How much 1GB of data costs in South Africa vs the World

The price of a 1GB data bundle in South Africa averages R78.50 depending on the mobile network on which it is purchased.

We compared the price of 1GB of prepaid mobile data in South Africa to other countries, including the US, UK, Australia, Germany, and Nigeria.

Of the regions we compared, South Africa’s 1GB data pricing ranks 6th, with the cheapest country being Nigeria, whose mobile network providers charge R21.26 on average per GB of data.

Namibia charges the most at R155.50 for 1GB of prepaid data.

South Africa has three primary network operators focused on mobile devices: Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, and Cell C.

Vodacom and MTN charge R85 for 1GB of data, while Cell C charges R65.

Telkom offers a 1GB data bundle, with an additional 1GB of Night Surfer data, for R79.

Rain also offers a mobile data service in South Africa, but it has opted to provide an uncapped 4G service for R299 rather than selling data bundles.

The US, UK, Germany and Australia

Outside of Africa, the UK charges the least per gigabyte of data among the countries compared at R37.12, while the US prices are the highest at an average of R105.50.

US pricing is subject to sales tax, which varies from state to state, ranging from 2.9 to 7.25 per cent. We calculated the US pricing using an average combined sales tax of 6.35%

On average, the UK charges approximately 52% less, and the US charges almost 25.6% more than South Africa per GB of data.

Mobile data customers in Australia and Germany pay R80.73 and R60.91 on average, respectively.

It is important to note that unlimited mobile data plans are more common in the US and UK, with these plans starting at R542.50 ($35) per month in the US and R444.05 per month (£21) in the UK.

In many instances, these plans also include unlimited minutes and text messages.

However, unlimited plans frequently have other restrictions, such as not allowing subscribers to use their uncapped data if they tether to their phone as a portable Wi-Fi hotspot.

The African countries

Botswana, Nigeria, and Kenya’s mobile network providers charge a substantial amount less than South Africa’s per GB of data.

At R21.26 per GB of data, Nigeria’s mobile network operators charge approximately 73% less per GB of data than South Africa.

Botswana and Kenya charge R44.29 and R21.86, respectively.

The average price of 1GB of mobile data in Namibia is over 50% more than what it costs in South Africa.

The table below compares the price of 1GB of prepaid mobile data in South Africa to other nations such as the US, UK, Australia, Germany, and Nigeria.

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