Buying a SIM Card or eSIM in Kyrgyzstan

For what is a relatively small country, at least by the standards of its enormous neighbors, Kyrgyzstan offers a surprising amount to visitors.

With everything from rugged mountains and endless alpine meadows to stunning national parks and the second-largest saltwater lake in the world, it’s a paradise for anyone who’s as into nature as I am, and that’s before you even start exploring the country’s rich cultural history.

Despite its beauty, it remains relatively undiscovered, and I was surprised how few other tourists there were as I was wandering around the capital of Bishkek and the vast mountains and valleys further afield.

You’ll want to stay connected while you’re visiting Kyrgyzstan, especially if you’re not fluent in Russian: navigation isn’t always straightforward, and Google Translate will likely become your best friend while you’re in the country!

Fortunately keeping your phone working is a cheap and easy process, and for a few dollars you should have data flowing by the time you leave the airport. Here’s what you need to know.

There are three carriers in Kyrgyzstan: Mega, Beeline, and O! MegaCom and Beeline fight it out to be the most popular, with both having a little under 40% of the market, while O! is the newest and smallest operator.

There’s little difference in price between the three, certainly not enough to make much of a difference for visitors: prices are low by global standards, with large amounts of calls, texts, and data available for a few dollars.

All three have pretty good coverage in Bishkek, but no matter which network you’re using, expect service to drop off noticeably outside the capital. Beeline often has slightly better coverage in mountainous and remote areas, but there’s not a lot in it.

There are no 5G networks in Kyrgyzstan yet, so you’ll be limited to 4G/LTE with any of the providers. Speeds are reasonable but far from exceptional; this isn’t helped by the fact that all international connections go via China or Kazakhstan, not to mention a non-trivial amount of internet censorship and surveillance taking place.

If you’d prefer not to have the Kyrgyzstan government snooping on your online activities, I’d suggest keeping a VPN enabled throughout your stay. I personally use ProtonVPN (review here), but most other paid VPN services should be fine as well.

Kyrgyzstan isn’t particularly well-served by travel eSIM companies, but there are still a few options available. I went with Airalo, one of my two usual go-to providers, and was happy with the coverage and speeds I received in most parts of Bishkek.

Arriving late in the day, I was in a hurry to meet my airport pickup, so skipped the SIM card counter and just bought an eSIM instead. Compared to local SIM cards, though, it was quite expensive for the amount of data on offer.

It wasn’t the end of the world, since I was in the country for under a week and didn’t need to use a lot of data anyway. My other preferred eSIM company, aloSIM, is slightly cheaper, but if you’re staying for longer and/or want more than a few gigabytes of data, you’ll be better off with a local SIM either way.

The same applies if you want a local phone number during your stay: aloSIM’s offerings, as with most travel eSIMs, are data-only. 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.

We’ve also got a quick and easy eSIM finder that lets you find the best provider in every country in a few seconds!

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

If you’re able to use a physical SIM card and don’t mind spending some time going through the purchase and registration process, you’ll get more data (and a local phone number) with one of the local vendors.

I don’t usually recommend buying at the airport, but even the inflated prices you’ll find in the arrivals area in Bishkek are pretty cheap by global standards. The vendors here are also very used to dealing with English-speaking tourists, which often isn’t the case elsewhere in Kyrgyzstan. If you’re after a local SIM, this is the place to get it.

As you can see in the above photo, you’re not going to struggle to find someone to serve you. Note that while the SIM cards themselves are free as per the signs on the counter, using them isn’t!

All SIM cards purchased from local vendors require registration and activation, which means you’ll need to provide your passport and endure a few minutes of paperwork shuffling before you have a working phone.

Mega

When buying at the airport kiosks, expect to be offered a small range of prepaid SIM bundles, all with a large data allowance and unlimited calls and texts to other MEGA numbers. On the day I flew in, the details were as follows:

aloSIM

As I mentioned earlier, travel eSIM prices aren’t particularly cheap in Kyrgyzstan, and that’s as true for Airalo as anybody else. The 3GB data package that I went for cost $19 USD, and was valid for 30 days.

The other company I regularly use, aloSIM, had essentially the same prices as Airalo on the day. They’ve recently discounted all of their Kyrgyzstan packages by a few dollars, however, now making them the cheapest option. As a result, that’s who I’d recommend if you’re going for a travel eSIM.

Prices change all the time, of course, so it’s worth doing a quick check of the table below before you commit. We update it every week, most recently on 17 March 2025.

Topping Up

MEGA

Given how much data you get on even the smallest prepaid packages at the airport, and that they last for a month, chances are you won’t need to top up your SIM card while you’re in Kyrgyzstan.

If you do, however, the easiest way to do it is to simply hunt down one of the ubiquitous kiosks selling cigarettes, snacks, and (you guessed it) phone top-ups on seemingly every street.

Some sell scratch cards, but if they don’t, there’s either a self-service screen (in Russian) or you just tell the staff member what you need. The process is much the same in either case: provide your mobile number, say/show/type the amount of money you’d like to top up with, and pay for it.

aloSIM

Topping up with aloSIM (or any of the other travel eSIM companies) is done by logging into the website or app. You just select your Kyrgyzstan 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.

Coverage and data speeds in Kyrgyzstan with any of the carriers can be summed up pretty easily: usually ok in Bishkek, anybody’s guess outside it.

I mostly had decent service when exploring Bishkek with my Airalo eSIM on the Beeline network. It was better at my hotel in the north of the city than it was right in the center, where speeds varied between fine and quite slow, seemingly on a whim.

Outside Bishkek, I typically had reasonable service on the main roads, albeit with slower speeds. At places like Ala Archa National Park, speeds got much worse, especially when walking in the canyons and valleys, to the point of being essentially unusable.

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