Taipei Airport Prepaid SIM Cards: A Map and Guide for Visitors

A guide to SIM cards at Taipei airport for arriving tourists, visitors, and business travellers. Included are the best SIM cards and their shops at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 of Taipei Taoyuan airport, whether it’s better to wait and buy a SIM card in Taipei itself, and some details of when roaming might be a better option. I found the options overwhelming on my recent visit, hopefully this clears

There are 4 mobile phone providers and many re-sellers selling dozens of SIM cards at Taipei Taoyuan Airport.

Overall, I found the best SIM cards for various types of visitors to Taiwan (where to buy these SIM cards at each terminal is listed below):

For visitors staying the weekend, get whichever SIM card is closest and has the shortest queue. It’s more important to get out there and explore Taiwan. There are only small differences in price and coverage between the providers.

For visitors staying up to a week, head to Taiwan Mobile for their 6 or 7 day SIM cards: Priced at 400 NTD for 6 days and 450 NTD for 7 days¹.

For visitors staying up to 2 weeks, all the providers are roughly the same price (700 NTD), try to find Chunghwa² or Taiwan Mobile SIMs.

For visitors staying up to a month, Taiwan Mobile and FarEasTone³ have 30 day SIM cards for 1,000 NTD. These include 430 NTD of calls (which makes them slightly more valuable than Chunghwa).

For visitors staying more than a month, Chunghwa and T Star have options for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 6 months, and 12 months. I’ve included more details below, but I usually prefer Chunghwa’s options: 30 days for 1,000 NTD; 90 days for 2,000 NTD (667/month); 12 months for 6,500 NTD (542/month).

For visitors looking to squeeze every dollar, T Star is the cheapest SIM card option available at Taipei Airport, starting from 280 NTD⁴. The trade-off is that they typically have the least coverage. I found no complaints about coverage though if the SIM is used in built-up populated areas.

For visitors who may want to extend their trip: Foreigners staying in Taiwan can get access to more traditional mobile phone plans (post-paid or monthly pre-paid with data caps). Visit one of the phone carrier’s stores in cities to enquire. Be prepared for more paperwork and ID requirements than the tourist SIM cards however.

List of SIM Card Locations

The 4 big mobile phone carriers in Taiwan sell prepaid SIM cards in Taipei Airport. SIM card shop locations are listed in the table below (see map above for a better picture):

All providers have excellent Taiwan-wide coverage. I’ve never experienced any coverage problems unique to one provider, though I’ve heard T Star has slightly less coverage in rural areas and islands. Mountainous areas may have blackspots in coverage with all providers. I found great coverage on Yangmingshan near Taipei and on the ascent from Taichung through Taroko National Park. On the descent to Hualien however I found coverage was very patchy (that is, with all providers).

SIM cards sold in Taiwan appear to be 4G only, I believe the 2G and 3G networks have already been decommissioned. A 4G compatible phone will be required to use these SIM cards.

List of Taipei Airport SIM cards

This is a complete list of the SIM cards I found at Taipei Airport.

Chunghwa Telecom (all have unlimited data):

• 3 days for 300 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice calls
• 5 days for 300 NTD, includes 50 NTD of voice
• 6 days for 420 NTD, includes 50 NTD of voice
• 10 days for 500 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 15 days for 700 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 30 days for 1,000 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 90 days for 2,000 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice (roughly 667 NTD per month)
• 12 months for 6,500 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice (roughly 542 NTD per month)

Taiwan Mobile (Look for the Chinese name: 台灣大哥大, all also have unlimited data):

• 3 days for 300 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice calls
• 5 days for 300 NTD, includes 50 NTD of voice
• 6 days for 400 NTD, includes 50 NTD of voice
• 7 days for 450 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 8 days for 450 NTD, includes 50 NTD of voice
• 10 days for 500 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 15 days for 700 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 30 days for 1,000 NTD, includes 430 NTD of voice

The Taiwan Mobile SIM card can have value added, 100 NTD of top-up equates to 10-15 minutes of calls and 1 more day of unlimited data.

Far EasTone (all have unlimited data):

• 3 days for 300 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice calls
• 5 days for 300 NTD, includes 50 NTD of voice
• 5 days for 500 NTD, includes 300 NTD of voice
• 7 days for 450 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 8 days for 450 NTD, includes 50 NTD of voice
• 10 days for 500 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 15 days for 700 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 30 days for 1,000 NTD, includes 430 NTD of voice

T Star (all also have unlimited data):

• 3 days for 280 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice calls
• 5 days for 290 NTD, includes 50 NTD of voice
• 7 days for 420 NTD, includes 50 NTD of voice
• 10 days for 480 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 15 days for 650 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 30 days for 920 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice
• 60 days for 1,500 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice (roughly 750 NTD per month)
• 6 months for 3,800 NTD, includes 100 NTD of voice (roughly 633 NTD per month)

T Star lists slightly cheaper prices on their website. The difference is roughly 30 NTD (1 USD) - I feel this is not worth chasing a discount for.

We had roughly 10 minutes of calls with the 50 NTD included. This was barely enough to change a flight - the credit ran out before we could finish the call (luckily the important part of changing the flight was taken care of).

SIM cards can also be collected on arrival using apps such as Klook or KKDay, Chunghwa also offers an order online and collect service (I can’t see any advantage to it though).

Apart from the Taiwan Mobile options listed above, SIM cards listed here likely cannot be extended. It’s best to visit a shop in the city if wanting to extend one of these SIM cards. See below for SIM cards that can be bought after leaving the airport, these include monthly payment options (so can be extended indefinitely).

Buying a SIM card after leaving the airport (local plans)

Taiwan Mobile seemed to offer the most English friendly resources for SIM cards that can be purchased after leaving the airport. After an initial purchase of 300 NTD or 500 NTD (which includes some data), internet package top-up options include⁵:

• 2.2GB for 300 NTD, with 60 validity
• 8 GB for 1,000 NTD, with 185 day validity
• 20 GB for 1,399 NTD, with 120 day validity

Far EasTone also seems to have good English support for its prepaid with an option of 899 NTD for 30 days including 20GB of data.

Unless having a local plan is important, I feel the tourist SIM cards at the airport offer a better deal. Local plans may be good for those staying longer than 12 months in Taiwan, or anyone who doesn’t know how long their stay will be and wants a plan that is cost effective to extend.

Roaming into Taiwan with a foreign SIM card

Some regions offer decent rates for their customers roaming into Taiwan. Examples I’ve found include:

• Hong Kong, Birdie Mobile includes Taiwan at 15 HKD per day⁶
• Singapore, Starhub roaming starts from 5 SGD⁷, Singtel starts from 20 SGD⁸
• Malaysia, Digi includes Taiwan in their Roam Like Home bundle⁹
• Australia, Optus includes Taiwan at 10 AUD per day (probably better to get a local SIM)¹⁰
• US, Taiwan is included with AT&T’s roaming passport at 70 USD per month¹¹

Making calls while in Taiwan

Tourist SIM cards available at the airport come with a small amount of credit for voice calls. We found that 50 NTD was worth about 10 minutes when we had to call an airline.

I use Skype to make phone calls when I’m in Taiwan - phone calls to Taiwanese numbers and to friends and family back home. To find out more about making calls while travelling, check out the guide I wrote here: https://landinglastminute.com/calling-while-travelling-guide/

ID requirements

Photo ID is required to purchase a SIM card in Taiwan. A passport is the safest option (and the one I use) but I’ve heard of people producing a Malaysian, Singaporean, or Hong Kong ID card and that worked OK.

Roaming a Taiwan SIM to another country

Roaming is not included in tourist SIMs

Taiwan Mobile appears to offer good deals with their post-paid plans for roaming to¹²:

• Canada, US, Australia, and New Zealand: 179 NTD/day minimum purchase 8 days
• Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau: 258 NTD/day minimum purchase 5 days
• Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines: 199 NTD/day minimum purchase 4 days

The information in this guide was last updated early in 2020. If prices have changed since then, please get in contact and I’ll update this guide.

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