Your travel eSIM doesn't just power your phone: via the personal hotspot you can bring your laptop, tablet or your companion's phone online too. That's worth its weight in gold on the road — it saves expensive extra eSIMs and rescues the home-office session on the beach. All you need is to pick the right plan and know a few pitfalls.

iPhone

Setting up the hotspot on iPhone

  1. Select your travel eSIM as the data source
    Settings → Cellular → Cellular Data → select your travel eSIM. Only the active data SIM is used for the hotspot too.
  2. Turn on Personal Hotspot
    Settings → Personal Hotspot → turn on “Allow Others to Join”. Note down or change the Wi-Fi password. If the menu item doesn't appear, check whether data roaming is enabled for the eSIM.
  3. Connect a second device
    On your laptop/tablet, select your iPhone's Wi-Fi network and enter the hotspot password. For Apple devices signed in with the same Apple ID, it also works without a password via “Instant Hotspot”.
Android

Setting up the hotspot on Android

  1. Set your travel eSIM for data
    Settings → Connections → SIM manager → Preferred SIM for mobile data → travel eSIM. Data roaming must be enabled for this profile.
  2. Enable the mobile hotspot
    Settings → Connections → Mobile Hotspot and Tethering → Mobile Hotspot and turn it on. The network name and password can be changed there.
  3. Pair your devices
    On the second device, select the hotspot in the Wi-Fi menu. Alternatively use USB tethering (cable) — it saves battery and is often more stable.
Battery

Hotspot eats battery — how to last longer

FAQ

Common questions about hotspot & tethering

Can I use any travel eSIM as a hotspot?

Technically most travel eSIMs support tethering — but it depends on the plan. With volume-based plans (e.g. 5 or 10 GB), hotspot is usually no problem as long as you have data left. With unlimited plans, some providers restrict tethering or cap it with a separate hotspot allowance. Details in the unlimited fair-use guide.

Why doesn't a hotspot menu show up for me?

Most common cause: data roaming for the travel eSIM is off. From the device's point of view, a travel eSIM is technically roaming — only once roaming is enabled for this profile does the hotspot work. Second cause: the wrong SIM is set as the data SIM. Check both in the cellular/mobile data settings.

How fast does my data disappear when tethering?

Faster than on your phone alone — a laptop loads desktop websites, large updates and cloud backups in the background. A Windows or app update can pull several GB. Before tethering, pause automatic updates and cloud sync on the laptop, then your data lasts much longer. How much each activity eats is in the GB usage guide.

Hotspot or USB tethering — which is better?

USB tethering (a cable between phone and laptop) is usually more stable and easier on the phone's battery, because there's no Wi-Fi radio running. Wi-Fi hotspot is more flexible and serves several devices at once, but drains the battery noticeably. For longer laptop sessions: cable. For quickly serving a tablet + phone: Wi-Fi.

Can I serve several devices at the same time?

Yes — typically 5–10 devices via one hotspot. In practice, your battery and your data volume limit you sooner than the number of devices. For families with several devices, a single hotspot plan can be cheaper than multiple eSIMs — see eSIM for families.