Three Roaming in 2026: Go Roam Charges, Passes and Countries

If you'd rather pay a set price for data, a HelloRoam travel eSIM can handle it while your Three SIM stays in the phone for calls and texts.

We read every Three price and rule in this guide on 2 November 2026, on Three's Go Roam, destination and roaming FAQ pages and in its price guides effective from 12 October 2026 (29 October for Pay As You Go). Three can change them, so check My3 or the Three app before you travel.

Three's roaming countries sit in three Go Roam bands

Where you are decides what you pay. Three's Go Roam page splits its destinations into three bands: 49 in Go Roam in Europe, 22 in Go Roam Around the World and 92 in Go Roam Around the World Extra. Anywhere else is Rest of the World, which Go Roam doesn't cover.

Three's price guides say the newer charges began on 1 April 2026 and rise every 1 April by the Consumer Price Index rate published that January, plus 3.9%. SIM Only 24-month Lite plans with 25GB or 120GB of data, taken from 1 June 2025, pay £2, £5 and £7 instead, and the price guide leaves them out of the yearly rise. Advanced plans pay £2, £5 and £7, even if taken from 19 April 2026, in Three's Advanced price guides and on its destination checker. Three's Go Roam page doesn't list that exception, so on an Advanced plan, check My3 or ask Three which applies.

One figure differs between Three's own pages. For customers who joined between 1 October 2021 and 17 December 2025, Three's price guides, roaming FAQs and roaming costs blog all give £5 a day for Around the World, while its Go Roam support page says £7. Check the price guide for your plan's start date on Three's price guides page, or ask Three which one applies to you.

Plans started before 1 October 2021 pay no daily charge in Europe or Around the World. Around the World Extra isn't part of Go Roam on those plans, so places such as Turkey, Canada and Japan are billed at standard roaming rates, which Three lists in its price guides.

The Republic of Ireland and the Isle of Man carry no daily charge on any Three plan. Three's 12GB limit doesn't apply in the Republic of Ireland, though it does in the Isle of Man.

Watch the borders. Switzerland, Norway and Iceland are in the Europe band, but Andorra, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and Turkey are Around the World Extra, at £8 a day on newer plans. For Turkey, our guide to what UK networks charge in Turkey sets Three beside EE, O2 and Vodafone. Spain's Canary and Balearic Islands are in the Europe band too. Monaco isn't in Go Roam at all: Three's price guides for its Three Your Way plans bill data there at 10p per MB, so 100MB on a day trip from Nice costs £10.

For how these charges compare with EE, O2 and Vodafone, see our guide to data roaming costs on UK networks.

Your Three plan decides whether roaming is already included

Since the UK left the EU, surcharge-free roaming in EU and EEA countries is no longer guaranteed, as the UK government's roaming guidance says, so each network sets its own terms. Three's terms for new and upgrading customers changed in June 2025 and again in December 2025, so the date your plan started matters as much as its name.

• Complete, started on or after 22 June 2025: every Go Roam band is included at no extra cost.
• Value, started on or after 22 June 2025: Go Roam in Europe is included. Around the World and Around the World Extra need a pass or the daily charge.
• Lite and Advanced plans: no roaming is included, so you buy a pass or pay the daily charge.
• Value or Complete, joined or upgraded after October 2021 and before 22 June 2025: you may have 24-hour Go Roam passes for the plan's minimum term. Three lists 14 on a 12-month Value plan, 28 on a 24-month Value or 12-month Complete plan, and 56 on a 24-month Complete plan.
• Plans started before 1 October 2021: Europe and Around the World are included, and Around the World Extra is not.

My3 and the Three app show which of these you have, and how many included passes are left.

Three's daily roaming charge starts with your first call, text or data use

Without roaming built in or a pass, the daily charge applies the first time you use your UK allowance in a Go Roam destination: a call to a UK number, a text home, a call or text between Europe band countries, or any data. Three's price guide says it then unlocks your UK allowance for 24 hours.

Some use doesn't start it. Three's FAQs list calls and texts to non-EU international numbers from a Go Roam destination, calls and texts to EU and other international numbers from the two Around the World bands, use beyond your UK allowance, and buying a Data Travel Pass. Those are charged at their own rates.

Phones go online by themselves, as Three's own roaming blog points out, so a phone left with data roaming on can start the charge before you open an app.

A Spend Cap has to leave room for the charge. Three says a cap set at £0, or one you've already reached, stops calls, texts and data in Go Roam destinations. Its price guide adds that a change to the cap takes up to 7 days to apply, so sort it out well before you go.

Go Roam passes cost less than paying the daily charge every day

On a plan without roaming built in, a Go Roam pass covers your UK allowance for a set number of days. Three's current price guides list these prices.

A pass starts with your first call, text or data use in a destination it covers, not when you buy it. It then runs for 72, 120, 168 or 336 hours, whatever the time zone. The daily charge applies only on days you use your UK allowance, so a pass pays off only if you'd roam on enough of its days. At £2.75 a day, the 7-day Europe pass wins from the fifth day; at £8, the 14-day Around the World pass wins from the eighth.

You can buy passes in My3 or the Three app before you go or while you're away. From abroad you can also call +44 7782 333 333 to buy one. Three's FAQs say standard roaming rates apply, but its price guide says a call to Three from a Go Roam destination uses your UK allowance and can start the daily charge, so buying in the app first is safer. Passes stack: Three uses them in the order you bought them, and the pass for the band you're in goes first.

Here's how that works out on a Three Your Way plan taken from 18 December 2025 without the band built in, using your phone every day. A week in Spain costs £19.25 by the day or £12 with a 7-day Europe pass. A fortnight in Florida costs £112 by the day or £60 with a 14-day Around the World pass, the figure to hold up against US data plans for the same dates. Ten days in Turkey come to £80 by the day, or £59.50 with a 7-day and a 3-day Around the World Extra pass, against data plans for Turkey.

One pass can cover a trip with several stops, because an Around the World pass also works in Europe and an Around the World Extra pass works in all three bands.

Three caps roaming data at 12GB a month in every band

On Pay Monthly you can use up to 12GB of your UK data a month across all Go Roam destinations together, with the Republic of Ireland left out of the count. If your plan still has UK data left after that, Three's price guide says you can keep using it at a surcharge of 0.3p per MB.

Calls and texts to standard numbers have no fair use limit in the Europe band. In the two Around the World bands you get up to 3,000 minutes a month of calls to UK numbers and, with unlimited texts, up to 5,000 texts home.

Hotspots depend on the band. Three's FAQs say a plan with unlimited data can share it as a Personal Hotspot in Go Roam in Europe destinations, but not in Around the World or Around the World Extra destinations.

Go Roam is meant for trips. If you roam only in Go Roam destinations for two complete months in a rolling 12 months, Three may suspend roaming on your account, and it says it will tell you in advance.

Not sure 12GB will last? Work out how much data your trip needs before you fly.

Three Data Travel Passes add data on top of your plan

If 12GB won't stretch, or you need a hotspot outside Europe, a Data Travel Pass gives you data that doesn't come out of your UK allowance. Three's FAQs say you can use it as you like, from tethering and streaming to VPNs.

The Worldwide list includes the USA, Canada, Mexico, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and several Caribbean islands. Japan, Thailand and the UAE aren't on it. Each pass starts with your first data use in a destination it covers.

Older advice online still points to the Data Passport, 24 hours of unlimited data for £7. Three's price guide now marks it as available to buy only before 14 June 2026, so in Europe the 1-day Unlimited pass is the nearest thing.

Three Pay As You Go roaming comes out of your Data Pack

Pay As You Go has no daily charge. In Go Roam in Europe and Around the World destinations you use part of your Data Pack or Add-on, with unlimited minutes and texts in Europe and up to 3,000 minutes and 3,000 texts in the Around the World band.

Three's Pay As You Go roaming page lists how much of each pack works abroad: 6GB of a £10 Data Pack, 12GB of a £15 pack, 18GB of a £20 pack, 24GB of a £25 pack and 30GB of a £35 pack.

Around the World Extra isn't part of Go Roam on Pay As You Go, so Turkey, Canada, Japan and the rest of that band are charged from your credit at standard roaming rates.

Before you travel, put the SIM in your phone in the UK, wait for it to connect, and top up or add a Data Pack. Three says a Pay As You Go SIM can't be used abroad until you've done this at home. Without a pack, credit pays 35p a minute, 15p a text and 10p per MB in Europe.

The Call Abroad 200 Add-on isn't a roaming product. It gives 200 minutes for calling 39 countries from the UK, and Three's Pay As You Go price guide says it can't be used while roaming.

Ships, planes and borders can put you on costlier networks

Maritime and airline networks aren't part of Go Roam. Three's price guides for its Three Your Way plans bill data on them at £6 per MB, so 50MB at sea costs £300.

Three's worldwide data roaming limit, £45 a month before VAT unless you've asked Three to change or remove it, is there to stop a bill like that running on.

Near a port, Three warns, a phone can join a ship's network, and near a border it can pick up the next country's. Ofcom gives Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and Turkey and Greece, as examples of borders where this happens.

To avoid it, Three suggests choosing the local network by hand in your phone's settings, which you then have to change in each new country. At sea, Ofcom notes, a phone set this way won't get calls or texts when it's out of range of the network you picked.

Three texts you the rates each time you join a network in a new country, as Ofcom requires every UK network to do unless you've opted out. If you've switched those texts off, send START to 330 to turn them back on.

Get Three roaming working before you fly

• Check roaming is on for your account. Three says you can confirm it by calling 333.
• Turn on data roaming in your phone's settings. Go Roam needs it, plus a compatible phone with the latest software.
• Buy your passes, or set your Spend Cap high enough to cover the daily charge for each day away.
• Check your phone supports 4G Calling Abroad. Where a country's roaming partners have closed 2G and 3G, Three says a phone without it may not make calls, emergency calls included.
• Save home numbers with +44 in place of the first 0, which Three says you need to call or text the UK from abroad.

If a charge looks wrong, call 333 from your Three phone or 0333 338 1001 from any other phone, the numbers Three's price guide gives for complaints. From a Go Roam destination, a call to Three comes out of your UK allowance and can start the daily charge.

A travel eSIM can carry your data while your Three number stays on

Three roaming is hard to beat when your plan already includes the band and you'll stay under 12GB. On plans started since 22 June 2025, Complete costs nothing extra in the USA and Value costs nothing extra in Spain, and calls home come out of your plan's minutes, which a data-only eSIM doesn't cover.

The sums change on a Lite plan, on long trips at £8 a day, past 12GB, when you need a hotspot outside Europe, and in places Go Roam leaves out, such as the Maldives and the Philippines. HelloRoam plans are data-only, so your Three line stays on for calls and texts while the eSIM handles maps, messages and bookings.

For a trip through several countries, mobile data plans for Europe or global eSIM plans keep one eSIM working across the borders the plan covers.

Install it before you fly, once you check your phone supports eSIM. On an iPhone, Apple's data roaming guide sets data roaming for each number, so leave it on for the travel eSIM and off for the Three line, and choose the eSIM as your mobile data line.

Keep Allow Mobile Data Switching off too. Apple's Dual SIM guide says it lets the iPhone use mobile data from both lines, and any data on the Three line can start its daily charge.

Samsung's UK roaming guide shows one Data Roaming switch for the phone, under Settings > Connections > Mobile Networks. On a Galaxy, leave it on and pick the travel eSIM for mobile data in SIM card manager, as Samsung's dual SIM guide shows.

Texts still reach your Three number, and Three's price guide lists receiving texts abroad as free, so bank codes keep arriving. Making a call or sending a text on the Three line still starts its daily charge if your plan has no roaming built in, so WhatsApp or FaceTime calls over the eSIM's data are the cheaper way to ring home.

We sell travel eSIMs, so weigh that when you read this section: our editorial policy explains how we handle the conflict of interest, and our guide to how travel eSIMs compare with roaming covers the wider trade-offs.