The $5 Plan, and What It Asks For
Lycamobile's campaign page sells an 8GB plan with unlimited US talk and text and international calling to 100 countries for $5, and the price is real. It is also the first 30 days of one specific plan, on one condition, with one addition at checkout. Three things are worth reading before you count on it.
The condition. The fine print next to the $5 price is not subtle: "ENROLLMENT IN AUTO-RENEWAL REQUIRED to obtain discounted offer price." The sentence that follows matters more, because it says the discounted price applies to "the initial 30-day plan and the number of renewals indicated," and that if auto-renewal is disabled or fails, "discounted offer price will no longer apply for subsequent plan purchases." The offer is also limited to new lines of service bought on Lyca's own website.
The addition. Every purchase on Lyca's site is assessed a regulatory recovery fee of 5%, and Lyca's own wording says that includes auto-recharges. On the $5 month that is 25 cents, which nobody will notice. On a $117 prepaid block it is $5.85, and on the 12 month $444 tier it is $22.20.
The real comparison. The 30 day plan underneath the promotion is listed at $23, and Lyca's own product page is currently showing it at $15. The $5 campaign is a deeper discount on the same plan, not a different product. If you plan to keep the line past the first month, the honest question is what you pay in month two, and that depends on how long the campaign runs and on that auto-renewal clause.
Lyca's pages carry a line that reads "no contracts, no credit checks or hidden fees." The regulatory fee is printed a few lines below it, and it appears on promo purchases too. It is disclosed, so it is not hidden, but it is the kind of fee that shows up at checkout after you have decided.
What Each Tier Actually Costs
Lycamobile's long-term page lists seven tiers, each sold in 3, 6 or 12 month blocks that you pay for upfront. Every price below is from Lyca's own site on September 25, 2026, and the two totals in each cell are the ones Lyca prints: the list total first, then the current price.
| List price | Data | 3 months | 6 months | 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $15/mo | 1GB | $18 (was $45) | $48 (was $90) | $96 (was $180) |
| $19/mo | 5GB | $19.50 (was $57) | $66 (was $114) | $120 (was $228) |
| $23/mo | 8GB | $21 (was $69) | $78 (was $138) | $108 (was $276) |
| $29/mo | 15GB | $30 (was $87) | $96 (was $174) | $120 (was $348) |
| $39/mo | 25GB | $45 (was $117) | $132 (was $234) | $168 (was $468) |
| $49/mo | Unlimited, first 50GB at full speed | $45 (was $147) | $168 (was $294) | $204 (was $588) |
| $59/mo | Unlimited, first 60GB at full speed | $117 (was $177) | $228 (was $354) | $444 (was $708) |
Data runs at up to 5G speeds, and the two Unlimited tiers keep you connected at reduced speed after the full-speed allowance. On the capped tiers it is different: Lyca's plan page states that no additional data is included after the high speed allotment is used, so a 5GB plan that runs out is out until you buy more. Hotspot data is included on every tier, from 1GB on the $15 plan to 25GB on the $59 plan, and the $23 tier carries a $5 international roaming credit plus talk and text in Mexico and Canada.
Two cautions about reading that table. First, these promotional prices change, and the list price on the same page is the one that survives the promotion. Second, Lyca's own "Save" badges do not always match its own numbers. On the $39 tier the printed saving is $39 where the two totals imply $72, and on the Unlimited Plus tier it is $24 where the totals imply $102. The table above uses the two printed totals, not the badges.
The Trap in the Middle of the Price List
Prepaying more is supposed to cost less per month. On Lyca's current pricing, the 6 month block is the worst deal on every single tier, and it is not close.
| Tier | 3 month block | 6 month block | 12 month block |
|---|---|---|---|
| $15 | $6/mo | $8/mo | $8/mo |
| $19 | $6.50/mo | $11/mo | $10/mo |
| $23 | $7/mo | $13/mo | $9/mo |
| $29 | $10/mo | $16/mo | $10/mo |
| $39 | $15/mo | $22/mo | $14/mo |
| $49 | $15/mo | $28/mo | $17/mo |
| $59 | $39/mo | $38/mo | $37/mo |
The pattern: on the cheap tiers the 3 month block is the cheapest way in, and on the two expensive tiers the 12 month block wins by a small margin. The 6 month block loses everywhere, sometimes by a lot. On the $23 tier it is $13 a month against $7 for three months, and on the $49 tier it is $28 against $15. Whoever priced this wanted 3 month trial takers and 12 month commitments, and set the middle term so you would pick one of the two.
The practical reading for a side hustle is that the 3 month block maps onto a quarter. If the line is an experiment, or a seasonal one, three months at the lowest per-month price is the better shape than six.
The Fine Print That Shows Up at Checkout
Four rules from Lyca's terms that change the monthly math:
- The 5% regulatory recovery fee. Applied to all website purchases, including auto-recharges. A $23 month costs $24.15, and the fee does not disappear when a promotion does.
- Sixty days of non-use kills the SIM and the number. On a second line you set up for the business and forget, two months of silence is enough. Send a text every few weeks.
- International calling is unlimited with a shape. It applies to the first 10 dialed numbers per country. Morocco IAM and Wana are excluded, as are Israeli numbers with prefixes 97256 and 97259, and everything is valid for use from the US.
- Speed drops before service does. After the high speed allowance, data continues at reduced speed, and Lyca states that customers may see reduced speeds during congestion.
None of this is buried. It is on the plan pages, under the plan cards, in the same gray text everyone scrolls past. It is also the part that decides whether a $7 a month line is really $7 a month.
Which Network You Are Actually On
This is the question Lyca's plan pages do not answer, and it is worth asking out loud before you port a number you depend on.
Lyca describes itself as "the world's largest international mobile virtual network operator," which means it does not own towers. It rents them. Its plan pages advertise 5G data and eSIM activation without naming the carrier underneath. The only carrier named anywhere in Lyca's own terms is T-Mobile, and that mention is about your phone rather than its network: the device must not be locked to another carrier, or must be "a T-Mobile authorized device," and Lyca says service will not run properly on frequencies T-Mobile does not support.
The last year is the part a review written in March would have gotten wrong, and it is worth reading as a sequence. Lyca ran on T-Mobile's network from 2012. In September 2025, per dealer communications, Lyca stopped activating new lines on the old T-Mobile SIMs and moved new activations to AT&T. On March 19, 2026, the wireless dealer trade press reported that the T-Mobile arrangement had ended, and that customers on it would need a new carrier or a phone that worked on the new network. Then in April 2026 the trade association for wireless dealers reported that Lyca had signed a new agreement with T-Mobile and resumed selling both networks, with eSIM activations still described as AT&T only.
Lyca published none of that as a statement of its own, which is why the sources at the bottom of this page credit trade reporting rather than the company. For a reader it collapses into one instruction: before you port, ask Lyca which network your activation will run on that week, and check the coverage map for your address. If your phone is older, ask the device question at the same time, because the network you land on decides whether it still works. A cheap plan on a network that does not cover your house is not a cheap plan.
For a reader this collapses into one instruction: before you port, ask Lyca which network your activation will run on, and check the coverage map for your address. A cheap plan on the wrong network at your house is not a cheap plan. If your phone is older, ask the device question first, because the network you land on decides whether it still works.
Who This Fits, and Who Should Skip It
It fits: a second line for the business that you want separate from your personal number, priced so that the deduction and the separation cost less than the argument about them. It fits people who call another country often, because international calling to 100 countries is part of the base plan rather than an add-on, and people who want prepaid without a credit check. It fits low-data users best, since the cheap tiers are exactly that.
Skip it if you need the network to be boring. A prepaid MVNO is not the right home for the phone your clients call you on if a dropped call costs you work, and 2026 has not been a quiet year for Lyca's network arrangements.
Skip it if you have not priced the middle block. Six months is the worst rate on every tier. If six months is the term you want, take three and renew.
Skip it if support matters. Budget prepaid support is chat and phone queues. That is the trade for the price, and it is a fair trade only if you have decided you can live with it.
Skip it if the phone would be new. The price advantage of a prepaid plan is often smaller than the device promotion attached to a postpaid line. Run both numbers before switching.
If You Are Buying It as a Business Line
The reason a second line shows up on a side hustle list at all is that a phone used for the business is a deductible business expense. The clean version is a line used only for the business: the monthly cost, and the 5% fee on top of it, are ordinary and necessary expenses of the work.
Run the arithmetic on the cheap tier as an illustration, not as advice. Three months on the $15 tier costs $18, plus the 5% fee, which is $18.90 for the quarter, or about $75.60 a year. That comes off taxable income. Self-employment tax applies to 92.35% of net earnings, so at the 15.3% rate roughly $10.70 of that $75.60 is self-employment tax you do not pay, and income tax comes off on top at whatever your bracket is. The deduction is real and modest, which is the honest version of the story. What it is not is a reason to buy a plan you would not otherwise want.
Two things to keep: the monthly statements, and the separation. A dedicated number is easier to defend than a percentage of a family plan, and the 5% regulatory fee belongs in the total you write down. If your phone is mixed use and the numbers are not clean, that is CPA territory, and worth the hour.
How This Score Works
The criteria below were written before this product was scored, and they are the same five on every review here. Each one takes only inputs you can check yourself on a vendor page: what a plan includes, where it caps you, what processing costs, what is sold separately, and what is printed versus quoted. Nothing in the score depends on how the software feels to use, because that is not something this page can evidence.
| Criterion | 2 points | 1 point | 0 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the entry plan includes | The cheapest paid plan does the product’s core job without an upgrade, and nothing a solo user needs monthly sits a tier up | Core job works, but at least one routine monthly need is only on a higher tier | The cheapest paid plan cannot do the core job without an upgrade or a paid add-on |
| Where the caps bite | No hard cap a one-person business would hit in a year | A cap exists but sits above ordinary solo use | A cap sits inside ordinary solo use |
| Cost of getting paid | Processing rates published, and a bank transfer path under 1.5% or capped | Rates published, but card only or the bank path is 1.5% or higher | Rates not published anywhere public |
| Add-on load | Nothing routine is sold separately; add-ons are genuinely optional | One routine need is priced as an add-on | Two or more routine needs are add-ons, or a required add-on costs half the plan again |
| Price transparency | Every plan price and the renewal price is printed, and promotions state what they renew at | Plan prices printed, but a material cost needs a call, a login or a quote | The entry price only exists as a promotion, or key prices are not public |
8 points available across the 4 criteria that apply to this product, halved for a score out of five. The one left out is named in the table above with the reason. A high score means the pricing is honest and the plan you buy is the plan you keep. It does not mean the product is the best one for you.
The Score
| Criterion | Score | Why, from the printed facts |
|---|---|---|
| What the entry plan includes | 1 / 2 | The $15 tier is a working line: unlimited talk and text, international calling to 100 countries, 1GB of data and hotspot included on every tier. What an ordinary month actually uses is data, and the 8GB plan that carries it is one tier up at $23. |
| Where the caps bite | 1 / 2 | No cap on calls, texts or the paid tiers’ data. Lyca’s terms expire the SIM and the number after 60 days of non-use. An active line does not hit that in ordinary monthly use. A second line left idle does. |
| Cost of getting paid | n/a | Does not apply: The product does not process payments for the customer, so there is no rate to publish |
| Add-on load | 2 / 2 | Nothing routine is metered. Hotspot data is included on every tier, the $23 and $49 tiers carry a roaming credit and Mexico and Canada talk and text, and data top-ups are optional. |
| Price transparency | 1 / 2 | Prices are printed and the list total sits beside the current price on every tier. What is not printed as a number is what the $5 campaign renews at; it is described by rule instead (auto-renewal required, the discount applies to the initial plan and the renewals indicated). Two of Lyca’s own "Save" badges also disagree with the totals printed beside them. |
| Lycamobile long-term plans | 5 / 8 | 3.1 out of 5 |
Five points out of eight, or 3.1 out of 5, and every point lost is about the same thing: the cheap tier and the campaign price are real, and neither is the number you keep paying. The $15 tier is a genuine line, but the data an ordinary month uses is on the $23 tier. The campaign price is genuine, but it renews by a rule rather than at a printed number. And the SIM dies after 60 quiet days, which is the sort of term that turns a $7 a month line into a $7 a month line you have to remember.
What the score cannot capture is coverage at your address, and that is the one thing that decides whether any of this matters. Check the map first, then price the tier.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Lycamobile cost in 2026?
The 30 day plan with 8GB is listed at $23 and currently shown at $15. Lyca's campaign page prices the same plan at $5 for the first 30 days. The multi-month tiers list from $15 to $59 a month, and prepaying 3 months currently costs $18 on the $15 tier ($6 a month) up to $117 on the $59 tier ($39 a month). Every website purchase adds a 5% regulatory recovery fee.
Does the $5 plan really cost $5?
It buys the first 30 days of the 8GB plan on a new line of service, and Lyca's terms say the offer requires enrolling in auto-renewal: if auto-renewal is disabled or fails, "discounted offer price will no longer apply for subsequent plan purchases." The 5% regulatory recovery fee is added at checkout, which makes the first month $5.25.
Which network does Lycamobile use?
Lyca's plan pages do not name the network. The company describes itself as "the world's largest international mobile virtual network operator," and its terms mention T-Mobile only for device compatibility, telling customers the phone must not be locked to another carrier or must be "a T-Mobile authorized device." The network behind the SIM changed in 2025 and 2026 per dealer trade reporting: new activations moved to AT&T in September 2025, the T-Mobile arrangement was reported to end on March 19, 2026, and in April the dealer trade association reported a new T-Mobile agreement with both networks being sold. Confirm which network your SIM or eSIM activates on before porting a number you depend on.
What happens if I do not use the SIM for a while?
Lyca's terms say the SIM and the assigned number expire after 60 days of non-use. On an unused second line, a text or a call every two months keeps it alive.
Is the international calling really unlimited?
Unlimited international calls apply to the first 10 dialed numbers per country. Morocco IAM and Wana destinations are excluded, as are Israeli numbers with prefixes 97256 and 97259. Plans are valid for calls, texts and data from the US, and US includes the 50 states and Puerto Rico.
Can I keep my phone and my number?
Yes, as long as the phone is not locked to another carrier. Lyca runs bring-your-own-device with physical SIM and eSIM, and activation is online. 5G depends on location and on a compatible device running current software, so check your model on Lyca's eSIM help page before ordering.
Can I write off a Lycamobile line as a business expense?
A second line used for the business is a deductible business expense, and a line used only for the business is the clean case. The deduction comes off taxable income, which also lowers the self-employment tax on that income, but exactly how much of a mixed-use phone is deductible is a question for your preparer. Keep the monthly statements either way, because the 5% fee is part of the cost too.
Sources
Prices, plan contents, fee wording and quoted terms were checked against these pages on September 25, 2026.
- Lyca Mobile long-term plans, for every tier, the 3, 6 and 12 month totals, data allowances, the 5% regulatory recovery fee, the 60 day expiry rule, the first 10 dialed numbers limit and the Morocco and Israel exclusions
- Lyca Mobile $5 campaign page, for the 8GB plan at $5, the auto-renewal requirement and the new-lines-only condition
- Lyca Mobile $23 30-day plan, for the $23 list price and the $15 current price on the 8GB plan
- Lyca Mobile terms and conditions, for the T-Mobile device compatibility wording
- Lyca Mobile coverage map, for checking an address before switching
- Wirefly, on the T-Mobile partnership ending, which cites the dealer trade group NWIDA for the March 2026 report and the subscriber figure
- NWIDA, April 2026, the wireless dealer trade association, for the new T-Mobile agreement and both networks being sold after April 1
- IRS, self-employment tax, for the 15.3% rate and the 92.35% factor used in the arithmetic above
For the wider comparison, see cheap phone plans for side hustlers, and for the deduction side, whether a phone bill is deductible and the deductions checklist.
