What is an eSIM exit IP?

Your eSIM connects to a local mobile network wherever you are. That network then carries your data to the point where it joins the public internet — which is often in another country. That point is the exit IP, sometimes called the breakout. It is normal for travel eSIMs and it is how most of them are built.

We show it on every plan before you buy, because almost nobody else does and it is the sort of thing you would rather know first than discover abroad.

• Where your phone thinks you are. Maps, ride-hailing, food delivery, local search and anything that asks permission for your location use GPS, nearby wi-fi and the cell towers around you — not your IP address. They work normally.
• Your phone number, calls or texts. These plans are data-only; your usual SIM keeps handling those.
• Which mobile network you are on. You still connect to the local carriers listed on the plan. The exit IP is about where your data leaves that network, not which masts you use.

• Sites that guess your country from your IP. Streaming catalogues are the usual example: with a Singapore exit you would generally get Singapore’s catalogue. Worth knowing that travelling changes your catalogue anyway — you do not get your home one simply by being abroad.
• Services that check where a connection comes from. A bank or a government site may ask for an extra confirmation, or occasionally refuse, if the connection appears to come from a country you have no history with.
• Speed, a little. Data travelling further before it reaches the internet adds some delay. For browsing, messaging and maps this is usually unnoticeable; for video calls and gaming it can be.

For most trips it does not matter, and the cheapest plan is the right plan. If it does matter to you, every plan page states its exit IP, and where we sell a plan that reaches the internet inside the country you are visiting we say so and mark it. Sometimes it costs the same — in Japan, for example — in which case we recommend it outright.

If you need to appear to be in a specific country, an eSIM is not the tool for that; a VPN is, and it works over any of our plans.

The exit country comes from our supplier’s own data for each package, not from our guesswork, and it is refreshed whenever the catalogue syncs. If a plan’s routing changes, the plan page changes with it. Spotted something that looks wrong? Tell us and we will check it.