No-KYC eSIM checklist: what to check before you buy

Buying mobile data without handing over a passport is a narrow promise. It means the seller does not take an identity document for that purchase. It does not mean the phone becomes invisible, and it does not mean every later step stays free of personal details.

The useful check is specific. See whether an ID is required when you pay, and again when you install. See what the payment itself is tied to. See whether you are buying data only, or a number that can receive calls and texts. Then look at the phone in your hand. It has to support eSIM and be carrier-unlocked, and you want the QR or the manual code installed on Wi-Fi before you travel.

Checked on 9 November 2026.

The rest of this page walks through those checks one at a time. Where the answer is about Silent eSIM, it follows the terms, the FAQ, the privacy policy and the rates page on this site. How our own purchase works, including what "no KYC" does and does not mean, is also written up on the anonymous eSIM page.

Identity checks at checkout and at activation

KYC is the ordinary name for a "know your customer" check. In practice that is a passport, a national ID card, a driving licence, sometimes a selfie, sometimes a proof of address. A provider that advertises no KYC is saying it will not run that check. Treat the checkout form as the real list, not the sentence on the homepage. If the form asks you to upload a document, photograph yourself, or type a government ID number, the purchase includes an identity check, whatever the banner said.

There is a second moment, and it is the one people miss. Some sellers let you pay with almost nothing, then ask for ID when you scan the QR, when the profile downloads, or the first time the phone attaches to a network. If that prompt appears in an airport, you no longer have a calm moment to walk away. Before you pay, look through the help docs for an activation step or an "identity verification" step. A clean payment page is not the whole story if the install flow asks later.

On Silent eSIM the terms say we do not ask for identity documents, and that we are not going to start asking for them in order to enforce the basic conditions of sale. The privacy policy says there is no KYC step and no plan to add one. Crypto checkout does not ask for an email or an account. Card checkout asks the card processor for email and billing details. That is a real request for personal details, and it is a different request from an ID upload. The next section is about what that payment is attached to.

Still read the screen you are about to submit. The policy page and the live form should say the same thing. If they do not, believe the form, and do not pay until you understand which fields are required.

A purchase without an ID document is also not a way around local law. Rules for registering a SIM depend on the country, the kind of service and the circumstances. A roaming travel eSIM is not always treated like a SIM issued by a local carrier. The anonymous eSIM page says this directly: a no-KYC purchase is not an exemption from the rules at your destination. If you are travelling somewhere that registers SIM users, check the official requirement before you rely on a checkout form from another country.

What each way of paying reveals

You can pay Silent eSIM by card, or in cryptocurrency through our own self-hosted BTCPay Server. The terms describe the crypto side more carefully than a one-line list of coin names. Bitcoin, on-chain only, and Monero (XMR) are paid directly to our wallets, so no third-party payment processor sees that invoice. Other coins, including USDT, are accepted through an automatic swap to Monero run by Trocador. Trocador processes the swap and the records that belong to it. Only Bitcoin and Monero settle on-chain to BTCPay. Lightning is not accepted. A card payment and a crypto payment both credit the same US dollar balance.

A card is the option that ties the order to an identity your bank already holds. We never see or store your full card number. The card is handled on the processor's own checkout. The privacy policy names that processor as Stripe. The processor asks for email and billing details. The charge then appears on the card account, under the name the bank already has for that cardholder. If the point of avoiding an ID upload was to keep the purchase off your bank statement, a card does not do that. The terms also cap a card payment at $200 per checkout. Crypto does not have that $200 cap. Checkout shows the total either way.

An on-chain Bitcoin payment does not ask us for your name, and crypto checkout does not ask for an email. The transaction is still a public ledger entry: an amount, a time, and the addresses involved. The privacy policy says public blockchain transactions can identify or link activity. Paying in Bitcoin is not a guarantee of anonymity. Monero is paid on-chain to our wallet through the same BTCPay Server. Choosing Monero changes the payment trail. It does not change what the mobile network can see once the eSIM is installed, and it does not remove the access code and PIN you have to keep in order to get back in.

USDT is a third case, and it is easy to misread. You can pay with USDT. It is not a USDT transfer that settles on BTCPay. Trocador swaps it to Monero first, and Trocador sees that swap. Keep the Trocador trade ID shown at checkout. The terms say swap problems, and refunds for that part of the payment, are handled with that ID. Crypto payments are final once they have confirmed on-chain. We cannot reverse a blockchain transaction. Sending the wrong asset, on the wrong network, or for the wrong amount can make the funds unrecoverable. Credit lands when the payment confirms, not when you press the button. How long that takes depends on the network.

What no-KYC can and cannot hide

This is the part worth reading slowly. No-KYC removes the identity-document link at the purchase. It does not remove network-level metadata.

When the eSIM attaches, the local partner carrier still has the ordinary view a mobile network has of a phone on its radio network. That view includes device identifiers such as the IMEI, the cell tower the radio is using, and traffic metadata. The phone has to identify itself to the tower, in technical terms, or the tower has nothing to route. A seller who never asked for your passport has not switched that off. The carrier's record of the connection is still a record of the connection.

What Silent eSIM itself stores is a shorter list, and the privacy policy is that list. To run the eSIM we hold its ICCID, the activation profile, the balance, and usage records. Those usage records are data volumes and what they cost. We do not see the sites you visit, your messages, or the contents of your traffic. We do not take a location feed from the network, and we do not store your movements. The upstream mobile operator sees the ICCID, the network you attach to, and your data volumes, because that is what carrying the connection requires. It does not receive your email address from us. The same policy says records held by the mobile network can still identify or link activity. Both of those statements are doing work. We do not keep a location diary. The carrier that routes the radio connection can still see the connection.

A VPN sits somewhere else in the path. It can hide the contents of the traffic, and the destinations, from the carrier, because that traffic is inside the tunnel. It does not hide the radio link underneath the tunnel. The carrier still sees the phone camped on a tower. A VPN does not hide where the phone is.

Put those limits in one place, because they are the whole point of checking before you pay. No-KYC means the purchase does not collect a passport. The partner carrier still sees device identifiers, tower location and traffic metadata. A card payment is still tied to the card account. A crypto payment is still a payment with its own trail. None of those facts cancel the others.

Data only, or a phone number

Silent eSIM is a data-only service. The terms say there is no phone number, no voice calling and no SMS. Your existing SIM keeps your number, and the eSIM sits alongside it for data. The FAQ says the same thing in fewer words: this is data-only, and you keep your home number on your physical SIM for calls and texts.

That split matters the first time a bank, a government site or a login page sends a one-time code by text. The text goes to the line that owns the number. On a data-only eSIM, that line is not the travel eSIM. It is the home SIM, or some other SIM that actually has a number. If you switch the home line off to avoid roaming charges, you also switch off those codes. Decide that before you fly. Leave the home SIM in the phone if you still need texts, and use the travel eSIM as the data line only.

There is a harder limit, and the terms state it on purpose. This service has no voice calling, so it cannot be used to call emergency services. Do not treat it as your only way to reach someone if something goes wrong.

Hotspot and tethering are turned on, and they do not cost extra. The support notes add a practical condition: the eSIM usually has to be the mobile-data line before the hotspot will use it. Set that first, then turn the hotspot on.

The phone has to be unlocked and able to use an eSIM

The profile only works on a phone or tablet that supports eSIM and is carrier-unlocked. A handset that is still locked to the carrier who sold it will often refuse a travel profile, even when the hardware is capable of eSIM. Check the lock before you pay. On an iPhone the status sits under Settings, General, About. Android puts the same fact in different menus depending on the maker. If you cannot find it, ask the carrier who sold you the phone, or prove it with another profile before a trip you care about.

The terms describe the broad set of devices we expect this to fit: iPhone XS and later, Google Pixel 3 and later, Samsung Galaxy S20 and later, and cellular iPads from the same period. The FAQ is a little tighter about where that applies. It names iPhone XS and newer, Pixel 3 and newer for US and Canadian models, and Galaxy S20 and newer, then points at the full list. Regional variants of the same phone name are a real source of disappointment. A family name on a box is not confirmation. Check the exact model on the compatible devices list, which is also what the how it works page tells you to do before you buy.

Device incompatibility is not something we can repair after the fact. The terms say it is not a refundable failure on our side. Where you have a statutory right, that right still sits above a policy sentence. The refund section further down stays with the wording already published on the terms and the FAQ, rather than inventing a softer rule here.

The activation QR is single-use. Once the profile has been installed on a device, scanning the same code on a second phone will not install it again. If you need the profile re-issued, the terms say to open a ticket on the support page and we will look at it.

Install on Wi-Fi before you leave

Install while you still have Wi-Fi, and do it before you leave if you can. The download needs a connection. Leaving it until you are in an arrivals hall, with the home line already roaming or with no working data at all, is how a straightforward install becomes a long evening.

After the payment confirms and the eSIM is issued, the order screen shows an access code and a PIN for each eSIM. Write both down somewhere you can open if this browser is gone. Then continue to the account page for the QR and the installation details. The order link is useful while that browser session is still alive. On its own, in a fresh browser, it does not get you back in.

You can install from the QR, or type the activation code when the camera will not scan. The device guides on this site spell that out for each phone family. iPhone, iPad, Samsung and Pixel all offer a manual-entry step next to the QR scan. The menu names are not identical. The shape is. On iPhone it is Settings, then Cellular (or Mobile Service), then Add eSIM, then Use QR Code, or Enter Details Manually. On many Android phones it is Settings, then Network, then SIMs, then Add eSIM. The support page also notes that iOS 17.4 and later can use a one-tap install link on the account page.

Two settings decide whether the installed profile actually carries data. Turn data roaming on for the Silent eSIM line. The support page is direct about this: data roaming has to be on for that line everywhere, including at home, and it does not add a separate charge. Then set Silent eSIM as the mobile-data line. Leave the old line as the one for calls and texts if you still want the number. The home SIM keeps that number. Installing the eSIM does not move it.

Leave the APN alone unless support has asked you to change it. The support page says the APN is configured by the profile, and that typing one in by hand is a common reason a phone shows signal and still passes no data. If you already added one, remove it and let the profile set itself.

The first attach can be slow indoors. If the status sits on "searching" or "no service", the support notes suggest airplane mode for about ten seconds, network selection left on automatic rather than a hand-picked carrier, a reboot, and a step closer to a window or outside.

How the price works

This is pay as you go, measured against a balance, not a bundle with an end date. You load US dollars. Data is charged at the country rate in force when you use it. The terms say the network reports usage about every ten minutes, and that amount is deducted from the balance. There is no daily fee, no bundle and no overage. When the balance reaches zero, data pauses. Nothing else is billed. You top up to continue, on the same eSIM, and you do not reinstall.

The balance does not expire. The rates page says your balance never expires. The terms say the same thing, and they add that there is no dormancy fee and no clock running on the credit. The FAQ says you can use it next week, next year, or not at all, and it stays. It is store credit for data with us. It is not cash we are holding as a bank would, it is not ordinarily paid back out to a card or a wallet, and it cannot be moved onto a different eSIM or given to someone else. Any of those limits gives way where a statutory right says otherwise. The terms are the place that distinction is drawn.

A newly issued eSIM has a one-time setup fee. Checkout shows the fee before you pay, including when a returning customer buys another eSIM. On this site that fee is $4. Adding credit to an eSIM you already have does not add a new setup fee. The minimum credit is $5. Those two figures are the product constants used at checkout. They are not a price per gigabyte, and they are not a forecast of what a given country will cost next month.

Country prices are left off this page on purpose. They move when wholesale rates move, and a copied table would go stale without telling you. The rates page is the live source. It is generated from the same data the billing system uses, so if a number in a blog post ever disagreed with it, the rates page is the one that wins. The data price per GB tool lists our own pay-as-you-go price in every country we sell, cheapest first, which is the practical way to compare a trip. A rate change applies to data you use after the change. It does not rewrite data you have already used, and it does not shrink the dollars already sitting on the eSIM. It changes how far those dollars go.

Refunds, using only the terms and the FAQ

The terms and the FAQ are the pages that set the refund rule, and they describe the same ordinary case. The short version at the top of the terms says our ordinary refund policy is store credit, subject to any applicable statutory rights. The refund section says ordinary refunds of top-ups come back as store credit rather than to a card or a wallet, again subject to statutory rights. Used data is ordinarily non-refundable. If something failed on our side and you could not get online, the terms say to tell us and we will make it right. The full policy, including how to ask, is on the refund page. The terms say that page is part of the terms.

The FAQ answer is the same policy, written as the question we actually get. The ordinary goodwill remedy is store credit. Statutory consumer rights still apply and may require another remedy. Unused balance stays on the account and never expires, so leaving it there does not wipe it, and you can use it on a later trip. Data you have already used is not refundable. If something went wrong on our end and you could not get online, open a support ticket and we will make it right. Where the consumer law where you live gives you a statutory right to cancel, that right still applies.

A few neighbouring sentences in the terms belong in the same check, because they are about money you might expect to see again. Device incompatibility is not a refundable failure on our side. A crypto payment that has confirmed on-chain cannot be reversed by us. Once an eSIM has been issued, the ordinary policy treats the one-time issue fee as used, subject to any applicable statutory rights. None of those sentences removes a statutory right you already have. The terms also ask you to open a ticket before you start a chargeback if you think a charge is wrong. A chargeback on a delivered eSIM will normally get the balance and the eSIM suspended while it is looked at.

Support, and getting the eSIM back without an email or an ID

If you need a person, email help@silentesim.io, or open a ticket on the support page. The contact page uses the same form. The terms say that if there is a dispute, start there. Almost everything gets resolved on that page, and it is faster than the alternatives.

A ticket is not the anonymous path. The privacy policy says that when you open one we store the email address you typed, the ICCID if you included it, and the message. A reply needs an address to land in. That requirement belongs to support. It does not belong to crypto checkout, which does not ask for an email.

Getting the eSIM itself back, without an email and without an ID document, is the access code and the PIN issued at purchase. The terms tell you to save them. They are the recovery credentials if the original browser session is gone. Enter them on the recovery page. A payment email does not unlock that page. An order ID on its own does not unlock it either. The order URL helps while the original session is still available, or while you are signed in to an account that owns the order. The URL by itself does not restore access in a fresh browser.

If the code and the PIN are lost, the terms say to contact support. An order ID or an ICCID can help us find a record. Neither one is proof that you own that eSIM, and neither one guarantees that access can be restored. You can also choose to link an optional account. If the link succeeds, signing in is how you manage the eSIMs on that account. The terms treat that as separate from code-and-PIN recovery, and it shares the account details described in the privacy policy. Skip it if you bought with crypto specifically so that no email would be attached.

One browser detail is easy to skip and painful later. The privacy policy says the anonymous token stored in the browser may be the only thing still pointing at the balance, if you never saved the access code and never attached an email. Clear site data only after the code and the PIN are written down somewhere else.

Short checklist

• Read the checkout form for an ID upload, a selfie or an identity number, then look for the same request at activation. Silent eSIM's terms and privacy policy say we do not take identity documents and we do not plan a KYC step. Card checkout still asks the processor for email and billing details.
• Decide what the payment is tied to. A card payment sits on your card account and is capped at $200 per checkout. On-chain Bitcoin and Monero go to our wallets through our own self-hosted BTCPay Server. USDT is swapped to Monero by Trocador. Lightning is not accepted.
• Keep the limit of no-KYC in view. It removes the identity document at purchase. The partner carrier still sees device identifiers such as the IMEI, the cell tower and traffic metadata. A VPN hides traffic contents and destinations from the carrier. It does not hide the phone's location.
• Confirm the product is data only. There is no phone number, no calls and no SMS, so bank texts stay on the SIM that has your number.
• Check the phone supports eSIM and is carrier-unlocked, on the compatible devices list, before you pay. The QR is single-use.
• On Wi-Fi, before you leave, install the QR or type the activation code. Turn data roaming on for this line and set it as the data line. Leave the home SIM in place if you still need calls and texts.
• Read the price as a balance. It never expires. Per-country prices are on the rates page and the data price per GB tool, not in a fixed table on this article.
• Read the refund rule on the terms and the FAQ. Ordinary refunds are store credit, statutory rights still apply, and data you have already used is not refunded.
• Save the access code and PIN. That pair is how you open the eSIM again without an email or an ID. A ticket to a person needs an email so we can reply.

FAQ

Does no-KYC mean the mobile network cannot see the phone?

No. No-KYC removes the identity document at purchase. The local partner carrier still sees device identifiers such as the IMEI, the cell tower the phone is using, and traffic metadata. A VPN can hide the contents and destinations of traffic from the carrier. It does not hide the tower, so it does not hide where the phone is. Silent eSIM's own records, listed in the privacy policy, are the ICCID, the balance and usage volumes and cost. We do not see the sites you visit, and we do not store a location feed.

Will Silent eSIM ask for an ID document when the eSIM is activated?

The terms say we do not ask for identity documents, and that we are not going to start asking for them. The privacy policy says there is no KYC step and no plan to add one. Crypto checkout does not ask for an email. Card checkout asks the payment processor for email and billing details. Other sellers sometimes ask for ID only at install, so read the live checkout as well as the policy page.

Does this eSIM include a phone number for texts and calls?

No. It is data only. There is no phone number, no voice calling and no SMS. Texts and calls, including one-time codes from a bank, go to the SIM that has your number. That is usually the home SIM, which can stay in the phone beside the eSIM. The eSIM cannot be used to call emergency services.

Does credit I do not use expire?

No. The rates page says the balance never expires. The terms say there is no dormancy fee and no clock on the credit. The FAQ says the same. Ordinary refunds, if one is due, come back as store credit rather than to a card or wallet, and statutory rights may require another remedy. Data you have already used is ordinarily not refundable.

How do I get the eSIM back if I never gave an email or an ID?

Save the access code and PIN from the order and enter them on the recovery page. That path does not ask for an email or an identity document. An order link, a payment email or an order ID on its own does not unlock recovery in a fresh browser. If the code and PIN are lost, support can try to locate a record from an order ID or an ICCID, but that is not proof of ownership and does not guarantee access can be restored. A support ticket needs an email address so we can reply.