This site compares 34 mobile plans from 7 Australian providers across all 4 network tiers. It takes no commission from anyone, and nothing on it is paid placement.
What we compare, and what we don’t
We compare 34 plans from 7 providers. Australia has around 40 mobile providers, so plans that are cheaper or better suited to you may exist that we do not list. Our recommendations are the best fit from what we compare, not from the whole market.
We compare SIM-only plans for personal use in Australia. We don’t currently include business plans, data-only or tablet plans, family or shared plans, mobile broadband, handset bundles, or plans restricted to particular groups such as students or concession holders.
So when we say “best”, “cheapest” or “best value”, we mean the best fit among the plans on this site, on the criteria below — not a claim about the whole Australian market. If you want to check our working, every plan links its source.
We price plans on what they actually cost
Australian providers advertise on incompatible billing cycles. A plan billed “$39 per 28 days” charges you 13.04 times a year, not twelve — so it really costs $42.40 a month. A plan billed monthly charges exactly twelve times. Comparing the advertised numbers directly compares different things, and the error always runs in the seller’s favour.
Every figure we sort, rank or compare on is normalised to a calendar month. Where that differs from the advertised price, we show both, so you can see the gap rather than take our word for it.
We rank on ongoing prices, not introductory ones
Where a plan is “$45 for the first 12 months, then $58”, we record $58 as the price and treat $45 as a promotion. We also show the total you would pay over twelve months, which is the number that actually makes a promotional plan comparable to a flat-priced one.
The same applies to data. Where a provider advertises 60GB but the fine print says “60GB on your first 6 recharges, then 30GB”, we rank on the 30GB.
We name the network a plan really runs on
Australia has three mobile networks, but four tiers — because Telstra sells access to its network wholesale, and the wholesale tier reaches fewer people and considerably less 5G than Telstra’s own retail service. Providers reselling it are commonly described as being “on the Telstra network”, which is incomplete.
We label the wholesale tier as wholesale everywhere it appears. Boost is the one exception worth knowing about: it is the only reseller with access to Telstra’s full retail network, including regional and remote towers.
How the recommendations are chosen
We first remove plans that fail anything you marked as required, then score what is left on four things: how well the data allowance fits your usage, cost, coverage where you live, and useful extras. If nothing meets every requirement we relax the softest one and tell you which.
The data-fit score is deliberately lopsided. Running short of data is painful; having spare is merely wasteful — so a plan that leaves you short is penalised far more heavily than one that gives you too much. But surplus is still penalised, which is why we will not point a 3GB user at a 480GB plan.
What happens when you run out matters as much as the allowance itself. A plan that slows you down is safer than a larger one that charges you. Where a provider does not say, we treat that as close to the worst case, so vagueness is never rewarded.
Rather than one winner, we name up to four picks — best overall, cheapest that fits, best coverage and best value upgrade — each with the reason in plain language. We deliberately do not show you a score out of 100, because a number you cannot interrogate asks for trust we haven’t earned.
Coverage, and why we do not quote percentages
Since 30 June 2026 the ACMA’s Mobile Network Coverage Maps Industry Standard has required every operator to publish predicted coverage in four standardised categories — good, moderate, basic or none — against defined signal thresholds. Those maps are directly comparable between operators and specific to your address.
That is a far better answer than a headline “99% of Australians” figure, which operators no longer publish and which never told you anything about your street. So we link the official checker for every plan and do not quote percentages we cannot attribute.
If you give us a postcode, we use the Australian Government’s Modified Monash Model classification to weight coverage in the ranking: it matters far more in remote Australia than in a capital city. Where a postcode spans several categories we take the most remote of them, because over-weighting coverage costs you a few dollars while under-weighting it can leave you without a signal.
Where the data comes from
Every plan is recorded from the provider’s own website and its Critical Information Summary — the document providers must publish under the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code. Each plan on this site carries the date it was last checked and links its CIS, so you can verify any figure against the source.
Where we could not confirm something, we leave it out rather than estimate it. A smaller accurate catalogue is worth more than a larger speculative one.
Prices change often. Always confirm on the provider’s own site before signing up.
Coverage is never guaranteed — on any network
No comparison site can tell you whether a network works at your address, and we don’t try to. Coverage maps are predictions produced by modelling, they describe outdoor coverage only, and actual service depends on your handset, network load, terrain, buildings and weather. That is true of Telstra as much as of Optus or Vodafone — Telstra’s own coverage page says its maps are “a guide, not a guarantee”.
For that reason we show a coverage caution with every recommendation rather than only on the networks with a smaller footprint. Warning selectively would imply the others carry an assurance they don’t. What we can do is name the network tier behind every plan, repeat the limitations each provider discloses, and send you to the operator’s own standardised map for the specific places you use your phone.
How we make money
At the moment, we don’t. There are no affiliate links and no commissions. If that ever changes we will say so plainly on this page, and it will not affect the ranking — the ordering logic has no access to any commercial relationship, and a test in our build fails if such a field is ever added to the data.
Questions we get asked
Why does a $30 prepaid plan cost more than $30 a month?
Because most Australian prepaid plans are billed every 28 days, not monthly. There are 365.25 days in a year, so a 28-day cycle bills 13.04 times a year rather than 12. A plan advertised at $30 per 28 days therefore costs $32.61 a month — about 8% more than the advertised figure suggests. Plans billed per calendar month bill exactly 12 times a year. Every price on this site is normalised to a calendar month so the two are directly comparable.
What is the cheapest mobile plan in Australia?
Of the 34 plans we track, the lowest true monthly cost is the ALDI Mobile $23 Mobile Plan at $23.34 a month for 12GB of data, which is $280.03 over a year. The cheapest plan is rarely the right plan though: if it gives you less data than you use you will either be slowed, blocked or charged, depending on the provider. Compare on cost per month for the data you actually need.
Is Boost Mobile the same as Telstra?
Boost Mobile is owned by Telstra, which acquired it in December 2024, and it is the only reseller with access to Telstra’s entire retail mobile network — including regional and remote towers. Every other Telstra reseller runs on the Telstra Wholesale network, which reaches fewer people and considerably less 5G. That makes Boost the cheapest way to get full Telstra coverage. For example, Boost Mobile’s $300 Prepaid SIM (12 month) costs $25.02 a month against $74.00 for Telstra’s own cheapest plan.
Are Belong, ALDI Mobile and Woolworths on the Telstra network?
They run on the Telstra Wholesale network, which is not the same as Telstra’s retail service. Wholesale reaches fewer Australians and its 5G footprint is materially smaller, and some regional and remote Telstra towers are unavailable to it. Providers usually describe this simply as "the Telstra network"; Belong is more precise and says its plans use "parts of the Telstra network", while Everyday Mobile states outright that it uses the Telstra Wholesale Mobile Network. If you need full Telstra coverage, you need Telstra or Boost.
Which Australian mobile network has the best coverage?
Telstra’s retail network reaches the largest land area, which is why it is generally the strongest choice for regional and remote Australia. Optus covers a substantially smaller area and Vodafone smaller again, though both are competitive in cities and major regional centres. Since 30 June 2026, the ACMA’s Mobile Network Coverage Maps Industry Standard has required every operator to publish predicted coverage in the same four categories — good, moderate, basic or none — against defined signal thresholds, so their maps are now directly comparable. Check the map for the specific places you go rather than relying on a national figure.
How much mobile data do I actually need?
Most Australians need far less than they buy. If you are on wifi at home and work and mainly use maps, messaging and browsing, 5GB to 10GB a month is usually enough. Streaming music on a commute takes you to roughly 15GB to 25GB. Streaming video daily on mobile data, or hotspotting a laptop, is where 50GB and above starts to matter. Rather than guessing, check your real usage: on iPhone, Settings then Mobile Service then Mobile Data; on Android, Settings then Network and internet then Mobile network then App data usage. Aim for about 20% headroom above your typical month.
What happens if I use all my data?
It depends on the plan, and this matters more than the size of the allowance. Telstra, Optus and Vodafone all slow your connection rather than charging you, so there is no bill shock. Belong slows to 1 Mbps and states so in its Critical Information Summary. Prepaid plans from Boost, ALDI Mobile and Everyday Mobile simply stop your data until you recharge or buy a top-up. A plan that slows you down is safer than a larger plan that bills you per gigabyte, so we weight that in our ranking.
Is prepaid or postpaid cheaper in Australia?
Prepaid is usually cheaper per gigabyte, and long-expiry prepaid plans — paid once for 6 or 12 months — are often the cheapest of all in monthly terms. The trade-offs are that prepaid requires the money upfront, and that a 28-day prepaid cycle bills 13 times a year rather than 12, which erodes some of the saving. Postpaid plans tend to include more generous overage handling and extras. Because we normalise every plan to a calendar month, you can compare the two directly rather than guessing.
What is a Critical Information Summary?
A Critical Information Summary, or CIS, is a short document every Australian telco must publish for every plan under the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code. It sets out the price, inclusions, exclusions, any exit fees and what happens if you exceed your allowance. It is the authoritative source for a plan’s terms, and it is where we take our figures from. Every plan on this site links its CIS so you can check any number we quote against the provider’s own document.
Do I need a 5G plan?
Only if you are in a 5G area with a 5G handset and you actually need the speed. For most people 4G is comfortably fast enough for streaming, video calls and browsing, and many plans cap download speeds anyway — commonly at 100, 150 or 250 Mbps — which matters more in practice than the network generation. It is also worth knowing that 5G coverage on the Telstra Wholesale network is considerably smaller than on Telstra retail, so a "5G" plan from a reseller may reach 5G in fewer places than the badge implies.
Does this site earn commission from the providers it compares?
No. There are no affiliate links and no commissions, and no ranking depends on any commercial relationship. We compare 34 plans from 7 providers across all 4 Australian network tiers, and every plan links to the provider’s own Critical Information Summary so you can verify our figures independently. The tool is presented by Crown Money.
