AT&T vs. Mint Mobile: Do you really need unlimited data?

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  AT&T

  Save with multiple lines

  AT&T has excellent coverage for customers nationwide, including rural customers, with a set of family plans that have a ton of data. The brand’s unlimited plans also include usage in Mexico and Canada, making it a good choice for frequent flyers. AT&T also offers a ton of hotspot data and unlimited premium data with its top plan.

  Pros

  • Massive LTE and 5G coverage area
  • Multiple ways to save on service
  • Savings on new phones

  Cons

  • AT&T’s 5G network lags behind T-Mobile
  • Expensive single-line pricing
  • Taxes and fees are extra

  From $50/month

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  Mint Mobile

  Yearly savings on mobile

  Mint Mobile is a prepaid carrier owned by T-Mobile with access to its excellent 5G network. Mint’s plans are available in three-, six-, or 12-month chunks with savings that scale with the plans. For Mint’s best rates, a single line must sign up for a year, though family plans get the best rates with a three-month renewal.

  Pros

  • Strong single-line savings available
  • Mint Family makes Mint’s best rates more accessible
  • Excellent 5G coverage and performance

  Cons

  • Must buy a minimum of three months
  • Taxes and fees are extra
  • No truly unlimited option

  From $15/month

Prepaid wireless service is getting a lot of attention with increased advertising budgets and increased popularity among those looking to reduce their monthly expenses. Mint Mobile has been impossible to ignore with its Ryan Reynolds-driven marketing and promise of cheap data, but it still can’t match all the features that a premium AT&T plan offers. AT&T provides stronger international features, truly unlimited data, and discounts for veterans, military members, nurses, teachers, and more.

Mint Mobile’s discounts are part of the service’s core with lower month-to-month prices when you pay for a year upfront. You can also sign up for three or six months if you can’t make such a large payment all at once, but for Mint’s best rates, you really want a yearly plan. That is unless you bring multiple lines. With Mint Family, you get Mint’s best monthly rates renewed every three months, which makes paying for multiple lines at once more realistic for those on a budget.

Read our ranking

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There are a ton of plans to choose from, but the best network mostly comes down to coverage in your area

Mobile carrier features

When it comes to features, AT&T simply has more of them. Moving up through AT&T’s plans, you receive more data, improved international features, higher quality streaming, and additional discounts with the AT&T Signature Program. When it comes to international service, all unlimited AT&T plans get unlimited talk, text, and data, as well as usage in Mexico and Canada.

If you’re heading across the border, you won’t need to worry about sourcing a local SIM or paying roaming charges with AT&T. Just keep in mind that speeds may not be great depending on the type of roaming coverage available. Still, it’s nice that you don’t need to worry about international charges, especially if you have friends and family north and south of the border. On the top Unlimited Premium PL plan, roaming gets extended to 20 Latin American countries in Central and South America.

One of the best ways to save on AT&T service is to bring multiple lines with you, but they don’t need to all be on the same plan. AT&T allows customers to mix and match plans since Grandma probably doesn’t need as much data as you. If you’re in the military, a veteran, nurse, or physician, you get a discount at AT&T. Furthermore, some employers are part of AT&T’s Signature Member program with discounts for employees on AT&T’s top Unlimited Premium PL plan or its low-end 4GB plan.

Mint’s main draw is its low prices for those willing to pay for a year of service upfront. Mint’s plans are available in three-, six-, or 12-month chunks, with the best rates for those paying for the year. With only four plans to choose from, it’s easy to figure out which Mint plan works best for you. If you’re not sure Mint Mobile is going to work out, you can get your first three months of service for the 12-month rate.

Another way to get shorter renewals is with Mint Family. Mint Family allows customers with two to five lines to get Mint’s best monthly rates renewed at three months instead of twelve. If you’re bringing multiple people with you to Mint, the upfront charges can be a bit steep, so Mint Family can be very helpful for those on a tighter budget. If you have just one line, it’s nice that you get access to Mint’s best pricing with the 12-month plan.

If you sign up for Mint and find you didn’t get a big enough plan, you can upgrade mid-cycle by paying the difference in price, so you’re not stuck with a service that’s not a good fit.

Mobile coverage and reception

AT&T builds and maintains its own network and gives most of its plans full access to its LTE and 5G coverage. While AT&T’s 5G network hasn’t kept pace with T-Mobiles, largely due to spectrum access restrictions, the carrier has been working hard to catch up and has built a sizable 5G network with low-band nationwide coverage and mid-band upgrades in cities. Luckily, AT&T’s LTE network offers plenty of speed for most people for the time being and has excellent coverage across the country with a strength in rural areas.

AT&T uses a chunk of dedicated low-band spectrum to offer far-reaching 5G coverage, with mid-band spectrum around 3.7GHz being used for faster speeds in tandem with mmWave coverage in big cities. The mid-band and mmWave coverage is referred to as 5G+ and offers faster speeds than LTE with the capacity for more connections than LTE. A quick look at AT&T’s coverage map will tell you if 5G+ is available in your area.

Mint Mobile is owned by T-Mobile and uses T-Mobile’s LTE and 5G networks for coverage. T-Mobile’s 5G coverage is unparalleled thanks to early access to valuable 2.5GHz spectrum across the country. T-Mobile got started on its mid-band 5G network earlier than the rest, which has also allowed it to head straight to the top of the list when it comes to speed and performance. Ookla’s Market Analysis, for example, shows T-Mobile with a sizable lead according to data gathered from its Speedtest app.

Still, T-Mobile has some work to do in rural areas, so it’s a good idea to check T-Mobile’s coverage map where you live and work. T-Mobile also has low-band spectrum, as well as 5G on its other bands that allow it strong 5G coverage nationwide. With carrier aggregation, the carrier has even shown speeds well over 1Gbps using low-band and mid-band spectrum together. T-Mobile calls its fast 5G network 5G Ultra Capacity, and if you’re covered, you should get excellent speeds with the carrier. Mint Mobile has a free seven-day trial if you want to test its performance on your phone.

Phone compatibility

Really, any of the best Android phones will work on either carrier. That includes high-end flagship phones like Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra. The T-Mobile network used by Mint Mobile is fairly agnostic when it comes to device compatibility, and if it supports T-Mobile’s band, it should work without a hitch. As for band support, just about any 5G phone made for the U.S. market has support for T-Mobile’s most important bands, n71 and n41, so you should get strong speeds.

AT&T is a little more picky with a whitelist of supported phones (PDF) that work well with its network. You can check this compatibility list to see if your phone works, and there’s a good chance it will. AT&T has even supported some of the best budget Android phones like the impressive OnePlus 12R. With such a wide range of devices supported on either carrier, it mostly comes down to preference.

If you’re ready for a new phone, you have the option to buy an unlocked phone for either carrier that you can easily bring with you to another carrier. That being said, high-end modern phones are quite expensive, and a payment plan can make a new device much more accessible. AT&T offers discounts for new customers that are willing to buy a phone on a 36-month payment plan. AT&T’s device savings are large, with some getting up to $1,000 off with a trade-in, but you’re stuck with that phone until you pay it off. If you want to upgrade sooner, you can sign up for AT&T Next Up for a few bucks per month to gain upgrade eligibility once you’ve paid off half of it.

Mint Mobile also sells phones with some packaged with service for additional savings. Payment plans are available through Affirm but will be more expensive monthly than AT&T but for a shorter period. That said, Mint Mobile’s deals page is worth a visit, with some devices significantly discounted when bundled with 12 months of service. If you buy the best Mint Mobile phones from that main store page, you may not get the best deal. One nice thing is that you get these savings whether you go for a payment plan or pay for the phone in full.

Plans

After coverage, the most important element when picking a new carrier is the plans. AT&T’s best plans offer a ton of data with strong international features that are made more affordable by family plan savings. Mint Mobile’s best plans, on the other hand, keep it simple with multi-month savings for single lines, and Mint Family for those bringing the family. Mint skews its plans more toward lighter users, but if you check your average usage, you may not need as much data as you think.

AT&T’s plans

AT&T had five main postpaid plans starting with a simple 4GB plan at $50 for the first line. This plan is far from impressive, with a high price that doesn’t even come with taxes and fees included. This plan could be a solid value for those with discounts, including Signature Program members, but for most people, this plan can be ignored. It doesn’t include 5G and data doesn’t roll over to the next month. At least it included usage in Mexico and Canada like the other plans.

Moving up, AT&T Value Plus VL with its $50.99 starting price is a much better value with unlimited data and access to 5G. This plan doesn’t include any hotspot data, so can’t share your data with a tablet or laptop, but it does have a relatively low price of $30.99 per line when you bring four lines.

AT&T’s Unlimited Starter SL starts at $65.99 for the first line but comes down to $35.99 with four lines. For the most part, this plan is the same as Value Plus, with the addition of 5GB of high-speed hotspot data per month. Moving up from there, the Unlimited Extra EL plan takes the hotspot data up to 30GB and adds 75GB of premium data for $75.99 for the first line. With four lines, that price comes down to $40.99. This also includes an upgrade to AT&T ActiveArmor Security, which offers some privacy protection, like a VPN to use with public Wi-Fi and identity monitoring.

AT&T’s top plan, Unlimited Premium PL, includes all of the above and more for $85.99 for the first line, and $50.99 with four lines. Like the 4GB plan, this plan is compatible with AT&T’s Signature Program member discounts, so you may be able to save even more. This plan gets unlimited premium data and 60GB of hotspot data. Video streaming is also unlocked to full resolution. Unlimited Premium PL comes with unlimited talk, text, and data in 20 Latin American countries as well.

Taxes and fees are extra on all AT&T plans, so you’ll need to add a bit more to the final cost. AT&T also requires paperless billing and autopay to be enabled to get these prices, so be sure to enable these options when you’re setting up your account.

If you have access to AT&T’s fiber internet, you can save on your internet bill by getting both services through AT&T. Fiber internet is generally faster and more consistent than 5G home internet and has much better upload speeds than cable, so the switch to AT&T fiber could be worth it if it’s available in your location.

Mint Mobile’s plans

Mint Mobile’s plans are quite simple by comparison with just three limited plans and one unlimited plan. All Mint Mobile plans support full 5G access on T-Mobile’s network and can use their data as a hotspot. The smallest 5GB plan is a great choice for lighter users and is just $15 per month for 12 months. Even at $25 for three months, this is a much better value than AT&T’s 4GB plan. While you need to pay for multiple months at once, your data is renewed every single month.

Moving up, the 15GB and 20GB plans are identical apart from the data amount. These plans will be the sweet spot for most users who use Wi-Fi at home. The 15GB plan comes in at $20 per month for 12 months, and $35 per month for three months. The 20GB plan is $25 per month for 12 months, and $45 per month for three months. If you end up using less data than you pay more, Mint will let you know before you renew, so you can pick a cheaper package. These limited plans can use all of their data as hotspot data and also have no restriction on video streaming quality.

The heaviest users on Mint can sign up for the unlimited plan for 40GB of high-speed data per month. This plan includes 10GB of hotspot data to share with other devices as well. Keep in mind that this plan limits video streaming resolution to just 480p, to save on data. At 12 months, this plan costs $30 per month and $40 per month for three months. If you’re only paying for three months, the unlimited plan is actually cheaper than the 20GB plan.

Which should you pick?

Most people could find a plan that fits their needs on either carrier, but unless you’re bringing the whole family along, Mint Mobile will be significantly cheaper. Mint offers up to 40GB of high-speed data on its unlimited plan, which is plenty for most people. The $360 upfront cost for the unlimited plan is steep, but you won’t have to look at another wireless bill for a year, and if you bring multiple lines to Mint Family, you’ll only need to pay $90 for three months of service per line.

If you’re a lighter user, Mint can save you a lot of money with its 15GB or 5GB plans being downright cheap compared to AT&T, especially the 4GB plan. The main thing you’re not getting is usage in Mexico and Canada, which won’t matter to many.

Mint Mobile

Editor’s choice

Enough data and reasonable plan options

Mint Mobile is a cheap alternative to traditional carriers with plenty of data on T-Mobile for most people and strong savings for those willing to pay for six months or a year of service upfront. Even those with only one line can save on Mint thanks to its multi-month discounts.

From $15/month

AT&T still has a lot to offer customers starting with truly unlimited data. While Mint 40GB on the high-end really should be plenty for most people, the fact is that some people don’t want to curb their usage at all, and can use much more data in a month. All of AT&T’s unlimited plans are truly unlimited, though the cheaper plans may be a bit slower on a congested tower. That being said, if most of your data usage is from streaming video, you’ll quickly notice that only AT&T’s top plan offers HD streaming. This will matter more to those watching content like gaming streams who want to see every UI detail and benefit most from 60fps content.

AT&T’s family plans with mix-and-match support also make it easy to save on your plans if you have multiple lines. AT&T’s unlimited usage in Mexico and Canada is also a nice bonus for those who travel a lot. While the two carriers are quite different, AT&T still has some appeal over Mint.

AT&T

Still great

Ideal for heavy users who don’t want to compromise

AT&T’s focus on unlimited data makes it more appealing to heavy users who don’t want to worry about how much data they use. AT&T also stands out with coverage in Mexico and Canada, as well as other Latin American countries with the premium plan.

From $50/month