Mint Mobile vs. T-Mobile: Same network, different plans

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  Mint Mobile

  Save when you pay for the year

  Mint Mobile is refreshingly upfront about how it saves your money with a front-loaded loyalty discount for those willing to pay for multiple months of service at once. While you need to sign up for 12 months for Mint’s best prices, you can get that same price with three-month renewals when you bring two or more lines to the Mint Family.

  Pros

  • Strong single-line pricing
  • Excellent T-Mobile 5G coverage
  • Family plan savings available

  Cons

  • Must buy at least three months
  • Taxes and fees are extra
  • The unlimited plan is actually 40GB

  From $15/month

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  T-Mobile

  Excellent 5G performance

  T-Mobile has garnered a strong reputation for its 5G coverage and performance and has a good plan selection to help you take advantage of the speed. T-Mobile includes taxes and fees on all but its cheapest plans, so it’s easy to determine how much it will cost before signing up. T-Mobile’s top plan even includes yearly phone upgrades.

  Pros

  • Excellent 5G coverage with premium data
  • Wide range of plans with multi-line plans
  • Taxes and fees are included on most plans

  Cons

  • Expensive for a single line
  • Plans have some confusing overlap
  • Price lock is no longer available

  From $60/month

Mint Mobile is a prepaid carrier owned by T-Mobile with plans designed to target lighter users looking to save money over the bloated postpaid carrier plans. Mint’s plans stick to the basics, with no streaming perks and minimal international support. For a lot of people, this is an appealing offer, and with Mint’s easy-to-understand discounts, it’s an affordable alternative to the bloated and expensive plans offered by postpaid carriers.

T-Mobile’s plans, on the other hand, are much more traditional in structure, with its pricier plans offering early phone upgrades, streaming services, and international coverage. T-Mobile’s plans appear much more expensive, but if you bring three or more lines, it gets a lot closer. The carrier also includes taxes and fees in the sticker price on all but its Essentials plans, while Mint Mobile charges extra for taxes as well as a recovery fee.

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Mobile carrier features

Mint keeps its plans simple, focusing on data, which is what most people prioritize. Mint’s plans offer a bucket of high-speed data with unlimited slow data if you go over. All of Mint’s plans also include hotspot data, so you can share data with your tablet or laptop. Mint also offers international calling charged by the minute and international roaming with a travel pass called a Minternational Pass. Clever.

Billing is Mint’s biggest differentiating feature, with plans offered in three, six, or twelve-month increments. There’s no monthly plan at Mint, so you’ll be signing up for three months as a minimum. Broken down monthly, paying for a year gets you Mint’s best deals, so if you can afford it, that’s the way to go. Mint also gives the customer their first three months at the 12-month rate, so they can try it out without such a big commitment. Currently, the carrier is offering all plans for $15 per month for the first three months. Mint’s Family plan can take the edge off these prices with Mint’s best rates, offering a three-month renewal with two or more lines.

T-Mobile’s plans focus on unlimited data with the amount of premium data, hotspot data, and international features mostly making up the differences between them. T-Mobile’s entry-level Essentials plan, for example, includes 50GB of premium data, unlimited low-speed hotspot data, and solid multiline savings. Moving up to a more expensive plan, you’ll get unlimited premium data, a high-speed hotspot allowance, as well as better international features. Some T-Mobile plans also have streaming perks, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Apple TV+.

T-Mobile also offers international perks with its top plans, offering in-flight Wi-Fi to keep you connected on your travels. The carrier offers up to 15GB of high-speed data in Mexico and Canada and 5GB of high-speed data in 215+ other destinations in its top plans. T-Mobile offers strong multi-line discounts for all of its plans, some even providing a free third line. The carrier also includes taxes and fees on all but its cheapest plans, so there are no surprises at checkout.

Mobile coverage and reception

For the most part, Mint Mobile’s coverage will be identical to T-Mobile’s. T-Mobile owns Mint and, as such, provides all the prepaid carriers’ coverage. Luckily, T-Mobile includes full 5G support on its prepaid carriers, so both Mint Mobile and T-Mobile customers will be able to connect to T-Mobile’s fast Ultra Capacity 5G network. T-Mobile’s 5G network is made up of its low-band coverage called 5G Extended Range, and its mid-band coverage is called 5G Ultra Capacity.

Extended Range 5G is mostly made up of T-Mobile’s low-band n71 coverage that offers speeds closer to LTE than 5G. It’s still plenty for most of what people do on their phones. Ultra Capacity, on the other hand, uses wide swaths of mid-band spectrum at 2.5GHz to offer impressive speeds. When combined with other spectrums using carrier aggregation, T-Mobile delivers some of the highest data speeds of any carrier, according to the last few quarterly reports from Ookla.

T-Mobile customers will have a better time in rural areas thanks to roaming coverage. On T-Mobile’s coverage map, roaming coverage appears with diagonal lines through it. You can also check Mint’s coverage map to make sure this lack of partner coverage won’t affect you.

Phone compatibility

Since they both use the T-Mobile network, phone compatibility is strong with these carriers. The majority of the best Android phones support T-Mobile’s LTE and 5G bands, so whether you’re looking at one of our favorite flagship phones like the Pixel 8 Pro, or are considering a more budget-oriented option like the OnePlus 12R, you should have no trouble on T-Mobile.

If you’re bringing your phone from another carrier or want to keep using a phone you’ve had for a while, it should support bands 2, 5, 4, 66, 12, and 71 for LTE. For those wanting 5G on T-Mobile, bands n71 and n41 are required. Some newer phones can even use multiple bands at once, harnessing a technology called carrier aggregation, enabling better 5G speeds. T-Mobile has even completed a six-carrier test using both mid-band and low-band spectrum for multi-gig download speeds. That being said, the most important thing is band n41 support, offering plenty of speed for most applications.

Both T-Mobile and Mint Mobile can activate with either an eSIM or a physical SIM. If your phone is eSIM compatible and unlocked, you can download a SIM in a few minutes using the Mint Mobile or T-Mobile apps. You can even try T-Mobile with a 3-month test called Network Pass. Similarly, Mint Mobile offers a seven-day trial for new customers. These eSIM trials are nice because they can often be set up alongside your current service, so you can try out the new network before canceling your old plan.

Plans

When it comes down to which carrier to choose, the most important thing is to get the right plan. These two carriers take different approaches. Mint Mobile keeps things as simple as possible with only four plans, but its multi-month savings make it one of the cheapest options for single-line accounts. T-Mobile, on the other hand, has multiple plans with a bit of overlap between a few. T-Mobile’s best plans are available with multi-line discounts; taxes and fees are also included with some plans. There are even discounts for 55+, military, and first responders. So, T-Mobile could still be the right pick for many.

Mint Mobile’s plans

Mint Mobile has just four plans in total. The cheapest plan includes 5GB of high-speed data that can be used on your phone or as hotspot data. Once you use your high-speed data, you get unlimited data at 2G speeds, which is enough for messaging and email, but not much more. Still, it’s nice that you don’t lose your connection if you use too much data. This plan costs $15 per month when you buy 12 months, $20 per month when you buy six, and $25 per month when you buy three months.

If you’re regularly exceeding data limits, you can upgrade to a larger plan mid-cycle by paying the price difference. This is great because you can start with a smaller plan if you’re not sure how much data you need, and upgrade as necessary.

The 15GB and 20GB plans are the same except for the amount of high-speed data. The 15GB plan starts at $20 per month with a 12-month plan, $25 per month for six months, and $35 per month for three months. The 20GB plan increases to $25 per month for 12 months, $35 per month for six months, and $45 per month for three months.

Finally, the unlimited plan comes with 40GB of high-speed data and 10GB of dedicated high-speed hotspot data. This plan starts at $30 per month for 12 months, $35 per month for six months, and $40 per month for three months.

If you want to bring more people to your Mint Mobile plans, Mint Family allows you to add multiple lines (up to five) to your account with savings if you have at least two lines. While the plan cost doesn’t change, you get the best 12-month rates, renewed every three months instead. Since paying for an entire year of service can be a challenge for some, Mint Family can make the prices more affordable.

One thing to note is that video streams will be limited to just 480p resolution. For many, this isn’t a big deal, since the lower-quality video is less apparent on phone screens. This limited resolution can actually help you stretch your data if you’re watching a lot of video content on your phone, but could prove annoying for those looking for higher-quality 60fps videos on YouTube. At least you’ll still be able to download videos at full resolution, and streaming on Wi-Fi is not affected by the limit.

T-Mobile’s plans

T-Mobile has quite a few plans available to customers, including two Essentials plans, two Magenta plans, and three Go5G plans. The Go5G plans are the latest and offer the best value for most people. These plans also have access to T-Mobile’s third-line free promotion for new customers. All T-Mobile plans except the Essentials plans have taxes and fees included in the price. It’s also worth noting that a feature called Price Lock, which guaranteed plan prices to T-Mobile customers, is no longer available to new customers, so price increases are a possibility in the future.

Starting with Essentials Saver, T-Mobile offers 50GB of premium data with unlimited data afterward. Premium data is prioritized higher than Mint’s data and can have better speeds in a congested environment. With a strong 5G signal, however, even non-premium data should be more than usable. Hotspot data is unlimited but only offers 3G speeds. Videos stream at 480p with this plan and taxes and fees are extra. The Essentials plan is essentially the same as Essentials Saver, though some discounts may differ.

Go5G increases the premium data to 100GB and adds 15GB of high-speed hotspot data. Taxes and fees are included, and you also get Netflix Standard with Ads and six months of Apple TV+. Streaming quality defaults to 480p but can be unlocked to 720p if you access your account settings. One of the biggest upgrades over Essentials is in travel with four full-flight Wi-Fi sessions, up to 10GB of high-speed data in Mexico and Canada, and 5GB of high-speed data in 215+ other countries.

Go5G Plus and Go5G Next get unlimited premium data, 50GB of high-speed hotspot data, and 4K video streaming support. Netflix Standard with Ads and Apple TV+ are included with both plans, and Go5G Next also gets Hulu (With Ads). You get up to 15GB of high-speed data in Mexico and Canada, full in-flight Wi-Fi with partnered airlines, and 5GB of high-speed data in 215+ other countries. And if you like to upgrade phones frequently, Go5G Plus customers are upgrade-ready every two years, and Go5G Next customers are upgrade-ready every year with the same discounts as new customers.

T-Mobile also offers home internet service using 5G in many areas. While 5G home internet can have higher ping and more unstable speeds than cable or fiber, for many people, it’s perfectly acceptable and there should be no trouble with HD streaming and multiple users browsing at once. If you have a wireless line, you can save $10 per month on 5G Home Internet and $20 per month with a Magenta or Go5G plan.

Which is right for you?

If you’re a lighter user looking to save, Mint Mobile is the way to go with its easy multi-month discounts. Mint makes sense for those on a fixed income who know exactly how much money they can spend. If you get a lump sum of cash, such as a tax return, Mint Mobile’s yearly plans can be a nice way to take care of your phone bill for a year. While Mint Family takes the edge off payments on a multiline account, the lack of direct multiline discounts and a recovery fee due on each plan makes the value a bit murkier.

Even so, if you have just one or two lines, Mint stands out as a strong value. Its 40GB plan is plenty for most users and may even be enough to satisfy heavy users. While Mint’s international offerings aren’t as strong as T-Mobile’s, you can still use the carrier internationally with travel passes if you need to. With the same 5G network behind it and strong multi-month discounts, Mint Mobile is definitely worth a look.

Mint Mobile

Editor’s choice

Save money with plenty of data for most

Mint’s multi-month savings make the T-Mobile-owned carrier a strong choice for most people. Light users can save with the 5GB plan, while heavy users can opt for the 40GB unlimited plan. Best of all, they can be part of the same Mint Family plan with Mint’s best rates renewed every three months.

From $15/month

T-Mobile is still a strong value for many, especially those with three or more lines. Its Essentials plans have plenty of data for anyone and are competitive price-wise with Mint’s unlimited plan when you have three lines. Heavier users will appreciate T-Mobile’s unlimited premium data on its larger plans. And if you need hotspot data, T-Mobile’s 50GB on its Go5G Plus and higher plans are the only choice, with Mint’s unlimited plan offering only 10GB of hotspot data. T-Mobile offers multi-line savings, roaming coverage, and taxes included with most of its plans, so it can still be a great value.

T-Mobile

Runner-up

Great performance and plan selection

T-Mobile’s unlimited plans appeal not only to heavy users but to families looking to bring three or more lines with multiline savings. T-Mobile even includes taxes and fees in the sticker price of most of its plans, so you know what you’ll need to pay multiline before signing up. If you like to upgrade your phone every year, T-Mobile’s Go5G Next plan gets you the best deals as well.

From $60/month