Last Updated: May 12, 2023

Best Prepaid Sim Cards For Costa Rica (Stay Connected)

So you are planning on going to Costa Rica, great choice if I may say so. I am actually sitting in Costa Rica as I write this and have to say, your best way of staying connected while you are here is with a local Costa Rica sim card.

But, which prepaid Costa Rica sim card is the best one for you? That is what we are here to find out.

Join me as I review all the best prepaid sim cards for Costa Rica, discussing coverage, speeds, pricing, and plans so that you can find the right local sim card for your travels.

Kolbi Sim Card

A Kolbi Sim Card is an excellent Costa Rican sim card to go with as Kolbi has the widest coverage of all Costa Rican providers. This ensures you will have reliable cell phone service and 4G or 3G speeds wherever you travel to.

Kolbi has a prepaid sim card designed just for tourists and it is a pretty good deal. For 12,000 colones ($22.24 USD) the prepaid sim card comes with 5GB of mobile data, 5GB free data for Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Waze, plus 100 local mins, 30 local SMS, and it lasts for 30-days.

Overall, this plan is very affordable and I love that you get free data for social media, communication, and navigation – it covers all the bases.

You can buy Kolbi prepaid sim cards at their shops which are all over Costa Rica and you can also buy them at some supermarkets too.

There are some other Kolbi prepaid sim cards plans on offer which come with less data and are 5040 colones ($9.27) with 2GB of data (3GB Whatsapp free) or 8065 colones ($14.95) with 4GB of data (3GB Whatsapp free.

Pros

  • A lot of data
  • Free 5G for msgs, social media, and nav.
  • Good coverage
  • 4G connection speeds
  • Some free local mins and SMS
  • Easy setup/top up
  • A range of plans to choose from

Cons

  • No airport shop
See Prices on Kolbi Sim Card

Liberty Sim Card (Formerly Movistar)

Liberty, formerly Movistar, provides excellent mobile coverage all over Costa Rica and you will have a 4G connection most of the time with their prepaid sim card.

Liberty has 2 different prepaid sim card plans you need to be aware of – Super Recharge and Prepaid Internet Packages.

The Super Recharge offers are as follows:

  • 1000 CRC – 1000 CRC credit/300 MB data/Unlimited Whatsapp/ 10 minutes of calls/ 4 days – $1.85
  • 2000 CRC – 2000 CRC/1 GB data/Unlimited Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Waze & WhatsApp/15 minutes of local calls/6 days – $3.71
  • 2500 CRC – 2500 CRC credit/1.2 GB data/Unlimited Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Waze & WhatsApp/20 minutes local calls/7 days – $4.63
  • 4500 CRC – 4500 CRC credit/2 GB data/Unlimited Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Waze & WhatsApp/45 minutes local calls/15 days – $8.34

There is also the Free Prepaid Plan which lasts for 30 days and comes with 4GB data/Unlimited Whatsapp, Twitter, and Waze, 140 liberty minutes, 70 local mins, 70 SMS – 5900 C ($10.93 USD)

As you can see, you have a lot of very affordable plans to choose from and the Free Prepaid Plan is by far the best value.

In all honesty, the Prepaid Internet Packages are not really worth it as they give you very little data for a very limited time, so stick with the Super Recharge offers.

Pros

  • Great coverage across Costa R