The best mobile phone plans in Australia (November 2024)

This page is dedicated to the three main kinds of mobile phone plans. Our categories cover some of the best SIM-only mobile plans, a selection of the best prepaid mobile plans, and we also cater to those in the market for a new iPhone 16.

We track more than 200 mobile plans in our comparison engine from dozens of Aussie telcos. In terms of costs, you can nab a cheap mobile plan for around $10 or go beyond $50 if you’re after a whole lot of data. Expect to pay at least roughly $80 per month to pair a postpaid mobile plan with a shiny new iPhone.

Scroll on to discover the best mobile plans for November.

Based on our experiences and research, most Australian mobile users will comfortably get by with 30GB of data each month. That’s the data minimum we start with for plan comparisons in this SIM-only category, with credit given to plans that have discounted pricing and great dollar-to-data value.

Southern Phone nabs the top spot thanks in part to a newly minted promotion with a generous window. Normally priced at $29 per month, new and existing Southern Phone customers pay a reduced $20 monthly fee for the first six months. Get in by 10 February 2025 to nab the promotional pricing. Either price comes with 40GB of Optus 5G data, albeit capped at max 100Mbps download speeds. Users also get $50 of international call credit. For good value SIM-only alternatives, check out the Dodo $28 Mobile Plan or the Circles.Life 30GB Monthly Plan.

Compare the winner above with these popular SIM-only plans below that don’t have initial pricing beyond $40 and come with at least 30GB.

If you find that you’re regularly falling short of your monthly data allocation, it’s worth considering a cheaper SIM-only mobile plan. For light-data users or people whose phones are almost always connected to WiFi, there are bucks to be saved with a plan that has between 10GB and 30GB of monthly data.

On the surface, the Circles.Life 10GB Monthly Plan just scrapes in for our 10GB category minimum. But use the ‘10GBDOBETTER’ promo code during sign-up and this Circles.Life SIM-only plan gets cheaper and has more data. The typical $20-per-month price drops to $17.50 for the first six months, plus there’s also 40GB of bonus data each month for that first half year. With a 500GB data bank, any unused gigabytes can be carried over from lighter-use months to heavier-use ones. If you’re after cheap alternatives, compare this Circles.Life SIM-only winner with the Spintel $22 Mobile Plan or the Numobile $22 SIM plan.

If you want other cheap SIM-only options, the popular plans below are capped at $25 initial monthly fees and come with a minimum of 10GB of data.

If you’re in the market for a new smartphone, you can pay off an interest-free handset over two or three years with a participating mobile provider. We use the iPhone 16 128GB as our comparison handset, but you can easily sub in any other available smartphone you prefer. The monthly cost will go up or down depending on the mobile phone, though, and whether you want to pay it off over 12, 24 or 36 months.

Optus and Vodafone continue to spar for the top spot, but Optus comes out on top again this month. Combo the $52 Optus Choice Plus Plan with an iPhone 16 128GB and it costs $90.86 per month with 36-month repayment terms. That’s a competitive price to pay for 50GB of Optus 5G data, plus no excess data fees. Admittedly, speeds are capped at 1.5Mbps if you burn through all 50GB. For a cheaper alternative, go with the Vodafone $49 Small Plan, or get the Telstra $65 Basic Upfront Mobile Plan if you want better coverage.

Check out more popular mobile plans on 36-month repayment terms with the iPhone 16 128GB.

We consider 30GB of data plenty of everyday users, but we double that minimum allowance for those with heavy data needs. Big-data plans are best for people who use mobile data every day, particularly when it comes to streaming video. All of our big-data contenders are SIM-only plans with at least 60GB of data.

This category continues to offer new victors every month, and this month it’s Southern Phone’s turn to take out the top spot. The Southern Phone Large 5G SIM Plan doesn’t need promotional pricing to impress, with a competitive $34 monthly fee. That price nets you 80GB of Optus 5G data, albeit capped at 100Mbps download speeds. While not overly perky, this SIM-only plan also comes with $50 of international call credit. For big-data SIM-only alternatives, look at the Spintel $35 Mobile Plan or the AGL 5G Small plan.

For more big-data alternatives, the SIM-only plans below don’t initially cost more than $55 and have at least 60GB of data.

Prepaid plans are meant for people who want full control over their mobile phone bills. For our best prepaid category, we set the data slider at 30GB but favour any plan that offers more data. Note that in prepaid terms, a ‘month’ may be an actual month, or it may be either 30-day or 28-day recharges. The fewer the monthly days, the more recharges you need to cover a full year: 12 for monthly, 13 for 30-day recharges, and 14 for 28-day prepaid plans.

It's often a tight contest in this prepaid category, but Felix Mobile comes out on top this time with its 50GB Mobile Plan. You’ll normally pay $30 per monthly recharge, but new Felix customers pay $15 per recharge for the first three months. Either price includes 50GB of Vodafone 5G data, capped at an admittedly reasonable 150Mbps. If you use up all 50GB, speeds are throttled to 1.5Mbps until the next recharge. There’s also unlimited data banking if you have leftover gigabytes between recharges. For prepaid alternatives, have a gander at the identical iiNet 50GB Mobile Plan and TPG 50GB Mobile Plan, otherwise check out the Catch Connect 28 Day Plan 30GB.

Check out these other prepaid plans with at least 30GB of data and a max initial $40 fee per recharge.

If you want to buy a Telstra plan, you can expect to pay a premium to access Australia’s most widespread network. Still, given the ubiquity of the Telstra network, it’s unsurprising that Telstra mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs)—other telcos that aren’t Telstra—are a popular pick for mobile users across SIM-only and prepaid plans.

At the start of the month, the Superloop SuperSim Save 4G Plan was once again the most popular mobile plan on the Telstra network for prepaid and SIM-only plans. This prepaid plan costs $20 per 30-day recharge and comes with 10GB of Telstra 4G data, capped at 100Mbps download speeds. Despite the low asking price, it has some great features: up to 500GB of data rollover, eSIM support, plus unlimited calls and texts to 15 selected dialling destinations. If you’re after alternatives, the Belong 25G Mobile Plan and the Belong 100GB Mobile Plan (both SIM-only picks) were also popular at the start of the month.

For other popular Telstar network picks, check out these mobile plans.

The Optus network isn’t quite as widespread as the Telstra network, but it still has great coverage and its MVNOs offer competitively priced plans with a decent chunk of data. Typically, popular Optus network plans may change based on whichever telco is offering the best deal at the time.

At the start of the month, the Circles.Life 6GB Monthly Plan is the most popular pick on the Optus network, and it’s easy to see why. That 6GB of data in the plan name refers to the base data, but there’s 4GB of monthly bonus data for the first six months. There’s also a reduced monthly price—$12 instead of $15—for the first six months. Just make sure to use the ‘2024WOOCT10GBRE’ promo code at sign-up to grab the bonus data and promo pricing ahead of the 30 November 2024 cut-off. The Catch Connect 365 Day Plan – 120GB (prepaid) and Dodo $28 Mobile Plan (SIM-only) were also popular Optus network SIM-only pick at the start of the month.

The list below showcases the most popular prepaid and SIM-only plans on the Optus network today.

The Vodafone 4G and 5G networks aren’t as widespread as the Telstra or Optus networks. Still, Vodafone mobile coverage is available to around 24 million Australians, so it’s not exactly small. Typically, prepaid and SIM-only mobile plans on the Vodafone network offer competitive pricing with a comparatively healthy amount of data.

At the start of the month, the TPG 25GB Small Plan was again the most popular pick on the Vodafone network in terms of prepaid and SIM-only plans, likely because of TPG’s tendency for ongoing promotional pricing. If you’re a new TPG mobile customer, this popular prepaid plan costs $12.50 per month before reverting to its typical $25 recharge fee. You’ll get 25GB of Vodafone 4G data (capped at 150Mbps speeds), with support for eSIM devices and 100 standard call minutes to 31 selected dialling destinations. For popular Vodafone network alternatives, check out the identical iiNet 25GB Small Plan (prepaid) or the TPG 50GB Medium Plan.

You can see the other popular Vodafone network prepaid and SIM-only plans below.

The first question to answer before getting to which mobile plan is right for you is whether you’re using an existing mobile phone or want a new one. If you want a new one, you’ll either have to purchase a compatible prepaid handset or pair a SIM-only mobile plan with a new iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel or other option. New-model mobile phones can be bought outright or paid off over 12, 24 or 36 months from participating telcos like Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.

For those happy to use their existing mobile phone, choose between prepaid or SIM-only mobile plans. Prepaid plans are great for people who want to control their spending and aren’t overly interested in perks. While prepaid plans are paid in advance of use SIM-only plans are paid at the end of a billing month (except for Telstra Upfront plans).

SIM-only plans are always monthly offerings but prepaid mobile plans have a range of durations, from a day or few to a month-ish—28 days, 30 days or an actual month—and beyond to long-expiry options for 90 days, half a year or a full 12 months. Generally, once prepaid data is exhausted, you have to recharge again, so take into account how much data you need before buying.

With SIM-only mobile plans, you’re more likely to find telcos that offer data banking or data rollover for carrying over unused gigabytes or capped plan speeds if you exhaust your max-speed allocation. Coverage is an important consideration, too. Telstra has the largest mobile network followed by Optus and Vodafone. But if you live in a populous part of Australia, the chances are good you can pick between all three.

That trio may be the respective network owners but there are dozens of telcos that use their networks to offer more competitively priced plans. Effectively, you may be able to get the coverage perks of the network you want without having to pay a premium for it.

Pretty much every mobile plan these days comes with unlimited national talk and text but if international calls and messaging are important to you, keep an eye out for those features. It’s a similar story for international roaming if you like to travel and want the option to use mobile data abroad. There are a range of other perks to help separate closely competing plans, with eSIM being one of the better ones that uses a digital SIM rather than needing to wait for a physical SIM card to arrive.