Cheapest Mobile Plan Austria 2026: Verified Tariffs

Cheapest mobile plans in Austria 2026: what actually works

If you've just landed in Vienna with a German SIM that suddenly stops loading Google Maps, you don't need a 60-page market study. You need a working number, a fair price, and someone willing to admit which provider is annoying to deal with. This guide lists the cheapest mobile plans in Austria 2026, verified against the providers' own price pages on 25 April 2026, and grouped by who you actually are: tourist, student, expat settling in, or local who wants to stop overpaying.

For a broader pick across all networks and contract types, our full mobile phone plans Austria guide covers the bigger picture. If you're still planning your move, our cost of living in Austria guide shows where mobile sits in a normal monthly budget. Reading in German? You can also use the DE version of this guide.

Quick context before the tables. The Austrian mobile market is dominated by three networks: A1, Magenta (formerly T‑Mobile), and Drei (Hutchison Drei Austria). Almost every "cheap" provider you'll see is a sub-brand riding on one of those three. That's why €5.90 from a discount brand often gives you the same coverage as a €30 contract from the parent.

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The plans that actually beat €10 a month

The list below only includes plans we could verify directly on the provider's own price page on 25 April 2026. Prices in Austria move quickly; check the linked site before signing anything.

Sources: hot.at/tarife, yesss.at/tarife, a1.net/handys-tarife/wertkartentarife, all retrieved 25 April 2026. Prices include 20% VAT.

A few honest notes on this list. HoT smart MINI at €1.90 is the cheapest line on any Austrian price page right now, but 550 MB does not survive ten minutes of YouTube. It's only useful as a second SIM, a backup, or a number for two-factor codes. The interesting jump is between €7.99 and €9.99 with YESSS!: for two euros more you go from 10 GB to 100 GB on the same A1 network. If you stream anything, you take the M plan and never look back.

The A1 B.free S looks slightly cheaper than HoT fix, but that "every 4 weeks" billing rhythm matters: 13 charges per year instead of 12 means the real monthly equivalent sits closer to €10.74. Cheap, still, but not cheaper than HoT.

We left two providers off the table on purpose. spusu runs popular budget plans (the lite tier is regularly the cheapest entry SIM in the Austrian market), and Lycamobile Austria advertises prepaid bundles starting around €2.50. Both sites render their pricing client-side, so we couldn't confirm exact April 2026 numbers in time for publication. If either matters to your decision, open spusu.at and lycamobile.at yourself, take a screenshot, and compare. We'd rather send you to the source than print a price we can't verify.

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What "from €5.90" actually buys you

Cheap mobile in Austria isn't a trick. It's a structural feature of the market: discount brands resell capacity from the three real network operators, and they're allowed to undercut the parent brand to soak up budget customers. Here's what you should expect to find in any sub-€10 plan in 2026.

Austria-wide calls and SMS are unlimited or close to it on every plan in the table above. If a plan only includes "1,000 minutes," that's still well over 30 minutes a day, every day, which most people will not hit.

EU roaming is included on all Austrian SIMs by default, thanks to the EU "Roam Like At Home" rules in force since 2017 and now extended through 2032. You can use your data, calls and SMS in any of the 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein at the same price as inside Austria, subject to a fair-use limit on your data allowance. The fair-use cap is provider-specific; it's almost never a problem on a normal trip.

Switzerland is not in EU roaming. This catches travellers out roughly once a week. A short hop across the border in Vorarlberg can cost several euros per MB if you don't activate a roaming pack first. Turn data off when you cross.

4G is everywhere; 5G isn't. Most discount plans only sell you 4G access. To get 5G you generally need to pay €14.99 or more (YESSS! SIMple L 5G is the cheapest 5G plan we found on a third-party brand). For day-to-day use 4G in Austria is fast enough that you'll only notice the difference when you're tethering several devices.

No physical phone is included. Almost every plan in this guide is SIM-only or prepaid. If you also want a subsidised phone you have to look at A1, Magenta or Drei contracts, where total cost over 24 months is usually higher than buying the handset outright and pairing it with a discount SIM.

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By usage profile: which plan should you actually pick?

The cheapest plan on paper is rarely the right one for you. Three things change the answer: how long you're staying, whether you need a registered Austrian address, and how much data you genuinely use. Here's how we'd choose, by profile.

If you're a tourist or here for under three weeks

Skip everything in the main table. You don't need an Austrian SIM. Either turn on EU roaming from your home plan (free across the EU, free in Austria as part of that), or buy a tourist eSIM that activates the moment you land. A1 sells short-term prepaid eSIM packs for 7-day and 14-day windows that you can buy entirely online, no Meldezettel needed. They are not the cheapest per gigabyte, but they save you a half-day in a HOFER store negotiating in German.

If you're coming from outside the EU and your home SIM is going to charge you €15 a day, the cheapest reasonable option is a HoT prepaid SIM bought at any HOFER (Aldi) supermarket for around €5 starter credit, then top it up with the €5.90 HoT smart pack for the month. Total: under €11, with a real Austrian number for restaurant bookings.

If you're an international student or new arrival staying 6+ months

This is where YESSS! SIMple S (€7.99, 10 GB) or HoT fix (€9.90, 60 GB) make sense. Both are no-contract or month-to-month, both ride on a real network (A1 and Magenta respectively), both let you cancel without drama if you find something better in three months. If you're going to stream Spotify on the U-Bahn or video-call home in HD, take the 60 GB option.

You'll need an ID document and, in many cases, an Austrian bank account or address (Meldezettel) to register the SIM. Prepaid HoT and Lycamobile are often the easiest for arrivals because the registration is light-touch.

For longer planning, our credit guide for Austria and health insurance guide for Austria cover the other two things every new arrival ends up dealing with in the first month.

If you're an expat or local settling in for years

You probably want a contract with stable billing, not a prepaid pack you have to top up. The cheapest defensible long-term play is HoT fix (€9.90 for 60 GB) or YESSS! SIMple M (€9.99 for 100 GB). Both are no-binding contracts you can leave at any time, both have 5G upgrade options if you decide you want them later. If you make a lot of international calls outside the EU, look at Drei's "Welt" extras or A1's "World" packs rather than switching provider.

If you have a family with multiple SIMs

This is where the headline price gets misleading. A family of four on four separate HoT smart SIMs spends €23.60 a month, less than one mid-range A1 family contract. The trade-off: separate billing, separate top-ups, no shared data pool. If administrative simplicity matters more than absolute cost, a Magenta or A1 family bundle becomes worth comparing, even at €40-50 per month total.

If anyone in the family is under 18, prepaid is genuinely the best route. You skip credit checks and you cap their spend at whatever you've topped up.

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Is 5G in Austria worth paying more for?

Honest answer: probably not yet, unless you're tethering a laptop or living somewhere with weak 4G.

Austria's 5G coverage in 2026 is solid in cities and along the main motorways. The regulator RTR publishes a public coverage map that shows where each network has rolled out, and by the start of 2026 all three operators report population coverage above 90%. In central Vienna or Graz you can hit several hundred Mbit/s.

In daily use, the difference between 4G LTE-Advanced (which most discount SIMs use) and 5G is mostly latency. A page that loads in 1.2 seconds on 4G might load in 0.6 seconds on 5G. You'll notice it in cloud gaming, video calls under bad conditions, or large file uploads. You won't notice it on Instagram.

The cheapest 5G access we could verify on a discount brand on 25 April 2026 is YESSS! SIMple L 5G at €14.99/month with 150 GB. From the network operators directly: Drei's up Smart at €14.90 and A1 B.free M at €14.90 every 4 weeks (so ~€16.14/month equivalent). If you genuinely want 5G, paying €15 makes more sense than paying €25 to a flagship brand.

Coverage varies more than the headline numbers suggest. Vienna's 1st through 9th districts are blanketed by all three operators. The same goes for central Graz, Salzburg, Linz and Innsbruck. Move 30 km out into the Waldviertel in Lower Austria or the back valleys of Tyrol and 5G coverage drops sharply, with even 4G running on lower frequency bands. If you're moving to a smaller town, type your Postleitzahl into the RTR coverage map before signing a 5G plan you can't actually use.

A small detail expats often miss: 5G in Austria is delivered on two distinct frequency layers. The "5G" label on a plan means access to the 3.5 GHz band, which is faster but doesn't reach as far indoors. Older 4G phones will often just stay on LTE-Advanced where reception is better. So pay €5 less for a 4G plan if your usage is mostly indoors anyway.

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How to get a SIM as a new arrival in Austria

There's no national rule that forces you to register every SIM with your real name in Austria, unlike in Germany. But almost every provider asks for an ID at activation, and most will register your SIM against an Austrian address if they can. Here's the practical version.

1. Walk into a HOFER, BILLA, Lidl or Spar. Pick up a starter pack on the rack near checkout. HoT (HOFER), bob (BILLA), Lidl Connect (Lidl), educom (Spar) all sell SIMs this way for €5-€10 of starter credit.
2. Insert the SIM and follow the activation flow. You'll be asked to enter your name, date of birth, and ID number (passport or Austrian ID). The activation works whether or not you have a Meldezettel.
3. Top up the plan you want through the provider's app, online, or with a paysafecard from any kiosk.
4. For an eSIM, A1 and Magenta both sell tourist eSIMs that you scan from the airport before clearing customs. HoT and discount brands are usually still physical SIM only.
5. For long stays, switch from prepaid to a no-binding monthly plan once you have an Austrian bank account (IBAN). This saves you the manual top-up routine.

Two things to watch. First, some discount providers throttle your data once you cross your monthly cap, instead of charging extra. spusu and HoT both work this way; YESSS! tends to charge per MB. Read the fair-use clause. Second, if you cancel a contract early on a binding plan you can be charged the remaining minimum revenue, which on a €25 plan with 22 months remaining is unpleasant.

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Switching provider without losing your number

Number portability (Rufnummernmitnahme) in Austria is mandatory and cheap. Your old provider has to release your number to the new one within a few business days, and they can charge you a maximum of €19 for the porting service. Many discount brands now reimburse this fee as a sign-up incentive.

The actual flow:

1. Sign up for the new plan online or in store. Tell them you want to bring your number.
2. They'll ask for your old account number and the Übertragungsauftrag (porting authorisation) reference. You generate this in your old provider's app or by SMS.
3. The new SIM arrives by post, usually inside three to five working days.
4. On activation day, your old SIM stops working and the new one takes over your number. Don't switch SIMs on the morning of an important call.

If you're moving from a binding 24-month contract that hasn't ended yet, the old provider can still charge you the remaining minimum monthly fees. Check your contract end date in the customer portal before you start.

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Common pitfalls new arrivals make with Austrian SIMs

A few mistakes show up over and over in expat forums and Reddit threads. None of them are catastrophic; all of them are avoidable.

Buying the cheapest SIM at the airport. The kiosks at Vienna and Salzburg airports usually sell tourist eSIMs at a markup of two to three times the normal supermarket price. If you can wait a day, walk into a HOFER or BILLA in town and buy the same SIM for around €5.

Forgetting to check 4G is enabled in roaming settings. Some German and US phones default to "preferred network: home network only" when they cross borders. If your data isn't loading on day one, open Settings → Mobile Network → Network Mode and force LTE/4G manually. This fixes most slow-data complaints we see in the r/Austria and r/Vienna threads.

Topping up the wrong way. spusu, HoT and YESSS! all let you top up via app, online portal or paysafecard. Bank transfer often takes one to two business days to credit. If you're in a hurry, pay with a credit card in the provider's app, not at a kiosk.

Signing a 24-month contract for a "subsidised phone". The maths almost never works out. A €25/month contract over 24 months totals €600. The same phone is usually €450 outright on geizhals.at, plus €240 of HoT smart over 24 months, total €690. The "free phone" rarely is.

Not cancelling on time. No-binding plans are easy to leave. 24-month contracts auto-renew unless you cancel in writing, usually with three months' notice. If you took a binding contract in March 2024 and want out, the cancellation deadline is December 2025. Set a calendar reminder when you sign.

Trusting any single guide on prices. Including this one. Always cross-check on the provider's own page before you sign. We've put a verification date on every figure here for exactly this reason.

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Where to verify these prices yourself

Prices on this page were verified on 25 April 2026. Mobile pricing in Austria is one of the more volatile consumer categories: providers run promotions roughly quarterly, and "6 Monate gratis" introductory deals come and go. If you want to confirm a price before signing, use these neutral sources rather than trusting any single guide.

• AK Tarif-Rechner by the Arbeiterkammer: an independent calculator run by the workers' chamber. It rebuilds pricing daily from provider feeds. (arbeiterkammer.at/handytarifrechner)
• RTR, the Austrian telecom regulator, publishes coverage maps and provider statistics. Useful when you're checking whether 5G has actually reached your Bezirk. (rtr.at)
• Each provider's own price page, linked above.

If a third-party guide quotes a price that doesn't show up on the provider site, trust the provider site.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest mobile plan in Austria right now?

The cheapest verified mobile plan in Austria as of 25 April 2026 is HoT smart MINI at €1.90/month with 550 MB of data, sold prepaid in any HOFER supermarket. For everyday use, HoT smart at €5.90/month with 10 GB is the cheapest plan that's actually usable. Both run on the Magenta network with 4G coverage above 95% nationwide.

Can I get an Austrian SIM without a Meldezettel?

Yes, for prepaid SIMs. HoT, Lycamobile, Lidl Connect, bob and most other discount prepaid brands let you activate with just a passport or ID number. You'll usually need an Austrian address for monthly contracts that bill via SEPA direct debit, but prepaid stays optional. eSIM tourist packs from A1 don't require an address either.

Are the cheap MVNO plans really as good as A1, Magenta or Drei?

For coverage and call quality, yes. HoT uses the Magenta network, YESSS! and bob use A1, spusu and Lidl Connect use Drei. You get the same towers and the same signal as a customer paying three times more on the parent brand. The differences show up in 5G access, customer-service hours, and whether you get a bundled handset.

Do Austrian mobile plans include EU roaming?

Every Austrian plan includes EU roaming under the EU "Roam Like At Home" rules. You can use your minutes, SMS and data in all 27 EU countries plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein at the same price as in Austria. A fair-use cap on data may apply on heavy plans. Switzerland is not included and roaming there can be expensive without a separate package.

Is 5G worth paying more for in Austria?

Mostly no, unless you tether a laptop or live in a 4G dead zone. The cheapest 5G plan we verified is YESSS! SIMple L 5G at €14.99/month with 150 GB. For under €10 you get 4G LTE-Advanced, which already hits 100+ Mbit/s in most cities. The real-world difference is mostly faster latency, useful for cloud gaming and video calls, less so for browsing and streaming.

How long does porting my number to a new Austrian provider take?

Three to five working days from when you sign the new contract until the new SIM activates and the old one stops working. Your old provider can charge a maximum of €19 for the porting service; many new providers reimburse it. You start the process by ordering the Übertragungsauftrag code from your current provider's app or by SMS.

What happens when I run out of data on a cheap plan?

It depends on the provider. spusu and HoT throttle your speed to a trickle (around 64 kbit/s) and let you keep browsing. YESSS! charges per extra MB at the basic tariff, which adds up fast. A1 B.free deducts from your remaining credit at €0.50 per MB once units are used. Always read the fair-use clause before signing.

Can I get a phone with the cheapest mobile plans in Austria?

Almost never. Discount prepaid brands like HoT, spusu and Lycamobile are SIM-only by design. If you want a subsidised handset you'll need to take an A1, Magenta or Drei contract, where the phone cost is spread across 24 months. In most cases the total cost is higher than buying the phone outright and using a €9.90 SIM-only plan alongside it.

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Bottom line: which cheapest mobile plan in Austria 2026 should you actually pick?

For most readers, two answers cover the field. If you want the cheapest usable plan in Austria, HoT smart at €5.90/month gives you 10 GB on the Magenta network, sold at any HOFER. If you want the best price-per-gigabyte, YESSS! SIMple M at €9.99/month gives you 100 GB on the A1 network with no contract binding. Anything cheaper is either a starter pack you'll outgrow in a week, or a price you couldn't verify on the provider's own page today.

Whatever you pick, write down the date you verified the price, keep the porting code from your current provider, and don't sign a 24-month binding contract just to save €1 a month. The Austrian mobile market rewards switching, not loyalty.

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Related guides

• Mobile phone plans in Austria 2026: the full picture across all networks and contract types
• Internet plans in Austria 2026: home broadband from around €25/month
• Cost of living in Austria 2026: where mobile sits in a normal monthly budget
• Credit guide for Austria 2026: banking and credit basics for new arrivals
• Health insurance in Austria 2026: public ÖGK and private top-up options

Sources: hot.at, yesss.at, a1.net, RTR coverage maps, all retrieved 25 April 2026. Prices verified on the providers' own pages on the date shown. Pricing in the Austrian mobile market changes frequently; always confirm on the provider site before signing.