du roaming packages: prepaid vs postpaid prices and a data eSIM

This page is for UAE residents travelling abroad on a du line. We sell travel eSIMs, so we have an interest here. The tables show when your du bundle is the better choice. eSIM Go is not affiliated with e&, du or Virgin Mobile UAE. Pack details are taken from du’s own pages on the date shown; the per-GB and per-day columns are our arithmetic.

• Day — AED 35.00 · 500MB for 24 hours, prepaid and postpaid
• Week, 10GB — prepaid AED 200.00, postpaid AED 100.00
• Zone B — megabytes only: AED 200.00 buys 40MB for 7 days
• No bundle — data abroad is blocked; du has no pay-as-you-go data
• du Travel eSIM — priced in US dollars; no separate plan for Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain or Nepal

du roaming bundles: daily, weekly, 60-day and yearly prices

du’s zone A bundles with data run from AED 35.00 for 500MB in 24 hours to AED 1,200.00 for 50GB over 365 days. The lowest price per GB is about AED 6.70: 30GB plus 300 minutes for AED 200.00, postpaid only. Every row below is zone A (du, 15 Oct 2026).

Sources: du prepaid and postpaid roaming pages (15 Oct 2026). du lists the 5GB bundle on its postpaid page, but its data names an account manager as the sales channel; if the du app does not offer it, ask du. du publishes no fair-use figure for the unlimited bundle, so we state none.

Seven AED 35.00 daily roaming packs cost AED 245.00 for 3.5GB, against AED 100.00 for the postpaid 10GB weekly data pack. du also sells a daily pack that renews every 24 hours while you roam; to stop it, send “D Stop” to 5102. A prepaid du Flexi plan can add Roam Like Home data for AED 99.00 (7 days), AED 299.00 (28 days) or AED 649.00 (365 days), drawn from the plan’s data.

Prepaid vs postpaid: the same 10GB week costs AED 200.00 or AED 100.00

On du the identical 10GB, 7-day data bundle is AED 200.00 on a prepaid line and AED 100.00 on a postpaid line (du, 15 Oct 2026). The price per GB is about AED 20.00 on prepaid and AED 10.00 on postpaid.

Prepaid has a trap inside its own list. The data-only 10GB week and the 10GB + 100 minutes bundle both cost AED 200.00, but the second runs 15 days, not 7. Its minutes are for calls “To the UAE, locally while traveling, and to selected countries” (du). The data-only week wins only on timing: you can buy it up to 60 days ahead and it starts during your travel.

On postpaid, AED 100.00 for 10GB is the lowest AED per GB among du’s data-only weeks, and AED 200.00 for 30GB plus 300 minutes is the lowest overall.

Zone A and zone B: gigabytes or only megabytes

du sells gigabyte bundles in zone A and megabyte bundles only in zone B: AED 50.00 buys 4MB for 24 hours, AED 200.00 buys 40MB for 7 days and AED 500.00 buys 140MB for 30 days (du, 15 Oct 2026). The same AED 500.00 buys 30GB for 60 days in zone A.

In du’s countries list, zone B includes Andorra, Bhutan, Brunei, Gibraltar, Kosovo, Laos, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Yemen, Bolivia and the Bahamas. Zone A holds India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Egypt, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Thailand, the UK, the USA, Japan and the Gulf states.

du’s sources disagree at the edge: its countries list puts Peru, Panama and Monaco in zone A, and its PDF of 16 Apr 2026 does not. Read both for a borderline country. du says its bundles “will not work in a non-preferred country”, so its roaming partners in each country matter as much as the zone. For Russia, du has published a roaming advisory; check the du app before you buy.

How to activate du roaming and buy a bundle

du says “International Roaming is activated by default for UAE nationals only”, and your first use must happen in the UAE. Without a bundle, data abroad is blocked, and du has no pay-as-you-go data. You can hold 5 bundles at once (du, 15 Oct 2026).

To activate roaming on du and start a bundle:

1. Use the line once in the UAE: “Your international Roaming service will be blocked until usage is initiated in the UAE.”
2. Send the word roaming by SMS to 5102 to check the line, then pick the bundle for your line type.
3. Check in the table below when the bundle’s days start, and buy accordingly.
4. With a travel eSIM instead: install before you fly; it connects when you land, and its days count from that first connection.

Bundles do not renew, except the daily auto-renewal pack.

Buying early costs money. A 15-day voice and data bundle at AED 200.00 bought 7 days before your flight leaves 8 days abroad: AED 25.00 a day, against about AED 13.30 if it starts when you land.

du Travel eSIM vs du roaming vs a travel eSIM

du Travel eSIM is du’s own data-only eSIM store, with US dollar pricing and 144 products, sold by du under its own terms (du, 15 Oct 2026). Its India plan, 10GB for 30 days, costs about AED 216.68 (US$59), above du’s roaming week at AED 100.00 postpaid or AED 200.00 prepaid.

du’s page is titled “du eSIM | Travel Abroad Without Roaming Charges | Powered by Breeze – du Travel eSIM”. The store shows no AED prices; we convert at US$1 = AED 3.6725. Its terms allow cancelling within 14 days if the plan is not activated; plans unactivated after six months expire without a refund. The store has no separate plan for Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Nepal, the Maldives, Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan (15 Oct 2026). We could not confirm which countries its regional products cover.

Destination	du roaming postpaid, 10GB · 7 days	du roaming prepaid, 10GB · 7 days	du Travel eSIM, 10GB · 30 days	Our data eSIM, 10GB · 30 days
India	AED 100.00	AED 200.00	about AED 216.68 (US$59)	AED 73.99
Pakistan	AED 100.00	AED 200.00	about AED 99.16 (US$27)	AED 66.99, about AED 6.70 per GB
United Kingdom	AED 100.00	AED 200.00	about AED 78.96 (US$21.50)	AED 43.99

du prices as listed on 15 Oct 2026, at du roaming and du.ae/travelesim. A bundle’s validity is 7 days and an eSIM’s is 30, so the columns compare price, not like for like. Our eSIM days count from its first connection abroad: install before you fly and it connects when you land. Charged in AED by JET SHARING (USA). Your bank may add a foreign-transaction fee; see how to pay. Full refund to the same card within 30 days of purchase, if the eSIM has not connected to any network.

Japan runs the other way: du’s eSIM for 10GB and 30 days is about AED 55.09 (US$15), below the retail benchmark we compare against, so check du’s store first for Japan. Our plans: India, Pakistan, United Kingdom.

Business lines: calls on du, data on an eSIM

Keep company calls on the du SIM and put data on an eSIM. Our eSIMs for India, Pakistan and the Gulf are data-only and do not provide service in the UAE, so you keep your du number on the du SIM; see keep your UAE number. We have no du business roaming price list and do not know whether the bundles above apply to a company line, so ask your account manager.

Calls you receive abroad are charged per minute. du lists AED 0.81 a minute in the GCC and AED 1.25 elsewhere on postpaid (du FAQ, 15 Oct 2026); du’s own figures for prepaid lines disagree, so check the du app. Keep your du SIM switched on for SMS: du doesn’t publish a price for SMS you receive abroad, so check with du.

One r/dubai poster (15 May 2025) wrote: “I didn’t answer the call I was hit with 45 aed roaming charges 5x9 aed/call When I contacted support they said that the charges is for the voice mail while roaming.” That is one person’s experience. A commenter in the thread said they emailed du to cancel voicemail for a family member, and the next trip brought no voicemail charges. We found no du page on voicemail charges abroad; ask du before you fly.

When a du bundle is the better choice

du’s postpaid 10GB week at AED 100.00 is the data-only du bundle that comes closest to a 30-day eSIM on price. We compare it with the public retail price of a global eSIM brand on 15 Oct 2026: a 30-day eSIM against a 7-day bundle.

On postpaid, du’s 10GB week at AED 100.00 is cheaper than that benchmark in Europe, Egypt, Georgia and Qatar, and close to it in India, Oman and Saudi Arabia. A du bundle is also the better pick when you need minutes with your data: 30GB plus 300 minutes for AED 200.00 on postpaid. On a prepaid line the 10GB week costs twice the postpaid price for the same data. For other destinations, the badge on each country page compares your operator’s price with our live price; we show “N× cheaper” only from 1.2× and always name the line type.

In the Gulf, du’s GCC bundle of unlimited data for 10 days is AED 199.00 (we could not confirm a fair-use limit), below du Travel eSIM’s unlimited 10 days for Qatar at about AED 343.08. See du GCC data bundle and du Hajj and Umrah Bundle.

Test your trip in the roaming calculator, then read roaming or eSIM and how we compare.

Before you fly:

• Your du line won’t use mobile data abroad unless you add a roaming bundle; du has no pay-as-you-go data.
• Buy a data-only bundle up to 60 days ahead; buy a voice and data bundle on the day you fly.
• Look up your destination in du’s countries list: zone B sells megabytes only.
• Keep your du SIM switched on for SMS; calls you receive are charged per minute, so ask du about voicemail charges abroad.
• With a travel eSIM, install before you fly; it connects when you land.

FAQ