Roaming in Turkey: What UK Networks Charge and How to Pay Less

If you'd rather not pay a daily fee for maps, transfer messages and WhatsApp calls home, a HelloRoam eSIM card for Türkiye gives you prepaid data on Vodafone's network in Turkey, while your UK number stays on for calls and texts.

Each UK network charges for Turkey in its own way

Turkey has three mobile networks, Turkcell, Türk Telekom and Vodafone, the three bidders in the 5G tender that the regulator BTK completed in October 2025. Your UK SIM roams onto one of them. What that costs depends on your network and your plan. The table shows each network's pay monthly prices for a plan that doesn't include Turkey.

Get your Turkey eSIM before you flyInstall it at home, then switch on data roaming for it when you land. From £2.60.See Turkey plans

On EE's roaming pages, Turkey costs £6 for 24 hours, more than twice the £2.72 a day EE charges in its Europe Zone countries such as Spain. EE gives you no mobile data in Turkey at all until you buy a pass, and it texts you a link to buy one once you land.

On O2 Travel, the day runs for 24 hours from your first call, text or data use, and taking a call or a text doesn't start it. If you buy neither O2 bolt on, O2 stops your data abroad rather than charging for it.

Three's daily rate depends on when you joined or upgraded: £7 between 1 October 2021 and 17 December 2025, and £8 if you joined on or after 18 December 2025, a charge that began on 1 April 2026. A 24-month SIM Only Lite plan with 25GB or 120GB, joined from 1 June 2025, stays at £7. Three's Turkey passes cost £17.50 for 3 days, £29.75 for 5, £42 for 7 and £84 for 14, and you can buy them before you go. Three plans that started before October 2021 don't include Turkey in Go Roam, so its price guide sets the rates.

Flying on to northern Cyprus? EE prices it together with Turkey, and Three puts it in the same Around the World Extra band. O2 doesn't: North Cyprus sits in its data Zone 3, where 1GB costs £65, and it isn't on the O2 Travel list.

Some UK plans already include Turkey

Before you pay for a pass, check whether your plan covers Turkey already. These plans do, within each network's fair use rules:

• EE: plans with the Roaming Inclusive Extra for Rest of World Zone 1, the zone EE puts Turkey in.
• O2: Ultimate plans, through the O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Ultimate Bolt On for 75 destinations outside Europe. The 27-destination Inclusive Zone on Plus plans and Volt leaves Turkey out.
• Vodafone: plans with inclusive roaming in 84 destinations, for up to 25GB of data.
• Three: Complete plans joined or upgraded from 22 June 2025, with up to 12GB of data. Value and Complete customers who joined before then have roaming built in for up to 28 or 56 days.

Your network's app or online account shows which plan you're on. EE says more roaming options appear once you log in, including roaming passes you can pre-book before you travel. To check the phone itself, from a network lock to eSIM support, see our guide to whether your phone works in Turkey.

A week or a fortnight of roaming in Turkey, added up

These totals use each network's published Turkey prices for a pay monthly plan that doesn't include Turkey, with your phone used every day.

On O2, a data roaming bundle can cost less if you mostly need data: 3GB is £20 and 5GB is £29, and bundle data you don't use rolls over to the end of your next billing month. Calls then cost £3 a minute and texts £1.

Pay as you go data in Turkey can cost £3 per MB

On pay as you go you pay standard rates in Turkey, and SMARTY charges its out of plan rates. The gap between networks is wide.

At those rates, 100MB of data costs £300 on Three, against £10 on SMARTY.

SMARTY says data, calls and texts outside the EU won't work unless you have "Out of plan" add-ons in your account. giffgaff sells travel data add-ons for Türkiye (Turkey) in its app; each lasts 30 days and works only in the country it was bought for.

Answering a call in Turkey can cost as much as making one

On pay monthly without a pass, EE charges £2.46 a minute in Turkey for calls you make or receive, and 98p a text. O2's standard rate is £3 a minute both ways and £1 a text.

Three's pay monthly Go Roam lets you receive calls and texts from any number free. On pay as you go, a call you answer in Turkey costs 99p a minute on Three and £1.80 on EE. If family or work will ring your UK number often, a WhatsApp or FaceTime call over data avoids the per-minute rate.

A few checks before you fly keep the bill down

• Look Turkey up for your own plan in your network's app, because prices change with the plan and the date you joined.
• Check your spend cap. O2 says the Travel Bolt On isn't counted in its Spend Cap, and Three warns that a cap set too low can stop you roaming.
• On O2, text TRAVEL to 23336 to opt in to O2 Travel before you need it.
• On EE, text ROAMING to 150 before you go (it's free) to check your phone is set up to roam, and turn off Wi-Fi Calling, which EE lists as a way to avoid extra charges.
• Read the alert when you land. Since 1 October 2024, Ofcom's roaming rules have required UK networks to alert you when you start roaming, with the charges, any fair use limit and how to set a bill limit.

A travel eSIM covers your data while your UK number stays on

The other route is a travel eSIM for data. HelloRoam's Turkey plans are data-only and run on Vodafone's network in Turkey. Install the eSIM at home over Wi-Fi, then when you land, select the HelloRoam line in Settings and switch data roaming on for it.

On an iPhone, open Settings, tap Mobile Service (or Mobile Data), tap Mobile Data and pick the eSIM's line. Leave Allow Mobile Data Switching off, because Apple says it lets your iPhone use data from both plans. On a Pixel, Google lets you choose which SIM the phone uses for data.

Carrying on from Turkey to Jordan, Israel or the UAE? Our eSIM card for the Middle East covers Turkey and those countries on one plan.

Your UK line still roams for calls and texts. Apple warns that you might still pay roaming fees on your home line, so the call charges above apply when you answer on your UK number.

Roaming still makes sense in some cases. If your plan already includes Turkey, you only need extra data if you'll pass its fair use limit, such as Three's 12GB. If you'll make a lot of calls, an EE pass lets you use your UK minutes, and a data-only eSIM doesn't give you a Turkish number. Our eSIM vs roaming comparison covers the trade-offs in more depth. We sell travel eSIMs, so you can also read how we treat conflicts of interest.