Does Airtel Work in China?

Airtel China roaming packs and prices

Airtel’s China roaming packs cost from ₹698 for 1 day on prepaid, and from ₹2,999 for 10 days on postpaid outside Maharashtra. Each pack covers all 189 countries on Airtel’s list, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan among them. All prices on this page are in Indian rupees, from Airtel’s international roaming terms (PDF, September 2026), checked Oct 18, 2026.

Airtel prepaid international roaming packs for China

Prepaid packs for China cost from ₹698 for 1 day to ₹4,999 for 365 days.

Prepaid pack	Price	Data in China	Calls (incoming and outgoing, local and to India)	Texts sent
1 day	₹698	1GB	100 minutes	10
5 days	₹998	4GB	150 minutes	20
10 days	₹1,298	6GB	200 minutes	20
30 days	₹2,998	10GB	300 minutes	20
365 days	₹4,999	7GB	100 minutes	200

• When the data runs out: Airtel blocks data straight away. A 2GB top-up costs ₹699 and lasts until your pack ends. If you buy a second pack while abroad, its data, minutes, texts and days add to the first.
• After the minutes and texts: calls cost ₹10 a minute and texts ₹5. Incoming texts are free. Calls to countries other than India and China cost ₹45 a minute.
• When a day ends: prepaid pack days end at 11:59pm India time, which is 2:29am in China.
• When to buy: up to 30 days before you travel. The pack starts with your first call, text or data use in China. If you don’t travel within 30 days, it expires without a refund.
• The 365-day pack starts on the day you buy it. It also covers you in India with 2.5GB a day, unlimited local calls and 100 texts a day.
• Not available: Airtel’s terms say prepaid SIMs from the Assam, North East and J&K circles don’t work on international roaming.

Airtel’s terms say the current 5-day and 10-day prices apply from July 29, 2026. The FAQ on Airtel’s pack page still lists the older prices of ₹898 and ₹1,198 for those packs. TelecomTalk reported on Aug 6, 2026 that the new prices were live in the Airtel app and website.

Airtel postpaid China roaming packs

Outside Maharashtra, postpaid packs for China cost ₹2,999 for 10 days or ₹3,999 for 30 days, with unlimited data.

Postpaid pack, outside Maharashtra	Price	Data in China	Calls (incoming and outgoing, local and to India)	Texts sent
10 days	₹2,999	Unlimited, 10GB at high speed	100 minutes a day	20
30 days	₹3,999	Unlimited, 30GB at high speed	100 minutes a day	20
90 days	₹5,999	Unlimited, 40GB at high speed	900 minutes	100
365 days	₹14,999	Unlimited, 40GB at high speed	3,000 minutes	100

• After the high-speed data: speed drops to 80kbps. Postpaid top-ups cost ₹699 for 2GB over 5 days or ₹2,499 for 8GB over 10 days, and you can buy one only after your pack has started abroad.
• After the minutes and texts: calls cost ₹10 a minute and texts ₹5. The daily minutes on the 10-day and 30-day packs reset at midnight local time.
• When a day ends: postpaid pack days end at midnight local time in the country where you first used the pack, so midnight China time if you land in China.
• When to buy: up to 365 days before you travel. The pack starts with your first call, text or data use abroad. Before it starts, you can cancel it in the Airtel App or through customer care.
• Auto-renewal is off by default. You can turn it on in the Airtel App so the same pack renews when it ends.
• Maharashtra circle: different postpaid packs apply from August 19: ₹2,599 for 7 days with 5GB at high speed, ₹3,499 for 14 days with 20GB, then the same 30-, 90- and 365-day packs as above.

Postpaid customers can also turn on roaming without a pack. Standard rates then apply until a day’s charges in China pass ₹698. At that point Airtel adds a ₹698 one-day pack with 1GB of data, 100 minutes and 10 texts, valid until 11:59pm local time. After the 1GB, data slows to 80kbps. Airtel calls this Roam-Without-Fear, and the charge appears on your next bill.

Free roaming on new Airtel postpaid plans

Airtel’s new postpaid plans, available from October 8, 2026, include one free 5-day roaming pack a year for each SIM, with 5GB of data, 60 minutes of calls and 25 texts. The plans start at ₹499. Airtel’s terms say the pack covers 180+ destinations but don’t list them, so check China is included when you claim it.

• Claim it in the Rewards and OTTs section of the Airtel App. The 5 days start when your phone first connects to a network abroad.
• New and prepaid customers can claim it after 90 days on one of the new postpaid plans. Existing postpaid customers need 90 days on any Airtel postpaid plan. You can’t have an unpaid bill.
• After you use it abroad, you agree to stay on an eligible postpaid plan for 90 days. If you leave, port out or move to prepaid in that time, Airtel charges ₹2,000 plus GST.

Airtel China roaming charges without a pack

Without a pack, Airtel’s standard rates for China are ₹6.5 per 10KB of data, which is about ₹665 per MB. Calls cost ₹50 a minute within China, ₹180 a minute to India, ₹200 a minute to other countries and ₹100 a minute to receive. Texts cost ₹25 to send and nothing to receive.

On prepaid, you can pay a ₹118 activation fee instead of buying a pack. It lasts 28 days and works only while your regular prepaid pack is active. Calls, texts and data are then charged at these rates from your main balance, and incoming texts are free.

How to turn on Airtel international roaming for China

International roaming is off on every Airtel number by default. Buying a pack turns it on:

1. Before you fly, go to airtel.in/ir-packs or the International Roaming section of the Airtel Thanks app. Enter your number and choose a pack.
2. In China, turn on data roaming in your phone’s settings.
3. Airtel says the pack activates automatically when you land and first use your phone. You can track usage in the Airtel App.
4. Airtel’s packs work on any of its partner networks, so you don’t need to choose one. If your phone doesn’t connect, restart it, then try selecting China Mobile or China Unicom manually.
5. For help from abroad, call or WhatsApp +91 99100 99100, which Airtel says is toll-free.

Without a pack, postpaid customers can turn on roaming in the Airtel Thanks app or through customer care, and prepaid customers can pay the ₹118 activation fee in the Airtel App.

Google and WhatsApp on Airtel roaming: what’s known

Not confirmed. We found no Airtel page that says how Airtel routes roaming data or whether apps blocked in China work on it.

The only first-hand report we found from an Airtel customer is a GSMArena reader comment from June 16, 2024. The reader wrote that they spent a week in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen with international roaming on their Jio and Airtel SIMs, and that “Everything worked including WhatsApp, Google services and facebook.” They had also installed the Proton VPN app, so the comment doesn’t show whether roaming alone got past the firewall.

BGR explained in July 2026 that a roaming phone sends its traffic through the local network back to the carrier’s home country before it goes online. BGR says this is what lets roaming phones reach Facebook and YouTube in China. It didn’t name Airtel.

None of these reports describes a test. Have a backup ready. Our WhatsApp in China page covers other ways to reach it.

When you still need a VPN

Roaming doesn’t help on Wi-Fi. BGR notes that local Wi-Fi networks and local SIMs in China are subject to the Great Firewall. On hotel or café Wi-Fi in China, you need a VPN for blocked apps, whatever your phone plan. A VPN is also your fallback if Airtel roaming data doesn’t get past the firewall for you. Install and test one before you leave India. See eSIM or VPN for China and VPN for hotel Wi-Fi in China.

Airtel China roaming cost compared with travel eSIMs

Extra cost for data in China for one person, checked Oct 18, 2026, on each provider’s site:

Option	Data in China	5 days	10 days
Airtel prepaid pack	4GB (5-day pack) or 6GB (10-day pack)	₹998	₹1,298
Airtel postpaid pack, outside Maharashtra	Unlimited, 10GB at high speed	No 5-day pack	₹2,999
Nomad	Unlimited	₹1,712.02	₹3,138.70
Trip.com mainland China eSIM	100GB a day, capped at 10Mbps	₹976.81	₹1,480.04

• 5 days: the prepaid 5-day pack costs ₹998 for 4GB. Trip.com costs ₹21.19 less for up to 100GB a day, and Nomad’s unlimited plan costs ₹1,712.02. Outside Maharashtra there’s no 5-day postpaid pack, and five days of Roam-Without-Fear cost up to ₹3,490, if each day’s charges reach the ₹698 cap.
• 10 days: the postpaid 10-day pack costs ₹2,999. Trip.com costs ₹1,518.96 less, and Nomad ₹139.70 more. The prepaid 10-day pack costs ₹1,298 but has 6GB for the whole trip.
• Free postpaid pack: on one of Airtel’s new postpaid plans, the free 5-day pack costs nothing extra, if China is covered when you claim it.

Trip.com showed a 5% limited-time discount on these plans on Oct 18, 2026; the table uses its full prices. Nomad says you can’t buy add-on data while you’re physically in India or China, so buy enough data before you travel.

Airtel’s packs include calls and texts on your Indian number, and Airtel lists bank, hotel and flight messages among the reasons to keep it. Trip.com lists voice calls and texts as not included in its plan. If you use an eSIM for data and keep Airtel roaming on without a pack, Airtel’s terms advise turning off data on the Airtel line. Speed limits on unlimited eSIM plans, and how each one routes data, are on our eSIM comparison. For India’s other big carrier, see Jio roaming in China.