Tourist SIM or travel e-SIM in Türkiye: prices, passport and the IMEI rule

Landing in Türkiye, you can buy a tourist SIM from Turkcell, Vodafone or Türk Telekom, or arrive with a travel e-SIM already installed. Both give you mobile data. They differ in what you need to buy them, whether you get a Turkish number, and one rule about phones from abroad.

What the Turkish operators offer tourists

As published on the operators’ own pages in October 2026:

Turkcell Tourist Welcome Pack: 20 GB and 200 local minutes for 28 days, 1,800 TL. A campaign price, announced until 31 December 2026. A valid passport is required; activating it in the Turkcell app needs a chipped (biometric) passport, and that route gives you an e-SIM. A physical SIM is sold in Turkcell stores.
Türk Telekom Tourist Welcome: 10 GB for 7 days at 320 TL; 25 GB for 28 days at 420 TL; 50 GB for 28 days at 550 TL; 75 GB for 15 days at 550 TL, each with calls and SMS included. One-time packages, sold at airport dealers and Türk Telekom stores.
Vodafone Welcome to Turkey: 20 GB, 750 minutes and 250 SMS for 28 days, sold at Vodafone stores including the one at the airport, after a passport check. Vodafone does not publish the price; ask in the store.

Prices change, and campaign prices end. Ask whether taxes and fees for a new line are included before you pay.

The rule that comes with a Turkish SIM

Türkiye’s telecoms regulator, BTK, requires a phone brought from abroad and used with a Turkish line to be registered by its IMEI number within 120 days of entry. Registration is done on e-Devlet or at an operator’s subscriber centre, and the fee for 2026 is 54,258 TL. For a holiday of a few weeks this never comes up. For a long stay, it is the largest cost of a local SIM.

What a travel e-SIM changes

You buy and install it at home, before the flight, so data works the moment you land — no store, no queue, no passport check.
Your home SIM stays in the phone, so calls and SMS on your own number keep reaching you.
It gives you data only, without a Turkish phone number.

We found no official BTK statement on how the 120-day rule treats a phone using only a foreign e-SIM. If your stay is longer than 120 days, check BTK’s current rules for your situation.

Which one to choose

A tourist SIM, if you need a Turkish number, or stay several weeks and use a lot of data — the large Türk Telekom packages are hard to beat on price per gigabyte.
A travel e-SIM, if you want data from the first minute without a store visit, keep your own number reachable, or are travelling on — a regional plan covers several countries with one e-SIM.

Before you fly

Check that your phone supports e-SIM and is not carrier-locked: dialling *#06# shows an EID on e-SIM phones, or see the compatible devices list.
Install the e-SIM at home, on Wi-Fi.
When you land, switch on the travel line and Data Roaming for it.

See the plans and the networks they use on the Türkiye page.

Turkey e-SIM plans

Adonis Telecom · Updated 2026-10-26