Buying a SIM Card or eSIM in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is a fascinating and delightful country to visit. I didn’t know a lot about this vast Central Asian nation before I went there, and what little I thought I knew turned out to mostly be wrong anyway.

Take Almaty, for instance. This former capital and largest city is modern, cosmopolitan, and beautiful, full of parks and green spaces and backed by a towering mountain range that’s capped with snow even in the heart of summer. Not what I expected!

There’s a great food scene, both local and from surrounding countries, and several small but extremely high-quality third-wave coffee roasters in a region that’s far better known for drinking tea.

It’s safe and clean, easy to get around with the aid of a few useful apps, and at least in my experience, full of friendly people. And that’s just one city! The landscape is diverse and impressive as well, from the steppe that covers much of the country to forests and wetlands, deserts and lakes, canyons and beaches.

Throw in the fact that there are very few Western tourists, and that prices are comparatively low for everything from food and drink to transport and accommodation, and you’ve got yourself a highly underrated travel destination.

I loved my time there!

Especially if you don’t speak Russian or Kazakh, but even if you do, you’ll benefit from mobile data when traveling around this enormous land. From translating menus and conversations to calling a Yandex (the local Uber equivalent) and finding your way around, an internet connection makes life much easier.

Fortunately, prices for data are as low as they are for most other things, whether you’re buying a local SIM card or using one of the new breed of travel eSIMs. Whichever one you go for, I’ve got all the details you need to make getting set up quick and easy.

Here’s what you need to know.

There are three phone networks in Kazakhstan: Kcell, Beeline, and Tele2.

Kcell and Beeline have the most subscribers at around 40% each, with Tele2 bringing up the rear. There’s little difference in terms of coverage, though, especially if you’re only visiting the larger towns and cities.

All three companies are rolling out 5G, with all major cities and some smaller ones having service in at least their central areas. You’ll get good LTE coverage anywhere you’re likely to stay, but bear in mind that Kazakhstan is a very large country.

There are hundreds or thousands of kilometres between the major cities, so don’t expect reliable (or indeed, any) service while traveling between towns, especially if you get off the main road or rail routes.

Tele2 tends to have slightly better pricing and deals for tourists than the others, so that’s who I’m recommending you go with. In reality, though, for most visitors it’s unlikely to make much difference.

I was in Kazakhstan for a bit over a week, visiting Almaty and Astana. I’ve largely switched to using travel eSIMs over physical SIMs these days, and it was no different here: arriving after a long-haul flight, I had no desire to line up to buy and register a SIM card.

My partner and I both used Airalo eSIMs on this trip: she bought the single-country version for Kazakhstan, while I was using the company’s Discover global eSIM.

The latter has data packs of up to 20GB that last up to a year and work in 120+ counties, so it can be very cost-effective versus buying individual eSIMs. On a three-month trip through a dozen countries, it saved me a lot of time and money!

We had good coverage in the two cities we visited, both in the centre and on the outskirts. On the overnight train between them, we had service whenever we were near a town, but not in places where there were no real signs of civilization.

Like most travel eSIMs, they’re data-only: you don’t get a local number. I use apps for everything from communication to transport these days, so the lack of a local number rarely matters to me, but you might have different needs.

If you’re new to eSIMs, they offer big benefits to travelers in terms of how quickly, easily, and (often) cheaply you can get connected when you arrive in a new country. Most recent phones support them, and you can read all about them here.

There’s a pricing table below that I update every week, with details of all of the plans from the companies I recommend.

Flying into Almaty’s brand-new international airport, clearing immigration and baggage reclaim was a breeze. If you’re in the market for a physical SIM card, all three carriers have kiosks alongside each other in the arrival hall.

Although I’d already decided to use a travel eSIM on this trip, I took a look at the packages on offer at the kiosks anyway. They were all fairly similar to each other, but Tele2 had a bit more data for a bit less money than the others.

I talk more about the costs below, but for now, suffice it to stay that if you’re a heavy data user, you’ll get better value from a local SIM card with a tourist package than you will from the travel eSIMs.

If you’re like me and don’t use a lot of data while traveling, however (my 3GB package easily lasted the week I was in Kazakhstan), the eSIM option will cost you the same or less than a tourist SIM and be more convenient to buy and set up.

Local SIMs need to be registered when they’re purchased, so you’ll need your passport with you when you go to buy one. That’s obviously not a problem if you’re buying at the airport, but something to remember if you wait until you’re in the city.

Tele2

Especially if you’re buying at the airport, but even if you’re not, you’ll be steered towards one of the company’s tourist SIM packages. That’s often a recipe for paying a fortune, but like many things in Kazakhstan, isn’t really the case here.

For 5590 ZZT (~$11.50 USD), you get 25GB of LTE data and 25GB of 5G data if your phone supports it, plus unlimited calls to Tele2 numbers and 240 minutes of calls to other numbers in Kazakhstan. The package lasts 30 days.

If that somehow isn’t enough for your trip, paying 6590 KZT (~$13.50 USD) pushes the allowances up to 35+35GB and 340 minutes of calls instead.

These are probably the only two options you’ll get at the airport, but you’ll find a wider range at Tele2 stores in the city if you’re happy to wait. Just bear in mind that not all employees will speak English, especially outside tourist neighborhoods.

Airalo

As I say, I was using Airalo’s Discover global package on this trip. This makes it much cheaper to get service across multiple countries, but it doesn’t always use the same local carriers as Airalo’s single-country eSIMs.

That’s the case in Kazakhstan: while the single-country version my partner bought uses Beeline, my multi-country one was using Tele2. This made it easy to compare coverage and speeds between the two, and there wasn’t a lot of difference.

Because Airalo had good service and the cheapest prices for a moderate amount of data, that’s who I’m recommending for most people traveling to Kazakhstan.

It’s worth double-checking the details in the table below, though: at the time, aloSIM (another company I often use) had lower prices for a 10GB data pack. Had I needed that much data for my trip, I’d have gone with this option instead.

I update this table every week, most recently on 2 December 2024.

Topping Up

Tele2

The Tele2 tourist SIM packages all last for 30 days: if you run out of data or are staying longer, the easiest way to top up is to just head back to a Tele2 store to buy a new package.

If you’re not near a store, you can also buy a new bundle using the company’s app (iOS and Android) or by dialling #122*4# and following the prompts. There’ll be some Google Translate action required if you don’t understand Russian or Kazakh.

Airalo

Topping up with Airalo or any of the other travel eSIM companies I’ve mentioned is done by logging into the website or app. You just select your Kazakhstan eSIM, hit the top-up button, and buy the same package again.

The top-up packs have exactly the same pricing and duration as the original eSIMs: there’s little difference between topping up your current eSIM and buying a new one, other than not having to activate it.

We spent five days in Almaty and three in Astana, exploring much of the central area of both cities as well as some of the attractions on the outskirts. We also took an overnight train to travel the roughly 1200km between those two cities.

We had fast and reliable LTE service anywhere and everywhere we tested it in either city: the Beeline LTE network was somewhat faster than the Tele2 one, but both were very quick. I had no problem with anything from using maps to making video calls throughout my stay.

Given how sparsely populated much of Kazakhstan is, it’s no surprise that many parts of our train journey had little to no coverage with either Tele2 or Beeline. Service would return when we got close to town, but speeds were a lot lower than in the major cities.

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Check out our guides to SIM cards and eSIMs in 65+ other countries here.