We’re in a weird place right now. No, I don’t mean 2020, but with wireless carriers. For years we’ve gotten used to having four major players in the US, but one of them just ate another—T-Mobile bought Sprint. The two are still merging, but the Sprint brand is slated to fade away this summer. A part of the merger’s rules required T-Mobile to sell Sprint-owned Boost Mobile to Dish Network. Dish is also allowed to use T-Mobile’s LTE coverage until it’s able to grow and become a viable fourth player in the space, filling in the void Sprint left. But that will take some time, and for now, we’re left with three major carriers.
Here we’re focusing on unlimited plans, which have become common offerings across all the carriers, but they always come with a long list of restrictions. Even the best unlimited plans have a lot of limits. For instance, an unlimited plan might get greatly throttled (slowed down) tethering speeds or downgraded streaming video quality after using a certain amount of data each month. As always, carriers are happy to upsell plans with slightly better features, but every plan has its own unique pitfalls.
We’ve included details below on pricing and plans from the major carriers for individual plans and family plans up to eight people (lines), for the carriers that allow that many on one plan. And we’ve done the hard work of finding out which unlimited plan is the best bang for your buck.
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Best Overall
T-Mobile Essentials, Magenta, and Magenta Plus
Starting at $60/month for one line
Subscribe to T-Mobile (or Learn More)
T-Mobile ended those dreaded two-year contracts in 2013 and led the US market in pricing and new initiatives ever since—often by calling out other carriers by name. Dubbing itself the “uncarrier,” the company ran its mouth a lot, but over time it proved its words weren’t just lip service. In the last few years, its investments in its network have finally paid off, winning speed and coverage awards from OpenSignal and other companies that monitor service quality.
The carrier has three unlimited plans: Essentials, Magenta, and Magenta Plus. The former is the best choice for most people with big families, but the Magenta and Magenta Plus plans are also great value if you are only connecting a few lines and you use features like tethering with a hotspot, you watch videos on the go, or if you travel abroad a lot.
Essentials Cost per Line (with Autopay. Taxes/Fees not included): 1 Line: $60 | 2 Lines: $90 | 3 Lines: $90 | 4 Lines: $105 | 5 Lines: $120 | 6 Lines: $135 | 7 Lines: $200 (Magenta package or higher only) | 8 Lines: $220 (Magenta package or higher only)
WIRED: On the Magenta or Magenta Plus plans, T-Mobile says it will not throttle back your data speeds until you’ve used 50 gigabytes of LTE data, which is quite a lot of data. If you’re an Essentials customer, you will see some throttling before that cap in high-traffic areas like big cities or during big events. On the Magenta plans, if you have two or more lines you get a free subscription to Netflix and Quibi because, hey, why not. Other perks we like include international texting and data (the latter is only available on Magenta plans), but you get unlimited talk, text, and data in Mexico and Canada on all plans (2G data speeds on Essentials, 5 gigabytes of 4G LTE on the Magenta plans). Those aged 55+ can also subscribe for only $40 for one line or $55 for two lines.
TIRED: The Essentials plan only includes 3G speeds if you use your phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot. You have to pay $25 more per month (!) for a top-of-the-line Magenta Plus package to get HD video streaming on the go, unlimited in-flight Wi-Fi on flights with Gogo, voicemail to text, and 20 gigabytes of 4G LTE hotspot data.
Will Your Phone Work? T-Mobile has a Phone Compatibility Test that lets you search to see if your phone will work on its network. Most unlocked phones should work, especially those that also work on AT&T, but see our section below for our favorite devices and more info on how to l