |
| 9 | Vietnam | $0.08 |
| 10 | Laos | $0.08 |
| 11 | Nepal | $0.09 |
| 12 | Portugal | $0.10 |
| 13 | Cambodia | $0.10 |
| 14 | Malaysia | $0.10 |
| 15 | Pakistan | $0.11 |
| 16 | Guadeloupe | $0.11 |
| 17 | San Marino | $0.12 |
| 18 | Poland | $0.13 |
| 19 | Ukraine | $0.13 |
| 20 | Finland | $0.13 |
| 21 | Bangladesh | $0.14 |
| 22 | Mauritius | $0.14 |
| 23 | Austria | $0.15 |
| 24 | Martinique | $0.15 |
| 25 | France | $0.15 |
| 26 | Chile | $0.15 |
| 27 | Moldova | $0.17 |
| 28 | United States Virgin Islands | $0.17 |
| 29 | South Africa | $0.20 |
| 30 | Romania | $0.21 |
| 31 | North Macedonia | $0.22 |
| 32 | Peru | $0.22 |
| 33 | Algeria | $0.23 |
| 34 | Ghana | $0.23 |
| 35 | Sri Lanka | $0.23 |
| 36 | Vatican City | $0.23 |
| 37 | Nigeria | $0.23 |
| 38 | Russia | $0.24 |
| 39 | Namibia | $0.24 |
| 40 | French Guiana | $0.24 |
| 41 | Tajikistan | $0.25 |
| 42 | Montenegro | $0.25 |
| 43 | Libya | $0.26 |
| 44 | Uruguay | $0.27 |
| 45 | Papua New Guinea | $0.27 |
| 46 | United Kingdom | $0.27 |
| 47 | Indonesia | $0.28 |
| 48 | Colombia | $0.28 |
| 49 | Armenia | $0.29 |
| 50 | Egypt | $0.30 |
| 51 | Ireland | $0.30 |
| 52 | Latvia | $0.30 |
| 53 | Kazakhstan | $0.30 |
| 54 | Spain | $0.30 |
| 55 | Mayotte | $0.31 |
| 56 | Jamaica | $0.32 |
| 57 | Ethiopia | $0.32 |
| 58 | Slovenia | $0.32 |
| 59 | Denmark | $0.33 |
| 60 | Saint Barthélemy | $0.33 |
| 61 | Bhutan | $0.34 |
| 62 | Uzbekistan | $0.35 |
| 63 | Brazil | $0.36 |
| 64 | Samoa | $0.36 |
| 65 | Haiti | $0.36 |
| 66 | South Korea | $0.37 |
| 67 | Bulgaria | $0.37 |
| 68 | Liechtenstein | $0.38 |
| 69 | Saint Martin | $0.38 |
| 70 | Turkey | $0.38 |
| 71 | Tunisia | $0.39 |
| 72 | Somalia | $0.40 |
| 73 | Kosovo | $0.40 |
| 74 | Western Sahara | $0.41 |
| 75 | Jordan | $0.41 |
| 76 | Thailand | $0.42 |
| 77 | Hong Kong | $0.42 |
| 78 | Guyana | $0.43 |
| 79 | Germany | $0.46 |
| 80 | Suriname | $0.46 |
| 81 | Gibraltar | $0.47 |
| 82 | Lebanon | $0.48 |
| 83 | China | $0.49 |
| 84 | Saudi Arabia | $0.49 |
| 85 | Réunion | $0.50 |
| 86 | Senegal | $0.51 |
| 87 | Dominican Republic | $0.51 |
| 88 | Uganda | $0.53 |
| 89 | Timor-Leste | $0.54 |
| 90 | Georgia | $0.57 |
| 91 | Belarus | $0.57 |
| 92 | Nicaragua | $0.58 |
| 93 | Serbia | $0.58 |
| 94 | United States | $0.60 |
| 95 | Paraguay | $0.60 |
| 96 | Philippines | $0.61 |
| 97 | Morocco | $0.61 |
| 98 | Faroe Islands | $0.61 |
| 99 | DR Congo | $0.62 |
| 100 | Zambia | $0.62 |
| 101 | Cyprus | $0.63 |
| 102 | Croatia | $0.63 |
| 103 | Venezuela | $0.63 |
| 104 | Malta | $0.64 |
| 105 | Gambia | $0.64 |
| 106 | Madagascar | $0.64 |
| 107 | Mozambique | $0.66 |
| 108 | Panama | $0.68 |
| 109 | Benin | $0.68 |
| 110 | Bahrain | $0.69 |
| 111 | Togo | $0.70 |
| 112 | Mongolia | $0.70 |
| 113 | Australia | $0.70 |
| 114 | Mauritania | $0.71 |
| 115 | Honduras | $0.71 |
| 116 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | $0.73 |
| 117 | Belgium | $0.74 |
| 118 | Guatemala | $0.75 |
| 119 | Mexico | $0.75 |
| 120 | Angola | $0.76 |
| 121 | Hungary | $0.76 |
| 122 | Malawi | $0.77 |
| 123 | Tanzania | $0.77 |
| 124 | Costa Rica | $0.80 |
| 125 | Kuwait | $0.81 |
| 126 | Sierra Leone | $0.82 |
| 127 | Kenya | $0.82 |
| 128 | Japan | $0.84 |
| 129 | Canada | $0.85 |
| 130 | Netherlands | $0.86 |
| 131 | Iraq | $0.86 |
| 132 | Sweden | $0.88 |
| 133 | Afghanistan | $0.90 |
| 134 | Estonia | $0.90 |
| 135 | Iceland | $0.91 |
| 136 | Eswatini | $0.91 |
| 137 | Ecuador | $0.92 |
| 138 | Republic of the Congo | $0.92 |
| 139 | Liberia | $0.93 |
| 140 | Azerbaijan | $0.94 |
| 141 | Northern Mariana Islands | $1.00 |
| 142 | Czechia | $1.02 |
| 143 | Maldives | $1.02 |
| 144 | Monaco | $1.03 |
| 145 | Dominica | $1.04 |
| 146 | El Salvador | $1.04 |
| 147 | Cameroon | $1.04 |
| 148 | Palau | $1.06 |
| 149 | Tonga | $1.06 |
| 150 | Trinidad and Tobago | $1.10 |
| 151 | Botswana | $1.10 |
| 152 | Grenada | $1.11 |
| 153 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | $1.12 |
| 154 | Solomon Islands | $1.13 |
| 155 | Luxembourg | $1.14 |
| 156 | Oman | $1.19 |
| 157 | Zimbabwe | $1.19 |
| 158 | South Sudan | $1.20 |
| 159 | Puerto Rico | $1.20 |
| 160 | Ivory Coast | $1.21 |
| 161 | Bolivia | $1.21 |
| 162 | Chad | $1.22 |
| 163 | Greece | $1.23 |
| 164 | Lithuania | $1.23 |
| 165 | Slovakia | $1.24 |
| 166 | Guam | $1.25 |
| 167 | Christmas Island | $1.33 |
| 168 | Vanuatu | $1.39 |
| 169 | Marshall Islands | $1.40 |
| 170 | Guernsey | $1.43 |
| 171 | Burkina Faso | $1.45 |
| 172 | Curacao | $1.46 |
| 173 | Taiwan | $1.47 |
| 174 | Bermuda | $1.50 |
| 175 | New Zealand | $1.50 |
| 176 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | $1.51 |
| 177 | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | $1.51 |
| 178 | Brunei | $1.55 |
| 179 | Yemen | $1.58 |
| 180 | Niger | $1.59 |
| 181 | Tuvalu | $1.65 |
| 182 | Equatorial Guinea | $1.69 |
| 183 | Comoros | $1.73 |
| 184 | Gabon | $1.74 |
| 185 | Norway | $1.76 |
| 186 | Qatar | $1.77 |
| 187 | Albania | $1.78 |
| 188 | Myanmar | $1.81 |
| 189 | Nauru | $1.87 |
| 190 | Andorra | $1.91 |
| 191 | Barbados | $1.98 |
| 192 | Sudan | $2.02 |
| 193 | Republic of Guinea | $2.11 |
| 194 | Bonaire | $2.12 |
| 195 | Aruba | $2.15 |
| 196 | Djibouti | $2.15 |
| 197 | Saint Lucia | $2.20 |
| 198 | Lesotho | $2.22 |
| 199 | Mali | $2.32 |
| 200 | Niue | $2.35 |
| 201 | Norfolk Island | $2.35 |
| 202 | Antigua and Barbuda | $2.37 |
| 203 | New Caledonia | $2.39 |
| 204 | Isle of Man | $2.40 |
| 205 | São Tomé and Príncipe | $2.43 |
| 206 | Palestine | $2.45 |
| 207 | American Samoa | $2.50 |
| 208 | Cuba | $2.50 |
| 209 | Switzerland | $2.52 |
| 210 | Montserrat | $2.68 |
| 211 | Cape Verde | $2.71 |
| 212 | Cayman Islands | $2.76 |
| 213 | Anguilla | $2.84 |
| 214 | Belize | $2.89 |
| 215 | Cook Islands | $2.90 |
| 216 | Jersey | $3.07 |
| 217 | Saint Helena Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | $3.11 |
| 218 | Seychelles | $3.26 |
| 219 | Cocos (Keeling) Islands | $3.31 |
| 220 | Diego Garcia | $3.33 |
| 221 | Central African Republic | $3.60 |
| 222 | British Virgin Islands | $3.84 |
| 223 | United Arab Emirates | $3.97 |
| 224 | Guinea-Bissau | $4.35 |
| 225 | Sint Eustatius | $5.00 |
| 226 | Bahamas | $5.00 |
| 227 | Argentina | $5.07 |
| 228 | Greenland | $5.34 |
| 229 | Rwanda | $5.52 |
| 230 | Macau | $6.88 |
| 231 | Kiribati | $6.98 |
| 232 | Turks and Caicos Islands | $7.50 |
| 233 | Turkmenistan | $9.28 |
| 234 | Saba | $11.06 |
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Comparing UK to US using “Big Mac” PPP shows how very overpriced mobile data is in the US vs UK.
Big Mac PPP equivalent would price US data at $0.23 instead of the $0.60 recorded.
That’s just a headline example
Not having a Big Mac PPP calculation for the whole survey is a big miss in the research and simple to do, and Big Mac is fair to use because it is also a widely available consumer good.
I’m sure some other poster could use Excel or AI to convert the whole table using US as the “anchor” (since the costs are converted to $USD), but I don’t have the time today to do this myself other than to show what a miss this is by an example
The USA has been consolidated into 3 main networks which has put prices up……. Oh hang on a minute.
People I chat to in the U.s complains about the price of mobile data. They complain about the price of everything increasing in price at the moment in the U.S.
My cousin came over here last year and was shocked how low some prices was here. I wish they were low, but compared to the states they are.
As Big Dave posted, U.S, now only have three mobile network and by all accounts they are worse than ours.
just got myself an esim for spain.
€15 for 270GB… so where they come up with these figures is beyond me.
my spusu sim here in the uk. £12 for 50G
Read the article and you will see it says, to identify the average cost per GigaByte (GB).
So some will be cheaper, some will be more expensive.
There are several ways of calculating PPP, from the trivial to the complex.I’m sure the list would look different for each calculation.
If you are going to try and reason why there is such a gulf between, say, Syria and Saba then PPP isn’t particularly relevant no matter what calculation you use.
More useful might be applying such factors when comparing countries with similar economic profiles.
In any case, publishing raw data and leaving any weightings out means others can apply their own and argue their reasoning.