eSIM and SIM cards in Spain

SIM and eSIM: what to buy right after arrival

Spanish law requires passport-based identity registration at the point of sale for any physical prepaid SIM. At the airport that means a queue and, usually, a worse deal than the same operator's city store. An eSIM bought before departure skips the registration entirely and connects the moment you land, but costs more per gigabyte than a local prepaid plan.

What the operators actually sell

Prices and allowances below come from the operators' own Spanish sites, but all four revise their prepaid line-ups several times a year - check the operator's page before you buy rather than treating any figure here as fixed.

• Vodafone - the Prepago range starts at 10 € for 28 days (Prepago S), with larger tiers at higher prices; EU roaming is included but capped at a portion of the bundle (Vodafone's own pages state up to 15 GB usable while roaming, after which per-GB charges apply).
• Movistar - prepaid tariffs start around 5 €, with the Plus, Premium and Total tiers stepping up the data allowance. Telefónica's own press releases confirm the tier names and that allowances were increased; the current GB figure per tier is on movistar.es.
• Orange and Yoigo - both sell comparable prepaid bundles in the same 10-15 € range through their own stores and The Phone House.
• International eSIM (Saily, Holafly and others) - data-only, no passport registration, active on landing. Reasonable for short trips or as a backup; generally worse value per GB than a local prepaid SIM for stays beyond a week.

Roaming from outside the EU is uneconomical. UK operators in particular charge a daily fee with a low data cap, so a local SIM or eSIM is worth it even for a few days.

Where exactly to buy

• International airports (MAD, BCN, AGP) - The Phone House and similar shops in the arrivals halls handle registration and prepaid sales. At Madrid and Barcelona, Vodafone vending machines allow self-service purchase with remote passport verification through a built-in camera.
• City centres - the best terms, free of airport markups, at the operators' official brand stores. Staff insert the card and activate it on the spot.
• Online eSIM platforms - bought and installed before departure, active on arrival.

Short verdict

• Short trip, no local number needed: an eSIM bought before departure, for zero queue and zero paperwork.
• Longer stay or heavy data use: a prepaid SIM from an operator's own city store, which is where the 10 €-scale bundles with large allowances actually live.