Vodafone international roaming: what it costs, and when a travel eSIM is cheaper

• Postpaid day pass$5 RoamingA$5.00 per 24 hours, using your plan's dataIn over 100 destinations. Covers Japan, Bali and Indonesia, Europe, Vietnam, New Zealand, Thailand and the USA.For eligible postpaid plans. Turn on international roaming in My Vodafone. Charged for each 24-hour block from when you first use your phone overseas, only on days you use data, calls or texts, up to 90 days a calendar year. It uses your Australian plan's data; on Infinite and Plus plans, more data is added when it runs out. Not available in Finland or Cyprus.Checked 1 Nov · Source
• Prepaid packVodafone $5 Roaming Add-on (prepaid)A$5.00 for 1 GB over 1 day.In over 80 destinations. Covers Japan, Bali and Indonesia, Europe, Vietnam, New Zealand, Thailand and the USA. Not covered: India, the Philippines, the UK, China, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Canada.Includes 100 minutes of calls and 100 international texts.Checked 1 Nov · Source
• Prepaid packVodafone $15 Roaming Add-on (prepaid)A$15.00 for 3 GB over 3 days.In over 80 destinations. Covers Japan, Bali and Indonesia, Europe, Vietnam, New Zealand, Thailand and the USA. Not covered: India, the Philippines, the UK, China, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Canada.Includes 150 minutes of calls and 150 international texts.Checked 1 Nov · Source
• Prepaid packVodafone $35 Roaming Add-on (prepaid)A$35.00 for 7 GB over 7 days.In over 80 destinations. Covers Japan, Bali and Indonesia, Europe, Vietnam, New Zealand, Thailand and the USA. Not covered: India, the Philippines, the UK, China, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Canada.Includes 350 minutes of calls and 250 international texts.Checked 1 Nov · Source

• $5 Roaming uses your included data, calls and texts as at home, except data capped at speeds of up to 1.5, 2, 10 or 25 Mbps, which is not available. Vodafone charges the day when you make or receive a call, send a text or use data overseas, and counts days in 24-hour blocks from when you first use your phone overseas.
• Vodafone also offers In-Flight Roaming on participating airlines, at A$5.00 extra a day.
• Prepaid: Vodafone says roaming add-ons are for when your last recharge was Prepaid Plus or Pay and Go. Buy one in My Vodafone, then switch roaming on there. Data is for handsets only. Vodafone says an add-on's expiry period begins at midnight Australian Eastern Standard Time on the day you buy it, wherever you are, so one bought late in the Australian evening, or in a time zone behind Australia, may last fewer hours than its length suggests.

If your plan or destination is not eligible, or $5 Roaming is switched off, pay-as-you-go rates apply. Vodafone lists data at A$1.00 per MB. At that rate 100 MB costs A$100.00.

Calls and texts are charged at pay-as-you-go rates as well, so check Vodafone's rates page for your destination.

For a trip of 7 days, using the cheapest option from Vodafone that lasts the whole trip and holds the data, against the cheapest single travel eSIM that does the same. Light use is about 0.5 GB a day and moderate use about 1 GB a day. A day pass is counted for every day of the trip; a pack is bought again, one after another, if it is shorter than the trip. The carrier options include calls and texts on your own number where stated; a travel eSIM is data only. A postpaid reader is compared with the day pass and a Pre-Paid reader with the packs, because you can only buy your own plan's. The day pass here uses your own plan's data, so its figure assumes your plan has the data to spare.

Try your own trip in the roaming calculator, or compare plans for Japan, Bali and Europe.

We found no separate travel eSIM sold by Vodafone Australia. Its own page on travelling with eSIM describes the ordinary phone eSIM with $5 Roaming: you keep your Australian number and use your plan abroad. That is the Vodafone plan priced above, not a data-only travel plan.

A separate Vodafone Travel eSIM site, travel.vodafone.com, sells data-only plans and, when we checked on 1 Nov 2026, showed its prices in pounds. We have not compared it because we can't price it in Australian dollars from that page, and it is not one of the providers we list.

$5 Roaming switches on by itself when the international roaming network setting is on in My Vodafone and you turn on your phone in an eligible destination. A day charge of A$5.00 starts when you use calls, texts or data.

To use a travel eSIM for data, leave the Vodafone line on for texts, turn off data roaming on it, and don't make or answer calls or send texts on it. Vodafone says receiving messages is free and won't trigger the charge. Data roaming off stops data starting a day; making or answering a call, or sending a text, still does.

To be sure of no charge, switch roaming off entirely in My Vodafone; the line then won't receive texts either. Vodafone says Wi-Fi Calling does not work while roaming internationally, so do not count on it to make calls from your Australian number.

Our guide to keeping your Australian number has the full setup.

• Log in to My Vodafone and check the international roaming network setting. You can switch $5 Roaming off, or roaming off entirely, there.
• $5 Roaming has a limit on days in a calendar year, shown in the details above. After that, pay-as-you-go rates apply.
• Turn off data roaming on the Vodafone line if a travel eSIM is your data line, and don't make or answer calls on it.
• Check your destination: $5 Roaming is not available in Finland or Cyprus, so pay-as-you-go rates apply there.