Best overall value: Visible Wireless’s truly unlimited data plan gets you on Verizon’s network for just $30 a month (thanks to a recent price drop). It’s a simple but powerful plan with nice perks like free hotspot data. Best bundle: Xfinity Mobile is available to only existing Comcast-Xfinity home internet customers, but it offers free 5G and great customer service for those who combine internet and mobile through Xfinity. Best price: Mint Mobile’s $30 unlimited data plan is the best deal in the market right now. Just be aware that your price will go up by $10 after the first three months. Best unlimited family plan: Cricket Wireless can hook your whole family up with a cheap unlimited data plan that comes with good coverage and hotspot data. But watch your data speeds—they’ll be throttled at 3 Mbps. Best performance: If you want the best, no expenses spared, then T-Mobile’s Magenta MAX plan is the way to go. You’ll get all the benefits of the country’s fastest network and plenty of perks, but it’s not cheap.
Before we get into the details, let’s talk about how to choose an unlimited cell phone plan.
Data: Know how much data you need each month. That will tell you a lot about whether an unlimited plan even makes sense for you. Don’t forget that not all data is created equal, so be sure you look closely at what “unlimited data” really means—often it’s unlimited but very, very slow. Price: Truly unlimited high-speed data is going to cost more than throttled, capped, or deprioritized data. Read the fine print concerning data speeds before buying. Coverage: If you’re in a big city, then the three major networks run by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all offer pretty great coverage. But outside of urban areas, one network may have better service than others. Use coverage maps (we include them in all our reviews) to see which networks are best for your location. If you want 5G service, check to make sure it’s available in your area. Features: Will you be using your phone as a mobile hotspot? Do you want free subscriptions to streaming services? Do you need international coverage for your business travel? Each unlimited plan might have a little something extra for you—don’t overlook these perks when you’re making your final decision.
Visible just asserted its dominance once again dropping its price for unlimited data from $40/month to $30/month. Visible also introduced a new $45/month data plan that gives its users a guaranteed 50 GB of priority data every month. Spoiler-alert, but if you make your way to the cons section of Visible, you’ll see that the basic unlimited plan can have data speeds throttled. What about those other companies? Well, for instance, T-Mobile gives you 50 GB of full-speed data on its unlimited plan. After that, your data speeds can plummet. Cheaper plans from companies like Straight Talk and Mint Mobile have even lower full-speed data caps (25 GB and 35 GB, respectively). It is true that with Visible you won’t always experience top 4G LTE data speeds due to deprioritization (more on that below). But you’ll never have to worry about going over your data cap while you’re in the middle of an important Zoom meeting. Visible Wireless leases bandwidth on the Verizon network. Verizon takes the gold medal when it comes to nationwide coverage, so Visible customers should see bars of service from Los Angeles to New York and pretty much everywhere in between. Just take a look at this map. For one, you can get a $100–$200 prepaid Mastercard just for signing up (or buying a new phone when you’re already signed up). That’s money in your pocket for doing something you should probably do anyways. Nice. But what really makes Visible special is that it lets you use your unlimited data as mobile hotspot data. Most MVNOs nix hotspots altogether and even pricier plans from bigger companies will limit your hotspot data to 10–15 GB. If you often rely on hotspot data for work, streaming, or whatever else, then Visible is the way to go. Just beware: you will be subject to the same deprioritization and throttling that we’ll discuss below, and you can only have one device tethered at a time. In short: your data speeds will be slower with Visible than with some other carriers. Here are the details.
Throttling is when your cell phone company slows down your data consistently because you’re either on a lower-tier plan or you’ve used up your allotted amount of high-speed data. Deprioritization is when your cell phone company slows down your data occasionally because the network is congested.
As we stated above, Visible offers truly unlimited data, so throttling isn’t an issue. But what can be an issue is deprioritization. Verizon owns the network, so when things get busy, the company will often slow down the speeds of Visible customers to save bandwidth. What does this mean? Well, Visible states that users can expect data download speeds of 5–12 Mbps and data upload speeds of 2–5 Mbps. That’s definitely slower than full-speed connections on the network, but it’s still plenty for streaming video, music, and for most casual gaming. But that’s why we’re calling this a bundle—you simply can’t get Xfinity Mobile as a standalone service. Even with that limitation, we’re fans of Xfinity Mobile, and here’s why. For 5G data (if it’s available where you are and you have a 5G device), Xfinity Mobile says you can expect download speeds around 450 Mbps and upload speeds around 50 Mbps. Um, that is really, really fast. If you’re watching a lot of YouTube videos, or better yet, making a lot videos and uploading them to your YouTube channel with your 5G device in a 5G town, then this is a great plan for you. Using new words to say something we’ve said many times already, to get the most out of this Xfinity Mobile plan, we think it’s best to have a 5G device on a 5G network—you’ll enjoy 4K streaming at that level. But if you are still living in a 4G LTE world, don’t worry—you can still buy HD streaming for any line, which gets you 720p resolution for smartphones and 1080p for tablets. But if you are already a Comcast-Xfinity home internet customer, look into Xfinity Mobile. If you think you’ll use more than 3 GB per month, then the unlimited plan is probably a better deal. Here are all of Xfinity Mobile’s plans so you can compare for yourself. Now, that $40 price tag is still remarkably low for an unlimited data plan. It’s still a good deal. But it’s not the best deal, necessarily. But if you use more than 35 GB of data in a given billing cycle on your Mint Mobile plan, you could see your data speeds plummet to a measly 128 KB. That’s like going to dial-up from fiber. Yikes. Luckily, most people will not need more than 35 GB of data. But if you do, you’d be better off going with other plans on this list, like those from Visible or Verizon. Here’s a look at the best unlimited family plan. It’s from one of the oldest MVNOs in the industry: Cricket Wireless. If you compare that $90 three-line plan to AT&T (which runs Cricket’s network), you can see some significant savings. Here’s a look at a similar offering from that company. If you live in a super rural area or you really need the very fastest data speeds, then maybe look elsewhere. Plus, Mint will hook you up with a free, 30-day trial of HBO Max, which is pretty sweet. This throttled data will still be enough for casual music and video streaming. But you may notice slowdowns when browsing, gaming, and doing other data-intensive activities on your device. But T-Mobile wins the upload speed battle in a blowout. Anyone who uses their phone for gaming or business should take note of this. Upload speed is what allows you to send data from your device back to the network, which is essential when you’re uploading files, conducting Zoom meetings, and playing an intense game of Call of Duty: Mobile. The best part of paying for T-Mobile’s Magenta MAX plan is that you’ll experience the full power of these data speeds. You won’t be at risk of deprioritization like you would be with any of the MVNOs that use the same network. You won’t even be eligible for, let alone experience, reduced speeds until after 100 GB. That’s just a ton of data for even the heaviest user.
40 GB of full-speed mobile hotspot data (after you use 20 GB, you will have unlimited hotspot data at 3G speeds) Access to T-Mobile’s 5G network with eligible devices Unlimited 4K UHD video streaming Worldwide data coverage
But sometimes that’s just what it costs to get premium service. In fact, all three major carriers have plans in the $80–$85 range. Take a look.
Best overall value: Visible Wireless offers up a truly unlimited data plan on the awesome Verizon network for just $30 a month. It’s a simple but powerful plan that comes with perks, like free hotspot data. Best bundle: Xfinity Mobile is available to only existing Comcast-Xfinity home internet customers, but it offers free 5G and great customer service for those who combine internet and mobile via Xfinity. Best price: Mint Mobile’s $30 unlimited data plan is, to put it bluntly, the best deal in the industry right now. Just be aware that your price will go up by $10 after the first three months. Best unlimited family plan: Cricket Wireless will hook your whole family up with a cheap unlimited data plan that comes with good coverage and hotspot data. The catch is your data speeds, which will be throttled at 3 Mbps. Best performance: If you want the best, no expenses spared, then T-Mobile’s Magenta MAX plan is the way to go. You’ll get the full benefits of the country’s most powerful network, plus a host of perks. But we’re not saying it’s cheap.
We hope this review of the best unlimited cell phone plans has helped you find peace, clarity, and understanding–or at least a good deal on your mobile service! We compared the candidates through the lens of our own independent research and years of experience reviewing cell phone plans and carriers. We use WhistleOut coverage maps for network coverage information. These are powered by information from the carriers and other third-party sources. We depend upon our own proprietary research about data speeds, which is based on hundreds of thousands of unique wireless internet speed tests submitted to Reviews.org and related sites. If you want to know more about how we work, check out our complete methodology.
