Picking the best Verizon phone plan for your needs doesn’t have to be tricky, even though the carrier recently tweaked its unlimited places. We can walk you through all the options.
There are two main things you need to decide. First off, how much data you need, be that a small or large amount of gigabytes per month, or even unlimited. Second, which perks on offer you actually want and will make use of. While it’s tempting to pick the most generous possible package of benefits and data, you are better off saving money and buying only what you need.
After going over the Verizon’s various options, we’ve found the best choices at a variety of prices. Ultimately, though, picking the right Verizon plan comes down to how you use your smartphone. For most customers, an unlimited plan is the optimum choice, with Verizon’s 5G Play More offering the most attractive balance of price and perks.
Families will prefer unlimited plans for the discounts Verizon adds for each line in your phone plan. Tiered data plans are another story, as families have to share from a single pool of data, without much of a difference from the price of unlimited plans. For individuals, those tiered options are among the best Verizon phone plans if they don’t consume much data.
Verizon also offers some of the best prepaid phone plans, thanks to a lot of data and the ability to lower your bill by sticking with the carrier for three months or more.
Here’s a closer look at the best Verizon phone plans and how each one can meet your particular needs, whether that be the best family cell phone plans or simply the best cheap phone plans Verizon can offer.
The three best Verizon plans
The best Verizon phone plans available now
Pressured by rival carriers like T-Mobile, Verizon reintroduced unlimited plans in 2017, and hasn’t looked back since, even expanding into four different unlimited options. We think the Verizon 5G Play More plan is the best unlimited data option because it includes Disney-owned streaming services (Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and Hulu) as part of your subscription. You also get a six-month trial for Apple Music. Additionally, Verizon includes Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass, depending on which streaming gaming service strikes your fancy.
A single line of Verizon Play More costs $80 a month, which is $10 more than what you’d pay for T-Mobile’s Magenta Unlimited plan. (We think T-Mobile has the best unlimited data plan overall because of that lower cost and T-Mobile’s perks.) Thanks to escalating discounts as you add lines, a family of four would pay $180 each month for four lines of Verizon Play More. Verizon also gives families the option of mixing and matching its different unlimited data plans.
It is worth highlighting that Verizon does cap data at 50GB per month this unlimited plans. Go over that and Verizon can slow your speeds. You get 25GB of hotspot data before your speeds are slowed.
Play More includes access to Verizon’s newly launched C-Band 5G coverage, which delivers faster speeds to a wider away.
Verizon’s three other main unlimited data plans are:
- Verizon 5G Do More: This plan costs the same as Verizon Play More, but only features six months of Disney Plus along with the six-month trial to Apple Music and either Apple Arcade or Google Play Plus. You get 25GB of hotspot data, but there’s also 600GB of Verizon Cloud Storage, plus half-off for unlimited plans covering connected devices like tablets and watches. Travelers will like the one TravelPass day per month that provides unlimited talk, text and data in more than 185 countries.
- Verizon 5G Get More: Verizon’s most expensive plan, at $90 a month for a single line, also comes with the most perks. Apple Music and the entire Disney bundle are both included, as is the 600GB of cloud storage and 50% discount on connected device plans. Hotspot data doubles to 50GB. You get the streaming gaming service subscription too, plus the cloud storage and TravelPass perks included with Do More.
- Verizon 5G Start: Verizon’s cheapest unlimited option, this costs $70 a month. 5G customers only get six month trials to Disney Plus, a streaming gaming service and Apple Music. Verizon also reserves the right to slow your speeds at any time. Unlike Verizon’s other plans that access fast Ultra Wideband 5G coverage, 5G Start only gets nationwide 5G coverage at slower speeds.
Verizon’s prepaid plans don’t feature a lot in the way of perks, as is often the case when comparing prepaid vs. postpaid phone service. But Verizon’s prepaid options do pack in data, especially the carrier’s 15GB plan. Plus, there’s a way to save even more money by sticking with Verizon for an extended period.
Verizon’s 15GB plan costs $50 a month, but enrolling in autopay knocks $5 off the cost. You can save another $5 by sticking with Verizon for three months, and an additional $5 loyalty discount kicks in at the nine month mark. That means you’ll paying $35 for all that data.
Verizon’s prepaid plans also include unlimited data for $60 a month and 5GB for $35. Those prices reflect $5 autopay discounts, and they’re subject to the same loyalty discounts after three and nine months of continuous service. While all prepaid plans have access to Verizon’s nationwide 5G service, only the unlimited data plan gives prepaid customers access to super-fast Ultra Wideband 5G.
Prepaid options aren’t a good idea at Verizon if you have multiple lines. There’s no discount as you add more lines to your prepaid plan.
Unlimited data plans are convenient but costly, especially if you don’t consume a lot of data each month. For a lower monthly bill, you can turn to a tiered data plan, which gives you a limited pool of data in exchange for a lower rate.
The best Verizon tiered option for individuals is the carrier’s 5GB data plan for $55 a month. (That’s $40 for the plan itself, plus a $20 access fee, but less $5 when you enroll in autopay.) That’s a generous slice of data that saves you $15 a month off Verizon’s cheapest unlimited plan. You also get carryover data that adds unused data into next month’s allotment, while a Safety Mode helps you avoid data overages by slowing your speeds once you use up your 5GB for the month.
Families can take advantage of tiered data plans, too, but every line pulls from the same amount of data. For that reason, families may find the 5GB tier a little constrictive. (In fact, Verizon used to limit the 5GB option to just individual customers.) The 10GB tier might be better for families, though with four lines costing $140, you won’t save that much off an unlimited plan. (Four lines of Start Unlimited would cost just as much.)
Note that Verizon’s tiered data plans include access to the carrier’s nationwide 5G network, provided you’ve got a compatible 5G phone. However, that doesn’t include fast Ultra Wideband service, which is expanding to more areas thanks to Verizon’s new C-Band spectrum
What are the best 5G Verizon plans?
Verizon launched its 5G network in 2019, but the real boost came this year with the launch of C-Band spectrum. That extends Verizon’s fast Ultra Wideband network to more areas — around 90 million people are covered at this point. We tested Verizon’s C-Band before it launched and came away impressed by Verizon’s improved network.
As for Verizon nationwide 5G coverage, that reaches more than 230 million people at this point. That service isn’t as fast as Ultra Wideband 5G, but it’s more pervasive at this point.
If you live in an area that’s covered by Verizon’s 5G network and want to experience faster coverage, unlimited data is the best Verizon plan to get. Complete 5G coverage comes with the Play More, Do More and Get More unlimited plans, as well as with Verizon’s prepaid unlimited plan. 5G Start customers only get nationwide 5G coverage, not the faster Ultra Wideband service. Tiered plans only access nationwide coverage as well.
Many of the best 5G phones are available through Verizon including the Galaxy S21 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 3 and all four iPhone 13 models. Verizon also has some 5G exclusives like the Galaxy A42 5G.
Are Verizon plans good for seniors?
Verizon does offer a discounted unlimited data plan to anyone 55 years and older, but there’s a huge catch — Verizon’s 55+ plan is only available for people living in Florida. If you’ve got a Florida billing address, you can get two lines of unlimited data for $80 a month, with video streaming at 480p resolution, unlimited mobile hotspot data (though restricted to 2G speeds), and the ability to use your plan in Canada and Mexico. A single line of data costs $60.
T-Mobile offers discounted unlimited plans for seniors 55 years and older that are $10 less expensive than what Verizon charges, and those plans are available to anyone regardless of where they live. T-Mobile also includes 5G coverage with its senior plans.
How to choose the best Verizon phone plan
To determine the best Verizon phone plan for your wireless needs, ask yourself what you do with your smartphone. If it involves a lot of streaming, be it movies or music, you’re going to want to look at Verizon’s unlimited options. Should your data needs begin and end with browsing the internet, checking email and the occasional social media post, you can probably get away with a tiered data plan.
If possible, look at your monthly data usage on your current plan to see how much you’re consuming on average — if it’s less than 5GB, you can save money each month with one of Verizon’s tiered plans.
Prepaid plans can save some money on your monthly cell phone bill, and Verizon has some of the better prepaid options among the big carriers. Just be aware that you won’t get as many perks with a prepaid as you would with one of Verizon’s postpaid options.
Is Verizon your only option for Verizon’s network?
While getting service directly from Verizon is the way to ensure you get Verizon’s top speeds and best plans, there are other carrier options if you want to use Verizon’s network without paying so much for your service. MVNOs — short for mobile virtual network operators — piggy-back on other carriers’ networks to provide lower-cost service. The trade-off is that the parent carrier prioritizes its own customers so you might see slower speeds.
In the case of Verizon MVNOs, several use Verizon’s superior network for their own 5G coverage. The best is owned and operated by Verizon — Visible, which features a $40 unlimited data plan and attractive pricing for multiple lines of data.