Giffgaff Roaming Charges in 2026: EU Zone, USA and the Rest of the World

For trips past the EU zone, a HelloRoam travel eSIM can carry your data while your giffgaff number stays on for calls and bank texts.

Giffgaff roaming charges depend on the zone you are in

giffgaff prices roaming by zone. Your plan covers only the EU zone. Switzerland and the Crown Dependencies have their own rates. In the rest of the world, data costs 20p a MB in many countries and £5 a MB in more than half of the places giffgaff lists. Planes, cruise ships and ferries have prices of their own.

Outside the EU zone, giffgaff's country pages bill calls you make per second after the first 30 seconds, and calls you answer by the minute. Receiving a standard text is always free, so bank codes reach your giffgaff number at no charge. A picture message costs 30p to a UK or EU mobile and 24p to any other mobile.

One rate differs between two kinds of giffgaff page. Its help article for Switzerland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man lists 5p a text, and 30p for a text to a country outside the UK and EU zone. The rate pages for those places show both a 5p line and a 30p line with less clear labels, so ask giffgaff which applies if you send a lot of texts there.

We read every price and rule in this guide on giffgaff's roaming pages, help articles and terms, and on Ofcom's roaming advice, on 2 and 3 November 2026. giffgaff's terms let it change its charges, so check its roaming page for your destination before you travel.

Giffgaff EU roaming gives you up to 5GB of each plan's data

The EU zone is the 27 EU countries plus 10 more places: Gibraltar, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, San Marino and France's overseas regions of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion. giffgaff's guide to using your mobile abroad counts the Canary and Balearic Islands with Spain, Madeira and the Azores with Portugal, and Vatican City with Italy. A week in Tenerife or a morning at the Vatican Museums stays inside your plan.

The data cap is the part that catches people out. You get at most 5GB of your plan's data in the zone, per plan, not per month or per visit, and that holds even on a 200GB or Unlimited plan. A plan with less than 5GB, such as giffgaff's 2GB monthly plan, gives you its own smaller amount. Once the cap is used, data costs 10p a MB, so going 500MB over adds £50.

You have two ways to avoid that. With less than 500MB of EU data left, you can start your next plan early, because the 5GB limit applies to each plan. Or you can buy an EU zone travel data add-on in the app, which giffgaff draws on only after your plan's EU data runs out.

Some things cost extra even inside the zone. Calls and texts from the zone to numbers outside the UK and EU cost £1 a minute and 30p a text. Special and premium-rate numbers come out of credit, and UK freephone 080 numbers are charged while you are abroad, so giffgaff suggests calling a company's +44 number instead, which your plan covers. Without a plan, giffgaff charges its UK pay as you go rates in the zone: 10p a MB, 25p a minute and 10p a text.

Giffgaff EU roaming has a 63-day limit and a UK residence check

Inclusive EU roaming is for people who live in the UK and travel from time to time. Under giffgaff's fair usage policy, using your phone in the EU zone for 63 or more days in any four-month period, without showing that you mainly live in or use your phone in the UK, can move you onto pay as you go roaming charges. giffgaff says it will contact you at least 14 days before those charges apply.

An active EU zone travel data add-on lifts the 63-day limit while it lasts, which helps on a long stay. New members are the other group to watch. If giffgaff sees no recent UK use, inclusive roaming can stay off until you send proof of ID and a proof of address dated within the last three months, such as a utility or council tax bill. You can check your Roaming Status in your account's phone and call service settings before you go.

Switzerland, Monaco, Andorra and Turkey sit outside giffgaff's EU zone

giffgaff's terms name Monaco, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Switzerland as outside the EU zone, and Turkey, Andorra and the Western Balkans are not on the zone list either. Each one sits close to a zone country, so check the rate before you cross a border.

• Switzerland: data costs 20p a MB, calls to UK and EU numbers cost 15p a minute, and answering calls is free. A Switzerland travel data add-on costs £8 for 1GB, £16 for 5GB or £24 for 10GB, each for 30 days. giffgaff warns that near the Swiss border your phone can join a Swiss network even while you are in a neighbouring EU country.
• Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man: the same 20p a MB and 15p a minute, with answering calls free. Calls and texts to Channel Islands and Isle of Man numbers are not in giffgaff plans, even from the UK.
• Monaco: rest-of-world rates of 20p a MB and £1 a minute to make or answer a call, so a day trip from Nice is billed differently from the French side of the Riviera.
• Andorra: £5 a MB, and giffgaff warns that roaming coverage there cannot be guaranteed.
• Turkey, listed by giffgaff as Türkiye: 20p a MB and £1 a minute either way, with a Turkey travel data add-on in the app. In the northern part of Cyprus, giffgaff applies its Turkish rates. For other UK networks' prices there, see our guide to what UK networks charge in Turkey.
• Albania, Montenegro and Serbia: 20p a MB. Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia (Macedonia on giffgaff's list) and Kosovo: £5 a MB. Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo have travel data add-ons; Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia are not on giffgaff's add-on lists.

Older figures still circulate. ISPreview's July 2025 report on the add-on launch listed Switzerland at £15 for 1GB, and giffgaff's help page now gives £8. Recharge.com's giffgaff roaming guide, read on the same day as our sources, quotes £1 a minute for calls in Switzerland, while giffgaff's own Switzerland page shows 15p.

Border roaming can happen wherever a network outside the zone reaches over the line. giffgaff's own example is a holiday in Cyprus where the phone picks up a network in nearby Turkey. To stop it, choose your network by hand:

• iPhone: open Settings, then Mobile Service, then Network Selection under giffgaff. Turn Automatic off and pick a local network.
• Android: open Settings, then Network and internet, then Internet, then the settings next to giffgaff. Turn Automatically select network off and pick a local network.

Ofcom, the UK regulator, requires providers to tell customers how to prevent this kind of accidental roaming.

Outside Europe, giffgaff roaming costs 20p or £5 a MB in almost every country

In the rest of the world your plan does not work at all. Roaming comes out of credit, so add credit before you land. Many countries cost 20p a MB, including the USA, Canada, Mexico, the UAE, Egypt, Thailand, Japan, India and Australia. More than half of the places on giffgaff's rest-of-the-world list cost £5 a MB, among them Morocco, Vietnam, the Maldives, Cape Verde, Georgia, Jordan and Taiwan. giffgaff warns that coverage in Vietnam and the Maldives cannot be guaranteed. Its Israel page lists 2p a MB, 9p a minute and 4p a text. Its main roaming page says rest-of-world data starts at 20p a MB, so ask giffgaff which applies before an Israel trip. If your destination is missing from giffgaff's roaming page, giffgaff has no roaming agreement there and your SIM will not roam.

giffgaff's USA rates do not apply to Alaska and Hawaii. Their own pages show the same 20p a MB and £1 a minute, and both warn that coverage there cannot be guaranteed.

Calls add up as fast as data. Making a call costs £1 a minute, answering one costs the same, and each text you send costs 30p. Here is what three everyday uses cost in Florida on credit alone:

• 500MB of data at 20p a MB: £100
• a 10-minute call home: £10
• answering a 10-minute call from the UK: £10

In Morocco, 20MB at £5 a MB costs £100 on its own. Before you pick any option, estimate your trip's data use so you compare like with like.

Outside the EU zone, listening to voicemail is charged at the country's per-minute rate, while a caller leaving you a message costs you nothing. giffgaff suggests setting your voicemail PIN before you leave so you skip the set-up prompts, or switching voicemail off for the trip.

Planes, cruise ships and ferries use onboard or satellite networks that giffgaff bills at £5 a MB, £1 a minute to make or answer a call and 30p a text, and plans do not cover them. Ofcom suggests choosing a land network by hand near the coast, though you then miss calls and texts once you are out of that network's range.

Giffgaff travel data add-ons last 30 days from the moment you buy them

Travel data add-ons are giffgaff's answer to rest-of-world prices. They come in 1GB, 5GB and 10GB sizes, you buy them only in the giffgaff app under View travel data, and you pay by Visa, Mastercard or American Express card, not PayPal. You do not need a plan to buy one, though without a plan your calls and texts still come out of credit.

They cover 61 destinations: the 37 in the EU zone plus 24 more. The 24 include the USA, Canada, Mexico, Turkey, Switzerland, Albania, Montenegro, Thailand, Japan, China, Australia and South Africa. giffgaff's roaming page puts Egypt on that list, but its help article's list leaves Egypt out, so check the app before an Egypt trip. Morocco, the UAE and Vietnam have no add-on on either list.

Timing matters more than size. An add-on runs for 30 days from the date you buy it and cannot be bought early and switched on later, so giffgaff advises buying each one when you arrive. An EU zone add-on works in every zone country, but an add-on for anywhere else works only in the country you bought it for, so a two-country trip outside Europe needs two add-ons.

giffgaff publishes add-on prices for Switzerland on its help pages; for other destinations, it lists the add-ons under View travel data in the app. If you change your mind within 14 days, giffgaff refunds an add-on in full if you have used none of its data, or in part if you have used some. After 14 days there is no refund.

Set giffgaff's £45 spend cap and your phone's roaming switch before you fly

giffgaff's credit spend cap stops all credit spending once you reach £45 in a month, and it counts credit spent on plans as well as on calls, texts and data. It is off by default. To switch it on in the app, tap Account, then Service settings, then Credit spend cap. giffgaff texts you as you get close to the limit.

Keep roaming notifications on. Ofcom requires providers to send an automatic message about roaming charges when you arrive in another country, unless you have opted out, and giffgaff lets you switch those texts off under Account, Service settings, Roaming. giffgaff also keeps a roaming setting in your account's call services, so if roaming fails abroad, check it is enabled there first.

Then set the phone. If you travel outside the EU zone with only your giffgaff SIM and no add-on, turn data roaming off: on an iPhone, open Settings, then Mobile Data, then Mobile Data Options, and switch Data Roaming off. If a travel eSIM will carry your data, change the giffgaff line only:

• iPhone: open Settings, then Mobile Data, tap your giffgaff number, then Mobile Data Options, and turn Data Roaming off for that line. Leave it on for the travel eSIM, as Apple's iPhone data roaming guide describes for phones with two lines.
• Google Pixel: open Settings, then Network and internet, then SIMs. Choose the travel eSIM for mobile data, then open the giffgaff SIM and turn Roaming off.
• Samsung Galaxy: Samsung's guide shows one Data Roaming switch, under Connections, then Mobile Networks, so leave it on. Go to Settings, then Connections, then SIM card manager, and choose the travel eSIM for Mobile data, as Samsung's dual SIM guide shows.

If a giffgaff roaming charge looks wrong

Check your balance first, in the app, on your dashboard or by calling 43430 and choosing option 2, and look at your usage statement, which shows your roaming charges. If a charge still looks wrong, use giffgaff's online complaint form; giffgaff says it replies within 5 working days. If it cannot sort things out within 6 weeks, or you reach deadlock, you can take the complaint to the Communications Ombudsman for free.

A travel eSIM handles the data where giffgaff's plan and add-ons stop

For a week in Spain or Greece, giffgaff's included data may be all you need, and an EU add-on covers any extra. A single-country trip to the USA or Turkey can run on one giffgaff add-on too. The gaps are elsewhere: countries with no add-on and £5 a MB data, like Morocco, and trips that cross borders outside the EU zone, where giffgaff needs one add-on per country.

That is where a HelloRoam eSIM fits. A Europe data plan from us takes in France and Switzerland, so one eSIM covers a trip over that border, and mobile data for Morocco replaces £5 a MB with a set amount of data. The Europe plan page listed Switzerland when we checked on 2 November 2026, and it always shows the current countries.

For several countries outside Europe in one trip, a global eSIM can cover them on one plan, and its page lists the countries included. Keep your giffgaff SIM switched on beside it: texts reach you free, though answering a call still costs £1 a minute in most rest-of-world countries. First, check your phone supports eSIM and can run two lines at once.

We sell travel eSIMs, so weigh our view with that in mind; our editorial policy explains how we handle it. For the wider picture, our guide on how to avoid roaming charges sets an eSIM against a roaming plan.

giffgaff runs on O2's mobile network. If you are weighing it against another UK provider for travel, our guide to EE roaming charges sets out EE's daily Europe fee, and our explainer on what UK networks charge for roaming sets Three, Vodafone, O2 and EE side by side.