Best if you mainly need data + WhatsApp
Felix 25GB
$25 /month
Felix Mobile · Vodafone · 25GB
True monthly billing (not 28-day), and unused data rolls over into a data bank instead of expiring.
Last checked 2026-05-15
View planFor visa holders & international students in Australia
Best SIM cards for international students in Australia
Compare prepaid SIM plans on data, ongoing cost, network, international calls and how long you plan to stay. Every plan below was checked by hand against the provider's own site — including which ones actually include calls to Nepal, India and the Philippines.
12 plans compared 5 providers Data verified 2026-05-15 How we compare Some links earn us a commission
The short answer
Five situations cover most new arrivals. These picks mirror the same logic the comparison tool uses — no eSIM category yet because we haven't verified eSIM availability per plan.
Best for calling India, Vietnam or the Philippines
Lebara $25
$25 /28 days
Lebara · Vodafone · 25GB
Unlimited calls to 35 countries including India, Vietnam and the Philippines at the lowest price in this group.
Last checked 2026-05-15
View planBest for calling Nepal
Boost $39
$39 /28 days
Boost Mobile · Telstra · 30GB
The largest Nepal allowance of any plan we checked — 300 minutes per cycle — on the full Telstra network.
Last checked 2026-05-15
View planBest for heavy data users
Felix Unlimited
$40 /month
Felix Mobile · Vodafone · Unlimited
The only truly unlimited-data plan in this comparison. Speed is capped at 40Mbps — fine for streaming, not for large downloads.
Last checked 2026-05-15
View planBest first-week starter
amaysim 7-Day $10
$10 /7 days
amaysim · Optus · 10GB
Cheapest way to get connected on arrival ($10, renews weekly) while you research a longer-term plan properly.
Last checked 2026-05-15
View planAll 12 plans at a glance
"Effective per year" is the ongoing price multiplied by real renewals per year (365 ÷ renewal days) — 28-day plans bill 13 times a year, not 12.
| Plan | Ongoing price | Renews | Effective / year | Data | Network | International calls | Best for | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felix 25GB Felix Mobile | $25 Intro: $12.50/mo for first 3 months with code FELIX50 | Monthly | $304 | 25GB | Vodafone | Not included | Budget, Heavy data, Metro | View |
| Lebara $25 Lebara | $25 | 28 days | $326 | 25GB | Vodafone | Unlimited to 32 countries · 30m Nepal | Calling home, Budget, Metro | View |
| Boost $39 Boost Mobile | $39 | 28 days | $508 | 30GB | Telstra | Unlimited to 20 countries · 300m Nepal | Calling home, Regional, Balanced | View |
| Felix Unlimited Felix Mobile | $40 Intro: $20/mo for first 3 months with code FELIX50 | Monthly | $487 | Unlimited | Vodafone | Not included | Heavy data, Budget, Metro | View |
| amaysim 7-Day $10 amaysim | $10 | 7 days | $521 | 10GB | Optus | Unlimited to 22 countries | Budget, Short stay | View |
| Lycamobile XS $20 Lycamobile | $20 | 28 days | $261 | 25GB | Telstra wholesale | Included — verify list | Budget, Calling home | View |
| Lebara $30 Lebara | $30 Intro: $11 first recharge | 28 days | $391 | 35GB | Vodafone | Unlimited to 32 countries · 30m Nepal | Calling home, Balanced, Metro | View |
| amaysim 42GB amaysim | $35 | 28 days | $456 | 42GB | Optus | Unlimited to 20 countries | Balanced, Metro, Calling home | View |
| Lebara $40 Lebara | $40 Intro: $15 first recharge | 28 days | $521 | 85GB | Vodafone | Unlimited to 44 countries · 50m Nepal | Calling home, Heavy data, Metro | View |
| amaysim 80GB amaysim | $40 Intro: $15 first recharge | 28 days | $521 | 80GB | Optus | Unlimited to 40 countries | Heavy data, Balanced, Calling home | View |
| Lycamobile XL $40 Lycamobile | $40 | 28 days | $521 | 200GB | Telstra wholesale | Included — verify list | Heavy data, Calling home, Balanced | View |
| Boost $59 Boost Mobile | $59 | 28 days | $769 | 55GB | Telstra | Unlimited to 20 countries · 300m Nepal | Calling home, Regional, Heavy data | View |
Rows with a dot are the picks from the summary above. Lycamobile quotas and country lists still need click-through verification. eSIM availability not yet verified for any plan.
Find the right SIM plan for your situation
Three questions. The tool filters and ranks the same 12 plans using your priorities (data, budget, calling home), your length of stay, and — because inclusion lists differ wildly — the exact country you call most.
Question 1 of 3
What matters most to you?
Select all that apply.
How long are you staying?
Which country do you call most?
Other options
✱ Data verified 2026-05-15 · Prices may change
Which plan suits which student
Newly arrived student
What matters: Getting connected today without locking into the wrong plan.
A $10 weekly plan buys time to compare properly. Switching later costs nothing — prepaid has no exit fees.
Start with: amaysim 7-Day $10
Budget-conscious student
What matters: Lowest ongoing cost with no intro-price traps.
Cheapest ongoing plan in this group on Telstra wholesale coverage. Check the current data quota — Lycamobile details still need click-through verification.
Start with: Lycamobile XS $20
Heavy data user
What matters: Not running out of data mid-month.
Unlimited data with a 40Mbps speed cap. If you need full speed, amaysim 80GB or Lycamobile XL (200GB) are the high-quota alternatives.
Start with: Felix Unlimited
Calls family overseas every week
What matters: Whether your specific country is actually included — lists differ a lot.
Boost covers the widest set of South Asian destinations with real minutes (300 to Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines). Lebara is cheaper if your country is in its unlimited list.
Start with: Boost $39
Short-term visitor (under 3 months)
What matters: No commitment, low total spend.
Weekly renewal means you stop paying the week you leave. Expensive per GB if you stay longer — switch after a month.
Start with: amaysim 7-Day $10
Living or working regionally
What matters: Coverage outside the capital cities.
Boost resells the full Telstra network — the only plans here rated excellent for regional coverage. Vodafone-based MVNOs are the weakest outside metro areas.
Start with: Boost $39
How to compare plans fairly
Intro price vs ongoing price
Several plans advertise a discounted first recharge (Lebara $30 starts at $11; Felix halves its price for 3 months with a code). Always compare the ongoing price — it's what you'll pay for the other 9+ months of the year.
28-day renewals ≠ monthly
9 of the 12 plans here renew every 28 days — 13 charges per year. A "$25" 28-day plan really costs about $326/year, not $300. Only Felix bills per calendar month.
Data rollover & caps
Felix banks unused data indefinitely; most others expire it every cycle. "Unlimited" data on Felix Unlimited is speed-capped at 40Mbps, and some high-quota plans throttle after the cap.
Network vs network footprint
"Uses the Telstra network" isn't one thing. Boost resells the full Telstra footprint; Lycamobile uses Telstra wholesale, which is smaller. Vodafone-based plans (Lebara, Felix) are solid in cities, weakest regionally.
International-call inclusions
Country lists differ per plan, not per provider. India is widely included; Nepal appears in only Boost (300 min) and Lebara (30–50 min) plans. Check your exact country before buying, and re-check fair-use conditions on "unlimited" calls.
Auto-renewal & switching
All plans here are prepaid with auto-recharge on by default — no exit fees, so switching is cheap. Turn off auto-recharge before you leave Australia, or a 28-day plan keeps billing.
How Arrivly compared these SIM plans
The comparison tool on this page runs a filter-then-score process — the same one described here, with no hidden inputs:
- Hard filters first. If you say calling home matters, plans with no international calls are removed entirely. If you pick budget, plans over $25 are removed. If you call Nepal, plans with zero Nepal minutes are removed rather than ranked lower.
- Then scoring. Remaining plans earn points for matching your priorities (+30 each), your length of stay (+20), and whether your country is in the plan's unlimited list (+25) or minutes list (+20). Data quota acts as a tiebreaker, and Telstra-network plans get +15 for stays over two years because coverage matters more the longer you're here.
- Verification. Every figure was checked manually against the provider's own site or published Critical Information Summary on 2026-05-15. Where we couldn't verify (Lycamobile's JS-rendered site), the caveat is printed on the results, not hidden.
Commission is not a scoring input. Some plan links earn Arrivly a commission; the ranking function contains no commission or payout field, and plans with no affiliate program are listed and recommended on the same basis. See our full disclosure.
Strengths and limitations of each pick
Felix 25GB
Felix Mobile · Vodafone · $25/month
Strengths
- Data rolls over — never lose unused GB
- True monthly billing — not 28-day
- Eco-friendly — plants a tree per month
- Easy to manage via app
Limitations
- No Nepal calling included or available as add-on
- Vodafone coverage weaker regionally
- International calls add-on does not cover Nepal
Lebara $25
Lebara · Vodafone · $25/28 days
Strengths
- Includes 30 mins to Nepal per month
- Unlimited calls to India, Vietnam, Philippines
- Good value at $25/month
Limitations
- Billed every 28 days — 13 payments per year not 12
- Vodafone coverage weak in regional Australia
- Only 30 mins to Nepal — not unlimited
Boost $39
Boost Mobile · Telstra · $39/28 days
Strengths
- 300 mins to Nepal — best Nepal calling available
- Full Telstra network — works in regional Australia
- 99.7% population coverage
- Includes calls to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines
Limitations
- More expensive than Vodafone MVNOs
- Only 30GB data
- Billed every 28 days
Felix Unlimited
Felix Mobile · Vodafone · $40/month
Strengths
- Only truly unlimited data plan in Australia
- True monthly billing
- Best value for heavy data users
- Stream and study without worrying about limits
Limitations
- Speed capped at 40Mbps
- No Nepal calling
- Vodafone regional coverage limitations
amaysim 7-Day $10
amaysim · Optus · $10/7 days
Strengths
- Cheapest plan on this list at $10
- Perfect for first week in Australia
- No commitment — renews weekly
- Includes India calls
Limitations
- Only 10GB data
- Nepal not included
- Expensive per GB if used long-term
Before you buy — the things people miss
- Your country may not be in the list. "Unlimited international calls" always means a specific country list. Nepal, for example, is missing from most of them.
- Promotional prices end. Intro offers (first-recharge discounts, bonus data for 3 cycles) revert to the ongoing price — budget on the ongoing number.
- 28-day billing means 13 payments a year. 9 of 12 plans here do this. It adds roughly one extra "month" of cost annually.
- Coverage varies street by street. Ratings here are network-level. Check the provider's coverage map for your suburb and campus.
- MVNO ≠ full network. Some resellers get the parent network's full footprint (Boost/Telstra); others get a reduced wholesale footprint (Lycamobile/Telstra wholesale).
- eSIM needs a compatible, unlocked phone. We haven't verified per-plan eSIM availability yet — confirm directly with the provider before relying on it.
- Everything here can change. Prices and inclusions were verified 2026-05-15; providers change them without notice. Confirm on the provider's site before purchasing.
Three real comparisons
Staying 3 years, calls Nepal weekly
- Needs
- Reliable Nepal minutes every cycle, coverage that survives a possible regional move, predictable cost over a long stay.
- Considered
- Boost $39 · Lebara $25 · Lebara $40
- The trade-off
- Boost costs $14–19 more per cycle than Lebara but includes 300 Nepal minutes versus 30–50, and full Telstra coverage versus metro-focused Vodafone.
- Where we land
- Boost $39 — over a long stay, the calling allowance and network breadth outweigh the higher price. Budget its true cost: about $508/year on 28-day billing, not $468.
Uses 50GB+ every month
- Needs
- A quota that never runs out, at sensible cost per GB.
- Considered
- Felix Unlimited · amaysim 80GB · Lycamobile XL $40
- The trade-off
- Felix Unlimited removes quota anxiety but caps speed at 40Mbps. amaysim 80GB and Lycamobile XL (200GB) run at full speed but have hard limits — and Lycamobile’s details still need re-verification.
- Where we land
- Felix Unlimited if you value never thinking about data; amaysim 80GB if you want full speed and 80GB is genuinely enough.
Visiting for 6 weeks
- Needs
- Connected on day one, minimal total spend, nothing to cancel.
- Considered
- amaysim 7-Day $10 · Lycamobile XS $20
- The trade-off
- The 7-day plan costs more per GB than any 28-day plan, but you only ever pay for the weeks you are here.
- Where we land
- amaysim 7-Day $10 for a stay this short — about $60 total for six weeks with zero commitment.
The 28-day billing gap, in dollars
Calculated from the 12 plans on this page: 9 renew every 28 days. Here's what each headline "monthly" price actually costs across a year (ongoing price × 365 ÷ renewal days):
| Plan | Looks like / year | Actually costs / year | Hidden extra |
|---|---|---|---|
| amaysim 7-Day $10 | $120 | $521 | +$401 |
| Boost $59 | $708 | $769 | +$61 |
| Lebara $40 | $480 | $521 | +$41 |
| amaysim 80GB | $480 | $521 | +$41 |
| Lycamobile XL $40 | $480 | $521 | +$41 |
Across all 9 28-day plans in this comparison, the gap between headline and effective annual cost totals $338 — cost that never appears in any provider's advertised price.
Sources and data notes
Official provider pages we verified against. These are editorial citations — separate from the plan CTAs above, which may be affiliate links and are labelled accordingly.
- Lebara Australia — 28-day prepaid plans
Prices, data quotas, international calling inclusions and Nepal minutes for the $25/$30/$40 plans
Checked 2026-05-15
- Boost Mobile — prepaid plans (Critical Information Summary PDF)
Prices, data, 300-minute international allowance and destination list for the $39 and $59 plans
Checked 2026-05-15
- Felix Mobile — plan page
Pricing, monthly billing cycle, data rollover, unlimited-plan speed cap, international add-on coverage
Checked 2026-05-15
- amaysim — SIM plans
Prices, data quotas, renewal periods and international call inclusions for the 42GB, 80GB and 7-day plans
Checked 2026-05-15
- Lycamobile Australia — plan pages
Headline pricing only — data quotas and country lists were sourced from search snippets and still require click-through verification
Checked 2026-05-15
Written by the Arrivly editorial team
Arrivly is built by people who went through the Australian international-student and skilled-migration journey themselves. Every plan on this page was checked manually against the provider's own website or published documents.
- Published:
- 2026-07-21
- Last reviewed:
- 2026-07-21
- Data verified:
- 2026-05-15
Find the SIM plan that fits your stay in Australia
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