Does O2 Work in China?

O2 roaming in China: what’s included

Mainland China is in Zone 2 of O2’s roaming zones outside Europe. Hong Kong is in Zone 2 too, so O2 Travel works there at the same price. Macau is in Zone 3, which O2 Travel doesn’t cover. All prices on this page are in pounds.

Option	Price	Data in China	Calls and texts
O2 Travel Bolt On, on Pay Monthly	£7 a day	Unlimited, capped at 2Mbps	Unlimited calls to the UK and within China, unlimited texts
Ultimate plan	Included	Unlimited, capped at 2Mbps	Unlimited calls to the UK and within China, unlimited texts
Zone 2 Data Roaming Bolt On, on Pay Monthly	£9, £20 or £29	1GB, 3GB or 5GB	£3 a minute to make or receive calls, £1 a text
Pay As You Go	Standard rates	£7.20 per MB	£2 a minute to make or receive calls, 50p a text

O2 Travel and Pay As You Go prices are from O2’s rates page for China, and bolt-on prices from its Data Roaming Bolt Ons page, both checked Oct 18, 2026.

• What counts as a day: O2 charges for O2 Travel on each day you make a call, send a text or use data in China. Receiving calls and texts doesn’t trigger the charge. O2’s terms say a day lasts 24 hours from your first use. Its O2 Travel help page says instead that the charge applies from midnight to midnight local time.
• Your UK allowance: O2 Travel gives you a separate allowance, so it doesn’t use your UK minutes, texts or data.
• Not included: calls to countries other than the UK and China are charged at standard roaming rates. Premium rate numbers, MMS and non-standard texts aren’t part of the £7 either.
• Spend Cap: O2 says the O2 Travel charge isn’t included in your Spend Cap.
• Smartphones only: O2’s terms say O2 Travel is for smartphone use only, not other devices.

Which O2 plans include China

• Ultimate plans include the O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Ultimate. It covers 75 destinations outside Europe, China and Hong Kong among them, at no extra cost, with the same 2Mbps cap.
• Volt and Plus plans can include the O2 Travel Inclusive Zone, which covers the 27 destinations in Zone 1. China isn’t one of them. O2 says customers with the Inclusive Zone can add an O2 Travel Bolt On for Zone 2 at £7 a day.
• Pay As You Go customers can’t get O2 Travel or Data Roaming Bolt Ons. Standard rates apply.

O2 data roaming in China without O2 Travel

On Pay Monthly without O2 Travel or an Ultimate plan, O2 stops your data abroad unless you buy a Data Roaming Bolt On, so you aren’t charged by accident. In Zone 2, the bolt-ons cost £9 for 1GB, £20 for 3GB and £29 for 5GB. O2 texts you a link when you land, or you can add one in My O2 before you go. Data you haven’t used by your bill date rolls over to the end of your next billing month. Calls and texts aren’t included: a call costs £3 a minute to make or receive, and a text costs £1.

On Pay As You Go, data in China costs £7.20 per MB, so 100MB costs £720. Calls cost £2 a minute to make or receive, and texts cost 50p. O2 says chargeable calls have a one-minute minimum and are rounded up to the nearest 15 seconds.

How to turn on O2 roaming in China

On Pay Monthly:

1. Before you fly, sign in to My O2 and check your Bolt Ons under Account, then View your Bolt Ons. If you’re on an Ultimate plan, China is already included.
2. If not, add O2 Travel in My O2 or text TRAVEL to 23336. It costs nothing to add. O2’s terms say it can take up to 24 hours to be applied to your account, so add it at least a day before you leave.
3. To make calls in China, your phone must support 4G Calling Abroad. Check that 4G Calling is on and WiFi Calling is off. O2 says phones newer than an iPhone 7 or Samsung Galaxy S20 use 4G Calling automatically, and older phones may be limited to texts and data.
4. In China, turn on data roaming. On iPhone: Settings > Mobile Data > Mobile Data Options > Data Roaming. On a Dual SIM iPhone, tap your O2 number before Mobile Data Options.
5. O2 Travel costs nothing on days you don’t use it abroad. To remove it, text NOTRAVEL to 23336 or remove it in My O2.

On Pay As You Go, O2 Travel isn’t available and data costs £7.20 per MB, so keep data roaming off unless you mean to pay that rate.

Google and WhatsApp on O2: what’s known

Not confirmed. We found no O2 page that says how O2 routes roaming data or whether apps blocked in China work on it. We also found no first-hand report from an O2 customer in China. The general claims we found disagree, and none describes a test:

• Charity Challenge’s China internet advisory, written for travelers leaving the UK and updated in May 2026, says UK carrier roaming “bypasses the firewall but is significantly more expensive”. It doesn’t name a network. It recommends Holafly eSIMs.
• Travelren, which sells eSIMs, wrote in April 2026 that UK telco roaming goes through Chinese networks, so the firewall applies and Google and WhatsApp are blocked. It named EE, Three and Vodafone, not O2.

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, which is what lets roaming phones reach Facebook and YouTube in China. BGR didn’t name O2.

Our EE roaming in China page covers reports from customers of another UK network. 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 O2 roaming data doesn’t get past the firewall for you. Install and test one before you leave the UK. See eSIM or VPN for China and VPN for hotel Wi-Fi in China.

O2 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 (Airalo rechecked Oct 25, 2026):

Option	Data in China	7 days	15 days
O2 Travel Bolt On	Unlimited, capped at 2Mbps	£49	£105
O2 Ultimate plan	Unlimited, capped at 2Mbps	Included	Included
O2 Zone 2 Data Roaming Bolt On	5GB for the whole trip	£29	£29
Airalo	Unlimited	£21.00	£38.50
Holafly	Unlimited	£22.00	£42.00

• 7 days: O2 Travel costs £49 if you use your phone every day. Unlimited data on Airalo costs £28.00 less, and Holafly £27.00 less.
• 15 days: O2 Travel costs £105. Airalo costs £38.50 and Holafly £42.00.
• Data bolt-on: the 5GB bolt-on costs £29 for the whole trip, but calls cost £3 a minute and texts £1 on top.
• Ultimate plan: if your plan includes China, a travel eSIM adds cost rather than saving it.

O2 Travel includes calls and texts. The eSIMs are data only. Speed limits on unlimited eSIM plans, and how each one routes data, are on our eSIM comparison. For another UK network, see Vodafone UK roaming in China.