Frequently asked questions

soda uses a prepaid wallet. Before payment, we show a complete preview of the current destination tariff. First confirmed usage opens a 30-day window and locks that version; within it, soda compares metered pricing with price-protection thresholds automatically.

You do not choose a data bundle or estimate gigabytes. You do tell us your destinations in travel order so we can show the right tariff, provision a compatible line, and explain any eSIM switch before payment.

Your balance never expires and carries over to your next trip. Top-ups you have not used can be refunded to your original card within the cooling-off period.

The wallet separates confirmed usage, settled charges, and pending estimates for the current pricing window. Usage comes from the upstream carrier rather than your phone and can currently lag by up to about three hours.

Yes. A 30-day hard budget limits the maximum exposure soda may authorise, separately from a data price platform. When credit cannot cover new capacity, soda stops adding capacity; a small amount already provisioned may remain usable briefly.

You only pay when you top up. Confirmed charges and pending estimates appear in the wallet and settle against your credit; soda never makes an automatic extra charge to your payment card. Delayed upstream usage settles when it arrives.

Live markets are Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Indonesia, the Philippines, the United States, China and Macau, plus a regional line covering 34 European countries. A European trip runs on a single eSIM across all 34; other multi-country trips use country-specific eSIMs and require a free switch before the next stop. All share one wallet.

soda runs a compatibility check before payment: it detects your OS and walks you through dialling *#06# to look for an EID (about 15 seconds). Mainland-China iPhones and many Hong Kong models don’t support eSIM — the check warns you clearly.

No new data purchase is required. Sign in on the new phone and choose “Replace device” to request a free reissue. The old eSIM is voided after confirmation; timing depends on the upstream carrier. Your wallet balance is unaffected.

Before payment, soda discloses whether your route uses a single-country or regional line, its coverage, and known breakout differences. Actual speed and availability still depend on local carriers and roaming conditions.

No passport or ID upload. Carrier-side registration is handled by the telecom layer and cardholder verification by the payment provider — soda itself never holds your identity documents.

soda stops authorising new capacity as soon as the available balance is gone. A small amount already provisioned may keep working for a short while. Your wallet only marks the eSIM as paused after the supplier confirms it, so the status you see can lag behind what the phone is doing.

We check the balance is enough, then ask the supplier to resume. That request has to travel upstream and come back, so a finished top-up is not the same as a working connection — the wallet updates when the supplier confirms.

No new data is authorised. Capacity already issued still draws down as you use it. Raise the limit to keep going. If the balance is also short, raising the limit is not enough on its own — you need to top up as well, and service resumes once both are sufficient.

A top-up you have not spent can go back to the original card for 14 days after you paid. Separately, your first confirmed usage opens a 30-day pricing window and locks the tariff version shown to you before payment; at the end of that window soda re-runs every applicable plan combination against your actual usage and charges the cheapest total.

Try again on Wi-Fi first. If it still does nothing, use the QR code or type the activation code by hand from the "other ways to install" section — the result is identical.

Open Settings › Cellular, turn the soda line on, and enable data roaming. After you land it can take a minute or two to find a network.

A reissue or a cross-border switch retires the old activation code. Go back to the install screen and use the newest button there. Reinstalling does not charge you again.

Yes. Reissuing to a new phone, or switching to the next country's line, retires the previous card by design. Your balance sits on the account, not on the card, so it is unaffected.

The carrier behind a regional line does not report usage country by country, so we cannot print that breakdown. The bill shows one country code to stand for the whole line; it is there for accounting and does not record where you actually went. Single-country lines are not affected.

There is no password. Enter your email and continue; the first time you do, the account is created. You can add a passkey on the device afterwards for one-tap sign-in.

Yes. Changing your email never needs access to the old address. As long as this device can pass verification, the code goes to the new address and the change is done. If you cannot get into the account on this device either, write to support@soda.travel — the last four digits of the payment card can be used to verify you.