Does Three UK Roaming Work in China?

Three roaming China price on Pay Monthly

On Pay Monthly, China costs a daily charge or a pass unless roaming is built into your plan. Both unlock your UK minutes, texts and up to 12GB of data:

Option	Price	Lasts
Daily charge, joined or upgraded 1 October 2021 to 17 December 2025	£7	24 hours
Daily charge, joined or upgraded on or after 18 December 2025	£8	24 hours
3-day Go Roam Around the World Extra pass	£17.50	72 hours
5-day pass	£29.75	120 hours
7-day pass	£42.00	168 hours
14-day pass	£84.00	336 hours

Prices are from Three’s destination checker for China and its Go Roam page, checked Oct 25, 2026.

• Rises: for plans taken from 18 December 2025, Three’s price guides raise the daily charge every 1 April by the January CPI rate plus 3.9%.
• SIM Only Lite: 24-month Lite SIMs with 25GB or 120GB, taken from 1 June 2025, pay £7, and the price guides exempt them from the yearly rise.
• Chinese numbers: calling or texting a Chinese number is outside your allowance, at £1.40 a minute or 35p a text. Incoming calls and texts are free.

Three plans that include China roaming

• Complete, joined or upgraded from 22 June 2025: the price guides list roaming in all Go Roam bands, so China costs nothing extra.
• Value, joined or upgraded from 22 June 2025: Three’s own pages disagree. The price guides list built-in roaming in Go Roam in Europe only, and the destination checker for China says roaming isn’t built in. Three’s roaming FAQs say Go Roam is built into Value plans from that date. Check My3 or the Three app before you rely on it.
• Value or Complete, joined or upgraded October 2021 to 22 June 2025: these may include 14, 28 or 56 free 24-hour Go Roam passes. The Three app and My3 show what’s left.
• Lite and older Advanced: no roaming built in.
• Before October 2021: Three’s Go Roam page says Go Roam Around the World Extra isn’t available on these plans, so China is charged at the rates in your plan’s price guide.

Three data roaming in China: the limits

Three lets Pay Monthly customers use 12GB of their UK data a month in Go Roam destinations, then charges 0.3p per MB on any UK data left.

• No hotspot: Three’s FAQs rule out personal hotspot use in Go Roam Around the World Extra destinations.
• No Data Travel Pass: Three’s Worldwide Data Travel Pass lists 31 destinations, and China isn’t on the list.
• Long trips: two complete months in Go Roam destinations within 12 months can get your roaming suspended.

Three roaming charges in China on Pay As You Go

Pay As You Go Data Packs and Add-ons don’t work in China, because China is outside Go Roam on Pay As You Go. Usage comes out of credit:

Service	Price
Data	£6.00 per MB
Calls to the UK, and voicemail	£2.00 a minute
Receiving calls	£1.25 a minute
Texts to the UK	35p
Receiving texts	Free

At £6 per MB, 10MB costs £60. Three’s worldwide data roaming limit of £45 plus VAT a month applies unless you ask Three to change it. A new SIM must be used in the UK and topped up, or given a Data Pack, before it works abroad.

How to set up Three mobile roaming for China

1. Call 333 from your Three phone to check that roaming is active. Three asks you to call back if it needs setting up.
2. Check your plan in the Three app or My3. If China isn’t included, buy a Go Roam Around the World Extra pass, before you go or while away.
3. If you have a Spend Cap, set it high enough for the daily charge or passes. Three’s price guides say that if the daily charge can’t be taken, your phone won’t work in Go Roam destinations.
4. After landing, switch on Data Roaming. iPhone users find the switch in Settings > Mobile Data > Mobile Data Options. Three says your phone joins the right partner network automatically.
5. Dial UK numbers with +44 in place of the first 0. Three says most operators abroad now run only 4G and 5G, so a phone without 4G Calling Abroad may not manage calls.

Leave your Three line on for sign-in codes, since incoming texts in China are free on Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go. Our page on two-factor codes during a China trip covers the alternatives.

Does Three UK work in China without a VPN?

Not confirmed, because Three keeps quiet about where its China roaming traffic reaches the internet. Its FAQs only say you can stream and connect to VPNs in Go Roam destinations, though they may be slower than at home.

• Travelren, a seller of China eSIMs, marks Three’s China roaming as firewalled, with Google and WhatsApp blocked, in a comparison updated in April 2026. It doesn’t describe testing Three, and it says Three dropped China from Go Roam in 2021, which Three’s current destination list contradicts.
• An October 2026 r/travelchina thread asked whether Three’s China roaming is any good. The only Three customer who replied had used it in Hong Kong, not the mainland. Another reply said home roaming usually gets around the firewall but isn’t guaranteed. It didn’t name Three or describe a trip.
• According to BGR in July 2026, roaming data is sent to the carrier’s own territory first and only then onto the internet, out of the firewall’s reach. BGR names no carrier.

Wi-Fi in China is filtered whichever SIM is in your phone, so set up a VPN before leaving the UK. See whether you need an eSIM or a VPN.

Three UK China roaming vs a travel eSIM

A week of data in China, at prices taken from each company’s website on Oct 25, 2026:

Plan	Data	Cost for 7 days
Three daily charge at £7	UK allowance, up to 12GB a month	£49
Three daily charge at £8	UK allowance, up to 12GB a month	£56
Three 7-day Go Roam Around the World Extra pass	UK allowance, up to 12GB a month	£42
Three Complete plan from 22 June 2025	UK allowance, up to 12GB a month	Included
Airalo	Unlimited, then 1 Mbps once you pass 3GB in a day	£21.00
Holafly	Unlimited	£22.00

• The 7-day pass costs £21.00 more than Airalo and £20.00 more than Holafly. At £8 a day, a week costs £35.00 more than Airalo.
• With Three you keep your number and your UK minutes and texts. The eSIMs carry data only, though Holafly allows 1GB a day of hotspot use, which Three doesn’t allow in China.

More plans and their routing are in our China eSIM comparison, and using your phone in China weighs roaming against local SIMs. Other UK networks: EE, O2, Vodafone UK and giffgaff.