Packed With Perks, but Is It Worth the Price?

It’s hard to go wrong with T-Mobile. It offers some of the best cell phone plans and value among the big three carriers in the US. Admittedly, more so if you’re taking out multiple lines.

Like AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile is an ideal option for multi-line plans thanks to its multi-line discounts, especially those with three or more lines.

Those with fewer lines can still enjoy T-Mobile and all its benefits, like in-person customer support at physical locations, and depending on the plan, comprehensive international features and discounts on popular streaming services. However, we’d recommend that single or dual-line accounts consider mobile-virtual-network-operator (MVNO) options, which are significantly less expensive than T-Mobile’s plans, and dominate our cheap cell phone plans guide.

The only way you could go wrong is if you pick T-Mobile in an area with weak coverage. This isn’t a dig at T-Mobile’s coverage; the same word of caution applies to all carriers, as they all have varying coverage in different parts of the country.

With that said, T-Mobile has one major drawback relative to other major carriers that bears consideration — it doesn’t let you mix-and-match plans (picking different plans for different lines). That could lead to unnecessarily higher monthly plan costs if other users in your account have different needs.

Plans

T-Mobile has three main postpaid plans — the basic Essentials (including the Essentials Saver plan), the mid-range Experience More, and the high-end Experience Beyond plans.

The Essentials plan offers T-Mobile’s best value with all the data most people need, even if the network may temporarily become artificially slower when it is congested (more on that in the coverage and data speeds section below).

However, T-Mobile’s Essentials plan lacks additional features found in the Experience plan that some may need, like high-speed mobile hotspot, satellite messaging when you’re out of coverage areas, and extended international features. Experience plans also include discounts on popular streaming services and smartwatch or tablet plans, which are nice bonuses. You can get included Apple TV+ and ad-supported Netflix subscriptions on Experience More, and the Experience Beyond tier also throws in ad-supported Hulu.

Prices are guaranteed for five years on both Experience plans as well.

Other benefits on all three tiers include free in-flight WiFi, free months of service to SiriusXM and Pandora Streaming, and an MLS season pass (offers rotate regularly). Plus, there’s T-Mobile Tuesdays to regularly mix things up by providing free Slurpees, pizza, $5 movie tickets, discounted fuel, cashback at restaurants, and more.

If you’ve been reconsidering your home internet options lately, you’ll get extra savings on T-Mobile’s internet packages if you’re on one of these plans. We’re testing one of their 5G home internet plans right now and will have a review soon – it’s pretty impressive so far.

You can find plan details on T-Mobile’s website, and we’ve included them below for your convenience:

At the time of writing, T-Mobile also has a limited-time promotion for its plans where you can get a third line free (the same price as two lines). It also has the limited-time Essentials 4 Line offer for $100 per month. These promotions are outrageously good value for families or friend groups with three or more lines.

No mix-and-match plans with T-Mobile

Unlike other carriers, T-Mobile doesn’t let you add differing plans under one multi-line account — every line in the account must have the same plan.

That inflexibility can be somewhat mitigated by T-Mobile’s 3rd-line-free promotion, but all the users in an account are still beholden to the cost of the highest-tier plan in the account.

For example, if one person in an account needs the Experience Beyond plan, but the others only need the Essentials plan, everyone has to get the Experience Beyond plan and pay more than they would if they could mix and match plans.

When it makes sense to get the Essentials plan

If you do not need mobile hotspot dataIf you do not need built-in international features

When it makes sense to upgrade to the Experience More plan

If you need up to 60GB of fast mobile hotspot dataIf you need some international connectivity

When it makes sense to get the Experience Beyond plan

If you need up to 250GB of fast mobile hotspot dataIf you need lots of international connectivityYou’re sometimes or often off the grid and would benefit from satellite messaging, emergency services included. Note that Apple includes free Emergency SOS via satellite and Messaging via satellite free for two years after activating an iPhone 14 series or newer. The iPhone 14 is over two years old at this point, and Apple has yet to release a pricing structure for its satellite services.

Don’t upgrade to an Experience plan just for the streaming service and watch/tablet line discounts

The maximum savings from the streaming service discounts on the Experience More plan is around $18, and up to $28 on the Experience Beyond plan.

Even with all the discounts on the Experience Beyond plan combined, including streaming services and watch/tablet lines, the maximum savings amount to $50.

Those discounts won’t offset the added cost of the Experience plans if all you need is the Essentials plan. They are nice benefits if you also need the core features included in the Experience plans that aren’t included in the Essentials plan, like fast (usable) hotspot data and extended international features.

T-Mobile offers the plans with discounts for members of the military and veterans, first responders, and customers aged 55 or older.

T-Mobile also offers prepaid plans, but they are poor value compared to mobile-virtual-network-operator (MVNO) options, many of which run on T-Mobile’s network. MVNOs tend to offer the same amount or more data than T-Mobile’s prepaid plans for lower monthly costs. The first MVNO alternative to T-Mobile’s prepaid plans that comes to mind is Mint Mobile, which T-Mobile purchased back in 2024, and tops our list in our guide for the best cheap cell phone plans.

Coverage

T-Mobile has typically excellent coverage in many urban and suburban areas, and its rural coverage is expanding quickly. It can even serve certain areas better than other major carriers. To be sure, the opposite can be true for other areas.

I can’t say whether T-Mobile’s coverage works for you and your area, and while T-Mobile’s coverage map can give you an idea, no carrier coverage map is truly accurate.

The best way to determine if T-Mobile works well in your area is to ask local friends, family, and neighbors. You can also check local groups on social media channels, like Facebook and Nextdoor.com.

If someone says T-Mobile’s coverage isn’t good, ask which carrier works for them. You might find that no carrier works well in that area, as is the case around my home. I fully realize the irony that someone writing a carrier review has poor coverage from every major carrier. Don’t worry, I venture out to various spots in and out of town to test signal strength and data speeds.

Data speeds

T-Mobile advertises data speeds between 79 and 357 Mbps on its Essentials plans, and between 89 and 418 Mbps on its Beyond plans. Our speed tests varied wildly, regardless of plans — as high as 902 Mbps in busy parts of town, to as low as 0.97 Mbps in leafy residential areas not too far away from the busy section. Interestingly, I saw fast speeds up to 303 Mbps in sparsely populated “back-country” parts of my area.

To be sure, T-Mobile data speeds will differ nationwide, and even in different parts of my town.

Data speed differences between the two plans

Unlike data speeds in my test areas, the difference in data speeds between the Essentials plan and the Experience Beyond plan can be translated to almost anyone across the country.

T-Mobile’s website has a fine-print clause beneath its plan offerings stating that the Essentials plan may deliver slower data speeds than higher-tier plans. My tests confirm that this is true.

Still, while measurable, the difference in data download speeds isn’t dramatic — the Essentials plan recorded 19% slower speeds on average than the Experience Beyond plan across 31 tests in various parts of town, including busy commercial areas, residential zones, parks, and backcountry.

To put that into perspective, the average download speed on the Essentials plan was 220 Mbps in my tests, and 263 Mbps on the Experience Beyond plan. Both speeds are easily fast enough for most people, and the experience of using apps was identical on both the Essentials and Experience Beyond plans, whether I was in an area with slow or fast speeds.

This means that those leaning toward the more affordable Essentials plan shouldn’t be concerned about slower speeds or a meaningfully different experience compared to the higher-tier plans.

Additionally, the fastest speed test we recorded was 902 Mbps on the Essentials plan. The fastest speed test recorded on the Experience Beyond plan was 856 Mbps.

Phone deals

Like most major carriers in the US, T-Mobile has tempting deals for new phones. Deals differ for different phones, so you’ll need to check the specific deals for the one you’d like.

Still, it’s possible to get even a high-end $1,000 iPhone 16 Pro for free with various condition combinations, like trading in a phone, signing up for a specific plan, or switching to T-Mobile from a different carrier. The trade-in value of your old phone depends on its generational age. For example, an iPhone 13 has a higher trade-in value than the iPhone 12.

There are deals with varying conditions for almost every phone on T-Mobile, many get you a new phone for free, and some aren’t even dependent on signing up for a pricey high-end plan. You generally get a better deal when signing up for higher-tier plans.

The overarching phone deal condition with T-Mobile is that you must keep the phone for 24 months (two years) before you can upgrade to a new one. The exception is the Experience Beyond plan, which lets you upgrade yearly. At these times, you’ll also have access to the same deals as new customers.

To be sure, T-Mobile offers a shorter window before you can upgrade phones than Verizon and AT&T, which don’t let you upgrade for 36 months (or three years).

Should you sign up for T-Mobile?

T-Mobile’s plans propose some of the best value among major carriers, especially the Essentials and Experience More plans. As with most major carriers, you get better value with more lines on your account, generally around three or more lines.

We recommend that those with less than three lines look at MVNOs, including Mint Mobile, which T-Mobile acquired. MVNO options often have similar features and data as the basic postpaid plans from major carriers for a lower monthly bill. For more information, take a look at our roundups of the latest Mint Mobile plans and Visible mobile deals.

Still, T-Mobile’s physical locations are a major benefit. They can offer superior in-person support than the phone and online-based support MVNOs offer. If you’d rather go to a physical location for anything related to your cell service, whether setting up your plan on your phone or troubleshooting an issue, you’ll be better off with T-Mobile.

Only rule out T-Mobile if you find it has poor coverage in your area. After all, value doesn’t matter if you can’t use the service.