Best Cell Phone Service in 2026: 9 Carriers and Plans Compared

Verizon has simplified things. Its unlimited page now centers on the Simplicity Plan, shown at $30 per month for one line after AutoPay and a $15 per month switch discount, plus taxes and fees. That plan includes 5G Ultra Wideband, Verizon Dollars (3% cash back), Mexico and Canada talk, text and data, satellite texting on select new Android phones, 10 GB of mobile hotspot data, and Call Filter and the Verizon Family app.

Perks are where Verizon competes. Its bundles add things like Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ (with ads) plus Netflix and HBO Max (with ads) for $25 per month, or YouTube Premium for $20 per month. Some add-ons cost extra, such as unlimited hotspot at $15 per month per line.

The catch is that the headline price assumes you are switching and enrolled in AutoPay, so existing customers should check their own account first.

T-Mobile divides its offer into Experience plans for families and Essentials plans for people who want 5G access and the basics. Its plan pages show prices after you pick a plan and number of lines, so we list See website instead of quoting a number we cannot confirm. The company says plan prices include AutoPay and paper-free billing discounts and exclude taxes, surcharges and fees.

Two features stand out. The Experience plan 5-year price guarantee covers talk, text and data, with exclusions such as taxes and fees. And the T-Mobile Trial lets a person on another network try it free for 30 days with no credit card, keeping their phone and number, if the device is compatible and not locked to another carrier. T-Mobile also claims the title of Best Mobile Network in the US according to Ookla Speedtest data for the first half of 2026. That is the company's claim, not our finding.

The fine print on phone offers matters. The big deals come as up to 36 monthly bill credits, and if you cancel early the credits stop and you owe the remaining device balance.

AT&T's unlimited plans are named Value 2.0, Extra 2.0, Premium 2.0 and Elite 2.0. Its plan page says unlimited plans start at $30 per line, and that figure requires the Value 2.0 plan, eligible AutoPay, paperless billing and a new bring-your-own-device smartphone on each line. The savings come as a $5 per month bill credit for up to 36 months, and taxes and fees are extra.

The tiers differ in sensible ways. Value 2.0 includes 5 GB of high-speed data and 3 GB of hotspot data. Extra 2.0 raises that to 100 GB of high-speed data and 50 GB of hotspot. Premium 2.0 offers unlimited high-speed data that does not slow based on usage, 100 GB of hotspot and unlimited talk, text and high-speed data in 20 Latin American countries. Elite 2.0 adds 250 GB of hotspot, international talk and text, a smartwatch and a tablet per line at no extra cost, and AT&T Turbo.

The honest weakness is that the entry price is the one with the most conditions. Anyone wanting more than 5 GB of reliable data should plan on Extra 2.0 or higher, and the AT&T page we reviewed did not list those prices.

Mint is the budget leader among the options here, and its pricing is easy to read. On its plans page, 12-month plans are listed at $15 per month for 6 GB, $20 for 17 GB, $25 for 23 GB and $30 for unlimited, with the full amount paid upfront ($180 for 6 GB and $360 for unlimited). Shorter 3 and 6-month terms cost more per month.

The new-customer trial is where to read carefully. Mint offers a 3-month 6 GB plan at $45 upfront (the equivalent of $15 per month), but its own broadband label lists the regular monthly price for that plan as $25 once the introductory period ends. Taxes and fees are extra. Mint says all plans include a free mobile hotspot, calls to Mexico, Canada and the UK, and unlimited talk and text. Mint is owned by T-Mobile.

Mint suits one-person budgets and light data users. Paying a full year upfront is the trade-off, so confirm coverage where you live first.

Visible, a Verizon-owned brand, keeps its pricing blunt. All plans include taxes and fees in the listed price and run on Verizon's network. The Visible plan is $25 per month with unlimited data on Verizon's 5G and 4G LTE networks and hotspot speeds up to 5 Mbps. Visible+ is listed at $30 per month with code 5OFF5 (regularly $35) and Visible+ Pro at $40 with the code (regularly $45), both with premium data on Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband network and hotspot of up to 10 Mbps and 15 Mbps.

Annual plans cost $275, $375 and $450 per year respectively.

The catch is network priority. The page describes premium data only for the higher tiers, so the $25 plan may not be treated like a full Verizon plan when the network is busy. For a Verizon signal at the lowest all-in price, compare Visible against Verizon's own plan.

Cricket runs on the AT&T network and lists four plans with Auto Pay for one line: Sensible 10GB at $30 per month, Select Unlimited at $35, Smart Unlimited at $45 and Supreme Unlimited at $55. Taxes are included in those prices, which makes the monthly bill easier to predict.

Without Auto Pay, each plan costs $5 more, and the page also lists higher first-month prices, so the first bill will not match the headline number.

Cricket is a practical middle path: an AT&T-based signal without AT&T's postpaid prices, minus the extras that come with bigger plans. If you rarely use more than 10 GB, Sensible is the cheapest way in.

Google Fi gives you two ways to pay. The Flexible plan is $20 per month for one line plus $10 per GB of data used, which works well when you use little data. The unlimited options are Unlimited Essentials at $35 for one line (up to 30 GB unmetered, then 256 kbps), Unlimited Standard at $50 (50 GB of high-speed data and 25 GB of hotspot) and Unlimited Premium at $65 (data up to 100 GB per person and 50 GB of high-speed hotspot).

Group pricing drops quickly: Essentials is $60 for two lines, Standard $80 and Premium $110. Google's pages state that prices do not include taxes and government fees, and some Pixel promotions give 50% off for 12 months, with the Premium promotion ending on 31 October 2026.

The weakness is single-line unlimited cost. Pick Fi for flexibility, a Pixel promotion or a group plan rather than the lowest single-line price.

US Mobile is a smaller carrier with a notable feature: it sells service on all three major US networks. It lists Unlimited Starter at $15 per month with promo code SALE15, renewing at $25 per month after 6 months, and Unlimited Premium at $25 per month with code SALE25, renewing at $44 after 6 months. Both promo prices are for port-ins only.

New customers who transfer one existing number to its Dark Star or Warp network can get a 30-day trial with 30 GB of data and unlimited talk and text. Then the line auto-renews on Unlimited Premium unless you change plans before the trial ends. Its page does not say which network brand matches which carrier, so check before picking.

US Mobile is useful for testing coverage on your street at low risk. Read the renewal terms before the trial ends, because the post-promo price can be much higher than the sale price.

Consumer Cellular targets people 50 and older with simple plans and an AARP discount. Search listings of its own site describe talk, text and data from as low as $20 per month and an AARP member discount of 5% on the monthly bill. We could not load its plan page directly, so we list the price as See website rather than quote a figure we cannot confirm.

This is a decent fit if you mostly talk and text and are an AARP member. Check the data allowance on the cheapest plan before buying, because low-cost tiers may include very little. If you use maps and video daily, an unlimited plan from Visible or Cricket will likely cost less per gigabyte.