With IXT, you get one global SIM (SIM, eSIM or iSIM), a shared data pool across countries and real time updates in our CMP. Pricing is transparent and designed for scale. Additional services like our strong security offering, SMS and voice are optional add-ons. Use our pricing-calculator to get a clear estimate.
In this article we will walk through:
-
What actually makes up the cost of an IoT SIM
-
The most common pricing models in the market
-
Hidden fees and contract traps to look out for
-
How IXT thinks about pricing, and how to use our pricing calculator to get a realistic estimate
Why “what’s your price per SIM?” is the wrong first question
Unlike consumer mobile plans, IoT deployments rarely look like “one user, lots of data”.
They are usually many devices, each sending small, irregular bursts of data. They are deployed across multiple countries or regions. They run for years, with very different usage profiles over time.
That means the real question is not just “what is the price per SIM?”, but:
“What will this deployment cost me per month – including data, roaming, security, management and all the small print?”
To get there, it helps to break the cost down.
What you are really paying for with an IoT SIM
When you look at an offer, you will typically see combinations of these elements:
-
SIM / eSIM / iSIM cost (one-off)
A small fee per physical SIM, eSIM profile or iSIM activation. -
Monthly recurring charge per SIM
Often a flat “line rental” per active SIM, charged before any data usage. -
Data pricing model
This is the big component. You might see pay-as-you-go per MB or GB, a fixed bundle per SIM, or a shared / pooled data model across many SIMs. Tiered pricing is common, where the more you use, the lower the price per mb or gb. -
SMS and signalling
Some devices still use SMS for wake-up or configuration, and those messages are often billed separately. -
Value-added services
This is where offers start to diverge. Private APNs, VPN tunnels, direct cloud connections, static or public IP addresses, and security features such as firewalls or zero trust gateways can all appear as extras. -
Support and platform access
Access to a connectivity management platform, APIs and support (for example best-effort or 24/7) can be bundled or priced as separate items.
None of these are bad in themselves. The issue is when they are priced in ways that create surprises later.
Common pricing models, and what they mean for your budget
Pay-as-you-go (per MB / per GB)
In a pay-as-you-go model you pay for exactly what you use. There may be a low, or even zero, monthly fee per SIM, and then a defined price per MB or GB. Rates can vary per region or “zone”, and roaming or out-of-region usage is typically more expensive.
This is often a good fit for very low-usage devices or early pilots. The main risk is overage. If a device starts sending more than expected, the bill can grow quickly.
Fixed bundle per SIM
Here, each SIM gets a fixed allowance, such as 10, 50 or 100 MB per month at a set price. There are often tiers, where larger bundles cost less per MB.
This works well for fleets where each device has similar, predictable usage. The trade-off is that you can end up paying for data that lighter devices never use, while heavier ones risk going out of bundle.
Shared / pooled data
In a pooled model, you buy a shared bucket of data for all your SIMs, for example if your average per SIM is 1GB and you have 10 000 devices, that will give you 10 TB per month for all those devices to share. Each device draws from the same pool, regardless of country or individual usage profile.
This is increasingly popular in IoT because it reflects reality: some devices will always be chatty, others will send tiny amounts. Pooling lets the under-users offset the over-users, which makes your total monthly spend more predictable.
This is the model IXT uses with our global data pool. All your SIMs draw from one shared pot, across borders.
Hidden costs and traps to look out for
This is where “cheap” offers sometimes become very expensive. When you compare providers, it is worth slowing down and really reading how each of these topics is handled in the contract.
Roaming and permanent roaming
Global IoT devices often sit permanently in one foreign network. Some providers add surcharges in certain countries, apply time limits to roaming, or quietly penalise permanent roaming. Others push you into expensive “world” zones if your footprint changes.
When you look at a quote, ask directly how roaming is priced by region, and what happens if a SIM is permanently roaming in that country. It is also worth asking whether the provider uses local profiles or multi-IMSI to avoid roaming penalties, or if you are effectively always “visiting” as a roamer.
Overage and “bill shock”
Many plans look reasonable until you go out of bundle. It is not unusual to see overage priced many times higher than in-bundle data. For an IoT device that suddenly starts streaming logs or gets stuck in a loop, this can turn into a painful invoice.
Instead of just asking “what is your standard rate?”, ask “what do we pay per MB or GB beyond our allowance or pool?” and “can we set caps or alerts before we hit overage?”. A provider that cannot give you a clear answer here is a risk.
Throttling and “fair usage”
Some low-cost or “unlimited” offers look attractive on paper, but they rely on throttling and fair usage clauses in the small print. That might mean speed drops after a certain threshold, a forced downgrade from 4G/5G to slower technologies, or a soft cap where traffic is deprioritised.
That sort of behaviour can break your application, especially if you rely on real-time data, payment authorisation or frequent updates. When you see “unlimited” or unusually low prices, make sure you understand whether there is any throttling or fair usage policy and exactly when it kicks in.
Lifecycle events: activation, suspension, swap
Over the life of a deployment you will activate, suspend and replace SIMs quite often. Devices may be staged in a warehouse before they go live, parked seasonally, or replaced when hardware fails.
Some providers charge every time you do this. There can be activation or reactivation fees, suspension fees, or charges to swap a SIM or change a profile. Individually they look small, but across thousands of devices they add up.
It is worth asking what it costs to activate, suspend, reactivate or terminate a SIM, and whether you can park inactive SIMs cheaply without losing their numbers or profiles.
Private networking and security add-ons
Most enterprises need some mix of private networking and security. That might be a private APN, VPN tunnels, direct cloud connections, static IPs or security monitoring.
In some offers these are bundled into a clear “secure connectivity” package. In others they appear as separate, technical line items that quietly increase your total cost. When you evaluate an offer, look at which of these elements are included as standard and which are extra, and check how they are billed (per tunnel, per APN, per MB and so on).
The cost of poor coverage and downtime
The biggest hidden cost rarely appears in the tariff. It shows up as truck rolls, outages and lost revenue.
If your SIMs perform poorly, you may end up sending technicians on site to reset devices, replace hardware or troubleshoot network issues. You might also lose income from services that depend on connectivity, such as EV chargers, ticketing systems or payment terminals. Those costs can easily outweigh any saving on the monthly SIM fee.
Cheap connectivity that does not work is usually the most expensive option you can buy.
How IXT thinks about IoT SIM pricing
At IXT, we try to keep two things true at the same time: pricing should be simple enough to understand and plan for, but flexible enough to fit different use cases and growth.
A few principles behind our model:
-
One global SIM (SIM, eSIM or iSIM) with access to hundreds of networks in nearly two hundred countries, so you do not need separate contracts and tariffs per region.
-
A global data pool, so your SIMs draw from a shared pot instead of rigid micro-bundles per device. That helps you use data more efficiently and reduces the risk of overage.
-
Security as part of the connectivity story. With SecureNet and our zero trust architecture, you can keep traffic off the public internet, use private networking and build towards NIS2-ready security without stitching together separate VPN and APN solutions from different vendors.
-
Transparent conversations about extras such as dedicated private networking, static IP requirements or special regulatory needs. These elements can add cost with any provider, so we prefer to make them explicit up front rather than bury them in the small print.
Using the IXT pricing calculator
If you want a concrete starting point for your own business case, you can plug your assumptions into the IXT SIM pricing calculator:
https://ixt.io/sim-pricing-calculator
A few practical tips before you do:
-
Think in ranges rather than perfection. For example, “most devices use 5–15 MB per month” is usually good enough.
-
Include future regions you expect to expand into, not just the countries where you are live today.
You will get an indicative monthly cost based on your volume and data assumptions. From there, our sales team can walk through details such as private networking and security needs, special roaming or regulatory considerations, and options for pilots versus full rollout.
A quick checklist before you choose any IoT SIM provider
When you compare offers, ask every provider the same set of questions:
-
How is data priced (per SIM, per MB, pooled)?
-
What are your overage rates and roaming surcharges?
-
Do you throttle or apply “fair usage” on any plans?
-
How do you handle permanent roaming restrictions in key markets?
-
What does it cost to activate, suspend, swap or retire SIMs?
-
Which security features are included, and what is extra?
-
Do you support private networking and direct cloud connections?
-
What visibility and controls do we get in your connectivity management platform?
-
What is the minimum term and are there volume or revenue commitments?
If you cannot get clear answers, that is a cost signal too.
The price of an IoT SIM is more than a “per SIM per month” number – but with the right structure, it can still be predictable, scalable and fair.
About the author
IXT writes about IoT connectivity because we build it. We’re a Full-MVNO with our own core network and a CMP we designed in-house, so we see what works at scale and what doesn’t. Our team has decades of experience in M2M/IoT, from network engineering to enterprise rollouts, so the guidance we share is practical, vendor-agnostic and field-tested. Connect, secure and manage devices with confidence using our IoT Connectivity.