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The best prepaid phone plans are excellent economical options that arguably provide most people with all they need for cell phone connectivity, like plenty of high-speed data when and where they need it, at notably lower costs than postpaid plans.
Currently, our top pick among the best prepaid phone plans is Mint Mobile's 12-month unlimited plan with the carrier's limited-time 50% discount. Those with more modest needs or seeking to pay as little as possible should check out Tello Mobile's Build Your Own Plan, with the option to pay as little as $5/month.
Best overall: Mint Mobile (12-month Unlimited Plan) - See at Mint Mobile
Best overall alternative: US Mobile (Unlimited Starter Plan) - See at US Mobile
Best budget: Tello Mobile (Build Your Own Plan) - See at Tello
Best unlimited: Visible Wireless (Visible Plus Plan) - See at Visible
Best from a major carrier: AT&T (Unlimited + 10GB Hotspot Prepaid Plan) - See at AT&T
Mint Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that combines T-Mobile's exceptional urban and suburban coverage, fast data speeds, and some of the best customer support we've experienced with value-driven plans.
The budget carrier's current 50% off deal for the 12-month unlimited data plan is easily the best overall prepaid option at the time of writing.
That's $15/month for 40GB of high-speed monthly data (subject to deprioritized speeds) over 12 months, which amounts to $180 for the year. It's an unbeatable value. After 12 months, the price is likely to return to its usual $30/month rate unless Mint Mobile makes another similar offer.
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Regardless of deals or offers, make sure to pick either the three-month or 12-month plan for whichever monthly data allotment you choose, from 5GB to unlimited, as these offer Mint Mobile's best value. Mint Mobile's six-month plans are more expensive than most prepaid options from other carriers.
If you aren't ready to commit to a year of service, you can find out whether Mint Mobile works for you in the long term by taking advantage of the MVNO's ongoing new customer promotion, our long-standing top pick among the best cheap cell phone plans. The introductory offer sets all three-month plans at discounted rates, starting at $10/month.
Read our full Mint Mobile review.
US Mobile, not to be confused with US Cellular, is a relative newcomer. It's a budget-friendly MVNO that offers major carrier features, like premium data, smartwatch plans, and multi-line discounts. For $25/month (or $22.50/month with an annual payment), US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan exceeds expectations.
US Mobile offers the unique option for customers to pick between Verizon's, AT&T's, or T-Mobile's networks. These networks are named "Warp," "Dark Star," and "Light Speed," respectively, on US Mobile.
You can even switch, or "teleport," networks as often as you want for whatever reason. The first two switches are free, after which there's a small $2 fee. The plan's price remains the same, too.
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The best network to pick on US Mobile is Warp, which is based on Verizon. It includes Verizon's extensive coverage and 35GB of premium prioritized data, which means your data speeds won't be artificially slowed down when the network becomes congested at a particular time and place. We should note that it's rare for an MVNO or budget-friendly carrier to offer premium data.
Even if Warp (Verizon) doesn't have the right coverage for you, you'll be happy with the other networks available on US Mobile based on T-Mobile and AT&T. They also include 35GB of high-speed data, and while it might be deprioritized, we didn't feel any impact from chance deprioritization when we tested the Light Speed network.
Regardless of the network you pick, the Unlimited Starter plan's 35GB of data should be more than enough for the vast majority of users. If you exceed 35GB, US Mobile reduces data speeds to 1Mbps until the end of the billing cycle, which is still somewhat usable. In contrast, most carriers reduce speeds to an unusable degree — between 40 and 256Kbps.
Read our full US Mobile review.
Tello Mobile is an MVNO that runs on T-Mobile's network and offers the same (deprioritized) data speeds and coverage as other MVNOs that run on T-Mobile, like Mint Mobile. For a comparative analysis of the two budget MVNOs backed by T-Mobile, check out our Mint Mobile vs. Tello guide.
What separates Tello Mobile from the budget prepaid category is its Build Your Own Plan, which lets you pick and pay for what's most important to you, whether it's data, voice minutes, or a low amount of both.
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With Tello, you can get a decent amount of data for a low monthly bill if you opt for a low amount of voice minutes, which works if you don't talk on the phone very often. For example, you can get 10GB of data and 100 voice minutes for $16/month.
You can reduce the monthly bill even further, down to 1GB for just $5/month at the carrier's low minimum rate.
Read our full Tello Mobile review.
Visible Wireless is Verizon's budget carrier offering. It offers two plans with access to Verizon's wide-reaching urban and rural coverage, both of which include unlimited data.
We'd typically recommend the regular $25/month Visible plan for most people visiting this guide, as it offers great value. However, the carrier is currently offering its premium Visible Plus plan for $30/month for up to 25 months, which is a 33% discount off its usual $45/month price. That's amazing value for what you get and a hard deal to pass up.
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As we note in our Mint Mobile vs. Visible guide, Visible's unlimited plans offer better value than Mint Mobile's unlimited plans at full price. When Visible says "unlimited" data, it actually means truly unlimited data at high speed without a data cap.
Where the base Visible plan is subject to deprioritized speeds, the Visible Plus plan gives you 50GB of premium data that isn't artificially slowed down when the network is congested. You also get access to Verizon's super-fast high-band 5G network, 5G Ultra Wideband, which can reach speeds up to 634Mbps.
Visible is also one of the few budget carriers that offers plans for smartwatches, and it's included in the Visible Plus plan's pricing.
Read our full Visible Wireless review.
AT&T's Unlimited + 10GB hotspot prepaid plan offers the best value among major carriers. However, it's only available with an annual payment of $300, which equates to $25/month, so make sure you're comfortable sticking to the plan for at least 12 months.
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By "unlimited," AT&T means you get 16GB of high-speed data and access to the carrier's 5G network. If you use more than 16GB, data speeds are slowed to 1.5Mbps for the rest of the month, which limits what you can do. However, it is still usable for fewer data-intensive tasks, like messaging, web browsing, and even streaming music.
The equivalent rate of $25/month is the best value from a major carrier, though many comparable MVNO and budget options are more affordable.
We've tested or personally tried every carrier included in this guide, so we're deeply familiar with the quality of their service.
In line with our broader testing of the best cell phone plans, we apply our experience with each carrier, considering the pros and cons of their prepaid plans while weighing their value and monthly cost. We then compare each carrier's prepaid plans to determine their strengths and weaknesses.
We also consider their annual payment pricing — an option that has become more widely available for prepaid plans.
A prepaid phone plan is one you pay for in advance at the beginning of the month. It's different from a postpaid plan, where you pay at the end of the month for the month of service you just used.
In the days when postpaid plans locked you in with a time-based service contract, prepaid phone plans offered the flexibility to cancel service whenever you wanted, as there was no contract attached to them.
These days, most postpaid plans no longer have time-based service contracts attached to them, and prepaid plans can be considered budget versions of postpaid plans. Prepaid plans don't typically include premium features, like premium data or access to high-band 5G networks.
Carriers and MVNOs also offer prepaid plans with annual payment options, which reduce the plan's overall cost but lock you in financially for 12 months to get the best value. Annual payments somewhat defeat the point of a traditional prepaid plan, as they're more restrictive than most postpaid plans. However, if you don't need the flexibility to cancel service whenever you want, prepaid plans with annual payments can be high-value options.
Prepaid plans are generally cheaper than postpaid for customers with one or two lines in their accounts. Postpaid plans can start to make more sense with three or more lines on an account due to multi-line discounts, which most prepaid plans don't offer.
Many prepaid plans include limited data and are cheaper than postpaid plans that typically include unlimited data. For instance, our top budget pick above, Tello Mobile, offers prepaid plans with limited voice minutes for outrageously low monthly bills.
