Americans spend an average of $141 every month on their phone bill.1 That’s almost $1,700 a year!
The good news is, there are plenty of phone plans at different price levels to choose from. Let’s explore the best options for the cheapest cell phone plans—so you can find one that fits your needs and your budget.
Cheapest Cell Phone Plans
To find the best deal, you can’t just consider cost—you also need to factor in features like data, messages, minutes and coverage so you can find the right plan for your life.
That said, here’s a breakdown of the cheapest cell phone plans available today and what they offer.
Connect by T-Mobile: Cheapest Cell Phone Plan From a Major Carrier
Plenty of us love our major carrier plans. In fact, the cell phone plan I personally have is Verizon’s unlimited data plan through my employer (thanks for picking up the tab, Dave!). But allow me to do the research on the best option for your budget. Survey says: The cheapest cell phone plan from a major carrier comes from T‑Mobile.
At just $180 for the year (or as they market it, $15 a month), T-Mobile’s prepaid Connect plan is the cheapest one you’ll find from the big guys.
Cost: $15 per month
Data, messages and minutes: On this plan, you get unlimited talk and text with up to 5GB of high-speed data. Let me do the math on that for you: With 5GB of data, you can use TikTok for 5 hours (talk about a data muncher), stream Netflix for 20 hours, or listen to 35 hours of music on Spotify.2 Binge-watching The Office might be tough with this plan, but hey, you do get that unlimited talk and text, so there goes your excuse not to call your mom! (P.S. This is your reminder to call your mom.)
Coverage: T-Mobile’s coverage is pretty solid, covering 59% of the lower 48 states. For comparison, coverage heavy-hitter Verizon spans 70% of that same area, so T-Mobile isn’t far behind. Plus, T-Mobile’s download and upload speeds beat Verizon.3
A quick heads-up: The big three will try to lure you in with low-price offers—but you have to read the fine print (that wasn’t meant to be a reference to my podcast, The Fine Print, but I’ll take this opportunity to tell you that it exists). None of the offers I researched tell you the real price you pay. They show you an imaginary price for each phone line. But then you’re forced into a contract with a bunch of ad-ons, maybe even with multiple lines. Not cool, guys. Not cool.
If you click and sign up without reading all the terms, you and your French bulldog could end up with seven lines between the two of you. (May I point out only one of you knows how to text?)
Tello: Cheapest Unlimited Phone Plan
The big three cell phone carriers—AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon—dominate the market. But there are over 100 discount carriers that offer the same services at lower monthly costs by piggybacking on these networks. For example: Tello.
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Tello has a great (and cheap) unlimited phone plan. Plus, it’s the only carrier that lets you buy exactly what you need. If you’re a Millennial like me, chances are you don’t talk on the phone much, so why pay for minutes? The easiest way to trim down your cell phone bill is to opt out of the data and minutes you don’t use.
Data, messages and minutes: Tello is like a good pair of stretchy pants. It can compress your plan down to just 100 minutes, or it can expand to include unlimited talk, text and data, or anything in between. Truthfully, I wish all plans were this flexible (and I wish all pants were a little bit stretchy). Tello’s unlimited data plan offers 35GB at full 4G LTE/5G speed with 5GB of hot spot usage included. And any phone plan comes with free international calls to over 60 countries, hot spot usage, Wi-Fi calling and eSIM.4
Coverage: Tello is on T-Mobile’s super fast network. Again, T-Mobile’s coverage is a little behind Verizon (59% of the mainland U.S.), but its download and upload speeds are super fast.
Brand
Owner/Network
Cost
Best For
Connect by T-Mobile
T-Mobile
$15/month
Cheapest option from a major cell phone carrier
Tello
T-Mobile
$5–25/month
Highly customizable and affordable plans with options for unlimited talk, text and data on T-Mobile’s network
PureTalk USA
AT&T
$20
Simple, affordable plans with clear pricing with stellar customer service
Mint Mobile Unlimited
T-Mobile
$30/month
Unlimited talk and text—and up to 40 GB of high-speed data for $30 per month (for 12 months) on T-Mobile’s network
Visible
Verizon
$45/month
A one-size-fits-all unlimited plan at an affordable cost on Verizon’s large coverage network
PureTalk USA: Honorable Mention
I like PureTalk for a lot of reasons. In addition to their affordable options, they have real live customer service with actual humans! The cell phone industry as a whole isn’t exactly known for quality customer service, but PureTalk makes it a priority. One other carrier (I won’t name-drop here) actually wrote in their terms of service, “No calling customer service to complain about anything.” Dang!
Cost: $20 per month
Data, messages and minutes: PureTalk’s basic plan gives you unlimited talk and text, 3GB of data and 2GB of hot spot usage. PureTalk also offers plans with increased data caps, up to unlimited data with 20GB of hot spot usage for $55 and 30GB of hot spot usage for $65, with high-speed data slowing down after 60GB.5 But let’s be real here—that’s still a lot of data, even for a data fiend like me. Bonus point: There are no overage fees. Like I said, if you go over your data, it will slow down. But once your month resets, you get your speed back!
Coverage: If you think PureTalk’s affordable plan means less coverage or lower speeds, you’re more wrong than raisins in potato salad. PureTalk is on AT&T’s network, so you get access to their fastest network speeds.
Mint Mobile: Honorable Mention
Mint Mobile offers many cheap phone plans to choose from—with coverage and pricing to match your needs and budget. But you get the most for your money with their 12-month Unlimited Plan.
Cost: $30 per month for their 12-month Unlimited Plan
Data, messages and minutes: Mint Mobile’s 12-month Unlimited Plan gives you unlimited talk and text (sweet!). But this particular plan is a bit misleading since you don’t actually get unlimited data. You get up to 40GB (which is a lot), but you can’t stream to your heart’s content.6
Coverage: Mint Mobile uses T-Mobile to power its network. If you’re not sure about T‑Mobile’s coverage in your area, pop your zip code into Mint Mobile’s interactive coverage map to see if it works for you. There’s no sense in getting a cheap, unlimited phone plan if you’re living on a prayer and one bar of signal.
Visible: Honorable Mention
Visible is a discount brand owned by Verizon, and they offer just one plan with unlimited everything. It’s affordable, and Verizon’s network is solid—so I’m giving them an honorable mention.
Data, messages and minutes: Visible’s plan sounds good, right? It is good, but you should know that when it comes to speed, the full power of 5G is only available for on-device data. What data could you use that’s not on your actual smartphone? Your hot spot data. This is when you generate Wi‑Fi from your phone to connect another device to the internet, like your laptop. Visible limits your hot spot connection speed to 10 Mbps (megabits per second). Don’t worry, though—that’s actually fast enough to stream Netflix in HD.7
Coverage: Visible gives its customers access to Verizon’s powerhouse network for a fraction of the cost. However, depending on your location, you may be on Verizon’s 4G network instead of the 5G superhighway.
Overall Cheapest Cell Phone Plan: Tello
The overall cheapest cell phone plan is from Tello. Like I said before, their options let you customize your plan for your life. You could shave your bill down to just $5 a month if you really wanted to go bare bones—that’s pretty unbeatable in this wild wireless world we find ourselves in.
My wife even switched her phone plan over to Tello with ease, and she’s been loving it. And that’s not just because Tello is a sponsor of my YouTube channel. It’s because after all of my research, Tello offered the best plan at the best price.
So, look around, do some research, and make the switch. That’s the secret to saving money on cell phone plans.
But here’s the thing—cutting mobile costs doesn’t mean much if you’re going to accidentally (or impulsively) blow all that extra money anyway! That’s why you need to budget.
A solid budget puts you in the driver’s seat with your money. You’ll plan and track all your spending. You’ll find places to cut back and save (like your cell phone bill when you switch carriers). And then you can put those freed-up funds toward the things you actually want, like paying off debt, that dream family vacation or . . . anything else, really.
That’s where EveryDollar can help. The free version of EveryDollar comes with everything you need to make budgeting quick and easy—which is always a win.
So, here’s your to-do list after everything we’ve covered: Switch that cell phone carrier to a cheaper option, download EveryDollar, and start saving money. Pronto.
