South Korea SIM and eSIM – 2025 Guide & Prices
This post may contain affiliate links to tours and hotels. These help us earn a small commission at no additional charge to you.
Off to South Korea soon? Make sure you get the right South Korean SIM or eSIM for your travels – they are surprisingly inexpensive but prices can vary greatly (particularly eSIMs).
From bargain bundles to airport SIM card cards, we’ll showcase a range of SIMs which you can easily buy in advance before you travel or at the airport. Plus you can always consider a portable Wi-Fi router / egg should several of you want to share.
Featuring well known local brands like SK Telecom and KT, to eSIM only brands like Airalo and the much cheaper MobiMatter, here is our guide to buying the right SIM for South Korea.
You might like – Our guide to the 30+ best apps to use in South Korea >
South Korea checklist
We love using agoda.com and booking.com for researching and booking all our hotels, and Hostelworld for booking hostels.
For booking tours, transfers and SIM cards we recommend Get Your Guide, Viator, Trazy or Klook.
For booking rental cars visit Discover Cars.
Table of Contents
Physical SIM cards vs eSIMs in South Korea
One of the most common questions in our South Korea Travel Planning Facebook group is which SIM to buy and should they use a traditional physical SIM card or an eSIM?
The advantages of using a physical SIM card over an eSIM
- If you aren’t a big technology fan and are apprehensive about buying and activating an eSIM, then you can buy a physical SIM card at the airport. You can buy it in advance via Klook, Trazy and Get Your Guide and once you pick it up at the airport, the helpful staff will offer to install it for you – so everything is done for you!
- The SIM card gives you an actual Korean phone number, as not all eSIMs come with a phone number. Phone numbers are always handy if you are trying buy Korean tickets online, need to make an emergency call or want to use local taxi apps (although many Korean taxi phone apps have been set to allow foreign telephone numbers such as KRide and TADA).
- Physical SIM cards tend to have generous unlimited data allowances compared to eSIMs. With an eSIM you can get unlimited deals sometimes, but the eSIM companies mostly sell packages with a set amount of data by the gigabyte (i.e 3gb, 5gb, 10gb etc).
- Some older phones are incompatible for eSIM use, so a physical SIM might be your only option.
The advantages of an eSIM over a SIM card
- You can pre purchase it and can be activated online a few days before you arrive. As soon as you touch down on the tarmac on your arrival flight, you can switch on the eSIM in your phone settings. This is handy if you arrive late at night when the airport SIM card counters might be closed.
- eSIMs are also a little more secure as they cannot be cloned so easily.
- You can use both an eSIM and a physical SIM together – meaning you can keep your existing SIM card in your phone without having to remove it (and potentially losing or damaging it).
- You can store multiple eSIMs on one device and switch between them on your phone settings.
You might like – Our best 40+ things to do in South Korea >
Join our Facebook South Korea Travel Planning and Tips Group!
Need help with your itinerary or have any South Korea related questions? Head on over to our friendly and active Facebook group with over 45k members!
Click here to join our group >
South Korean physical SIM cards
If you wish to use a traditional physical SIM card on your phone in South Korea, then you can purchase one in advance on Klook or from Trazy and then pick it up from the airport when you arrive.
You can also buy them on the spot at the airport SIM card counter in the arrivals hall, BUT the advantage of booking in advance is you can pay for them using your international debit card – sometimes only cash is accepted for SIM card sales at airports.
The biggest three SIM card providers and telecoms networks in South Korea are:
Some of our South Korea Facebook group members also recommended Chingu Mobile. Chingu in Korea is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) meaning they basically lease data off the likes of SK Telecom.
SIM cards usually range from 7 days up to 90 days duration. Trazy also has Korean SIM Cards that last up to 180 days >
Unlike Klook, Trazy also offers a shipping service if you want to buy your SIM online and then get it sent to you in the post (for instance, if you arrive in South Korea late at night / early morning when most airport SIM kiosks are closed).
Check out Klook’s SIM Cards packages:
South Korea 4G Prepaid SIM Card (KR Airports Pick Up) from KT >
4G SIM Card for South Korea from SKTelecom with free T-Money card >
SIM Card for South Korea Unlimited Local Data (LG U+) with free T-Money card >
Check out Trazy’s SIM Card packages:
Need a SIM card for 90 to 180 days? Check out this Korea SIM Card: Unlimited Data + Voice + SMS from Incheon Airport T1 & T2 >
Or get a 90 to 180 day Korean SIM card sent to you by post >
Get Your Guide SIM Card packages:
Incheon Airport: Korean SIM card & T-money card combo >
Unlimited data Korean SIM card + Voice (free T-money card) set >
South Korean eSIMs
There are lots of eSIM brands and suppliers that have packages compatible in South Korea – the ones mentioned most frequently in our South Korea Facebook group are Airalo, Ubigi, Saily and MobiMatter.
Cheapest eSIM for South Korea – MobiMatter
You may want to go for the biggest and best known brand however, by far and away the cheapest eSIM provider and the one we use regularly is MobiMatter – it is usually much much cheaper than the famous Airalo and Holafly brands.
We’ve used MobiMatter on our last trip to South Korea and were very satisfied – it was simple to use and install, plus the coverage was excellent.
Click here to check out the range of South Korea eSIMs with MobiMatter >
You can use our CK Travels MobiMatter discount code CAROL86604 to receive 50% cashback (up to $5) on your first purchase.
However, many travellers prefer to use more familiar brands such as Airalo or Holafly as their chosen eSIM for Korea.
Airalo
Airalo is one of the leading eSIM companies and offer a couple of unlimited South Korea data packages.
Click here to check out Airalo’s range of South Korean eSIM packages >
Klook eSIMs
5G South Korea Unlimited Data eSIM by SKT >
Unlimited Data eSIMs for South Korea by SKT (5 to 30 days) >
Unlimited Data eSIMs for South Korea by KT (1 to 90 days) >
Trazy eSIMs
Korea eSIM Unlimited Data + Optional Voice & SMS (3-30 days) by KT – pick up from Incheon, Gimpo, Gimhae or Busan Airports > (most popular on Trazy)
Korean Daily Data eSIM (2-10 days) >
Yesim
Yesim is a Swiss based eSIM provider with coverage in almost 200 countries including South Korea.
Yesim’s eSIM packages start from 3GB over 7 days to 20 GB over 30 days – they also offer a wide range of unlimited data plans.
Click here to check out Yesim’s range of South Korean eSIMs >
You might like – 90+ things to do in Seoul plus our Seoul with kids guide
Drimsim
One of the newer eSIM companies that operates in over 190 countries including South Korea.
This is a good / cheaper option if you don’t use much data – however, the other eSIM providers may be best for larger usage.
Click here to check out Drimsim’s range of South Korean eSIMs >
You might like – Our guide to the best K-beauty products, treatments and salons in Seoul >
South Korean portable Wi-Fi router rental
Although many now favour eSIMs, pocket Wi-Fi rental at Korean airports this is a great option for families and those that want to share the cost, as you share the Wi-Fi / data with 2 or 3 others.
You just need to connect to the Wi-Fi router as you would with your Wi-Fi at home.
Korean Wi-Fi rental usually starts from around £1.70 / $2.20 USD / 2 Euros / 3,000 KRW a day and WiFi rental is available at most major Korean airports including Incheon, Busan, Gimpo, Gimhae and Jeju Island.
Korea SKT Portable Wi-Fi Router Rental for Short Term Users (1-17 days) >
Korea SKT Portable Wi-Fi Router Rental for Long Term Users (18 days +) >
Unlimited Data 4G Wi-Fi from SKTelecom >
4G WiFi (Incheon Airport Pick Up) for South Korea by Wi-Fi Dosirak >
The major downsides to using a Wi-Fi router is you obviously have to carry it around and charge it separately every night, plus you physically have to carry it with you every day (although they are quite small).
They also usually take a deposit of around 100,000 KRW which gets returned to once you drop off the pocket Wi-Fi back at the airport.
One note of warning – please PLEASE don’t forget to return your Korean Wi-Fi router rental / egg before you go through airport security / departures at the end of the trip or you’ll face losing your deposit.
And before you scoff, this has genuinely happened to several people in our South Korea Facebook group when they’ve forgotten to return it, had a panic and asked the group what to do.
Found this South Korea SIM and eSIM guide helpful?
Did you enjoy our article? Let us know in the comments or by sharing it on social media.
You can follow CK Travels on:
Instagram
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
Pinterest
