There's a lot of things to consider when searching for the best cell phone plan, from coverage to perks. But when I'm evaluating plans, the question I ultimately ask myself comes down to value — how much data am I getting for my monthly payment?
That's a question, I'm well-equipped to answer. For nearly a decade, I've been reviewing cell phone plans on behalf of Tom's Guide, looking at how much they cost, how much data they provide and any other extras that come included. I'm not only keeping tabs on bigger-name phone carriers — I look at smaller wireless providers as well to see what they're charging.
What I've found out: you can save a lot of money on your cell phone plan just by widening your search beyond the major carriers.
The last three months of the year are a great time to look out for the best cell phone plans, as it syncs up with when top phone makers release their new flagships. If you're considering a new Pixel 9 and the iPhone 16, you might want to consider a new cell phone plan to go with it — especially since many of the best cell phone deals often require you to commit to specific plans to save money on your new device.
My top picks for the best cell phone plan focus on low-cost options from Mint and Visible. But I also highlight the best cell phone plans from Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T if you prefer a more established wireless provider.
The quick list
The best plan overall
With plans starting at $15 per month, Mint is a great way to save money on your cell phone bill. The low rates cover your first three months of service, then you pay for a year of service ahead of time to keep that rate locked in.
Best unlimited plan
Visible has just two plans, both of them with unlimited data. The cheaper of the two lets you enjoy coverage on Verizon's network for just $25 per month, which is less than what you'd pay at Mint.
Best tiered data plan
Our favorite prepaid plan costs just $35 per month when you enroll for automatic payments at Verizon. You'll get 15GB of data, which can also be used as hotspot data. And your coverage includes 5G on Verizon's nationwide network.
Best family plan
T-Mobile's Go5G plan is a great unlimited option that's even better for families. Four lines cost $200 per month, with discounts dropping the price even lower. You get a Netflix subscription with this family plan; taxes and fees are included, too.
Best pay-in-advance plan
You can't beat AT&T for the huge bucket of data you get by paying for a year up front. That lowers your monthly cost to $25 while giving you unlimited data, with 16GB of that data at high speeds.
Locked-in rate
Boost Mobile offers three different plans, and the best of the bunch happens to be its cheapest one. The $25/month unlimited plan doesn't get you many perks, but Boost guarantees that your rate will stay locked in for as long as you're an active customer with its service.
I've been working for Tom's Guide since 2015, where I'm now the managing editor for mobile coverage. If it's about phones or cell phone plans, I'm on the case. I've been looking at phones since the debut of the iPhone back in 2007, as my career in technology coverage dates back to 1999. From my Northern California home, I'm constantly checking in on phone carriers to see what they charge for data and how that compares to other options. When I'm not doing that, I'm cooking, traveling, and staring at a phone screen.
The best cell phone plan overall
Mint Mobile is a great option to turn to if you're looking for a low monthly payment for your cell phone service. But that low payment comes with a twist.
First, though, let's briefly go over the best Mint Mobile plans, which include a range of options, staring with 5GB of data and culminating in an unlimited data plan. Mint's rates start at $15/month for 5GB and jump up in $5 increments for 15GB ($20), 20GB ($25) and unlimited ($30). Because 5GB is enough data for most people, we'd steer you toward that plan, but Mint offers more than enough choices to satisfy all kinds of customers. Even if you go over your data limit, Mint merely slows down your data speeds for the rest of the month; it doesn't charge you an overage fee.
Mint has a great welcome offer for new customers where your first three months of service cost $15/month regardless of what plan you try. That means for an upfront payment of $45, you can get the unlimited data plan for half off what Mint normally charges. A few carriers trot out deals where your first month of service is at a reduced rate, but none match Mint's generosity.
Now for that twist: at the end of the three months, you've to to commit to a full year of service to get Mint's best rate. That means if you want the 5GB plan to stay at $15/month, you need to pay $180 up front. The unlimited plan requires a $360 one-time payment for Mint's $30 monthly rate. Mint doesn't offer month-to-month plans, which some people will find limiting.
The upfront payment at Mint can be pretty intimidating for some customers. But if you can swing it, Mint offers a lower monthly rate that few carriers can compete with, making this the best cell phone plan for poeple who want lots of data for a low monthly cost.
The best unlimited data plan
Visible offers just two plans, both of which have unlimited data. Either one is a great choice if all you need is one line of data. Families will want to look to carriers like T-Mobile, which offers discounts as you add more lines to your plan, driving down the per-line cost for larger families.
Visible's basic plan costs $25/month, giving you coverage on Verizon's nationwide network — Verizon owns Visible — and the ability to make unlimited calls and texts to Canada and Mexico You can use your phone as a mobile hotspot. The biggest downside is that your network can be slowed at any time if Verizon's network gets congested.
The $45 Visible Plus plan guarantees you 50GB of high-speed data without any data slowdowns, and you can connect to Verizon's faster 5G Ultra Wideband network where available. The lack of data throttling is probably the biggest perk, as in my experience, Verizon's nationwide 5G is fast enough unless you're really downloading a lot of data.
In addition to those perks, Visible Plus includes a Global Pass for using your plan overseas for one day — otherwise that costs $10 — and you can add a cellular-connected smartwatch to your plan at no extra cost. (Larger carriers charge around $10 to add extra devices to your plan.) If you have a smartwatch or do a lot of traveling, Visible Plus is the better option than the basic plan.
As of this writing, you can save on either plan by using a 'SAVE24' code at sign-up. That will knock $5 off the cost of the basic plan and $10 off Visible Plus for the next 24 months — a very substantial length of time in the smartphone world.
Visible now lets customers pay for service annually, which comes with even more savings. For example, its $25/month unlimited plan can be paid in full for $275 for the entire year. Existing Visible customers can switch to annual pricing as well.
I tested Visible a few years back and found the performance that matched what I typically get from Verizon, with occasionally slower speeds at some locations and at certain times. But with Visible plans costing at least $20 less than Verizon's cheapest unlimited plan, it's a fair trade-off.
The best tiered data plan
Verizon's postpaid plans focus on unlimited data, with the cheapest option starting at $65/month. While these plans are among the best unlimited data plans out there, people looking for the best deal at Verizon should turn to the carrier's prepaid offerings, where you pay for data in advance. Not only are Verizon's prepaid options more attractively priced, but they'll help you keep a fixed cost on your wireless spending.
Verizon has three prepaid plans, with two promising unlimited data, but the pick of the bunch is the 15GB option. Again, 15GB is plenty of data for the average user, so you're not overpaying for data. Plus, Verizon's $45 monthly rate for the 15GB drops by $10 the moment you enroll in autopay, bringing the cost of a Verizon plan closer to what you'd pay for a discount offering from Mint or Visible.
Perks are minimal for the 15GB prepaid plan, though you do get Verizon's nationwide 5G coverage. (As we noted with Visible, speeds will be fast enough for the vast majority of users.) If you want more from a Verizon prepaid plan, the $60/month prepaid plan with unlimited data does give you faster Ultra Wideband 5G speeds and 25GB of hotspot data. Still, $35 is a lot more affordable, and the 15GB of data should cover the needs of most people.
The best family plan overall
T-Mobile's Go5G is a good option for individuals who want an unlimited plan with more perks than what Visible offers and don't mind paying a bit more. A single line of Go5G costs $75/month, which is a better value than similarly priced options at AT&T and Verizon that don't offer the travel and streaming perks that come from T-Mobile's offering. But add extra lines to the Go5G plan, and that's when things really start to shine.
As you add lines, T-Mobile discounts the cost of the additional line, so that the per-line cost drops. A family of four pays $155/month for four lines of Go5G, as T-Mobile is currently waiving the cost of the third line of data. That works out to $38.75 per line, but even if T-Mobile were charging full price, you'd still only be paying $45/line for four lines. That helps make T-Mobile's Go5G the best family cell phone plans, since it discounts additional lines as you add them, lowering your overall cost per line with each person.
Among the many unlimited options at T-Mobile, I've found the Go5G plan has the best mix of price and perks. The cost of a Netflix standard plan comes included, and you also get six months of Apple TV Plus. The Go5GPlus plan costs a little bit extra — $30 more than Go5G when T-Mobile's waiving the cost of a third line — but you get additional perks for streaming and travel.
The best pay-in-advance plan
As with Verizon, AT&T has a few postpaid plans that focus on unlimited data plans, but anyone who wants the best value from the carrier should give its prepaid options a closer look. Specifically, AT&T takes a page out of Mint's book by offering an annual plan that trades a lot of data in exchange for a big upfront payment. But AT&T does Mint one better by delivering a lower monthly cost.
I'm specifically referring to AT&T's unlimited data plan which dangles a low $25 monthly rate if you sign up for a year of service. That requires an upfront payment of $300, but in exchange, you're getting a better monthly rate than you would with Mint's unlimited data plan.
There's another limitation at AT&T, which restricts you to 16GB of high-speed data in this unlimited plan before it slows your speed. Mint has a cap, too, though it's a more generous 40GB. AT&T is betting that you won't really get close to using up all 16GB, though, and in most cases, the carrier is probably right. Still, use up 16GB, and youre speeds drop to 1.5Mbps for the rest of the billing cycle — but 16GB is more than enough for most people.
As noted, you'll have to pay the full year up front. But if a $300 payment doesn't make you blink, the locked-in rate adds to the appeal of this AT&T option.
Best cell phone plan price guarantee
Boost Mobile is no longer a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, relying on someone else's towers to provide its phone service. Relaunched as its own service to compete with the likes of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, Boost has built out a network of its own — well, with the help of AT&T and T-Mobile to extend coverage where its network doesn't quite reach yet. And to draw attention to the its status as a national carrier, Boost has several unlimited options, with one in particular standing out at a time of fluctuating prices.
The carrier charges $25/month for its standard unlimited plan. (A current promotion cuts that price in half for the first month of service.) But that's not what makes this Boost offering so noteworthy. Rather, it's the fact that Boost says customers who sign up for that plan will always pay $25/month so long as they stick with Boost as their carrier.
That means you're always going to know what your monthly cell phone bill will be, give or take fluctuations in taxes. Some of Boost's plans cover your taxes and fees, but the $25 unlimited option does not. Still, you are able to use 30GB of data under this plan before your data speeds are subject to slowdowns, unlike Visible's $25 unlimited plan where speeds can be slowed at any time.
But regardless of perks, this Boost plan offers cost certainty, and certainty is something a lot of us could use a lot more of in this day and age.
Best cell phone plans compared
So that you can better see how much each of the best cell phone plans cost, we've put them in one chart, with their monthly rate for one line of data. We've noted where plans like the ones from Mint and AT&T require annual payments, and the notes field also lists the family price for four lines of Go5G at T-Mobile.
As you can see, AT&T, Boost and Visible all have the lowest rate for unlimited data, while Mint's 15GB plan is the cheapest of all. T-Mobile's appeal lies in its multiline discounts for families who want wireless coverage.
| Plan | Data amount | Monthly price, 1 line | Notes |
| Mint Mobile 5GB plan | 5GB | $15 (requires $180 annual payment) | $180 annual payment required for $15 monthly rate |
| Visible Wireless Visible plan | Unlimited data | $25 | Plus plan costs $45/month |
| Verizon Prepaid 15GB plan | 15GB | $35 | Rate reflects $10 autopay discount |
| T-Mobile Go5G Family plan | Unlimited data | $75 | Family of four pays $155, or $38.75 per line |
| AT&T Prepaid Unlimited plan | Unlimited data | $25 | $300 annual payment required for plan |
| Boost Mobile Unlimited plan | Unlimited data | $25 | Rate is guaranteed for as long as you remain at Boost |
How we pick the best cell phone plans
Picking the best cell phone plans requires extensive research on exactly what each carrier offers. That means I'm checking the plans available at each of the three major carriers, as you would expect. We also extend that search to lesser-know MVNOs, who often offer lower-priced plans. Once we've gathered all the data on available smartphone plans, we single out the lowest cost options.
In addition to low-priced plans, I also make sure the different options offering attractive amounts of data — I tend to focus on unlimited data, but I cite a few tiered data plans, since not everyone needs an unlimited plan. If there are perks to a plan, I take those into consideration, too.
Network coverage gets some consideration, though it's largely based on third-party testing and media averages for download speed across the country. Coverage can vary from region to region — even from neighborhood to neighborhood in some cities, so your best bet is to check with friends, family and neighbors on who provides the most reliable coverage in your area and picking from the array of plans I've singled out involving different wireless providers.
Because phone carriers are often changing up their plans, I regularl review what's available. As a result, these rankings get updated at least once a month so that our picks reflect any changes to pricing or perks. When possible, I try to call out promotions that can save you additional money on a new cell phone plan.
How to choose the best cell phone plan for you
Price is a big consideration when looking for the best cell phone plans, especially if you’re getting more than one line for other members of your family. Most carriers offer escalating discounts as you add lines, so you’ll want to compare the total cost of your plan based on the number of lines that require service.
Cell phone plans are about more than just the amount on your bill each month, though. As I've mentioned above you also need to consider who offers the best coverage in your area and whether they support the phone you’ll want to use. Our guide to the best phone carriers can answer many of those questions, but you’ll also want to ask around about how a specific carrier’s coverage is at your home and office if you’re looking to switch wireless providers.
Speaking of switching carriers, the major carriers are all willing to pick up some of the cost to get you to switch. These promotions can vary over time, so we'd suggest keeping an eye on any new carrier deals when you're mulling a switch, as you could find extra ways to save money.
Wireless carriers have spent the past several years building out their 5G coverage, and if you’ve got the right 5G phone, you can benefit from faster speeds if a carrier offers 5G service in your area. T-Mobile includes 5G coverage with all its plans, and that coverage extends to carriers like Metro By-T-Mobile, Mint Mobile and others that use T-Mobile's towers for coverage. AT&T now includes 5G with all its plans, including prepaid options. Verizon does, too, though only some plans include access to that carrier's faster 5G Ultra Wideband network.
What kind of cell phone plan do I need?
As you would expect, there is no simple answer to this and the question is more about what is the best plan for you. This will obviously depend on a wide variety of factors.
For those on a budget and looking for some flexibility, a prepaid cell phone plan will be an excellent way to go. These are often the cheapest options and the lack of contracts is going to be a massive bonus, especially if you like to change up carriers frequently.
If you frequently stream Netflix on the go, like to play games on your phone or just generally drain your data at impressive speeds, an unlimited plan is an excellent way to go — especially as 5G becomes more common.
For more on picking a plan, check out our guide on how much data you need in your cell phone plan.
Family cell phone plans are an excellent way to save money on each phone line, since many carriers drop the per-line cost for each additional line. Some carriers, such as Verizon and AT&T, let you mix and match plans, so parents can get an unlimited line with greater perks, while giving kids a cheaper line of data to save money overall.
If you are simply after the lowest price possible, carriers including Visible and Boost Mobile can offer you really low costs if you don't mind settling for smaller data caps. In some cases, you can get a lower rate by paying for a full year of service ahead of time, as is the case at Mint Mobile.
MVNOs vs other carriers
MVNOs are a slightly strange concept but they do offer an excellent way to get a cell phone plan on a budget. So what are they and how do they differ from the main carriers?
Firstly, it's important to note the main carriers. These are: AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, which absorbed Sprint in 2020. Boost Mobile is trying to establish itself as another nationwide provider, building out its own network.
MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators), on the other hand, don't own and operate their own technology and instead piggyback off of the services of one of the above brands. This allows them to be far cheaper than the main carriers but does mean they are the first to be restricted during peak usage periods and don't get access to as many additional benefits.
We explain more about this in our MVNO guide, but the main players are:
- Mint Mobile runs on T-Mobile
- Metro by T-Mobile runs on T-Mobile
- Tello runs on T-Mobile
- Cricket Wireless runs on AT&T
- Visible runs on Verizon
- Xfinity Mobile runs on Verizon
Cell phone plans comparison
