Getting online in Bali

The short answer

There are three things you can buy, not two, and the difference between the first two is the whole decision.

A local SIM is the cheapest and comes with an Indonesian number, at the cost of a passport, a shop and a queue. A data-only travel eSIM is dearer and has no number at all, which breaks more than people expect. A Bali eSIM that runs on a local network and carries its own +62 number sits between them: it costs more than a SIM from a shop, works before you have left the plane, and does not have the missing-number problem.

So: counting every rupiah, or staying long enough that the saving is real, buy a local SIM on arrival. Want it working on landing and the number to behave like an Indonesian one, buy an eSIM that includes a number. Buy a data-only eSIM only if you know you will never need a text. The mistake is arriving with none of the three and paying your home network’s roaming rate.

Whether your phone can take an eSIM at all

Two questions, routinely confused. First, whether the handset supports eSIM. Every iPhone from the XS and XR onward does, Samsung from the Galaxy S20 series, Pixel from the Pixel 3. iPhones sold in mainland China have no eSIM at all, and most Hong Kong and Macao models do not either.

Second, whether the phone is locked to your home network. A locked phone only accepts profiles from the carrier that sold it, so it refuses a travel eSIM and an Indonesian SIM equally, and some have eSIM switched off entirely. Check both before you buy anything. The shop in Bali cannot fix it.

Indonesia’s own operators do sell eSIM: Telkomsel, XL and Indosat all offer it. One wrinkle. Telkomsel’s page describes a foreign national buying an eSIM number as validated by a stay permit, which a visitor on a visa on arrival does not hold. We would not count on buying a local eSIM from abroad.

A local SIM: the price, and the passport

Telkomsel’s own tourist pack is IDR 100,000 for 25 GB with some voice minutes, valid thirty days. Independent lists for ordinary top-ups land nearby: about IDR 100,000 for 13 GB on Telkomsel, IDR 199,000 for 16 GB on Indosat. Treat IDR 100,000 to 200,000, roughly €6 to €12, as the honest range for 20 to 30 GB over a month. Ignore any advertisement offering 150 GB for the money: that is a headline quota split into a small usable allowance and a pile of app-only data.

Every SIM here has to be tied to an identity document before it works. Indonesians do it by text. A foreigner cannot, which is the whole problem: you register in person, with your passport, at an operator’s own store. A minimart card is the cheapest card and also the one nobody has registered, and the seller knows you will be in Ubud by the time you find out. One traveller’s account has a card bought through a driver’s friend never activating across a four-day stay.

Buy at an operator store, register there, and do not pay until data is flowing. On the IMEI question that circulates: customs says a visitor under ninety days need not register the phone, and the operator does the network side free with the SIM. Past ninety days it is a customs matter, two devices a person and a USD 500 duty-free allowance; the percentages blogs quote for the excess we could not confirm.

The desks at the airport

The counters are in the arrival hall past customs, and they are legitimate. They are also the dearest place on the island to buy data. The airport lists we found quote IDR 250,000 to 550,000 for 18 to 70 GB, and no two agree on either figure. Call it double a shop in town for comparable data: a convenience fee, not a swindle.

What is a swindle: an “installation fee” of a few hundred thousand rupiah, which does not exist; a pack whose seal is already broken; anyone wanting to take your SIM out of the phone for you. Do that yourself, pocket your home SIM, check the allowance before you walk away. In high season the queue there has been reported at up to two hours, which undoes the point of paying for speed.

The three options, side by side

	Local eSIM, with a number	Data-only travel eSIM	Local SIM	Home roaming
Rough cost	About €13–27 for 12–100 GB, 30 days	€10 for three days, €60 for a month of capped “unlimited”	IDR 100,000–200,000 (€6–12), 20–30 GB, 30 days	Your network’s roaming rate
Working when	On landing	On landing	20 minutes to a few hours later	On landing
Indonesian number	Yes, +62, with calls and texts	No	Yes	No
Passport needed	No	No	Yes, in person	No
Network	Telkomsel	Usually Indosat or Tri	Your choice, Telkomsel included	Your carrier’s partner

The first column is the one we link to, and this is the one we would buy — it runs on Telkomsel, which has the best coverage once you leave the south, and it carries a +62 number, so the problem in the next section does not apply to it. Roughly double a SIM bought in a shop, for no queue and no passport.

The third column is still the cheapest by a clear margin. For a long stay, or if the saving matters more than the hour, it is the better deal and we would say so.

What a data-only eSIM quietly breaks

This is the section to read before you buy the cheapest eSIM you can find. Most travel eSIMs sold for Indonesia are data-only: no number, no SMS in or out. For maps, messaging apps and email that is fine.

It is not fine for the ride-hailing apps. Gojek and Grab both verify you by a texted code. Gojek is built around Indonesian numbers and a foreign one often never receives it; Grab accepts foreign numbers in theory and delivers unreliably in practice. Land, install a data-only eSIM, pull the home SIM and then try to sign up, and you are stuck.

There are two ways out. Register with Gojek and Grab before you leave home, on your own number, while you can still take a text. Or buy an eSIM that comes with an Indonesian number, which is the first column above and the reason we link the one we do.

The same goes for anything else that confirms by text: a boat operator, a small hotel, a driver ringing from the gate. Bank codes are different. They go to your home number, so keep the home SIM in the phone with roaming texts on, even with its data off, and they still arrive.

Where the signal actually goes

South Bali is well covered. Central Canggu, Seminyak and Ubud hold a usable connection all day, though Canggu slows when everyone is on it. Village roads a few minutes out of Ubud are patchier. North towards Tegallalang and up into Kintamani the signal thins rather than vanishes, but enough that maps stall and messages hang. The east and north coast roads are reported as reliable 4G; the mountains behind them are not.

Nusa Lembongan is easy: the main villages and the road across to Ceningan are steady, weaker at the cliffs and outer beaches. Nusa Penida is the real gap. The ministry’s telecommunications monitoring chief has said the dark zones there will remain for some time, the island having too few people to be worth the towers, and the local regent has acknowledged blank spots with no signal at all. Cliffs cut it dead for stretches on the west side, and coming out of one it takes a while to find the network again. Download your maps before you board. Telkomsel has the best chance out there, and the travel eSIMs mostly do not use it.

Wi-Fi, and the one day it is the only thing working

Villa and coliving Wi-Fi in the south and around Ubud is often good, fibre at 100 to 300 Mbps. Café Wi-Fi is a lottery and worsens as the room fills, so do not schedule a call around it. The island runs on undersea cables, so short outages happen.

One exception. For Nyepi, Bali switched mobile data off island-wide for the full twenty-four hours in 2026, while Wi-Fi and fibre stayed on. If you are here for it, the villa router is your only connection, whatever you bought.

What we would do

Keep the home SIM in the phone for your bank’s codes, whatever else you do.

Then: on a trip of a couple of weeks or less, an eSIM with a +62 number on Telkomsel, bought before flying. It is working when you land, it needs no passport and no shop, and it behaves like a local number when an app or a driver wants to text you. On a longer stay, or if the price difference matters more than the hour it costs, an operator store on the second day and skip the airport premium.

What we would not buy is the cheapest data-only eSIM, on any trip. Saving a few euro and then finding you cannot register a ride-hailing app is a false economy the first time you need a car in the rain.

None of this is what you will remember. The places are what you came for, and they are on the map.