Airalo vs Saily: the two clearest fair use policies in the category, compared

At a glance

Price, and the currency problem underneath it

Saily’s prices look lower. Some of that is real and some of it is the currency.

Saily publishes in US dollars and only US dollars. We checked their pricing configuration directly and the supported currency list is US dollars, euros, pounds and Swiss francs. Australian dollars are not on it. So whatever Saily quotes you, your card issuer converts, and many Australian cards add a foreign transaction fee of around two to three per cent on top. Some do not. Check yours before you decide this comparison on price alone.

Airalo runs its own Australian dollar rate card, which is not a live conversion of a US price. It is a separate price list.

Here is 10GB over 30 days on each, in the currency you are charged.

We are not going to convert those US figures and present the result as a price. The rate moves daily and your card’s fee is your card’s business. What we will say is that on the numbers above, Saily’s headline is lower on single-country plans, and the gap survives a typical conversion fee. On regional Asia the two land much closer together, and Airalo’s regional catalogue is considerably deeper.

Unlimited is a different story. Airalo’s unlimited runs A$39.00 for 7 days and A$69.50 for 15. Saily charges a flat US$48.99 for anything between 5 and 30 days. For a long trip Saily’s flat rate is very hard to beat. For a week, Airalo’s is cheaper.

Fair use, where both of them deserve credit

This is the part of the category that is usually a black hole, and both of these companies fill it in.

Airalo:

“when you use more than 3GB in a day, we’ll slow down (or ‘throttle’) your internet speed to 1 Mbps for the rest of that day. Your full high-speed connection will automatically be restored when your daily allowance next resets. Your daily allowance resets every 24 hours, counted from the time you activated your eSIM.”

Saily:

“Users on the Regular Unlimited Data Plan receive a full-speed data allocation for each 24-hour period, running from 00:00 to 00:00 (local midnight) in the User’s current time zone. The size of the allocation depends on the destination country and is either 3 GB or 5 GB, as specified in the applicable offering. If the User exhausts the allocation before the end of a period, data speed will be reduced to 1 Mbps for the remainder of that period.”

Same throttled speed. Same or better daily allowance on Saily, depending on where you are going. The interesting difference is when the clock resets.

Airalo’s day starts at the moment you activated. If you activated at 11pm in Tokyo, your allowance rolls over at 11pm every night, which is an awkward rhythm to live with.

Saily’s resets at local midnight and follows you across borders:

“The reset is always tied to local midnight in the User’s current location, and a change of time zone does not create an additional allocation, forfeit an existing one, or otherwise alter the User’s entitlement.”

Saily’s is more intuitive. Airalo’s is more predictable if you are moving through time zones and want to know exactly when your allowance turns over.

One more difference worth having. Saily commits to warning you before restricting your service where it can. Airalo’s policy reserves the right to act without prior notice and to “terminate your package without a refund.”

Hotspot, where Airalo wins outright

Airalo:

“You can also use your device as a personal hotspot to share your connection with other devices. There is no limit on tethering or the number of devices you connect.”

Saily lists this under prohibited activities on unlimited plans:

“Excessive tethering or sharing of data via hotspot with multiple devices or users beyond occasional personal use.”

No device count. No definition of occasional. Worse, Saily’s own country pages advertise unlimited sharing with no restrictions, which is not what the terms say. When a company’s marketing and its contract disagree, the contract is the one that governs.

If you are travelling as a couple and one phone carries the data for both, or you work off a laptop, Airalo has told you where you stand and Saily has not. That is a real disclosure gap and it favours Airalo.

A practical note for iPhone users on either: if your eSIM needs a manual APN, you have to set the Personal Hotspot APN field separately as well. Airalo publishes that step. Saily does not, though the same fix should apply to Saily’s APN, wbdata. We are labelling that as our inference rather than Saily’s published advice.

Refunds, where the shapes are genuinely different

Before you activate, Saily is better. Thirty days from purchase, against Airalo’s fourteen days or activation, whichever comes first.

After you activate, they diverge sharply.

Saily’s clause:

“The non-subscription-based Data Plan has been activated … but the data remains generally unused (more than 99% of the Data Plan balance left)”

On a 5GB plan that is about 51 megabytes. Background app sync on landing can burn that before you have opened a map. If you think a Saily plan might be the wrong one, do not activate it to find out.

Airalo’s activated route is a fault route rather than a usage threshold. If you cannot use the service because of an error on Airalo’s part, you get a replacement or a refund, but only for the unused portion, only if you claim within 30 days of the problem, and only if Airalo “was not able to restore your ability to access and use the purchased Services within 10 days of receipt of your refund request.” On a one week trip, ten days is longer than the holiday.

Saily publishes a decision time and Airalo does not: “Saily’s decision regarding refund will be made within 5 working days.” Airalo publishes payout timings instead, 7 to 10 business days and up to 30, which Saily does not.

Two traps, one each.

Saily: “If you delete your account after purchasing a Data Plan … and subsequently request a refund, no refund will be granted.” Do not tidy up your account before the money has landed.

Airalo: two of the four self-service refund reasons only offer Airmoney, their in-app credit. Cash back on those reasons means going to a human agent. Their Terms say you have the option; the Help Centre says otherwise for two reasons out of four.

We have written both up in full: how an Airalo refund works and how a Saily refund works.

The one that surprised us: who you are actually buying from

Saily’s terms name a different contracting company depending on where you pay tax. For Australia:

“Australia: CyberQuay Pty Ltd, company code 689 412 119, principal business address LEVEL 41, 161 Castlereagh str., Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia”

And their governing law clause carves out local consumer law:

“some countries … have laws that require contracts to be governed by the mandatory provisions of the local laws of the consumer’s country. In such cases, mandatory provisions of the local laws of your country of residence apply.”

Airalo’s:

“We provide our Platform and Services under the entity AirGSM Pte Ltd, a company registered in Singapore”

“Irrespective of the country from which you access our Services or Platform, these Terms … shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales, and the Courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction.”

Plus a total aggregate liability cap of US$100.

Neither names the Australian Consumer Law. Australian consumer guarantees apply to services supplied to Australian consumers regardless of what a contract says, and a clause that purports to exclude them does not do so. The practical difference is not whether you have rights. It is how hard they are to exercise. A Sydney company with a registered address is within reach of the ACCC and of a local tribunal. A Singapore entity that has contracted for exclusive English jurisdiction is not, in any realistic sense, for a dispute over a $30 data plan.

That does not make Saily the better product. It does make it the easier one to complain about, and we have not seen it written down anywhere else.

Deleting the eSIM: one of you gets a second chance

This is one of the few places where a straight fact separates them cleanly.

Airalo: “No, eSIMs typically can’t be reinstalled. We highly recommend you don’t remove any eSIM that you still intend to use.”

Saily publishes a reinstall path. If your Saily eSIM is misbehaving, you have a route back. If your Airalo one is, you do not.

Either way, disable the line instead of deleting it while you troubleshoot. Our sequences: Airalo and Saily.

Support

Both are chat and email, 24 hours, no phone. Saily says so in writing: “Saily does not offer phone support; all assistance is provided via chat and email.” Airalo simply never mentions it. Saily’s disclosure is better.

The catch on Saily is that live chat lives inside the app: “Please note that Live Chat is available only via the Saily application.” The web version of the chat button shows you a QR code that sends you back to the phone. If your phone has no data and no wifi, your only route is the web email form from another device. Airalo’s app has an offline mode that lets you retrieve your installation details without a connection. Saily has no equivalent.

Practical advice for Saily: screenshot your APN and your installation details before you fly.

Which one for an Australian traveller

Choose Airalo if you want prices in Australian dollars, you need to hotspot without an unquantified limit hanging over it, you want the deepest catalogue of regional and global plans, you want calls and SMS on some destinations, or you want an app that works with no connection.

Choose Saily if you want the lower headline price and your card does not charge foreign transaction fees, you want 30 days to change your mind before activating, you want the security extras included, you are going somewhere on the 5GB daily allowance, or you like that there is an Australian company on the contract.

Choose neither if you would rather pay in Australian dollars to an Australian company with no conversion in the middle and no offshore jurisdiction clause underneath. That is us, and our destination pages show the current plans and prices.

Questions people actually ask

Is Saily cheaper than Airalo?

On headline prices for single-country plans, usually yes. Saily charges in US dollars, so your real cost depends on the rate on the day and whether your card adds a foreign transaction fee. On regional Asia plans the two are close, and on unlimited it depends entirely on trip length.

Does Saily charge in Australian dollars?

No. Saily supports US dollars, euros, pounds and Swiss francs. There is no Australian dollar option. Airalo runs its own Australian dollar rate card.

Which one throttles you harder?

Neither, really. Both drop to 1 Mbps. Airalo’s allowance is 3GB a day, Saily’s is 3GB or 5GB depending on the country, so Saily is equal or better on the allowance. Airalo’s clock resets 24 hours from activation; Saily’s at local midnight.

Can I use a hotspot on Saily?

Yes, but their terms prohibit tethering “beyond occasional personal use” without saying what that means. Airalo states there is no limit on tethering or on the number of devices. If hotspot matters to you, that gap is the deciding factor.

Which has the better refund policy?

Before activation, Saily, at 30 days against Airalo’s 14. After activation, both are hard: Saily requires more than 99% of the plan unused, and Airalo requires an Airalo-side fault plus a 10 day fix window. Saily publishes a 5 working day decision time; Airalo publishes payout times.

What happens if I delete the eSIM?

Saily publishes a reinstall path. Airalo treats a deleted eSIM as unrecoverable and says so plainly. On either, disable the line rather than deleting it while you troubleshoot.

Who am I actually buying from as an Australian?

On Saily, CyberQuay Pty Ltd in Sydney, with a clause acknowledging that local consumer law can override their governing law. On Airalo, AirGSM Pte Ltd in Singapore, under England and Wales law with exclusive English jurisdiction and a US$100 liability cap.

Do either offer phone support?

No. Both are chat and email only. Saily states this explicitly; Airalo does not mention phone at all. Saily’s live chat only works inside the app.

Sources

Airalo pricing from their own Australian dollar rate card, and policy from their Terms of Use (last updated July 2026), Unlimited Data Plans Fair Use Policy and Help Centre. Saily pricing from their own published US dollar rate card and currency configuration, and policy from their Terms of Service (last updated 15 July 2026) and Support Centre. All retrieved 17 to 20 August 2026. We re-check every price in this article monthly.

Written by Lachlan, who runs The SIM Shop from Brisbane and answers the support email himself.