International calling plans, and the minutes where they start paying off
Every US carrier sells the same thing in the same shape: a monthly add-on, usually $15, that makes calls to a list of countries unlimited. Whether that is a good deal is not a matter of opinion — it is one division. Below is what the three big carriers charge, what you pay if you never add the feature, and the exact point at which unlimited stops being the expensive option.
Carrier prices checked August 2026 against each carrier’s own pages. Kinvo rates are the live per-minute prices from our rate table, the same figures the dialer quotes.
What the carriers charge
T-Mobile
Stateside International Talk$15/mo- With the add-on
- Unlimited to landlines in 70+ countries, mobiles in 30+
- Without it
- Pay-per-use by destination — T-Mobile lists Canada at $1.00/min, many destinations higher
Verizon
Global Calling Plus / Global Choice$15/mo · $10/mo- With the add-on
- Plus: unlimited to landlines in 60+ countries, mobiles in 30+, then from $0.05/min to 160+ more. Choice: 300 minutes to one country
- Without it
- Standard Pay Per Minute — "rates starting from $0.49/min"
AT&T
AT&T International Calling$15/mo · $10/mo- With the add-on
- $15: unlimited to 85+ countries, discounted to 140+. $10: 250 minutes to 70 countries
- Without it
- Pay-per-use — about $1/min to Mexico and Canada, up to roughly $3/min elsewhere
Prepaid carriers and MVNOs
Mint Mobile, US Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, Visible, Cricket and the other prepaid brands are not covered above because they do not publish a single comparable add-on price, and what they include changes more often than the big three. The shape is consistent enough to plan around, though: calls to Canada and Mexico are commonly bundled into the plan, everywhere else is sold as pay-as-you-go international credit at per-destination rates, and those rates sit well above what a VoIP service charges for the same route.
Two consequences worth knowing before you go looking. Bundled Canada and Mexico calling is worth real money if that is who you call, and worth nothing if it is not — check your actual destination rather than the headline. And because the rest is credit rather than an allowance, the break-even table below still applies unchanged: you are comparing one per-minute rate against another, and the only question is which is lower for the country you actually dial.
We do not reprint these carriers’ per-minute rates here, because they are revised often enough that a table would be misleading within months. Check your carrier’s current international rate page for your destination, then put that number next to Kinvo’s rate for the same country.
The break-even: how many minutes before $15/month is worth it
A $15 unlimited add-on is cheaper than paying per minute above a threshold that depends entirely on where you call. The column on the right is how many minutes a month you would have to call that country on Kinvo’s rates before $15 becomes the better deal. Under it, the add-on is charging you for minutes you never used.
| Destination | Landline | Mobile | $15/mo wins above |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | $0.05 | $0.10 | 300 min/mo |
| Mexico | $0.05 | $0.15 | 300 min/mo |
| Canada | $0.05 | $0.05 | 300 min/mo |
| Germany | $0.09 | $1.13 | 166 min/mo |
| Brazil | $0.10 | $0.20 | 150 min/mo |
| Colombia | $0.21 | $0.12 | 125 min/mo |
| India | $0.21 | $0.15 | 100 min/mo |
| Bangladesh | $0.18 | $0.18 | 83 min/mo |
| Dominican Republic | $0.35 | $0.58 | 42 min/mo |
| Pakistan | $0.47 | $0.54 | 31 min/mo |
| Vietnam | $0.59 | $0.54 | 27 min/mo |
| Egypt | $0.62 | $0.63 | 24 min/mo |
| Philippines | $0.62 | $0.89 | 24 min/mo |
| Nigeria | $0.70 | $0.71 | 21 min/mo |
| China | $0.97 | $1.03 | 15 min/mo |
| Jamaica | $1.30 | $1.41 | 11 min/mo |
Read it in both directions. If you call Jamaica for an hour a month, a carrier add-on is comfortably cheaper and you should buy one. If you call the UK for an hour a month, the add-on costs $15 and the calls cost $3. Kinvo adds a $0.05 connection fee per answered call, which is included in the arithmetic only loosely — at these volumes it moves the threshold by a few minutes, not by a category.
Three things the plan pages do not say plainly
Mobiles are covered in far fewer countries than landlines. T-Mobile’s add-on is unlimited to landlines in 70+ countries but mobiles in 30+; Verizon’s Global Calling Plus is 60+ and 30+. Most people abroad answer on a mobile, so the number that matters is the smaller one. Check your specific destination on the mobile list, not the headline count.
The add-on is attached to a line, not to you. It works from the phone on the plan and nowhere else. It does not help when you are at a laptop, when your phone is out of battery, or when the person who needs to make the call is not the person on the account. AT&T’s is priced per device, so a second line means a second $15.
A quiet month still costs full price. Monthly allowances reset and unused minutes vanish. Most people’s international calling is lumpy — heavy during a family situation, near zero otherwise — which is exactly the usage pattern a flat monthly fee handles worst.
No plan, no monthly fee, no carrier
Kinvo calls landlines and mobiles in 220+ countries from a browser tab. Pay per minute, credits never expire, and a month with no calls costs nothing.
Common questions
What is the best phone plan for international calls?
There is no single answer, because carrier international add-ons are unlimited and pay-as-you-go services are per-minute — which is cheaper depends entirely on how many minutes you actually call and where. A $15/month add-on beats paying $0.05/min to a UK landline only above about 300 minutes a month, but beats $0.62/min to the Philippines above about 24 minutes. Work out your real monthly minutes for your main destination first; the number is usually lower than people guess.
How much do carriers charge for international calls without a plan?
Considerably more than the add-on rate. Verizon states its Standard Pay Per Minute rates start from $0.49/min. AT&T pay-per-use is around $1/min to Mexico and Canada and up to roughly $3/min for other destinations. T-Mobile publishes a per-destination rate chart that lists Canada at $1.00/min with many countries higher. These are the rates that apply by default if you have not added an international feature to your line.
Do I need a phone plan with international calling at all?
No. Carrier add-ons attach to a specific line and only work from that phone. A browser-based service like Kinvo places the same calls to the same landlines and mobiles over the internet, from any device with a browser, with no carrier relationship. That also means it works from a laptop, from a work machine, or on a phone whose plan has no international feature.
Is unlimited international calling really unlimited?
Only to the destinations on the plan’s covered list. T-Mobile’s $15 add-on is unlimited to landlines in 70+ countries and mobiles in 30+; AT&T’s covers 85+ countries; Verizon’s Global Calling Plus covers landlines in 60+ and mobiles in 30+. Calls outside those lists fall back to per-minute pricing, and mobile numbers are covered in far fewer countries than landlines on every plan — worth checking, since most people abroad answer on a mobile.
What happens to unused minutes?
On a monthly carrier plan they reset. A month where you make no international calls still costs $10 or $15. Pay-as-you-go credit does not expire and an unused month costs nothing, which is the main reason occasional callers end up ahead without a plan.
Related: cheapest international calling services, call cost calculator, all provider comparisons, and dialing guides.