Basically, it depends on the country you come from and the plan you have. Simplified for the majority of cases, it can be summarized as follows:
If you’re from a country in the European Union or the UK, you can use your home country mobile plan with roaming. In the EU area the roaming is free – without any additional fees. So, with your home country unlimited plan all calls, messages and internet connection will be free (according to the limits of your domestic plan). If your home country mobile plan has limited minutes or GBs of data, then calls and data will be taken from the free minutes and GBs and once they are exceeded, they will be charged as you are used to under your home plan charges without any additional roaming charges.
If you are from other countries outside the European Union (fe. United States, Canada, Asia, etc.) then we recommend you consider buying a local sim card as this might be cheaper than your home plan.
Travellers from the EU
On 15th June 2017, the EU implemented “free roaming” known as “Roam Like at Home”. EU citizens can use mobile services (calls, texts and data) under the same financial conditions as if they were in their home country. This applies in The European Economic Area which includes all member states of the European Union and Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and The United Kingdom (Great Britain).
Complete list of all EEA countries – Zone 1: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guyana, Germany, Gibraltar, Great Britain, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Vatican. For simplicity, I will refer to the EEA as the EU.
It’s simple for EU residents. You very probably won’t need a local Czech sim card. Simply turn on roaming before you travel and you can use your operator’s services in Prague at the same prices as in your home country. As a citizen of a country in the European Union, you must get roaming for free. This means your calls, texts and internet data will cost in the Czech Republic the same as if you were at home. Postpaid mobile plans with free minutes, free messages and free GBs of data, can by used in the Czech Republic just as if you were at home.
Just make sure you have roaming enabled before your trip. To ensure that your roaming will work in the Czech Republic, it’s best to ask your mobile service provider for more information before travelling. See the EU website for details.
Call, SMS and data prices for EU residents
| pre-paid plan | post-paid plan including free minutes/SMS within one home network | post-paid plan including a limited amount of minutes/SMS/data | unlimited post-paid plan | |
| answering incoming calls/messages in Prague/Czech from EU countries | free | free | free | free |
| making outgoing calls/messages in Prague/Czech Republic to EU countries | the same prices as your home mobile plan | Free units are free until they are used. After that, prices are the same as your home mobile plan. Calls outside your operator’s network are charged according to your home mobile plan. | Free units are free until they are used. After that, prices are the same as your home mobile plan. | free |
| Internet data usage (simplified) | the same prices as your home mobile plan | – | Free GBs are free until they are used. After that, prices are the same as your home mobile plan. | free |
Information on data usage is very simplistic, but fits most cases you will experience. Data usage in roaming is clearly defined by European Union regulation. However, a vast majority of mobile providers are offering roaming data under the same conditions as if you were using it at home. You can find roaming data usage minimums and the exact calculation on the EU website.
Travellers from non-EU countries
If you are from another country outside the European Union, such as from the United States, Canada, countries in South America, Asia, Africa or Australia, then you can expect calls, messages and internet data charges to be quite expensive in the Czech Republic and Prague.
We recommend you to check your roaming data and call prices and consider buying a local SIM card from a czech mobile operator. A Czech SIM card with pre-paid plan is typically 10 to 100 times cheaper than roaming from your mobile operator.
Buying local data SIM / eSIM card
Most travellers need an internet connection for Facebook, Instagram and other socials and websites/apps like Tripadvisor, Booking, Wikipedia, etc. Travellers prefer using Facebook Messenger, FaceTime, Whatsapp, Signal and other mobile apps for calling and messaging. The most often stay duration in Prague is 2-6 nights. Therefore, we recommend buying a prepaid sim card with free GBs of mobile data only and ignore all plans with unlimited, or free minutes for calling and messaging.
Reasons to buy a local SIM
| Pros | Cons |
| mostly cheaper than your domestic plan with roaming fees | you have to find a shop and buy the sim card in person |
| SIM card can be used throughout the EU when travelling in other countries in EU area (fe. Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Austria) | only one number works at a time on a mobile phone with one sim/esim slot |
O2, T-Mobile, or Vodafone?
There are 3 major mobile operators in the Czech Republic – O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone. It is not possible to tell which company is the best as they offer very similar services and prices. The quality of signal coverage and internet connection speeds are practically identical in Prague. All three operators provide 4G/LTE and 5G signal coverage in almost all parts of Prague and a major part of the Czech Republic.
Prepaid data tariffs without plans
I put all the current prepaid plans you can get in the table and ranked them from the most interesting one:
| # | Plan | Data limit | Price | More |
| 1. | Vodafone Zlatá karta (Gold card) 15 GB | 10 GB | 249 CZK / 10 EUR | You can get + 5 GB in app (CZ only) |
| 2. | T-mobile 10 GB | 10 GB | 299 CZK / 12 EUR | |
| 3. | O2 GO 7 GB | 7 GB | 299 CZK / 12 EUR | |
| 4. | Vodafone SIM for Travellers 15 GB | 10 GB | 499 CZK / 20 EUR | You can get + 5 GB in app (CZ only) |
All plans come with e-sim support. Those prepaid plans will expire over time, usually 10+ months after SIM not being active or not being charged. All funds left on the prepaid plan expires as well.
The best data prepaid plan for travellers is the Vodafone Gold Card.
For 249 CZK (or 10 EUR) you get 10 GB of data. If you install the My Vodafone app, you can get an additional 5 GB of data.
10 GB of data is enough for a month of normal use without watching videos. If you also watch videos from Netflix, Youtube, Tiktok, etc. on your mobile, then 10 GB can last you only for one evening in Prague.
There are also other prepaid plans, but they have a very low data limit, mostly under 5 GB, which may not be enough for a weekend in Prague, and the price is not much better, which is why I did not include them in the table.
You can also find the so-called MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) in shops besides these three major operators. These are many and change over time. You may occasionally come across an interesting offer, but I usually prefer Vodafone, O2 or T-Mobile.
Beware, Vodafone offers the Gold Card prepaid plan for Czechs for 249 CZK / 10 EUR and practically the same prepaid plan on the English version of its e-shop for 499 CZK / 20 EUR.
Hidden mobile data prepaid SIMs
Czech mobile operators offer some pre-paid plans for Czech citizens only and try to hide them from travellers from abroad and make it difficult to purchase those plans using various conditions and restrictions.
For example: you have to physically order and deliver the card to an address in the Czech Republic, pay for it with a Czech payment card and activate the sim card in the mobile app.
Those hidden plans are called Datamanie and are provided by O2.
Buying such plan is not easy and in order to buy it, you need to have friends in the Czech Republic. But if you can manage that, you’ll be rewarded with pre-paid plans full of data for a very reasonable price.
| # | Plan | Data limit | Price | Glitches |
| 1. | O2 Datamanie NEO | Unlimited (up to 20 MB/s) | 699 CZK / 28 EUR | – O2 app needed to activate – no eSIM support – Czech payment card needed – max 3 SIM cards per person |
| 2. | O2 Datamanie 100 GB | 100 GB | 449 CZK / 18 EUR | – O2 app needed to activate – no eSIM support – Czech payment card needed – max 3 SIM cards per person |
How to get O2’s Datamania plans:
- You must have a friend who lives in the Czech Republic, has a Czech debit card and is willing to help you
- The friend will order a plastic simcard on the O2 e-shop and the price will be 0,- CZK. The simcard will arrive by post to the friends address. We recommend ordering it at least 3 working days before you arrive.
- Your friend will use My O2 mobile app to activate the Datamania simcard.
- When activating, you need to provide a Czech payment card (it might work with an EU card too, like Irish Revolut, but with no guarantee)
- Once activation is completed, payment for the first 30 days of the prepaid plan will be charged. This is first time you will be charged.
- Recurring payments will be automatically set up in the My O2 app after payment.
- Your friend must cancel the recurring payment in My O2 app after you leave the Czech republic.
Where to buy prepaid SIM cards?
Arriving in Prague, just visit the first newsstand, tobacco shop or mobile operator shop and buy a local sim card. It’s easy and inexpensive. The prices of simcards should be practically the same everywhere.
Simcards at Václav Havel Airport (Prague)
On landing, proceed through passport control, reclaim your baggage and exit the arrivals hall to the public area of the airport. There are 4 tobacco and newspaper shops called Relay in the public area of the airport in Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. They are marked by advertising banners of mobile operators, so you won’t miss them. Relay is open from 07:00 (7 am) to 21:00 (9 pm). You can’t buy any simcards at the airport outside these hours.
There used to be an automatic Vodafone simcard vending machine at the airport – however, it was removed in March 2024.
How to activate the SIM card
Just insert the SIM card in your phone and enter the PIN included in the SIM card package. SIM karta bude aktivní do pár minut po zapnutí v mobilu. Please note that you must activate the SIM card in the country where it was purchased. For e-sim, in most cases you scan the e-sim’s QR code.
Tethering
Tethering is allowed in the Czech Republic, so you can freely share internet data from your local SIM card with friends.
Required documents
You do not need any documents to purchase. I have bought dozens of prepaid SIM cards for friends from abroad during their visits to the Czech Republic over the years and no one has ever asked me for any kind of documentation.
Postpaid plans
You can also choose a postpaid mobile plan. The shortest contract period is usually set to 3 months, so it is only worthwhile for a minority of travellers who stay in Prague for more than a month. Check the options of each operator if you are interested in this:
They have very similar offers in terms of price and terms and conditions.
Global eSIM providers
Companies like Airalo, Holafly, Alosim and Nomad are providing SIM cards, or eSIMs to connect to the internet abroad. The key advantage is that you can buy them from anywhere in the world and use once you are at the destination. They cost a little more than buying local SIM cards, but you can buy them before you visit Prague and save time buying and activating a local SIM card.
The most used services can be divided into two groups
Airalo, Alosim and Nomad actually offer an available local prepaid plans at the local operator’s price plus commission. The added value is in the ease of purchasing the prepaid plan.
Holafly works with a different business model and offers unlimited data almost worldwide. You can purchase a plan for a specific country or continent for a predefined number of days. The advantage is that you are not limited at all. The disadvantage is the higher price.
Which of these services is more suitable for you you have to consider for yourself. For clarity I have prepared a simplified table. These rates apply to data packages for the Czech Republic. These companies also offer packages for the whole of Europe or the whole world. As you can see there is not much difference in prices.
To help you decide on the best option, I’ve prepared these comparison tables of plans with data volumes, or number of days of unlimited internet with prices.
| 1 GB | 3 GB | 5 GB | 10 GB | 15 GB | 20 GB | |
| Airalo | – | – | – | 22 $ | – | – |
| Alosim | 4.5 $ | 11 $ | 18 $ | 22 $ | – | 32.5 $ |
| Nomad | 6 $ | 12 $ | 14 $ | 19 $ | 27 $ | – |
| 5 days | 7 days | 10 days | 15 days | 20 days | 30 days | |
| Holafly | 19 $ | 27 $ | 34 $ | 47 $ | 57 $ | 69 $ |
Keep in mind that not all countries in Europe are part of the EU and, for example, the UK (Great Britain) or Switzerland are not covered by those data packages. You can see an up-to-date list of supported countries on the service’s website.
Be aware that Holafly does not support tethering (hotspot sharing) with unlimited data plans. So you can’t share data with your friends or use tethering with your laptop or ipad.
Mobile internet speed in Prague
Most of Prague is covered by 5G and legacy 4G/LTE networks. The internet speed in Prague is very fast. In the countryside, outside Prague and cities, internet speed can be slower depending on signal quality. Most of the Czech Republic is covered by at least 4G/LTE, which is pretty fast.
You can expect internet speeds of 100 MB/s and more (download) in the 5G network in the centre of Prague.
