North America eSIM for Canada, the USA, and Mexico: one plan

A North America eSIM that crosses the two busiest borders on the continent with you is the point of this plan. The trip that lands in New York and drives to Toronto, or flies into Los Angeles and ends in Mexico City, used to mean a new SIM at the border or a roaming pass that reset there. The North America plan puts Canada, the USA, and Mexico on one eSIM, with 5G in all three and the phone switching networks by itself at the crossing. Add it at home, on Wi-Fi, and it's live the moment you land in the first of them.

Below: how the North America plan works, how to set it up before you fly, what it covers and what it doesn't, and what to expect from coverage in the cities, on the road, and in the wilderness.

A North American trip is often the long one: two or three weeks, several cities, maybe a border. KnowRoaming is built for that. You add the KnowRoaming eSIM, called KR.One, to your phone once, then add a plan per trip: the North America plan now, a North America plan the year the route crosses a border within North America, anywhere else after that. The eSIM stays; only the plan changes, and nothing needs deleting when you get home.

The plan's days start when you turn it on and connect in any of the three countries, not at checkout. Buy it weeks ahead, add it at home, and a delayed flight costs you nothing. The full rule is in what plan validity means and when it starts.

Choose a fixed plan for a set amount of data at the lowest overall price, or an unlimited plan when you'd rather not count. Unlimited plans give you 5 GB a day at full speed, then a slower speed until the allowance resets the next day. If a fixed plan runs low, top up in the app and the extra data lands on the same eSIM.

See it in two minutes: Meet KR.One, iPhone setup with KR.One, or Samsung setup with KR.One.

Do this at home on Wi-Fi. It takes about a minute.

Before you leave

1. Get the KnowRoaming app (available on iOS and Android) and choose your North America plan.
2. Tap Add. First time on this phone? The app adds KR.One and your North America plan together. Already have KR.One? Only the plan is added, with nothing to scan.
3. Leave data roaming off on the KnowRoaming line until you land, and turn it off on your home line too so it doesn't run up charges in the background. Steps are in turning off roaming on your home line.

When you land

1. Turn the plan on in the app, then turn data roaming on for the KnowRoaming line. That setting lives in your phone, so the app can't flip it for you.
2. Give the phone a minute to find the network. If nothing happens, turn airplane mode on for 30 seconds and off again.

Prefer a QR code? The checkout page and your confirmation email both carry one; scan it from your phone's settings. Every tap, by device, is in adding your eSIM on iPhone, adding your eSIM on Android, and adding your eSIM on Samsung, or watch the iPhone QR walkthrough or the Samsung QR walkthrough. Still no signal after landing? Work through the no-signal checklist.

Three countries on one plan with one data balance: Canada, the United States (USA), and Mexico. The full list is also on the plan card above, under "Where this eSIM works".

Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Guam are separate KnowRoaming destinations with their own plans, and Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are on the Caribbean plan; a USA plan or the North America plan does not cover them. Whether the plan covers Hawaii and Alaska as part of the USA is a product question still open at the time of writing; the plan card's list is the authority.

Belize, Guatemala, and the rest of Central America are on the LATAM plan, which also covers Mexico, so a trip that continues south from Mexico wants the LATAM plan instead; Greenland and Bermuda are sold as their own plans; Cuba is not a KnowRoaming destination. For a trip that adds Europe or Asia, the Global plan covers all three North American countries and 130 more. Read crossing into a border country your plan doesn't include before a route that crosses into a country the plan doesn't include.

Niagara, Detroit and Windsor, Seattle and Vancouver, Tijuana and San Diego, El Paso and Juárez: a North America eSIM switches networks by itself as you cross, and there is nothing to change in the app. Keep data roaming on for the KnowRoaming line the whole trip, since that is the one setting the app can't change for you, and give the phone a minute after the crossing; if it hasn't found the new network, airplane mode on and off forces a fresh search. The days keep counting from the first time you connected, wherever that was.

The road trip is the North American form, and the plan's job on it is the navigation, the bookings, and the podcasts through the empty stretches; Uber and Lyft cover the cities in Canada and the USA, Uber and DiDi in Mexico, all with the number you already have. Cards and phone wallets work nearly everywhere in all three countries, with cash useful in Mexico's markets and small towns.

In each country the plan connects to a local partner network, with 5G in Canada, the USA, and Mexico and 4G LTE across the towns and highways. Your phone picks the network automatically once the plan is on; there is nothing to choose by hand.

The gaps are the continent's empty spaces on any network: the Rockies' passes and the Icefields Parkway, the national parks of the American West, the Nevada and Utah deserts, Baja's highway, and the Copper Canyon. Each destination page says what to expect where; the habit that covers all of them is downloading maps and bookings before the leg that leaves the cities.

Winter closes mountain passes and delays flights across the north, and the provincial and state road apps and the airlines' apps are where the changes appear first; summer fills the national parks, whose shuttles and campsites book online months ahead. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring break are the three weeks the whole continent travels at once, and the Mexican resort coasts book out over the same dates.

Most phones sold since 2019 support eSIM, including iPhone XS and later and most Android flagships from the same window. Check yours before you add a plan; it takes a few seconds. On iPhone, go to Settings, General, About and look for an EID or Available SIM. On Android, go to Settings, Network & Internet, SIMs and look for an option to add an eSIM. On Samsung, dial *#06# and look for an EID.

Your phone also needs to be carrier-unlocked. If you're not sure, carrier-locked vs unlocked: how to tell shows you where to look.

Adding a North America plan doesn't touch your regular SIM. Calls and texts on your usual number keep working exactly as before. The new plan handles data while you're there, and most phones run both at once without you doing anything else. Bank codes and two-factor texts still arrive on your home number, as long as that line stays switched on.

In North America the alternatives are a daily roaming pass from home that turns into a slow lane after the first gigabyte, a prepaid SIM from a phone store that comes with a new number your contacts don't have, or hotel Wi-Fi in a country where the rideshare, the parking, and the trail map all need data. A North America plan added before you fly beats all three: one price agreed at home, live the second you land, and a North America plan if the trip crosses a border.

Real travelers rate KnowRoaming 4.5 out of 5 on Reviews.io. More than a decade in travel connectivity, more than 200 destinations, and support that doesn't clock off: WhatsApp and live chat, any time, any day.

One plan. No roaming surprises. Live the moment you land.

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4.5 out of 5 on Reviews.io. 200+ destinations. Support that doesn't clock off.