How to Buy a SIM Card in Argentina in 2026

Argentina prices its SIM cards in pesos and its inflation in headlines, so any guide that quotes a figure in pesos is wrong by the time you read it. This one quotes dollars, as the operators' tourist plans effectively do, and covers the three networks, the stand at Ezeiza that actually sells to arriving passengers, the kiosks and carrier stores in town, the passport registration, and the eSIM we sell that works from the arrivals hall through Patagonia and on to Chile. Our plans are on the Argentina eSIM page.

Claro, Movistar and Personal

Claro has the largest network and the strongest coverage outside the cities, which is what you want in Patagonia and the north-west. Personal is close behind, sells the most convenient tourist products and is the only operator with an official stand at the international airport. Movistar is solid in Buenos Aires and the big cities and the one to avoid for a long road trip. All three run 4G in every city and are rolling out 5G in Buenos Aires.

Ezeiza: who sells and who does not

Personal has the official stand at Ezeiza, the Personal Flow counter near check-in counter 40, and sells SIMs with passport registration on the spot at prices above the city. Claro is not sold at the airport; the third-party vendors in arrivals sell whatever they have at whatever price they can get, and the registration is sometimes left undone. If you want Claro, buy it in town.

Kioscos, carrier stores and the passport

Every Argentine SIM must be registered to a passport, and the carriers want a copy as well as a look at it. The kioscos on every corner sell SIM cards cheaply but cannot register them, so a kiosk SIM is a trip to a carrier store waiting to happen. Carrier stores in Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Salta and Bariloche register while you wait.

What a tourist SIM costs

Claro's tourist chip is about 25GB for 30 days at about US$15, roughly ARS 21,600 at the time of writing, with unlimited WhatsApp and the main social apps on top. Personal sells by the day for short stays, about US$1 for 1GB over a day. Both move with the exchange rate every week, so take the dollar figures as the guide and ignore any peso price older than a month.

Install before you fly

Our Latin America 10GB eSIM is $20 for 14 days and the Latin America 15GB eSIM is $28 for 30 days, with a 5GB version at $12 for a week. They cover Argentina and 15 other countries including Chile, Uruguay and Brazil, so the same plan crosses from Bariloche into the Chilean lakes or takes the ferry to Montevideo. They start on first use, include hotspot and need no passport. For a phone number, the Orange World 20GB eSIM is $28 for 20GB over 30 days in more than 90 countries including Argentina, with a French +33 number, 15 minutes of calls and 50 texts.

Side by side

Buenos Aires, Patagonia, Iguazú and Mendoza

Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Salta and Iguazú are fast on every network. Patagonia is a different country for signal: Bariloche, El Calafate and Ushuaia are covered in town and the roads between them are dark for hours on any carrier, Claro holding on longest. The wine roads around Mendoza are fine; the Andes passes to Chile are not. Our Latin America eSIM uses the local networks, so it does as well as the best local SIM wherever there is a mast, and keeps working over the border.

Our recommendation

For a trip of up to a month, install the Latin America 10GB or 15GB eSIM before you fly, skip the Ezeiza stand and carry the same plan into Chile or Uruguay. Add the Orange World 20GB eSIM for calls, or the O2 SMS Only eSIM at $8 a month to keep bank codes arriving on a UK number. For a stay of months, buy a Claro chip in a city store with your passport; it is the network for the far south. Set-up steps are in our eSIM installation guide, and the plans for the country are on the Argentina eSIM page.