One person buys a travel eSIM and the other shares it. This usually works. What goes wrong is plan size and battery.
Providers allow it
Sharing a travel eSIM does not break a rule for the main providers, which publish instructions for it. Ubigi has a dedicated page with steps for iPhone and iPad, then separate steps for Samsung, Motorola, Google Pixel and Huawei. Saily has its own hotspot setup guide for iOS and Android.
Plan size
A 5 GB plan bought for one phone is now a 5 GB plan for two. The second phone syncs photos, backs up, updates apps and streams on the walk to dinner. It was never set up for a metered connection, so two travellers usually use more than twice the data of one.
Before you share, turn off automatic photo backup and app updates on the guest phone. That does more than any setting on the host.
Battery
Tethering is the heaviest load a phone puts on its own battery. It holds a cellular connection and runs a Wi-Fi access point together, often in a warm pocket.
The host is usually also the phone with the boarding passes, the hotel booking and the map. Running it down to ten percent in an unfamiliar city to save one data plan is a poor trade. If you share for a whole day, carry a power bank, and see power and charging in Asia for what you may fly with.
When two plans beat one
Sharing suits an afternoon, or a companion who needs only maps and messaging.
Over a two-week trip you need a larger plan, one phone drains daily and whoever holds the host phone cannot wander off. A second small plan on the other phone fixes all three. Travel eSIMs are cheap enough at the low end that the sums often favour it, so price both. If you will tether, a plan whose own documentation covers sharing it is a safe start, because the instructions are published. If you are still choosing, start with our eSIM and local SIM comparison.
The settings
- iOS: Settings, then Personal Hotspot, and switch it on. If it is not visible, open Cellular first and find it there. The Wi-Fi password is shown on that screen.
- Samsung: Connections, then Mobile Hotspot and Tethering.
- Pixel and Motorola: Settings, then Network and internet, then Hotspot and tethering.
- Other Android: the path varies by manufacturer, which is why Ubigi documents four separately. Most phones also have a Hotspot tile in the quick settings panel, reached by swiping down twice.
A phone locked to a carrier may refuse a travel eSIM entirely, tethering or not. Check for carrier lock before you buy.
What we have not checked
Whether a plan is throttled after a daily volume is a per-plan term, not a tethering rule. Read it on the product page before buying. We have not verified throttling for any specific plan.
A plan whose own documentation covers sharing it (affiliate link)