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Aisha
09 March 2026
Sydney to London is a long flight, and most Optus customers land in the UK already on a $5/day plan without giving it a second thought. That daily fee for European roaming is genuinely competitive for Australian carriers, and Optus has quietly become one of the better options for Australians heading to Europe. But there are four different Optus roaming products, each with different eligibility rules, data allowances, and country coverage. Choosing the wrong one, or not knowing your plan is on a lower tier, can mean paying $10/day instead of $5 for the same countries. This guide explains what each Optus Europe roaming plan actually includes in 2026 and when a travel eSIM is the smarter choice.
Optus operates Australia's second-largest mobile network and maintains roaming partnerships across Europe. In most European countries, Optus customers connect to established local carriers on 4G LTE networks. The UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, and 40-plus other European countries are all covered under Optus's Zone 1 roaming designation.
Optus offers four ways to use your service in Europe: Daily Roaming (the most common), the Roaming Pass, Standard Roaming Rates, and Prepaid Roaming Add-ons. Which option applies to you depends entirely on your current Optus plan. Daily Roaming, the AUD $5/day option, is only available on Optus Choice Plus plans and other selected eligible plans. Customers on lower-tier plans either fall back to the Roaming Pass ($10/day, 1 GB) or to PAYG standard roaming rates, which at $1/MB for data are catastrophically expensive.
One of Optus's more consumer-friendly features: if you cross from France into Switzerland or Belgium in the same day while on Daily Roaming, you still pay one $5 charge. A single daily fee covers multiple Zone 1 countries visited in the same 24-hour period. That is particularly useful in Central Europe, where borders are close and multi-country days are common.
Here is a breakdown of the available Optus Europe roaming options as of March 2026. Check your plan eligibility in the My Optus app before travelling.
Important: if you exceed your 5 GB daily allowance on Daily Roaming, Optus automatically charges another AUD $5 for a further 5 GB. Unused data does not roll over to the next day. Check the My Optus app to see which roaming tier your current plan qualifies for before you board.
Check your plan eligibility first. The difference between paying $5/day and $10/day for European roaming with Optus depends entirely on your plan type. Open the My Optus app, go to Services, then Add-ons and look for the Daily Roaming option. If it is not there, you are likely on a Roaming Pass plan or PAYG.
For postpaid Daily Roaming users: it activates automatically. The moment you land and your phone detects a European network, the $5 daily charge activates when you first use data, make a call, or send a text. There is no need to manually trigger anything, but make sure roaming is switched on in your My Optus settings before you depart.
For prepaid customers: buy after landing. Optus Prepaid Roaming Add-ons for Europe can be purchased through the My Optus app. The add-on does not auto-renew, so you need to repurchase when your current pack expires. If your trip extends beyond seven days, purchase a second pack once the first expires.
Watch the daily data reset. Optus Daily Roaming data resets at midnight, but check whether this is local midnight or Australian midnight. For extended European stays, understanding when your data resets helps you avoid accidentally triggering a second daily charge.
Avoid PAYG at all costs. Standard roaming rates at $1/MB mean that loading a single Google Maps route can cost several dollars. If you are not sure whether your plan supports Daily Roaming, verify in the My Optus app before you land. Arriving in Europe without a roaming plan activated is how surprise bills happen.
Optus's $5/day Daily Roaming is competitive for Australian carriers, but the daily fee model still adds up. Ten days in Europe at $5/day is $50 just for roaming access, before you factor in the data cap. The 5 GB daily allowance on Daily Roaming is generous for casual use, but heavy navigation, video calls home, or working remotely can exhaust it faster than expected, triggering an automatic second $5 charge for the day.
A dedicated travel eSIM becomes the better option when your trip extends past a week, when you need flexibility across multiple countries including any not on Optus's Zone 1 list, or when your current Optus plan does not qualify for the $5 Daily Roaming tier. If you are on a prepaid Optus plan, the $5 daily or $35 weekly Add-on is limited to Zone 1 countries and only available on Optus Flex plans: Flex, Flex Plus, and Flex 5G. Customers on other prepaid plans fall back to PAYG.
The biggest limitation of Optus Daily Roaming in Europe is not the price. It is the eligibility requirement. If your Optus plan does not qualify for Daily Roaming, you are either on the $10/day Roaming Pass or, worse, paying PAYG rates. TurkSIM's Europe eSIM has no such restriction: any eSIM-compatible phone can activate it, regardless of your Australian carrier or plan.
For Australians doing a European grand tour, one TurkSIM eSIM handles roaming across the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, Czech Republic, and beyond on a single plan. You scan the QR code in Sydney before departure and your data works the moment you land at Heathrow. There is no checking whether your Optus plan supports the country, no worrying about which zone you are in.
Dual-SIM works cleanly here. Your Optus number handles calls and SMS. TurkSIM handles all mobile data. The net result: you keep your Australian number reachable while paying local European rates for everything data-related. For a two-week family holiday to Europe, the savings over even the $5/day Daily Roaming model are meaningful.
Yes. Optus covers 40-plus European countries under its Zone 1 roaming designation, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, and most of Western and Central Europe. Check the full country list in the My Optus app before travelling.
The AUD $5/day Daily Roaming rate is only available on Optus Choice Plus and other selected eligible plans. If your plan is not eligible, you default to the Roaming Pass at $10/day for 1 GB of data. Check your plan in the My Optus app under Services and Add-ons to confirm which tier applies to you.
Yes, but only on specific prepaid plans. The Optus Prepaid Roaming Add-ons are available exclusively for customers on Optus Flex, Flex Plus, and Flex 5G plans. The $5 daily add-on provides 1 GB of data, 100 call minutes, and 100 SMS. Customers on other prepaid plans are subject to PAYG roaming rates.
Optus automatically adds another 5 GB for AUD $5. This happens without notification, so heavy data users can find themselves charged $10 or $15 for a single day. Unused data from each daily allowance does not carry over to the next day.
Yes. Switzerland is included in Optus's Zone 1 European roaming destinations. If you travel through France and Switzerland in the same day, you only pay one $5 Daily Roaming charge, as Zone 1 countries are treated as a single zone for daily billing purposes.
Yes, if your phone supports dual-SIM. You set TurkSIM as the default data SIM to use local European network rates, while your Optus SIM remains active for calls and texts on your Australian number. This means banking verification codes, calls from family, and anything else tied to your Optus number continue working normally without triggering the daily roaming charge for data.
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