The Best Cell Phone Plans of 2026: 12 Top Editor's Picks

Here’s another ISP mobile carrier that—you guessed it—uses Verizon’s national network to provide service to its subscribers. Cox Mobile’s Unlimited Gig is the carrier’s one and only unlimited plan, featuring 20GB of high-speed cellular data and 5GB of dedicated hotspot data. While it’s a bit more expensive than the aforementioned Spectrum Mobile plan, the plan is still quite affordable. 

Spectrum Mobile is another ISP slash mobile carrier that offers low-cost plans aboard Verizon’s reliable national network. 

The best of the bunch is Spectrum’s Unlimited Plus, which includes 50GB of high-speed data, a 10GB high-speed mobile hotspot allowance, and free roaming in 180 countries. All for a reasonable $40/month. 

Xfinity Mobile's plans are extremely inexpensive, undercutting major carriers Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile—and many prepaid carriers as well. This alone makes the carrier worth a look, but fortunately that's not all it has to offer: Xfinity Mobile also boasts excellent coverage aboard Verizon's powerful network.

Premium Unlimited is Xfinity Mobile's best plan, including as it does a massive 100GB allotment of premium cellular data, coupled with a monthly 30GB hotspot data allowance. It also comes with Elite Upgrade—a perk that offers phone upgrades twice a year—as well as 4K UHD video streaming.

While it's not chocked full of extra perks (streaming subscriptions, international privileges) like the major carrier plans on this list, Premium Unlimited is nonetheless worth a look if you're on the hunt for a low-cost, high-value plan, and you happen to be signed up with Xfinity for your internet service already.

If you're on the hunt for a great family plan, we suggest taking a look at the carrier’s Unlimited Premium PL offering.

While Unlimited Premium PL is AT&T’s most expensive plan at $85.99/month for a single line, it comes down in price as you add them. Each line costs just $60.99/month, for example, when you add three, or $50.99/month when you add four.

Unlimited Premium PL is the only AT&T plan to include truly unlimited premium data, meaning you can stream, browse, or game to your heart's content without worrying about hitting any data ceilings or deprioritization. Better still, the plan includes a very generous 60GB high-speed mobile hotspot data allowance, along with unlimited talk, text, and high-speed data in 20 Latin American countries at no extra cost.

All of this makes Unlimited Premium PL one of the more feature-packed plans on the major carrier market. AT&T subscribers seem to understand this, as more people sign up for the plan (26.2%) than any of the carrier's other offerings.

Another family plan worth checking out is Verizon’s $80/month Unlimited Ultimate. The carrier's most premium offering comes with unlimited talk, text, and data, and access to Verizon’s fast and reliable 5G network. What really sets this plan apart, though, is its massive 200GB mobile hotspot data allowance—which is nearly enough to power your home internet!

But that's not all: Unlimited Ultimate comes with a bevy of awesome international perks, namely unlimited talk, text and 15GB of data to use each month when traveling internationally in 210+ countries. This makes the plan one of the best options on the market for those who travel abroad. It's Verizon's third-most popular plan, with 24% of subscribers opting for it over the carrier's other options.

Unlimited Ultimate comes down in price to $65/month per line when you add three lines, or just $55/month per line when you add four. If you have a data-hungry family that does a lot of hotspotting, this is the plan for you. 

One of the best family plans available right now is T-Mobile’s Experience Beyond. It costs $100/month for one line, but comes down to a reasonable $56.66/month per line when you sign up for three lines, or $53.75/month per line when you add four. 

While it's still on the expensive side, Experience Beyond packs in a lot for the price. This includes truly unlimited premium data—no deprioritization, ever—plus a massive 250GB mobile hotspot data allowance, free Netflix With Ads, and free HULU.

And don't sleep on the international perks: Experience Beyond also includes unlimited text, 30GB of high-speed data in Canada and Mexico, unlimited text, and 15GB of high-speed data in 215+ countries, and free in-flight WiFi where available. All told, the plan has just about everything to keep every member of your family happy.

Google Fi is a long-running prepaid cell phone carrier that’s owned by tech company Google. The brand has emerged as one of the most popular providers on the market around, thanks to its stable of low-cost, high value plans, solid customer service, and excellent coverage.

Google Fi primarily leverages T-Mobile's network to provide service to its customers, including its powerful 5G network. That means all of Google Fi's plans come backed by excellent coverage.

The carrier’s Unlimited Standard is undoubtedly one of the best budget plans on the market, with a price tag of just $25/month (with current promotion) when you prepay for 18 months of service.The plan includes 50GB of high-speed premium cellular data, plus a healthy 25GB of dedicated hotspot data. Service in Mexico and Canada is also included for free. 

Visible by Verizon is another major carrier-affiliated prepaid carrier that sells low-cost unlimited data plans that come backed with great national coverage (via Verizon).

Visible has become quite popular in recent years—with good reason. The carrier's prices gives competitors Mint Mobile a run for their money, and the backing of a major carrier is comforting for those making the jump to prepaid market.

Visible’s basic Unlimited plan costs just $25/month, and includes unlimited talk & text in Mexico and Canada. The only knock on this plan is that the unlimited mobile hotspot data is limited to 5 Mbps speeds, which is pretty glacial for most tasks. Still, the may be a worthwhile tradeoff given the plan's low price.

If you’re on the hunt for an inexpensive unlimited plan, Mint is worth a look. Owned by T-Mobile, Mint delivers reliable nationwide 5G and 4G LTE coverage at a fraction of the cost of major carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile itself. Its no surprise that Mint has long been the go-to for those looking to save on their cell phone plan.

Mint's Unlimited plan gives you truly unlimited data—the carrier has done away with the data cap—though you may experience slower speeds during times of congestion on the T-Mobile network (more on that later). It also features a dedicated 10GB high-speed mobile hotspot data allowance that doesn’t come out of your primary cellular data.

Mint Mobile’s Unlimited plan costs $30/month when you prepay for 3 months, but goes down to just $20/month when you pay for 12 months.

AT&T's Unlimited Extra EL is one of our favorite premium plans on the market. It includes just enough perks (dedicated hotspot data, international usage privileges) to justify its $75.99/month price tag

Plus, the plan comes backed by the best combined 4G and 5G coverage in the country, meaning you can enjoy all its features in more places than any other cell phone carrier.

Unlimited Extra EL includes 75GB of premium (i.e., un-deprioritized) data to use each month, along with 30GB of mobile hotspot data, and Mexico and Canada calling and texting. Not surprisingly, Unlimited Extra EL is the second-most popular AT&T plan in the carrier's stable, with about 26% of subscribers signing up for it on average.

Another great premium plan is Verizon’s Unlimited Plus. At $70/month, it includes some excellent features: access to Verizon’s fast 5G Ultra Wideband network coverage, truly unlimited premium data (no deprioritization, ever), a 30GB mobile hotspot data allowance, unlimited talk, text, and data in Mexico and Canada, and unlimited texting to over 200 countries. All of this helps to explain why it's the second-most popular Verizon plan, with 38.4% of new subscribers opting for it over the carrier's other options.

With Verizon, you can count on decent customer support, a large selection of devices, excellent coverage, and the ability to add all sorts of features (streaming subscriptions, international data, etc.) onto your plan. 

If you want to supercharge your plan with additional perks, you can choose from a wide selection of them via Verizon myPlan. At $10/month (with the exception of Apple One, which costs $15/month), they’re cheaper than they would be if you bought them separately. 

Our choice for the best overall premium cell phone plan is T-Mobile’s Experience More. While it’s expensive at $85/month, Experience More includes just about everything you'd want in a top-tier plan, including unlimited premium data, a generous 60GB mobile hotspot data allowance, and a free Netflix With Ads subscription. 

What's more, T-Mobile is arguably the most travel-friendly major carrier around. T-Mobile Experience More allows for full internet and texting on flights “where available,” unlimited talk, text, and 15GB/month of data to use in Canada and Mexico, and unlimited texting and 5GB/month of data in 215 countries and destinations.

The benefits of going with this plan don’t end there. Experience More is backed by T-Mobile’s strong 4G LTE and 5G coverage, not to mention 50GB/month of mobile hotspot data, and free Netflix and Apple TV subscriptions. All of this makes T-Mobile’s Experience More a great overall value.

Rest assured you’ll be able to enjoy all of these plan features aboard one of the fastest and most wide-reaching 5G networks in the country.