Turkey eSIM and Internet Block Statistics 2026

Every number on this page is dated and sourced. Numbers marked “our test” come from our own checks from Istanbul and exist nowhere else. You may quote them with a link to this page (CC BY 4.0). We recheck quarterly. Next update: December 2026.

eSIM access from inside Turkey

• About 37 international eSIM stores are blocked by BTK, Turkey’s telecom regulator. (Medyascope, Diken, 2025)
• The blocks came in 3 waves: 10 July, 17 July and 15 September 2025. (Medyascope, Diken)
• 15 of 19 (79%) of the largest international eSIM stores were unreachable from Istanbul. (Our test, 10 Sept 2026; same on 1 Oct 2026)
• 4 of 19 international stores loaded: Simbye, Breeze, Truely and Firsty. (Our test, 10 Sept 2026; same on 1 Oct 2026)
• 3 of 3 Turkish operator sites loaded: Turkcell, Vodafone Türkiye, Türk Telekom. (Our test, 10 Sept 2026; same on 1 Oct 2026)
• Blocked stores gave no answer in 25 seconds. Open stores answered in 0.3 to 1.0 seconds. (Our test, 10 Sept 2026)
• An eSIM installed before arrival keeps working. The block hits stores, apps and activation servers, not the mobile network. (Our test and BTK decisions)

Test method: each homepage and Turkey plan page requested over HTTPS from one Türk Telekom fixed line in Istanbul, mobile user agent, 25-second timeout. The full results are in the Turkey eSIM dataset.

Turkey eSIM prices per GB

All 30-day plans unless stated. Prices read from each store’s own Turkey page.

• Cheapest per GB, bought before you fly: Nomad 50 GB, $31 = $0.62/GB. (22 Sept 2026)
• Cheapest per GB, bought inside Turkey: Simbye 20 GB, $16.15 with code = $0.81/GB. (22 Sept 2026)
• Simbye 20 GB without a code: $18.99 = $0.95/GB. (22 Sept 2026)
• Nomad 20 GB: $20 = $1.00/GB. (22 Sept 2026)
• Airalo 20 GB: $22.50 = $1.13/GB. (24 Sept 2026)
• Saily 20 GB: $22.99 = $1.15/GB. (24 Sept 2026)
• On a 20 GB plan, the blocked stores cost 24% to 42% more than Simbye with the code. (Calculated from the prices above)
• 30-day unlimited: Simbye $42.50 with code, Airalo $69, Holafly $73.90. (22–24 Sept 2026)
• Türk Telekom tourist eSIM: about 1,000 TRY (about $21) for about 25 GB plus minutes and a Turkish number. (In store, 3 Sept 2026)
• Vodafone tourist eSIM: about 1,300 to 1,500 TRY ($28 to $32) for about 20 GB plus 750 minutes. (In store, 3 Sept 2026)

Provider-by-provider prices at 1, 5, 10 and 20 GB, with a CSV and JSON download, are in the Turkey eSIM price index. The full plan table and the price changelog are in the best eSIM for Turkey guide. If you need an eSIM you can buy from here, Simbye with code NOMADISTAN15 is the one we point readers to (affiliate link).

What is blocked in Turkey: services tested

• 44 popular consumer services tested from Istanbul across social, streaming, money, travel, work, news and AI. (Our tests, 11 Sept and 1 Oct 2026)
• 31 of 44 loaded normally, down from 34 on 11 September. (Our test, 1 Oct 2026)
• 8 of 44 refused our automated request in under 0.5 seconds with bot protection, which is not a Turkish block: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Revolut, Tripadvisor, Expedia, Reuters, Medium. (Our test, 1 Oct 2026)
• 5 of 44 were blocked: Discord (court order, October 2024), Roblox (Adana court order, 7 August 2024), and Binance, Coinbase and Kraken, which loaded on 11 September and were blocked by 1 October 2026 (no published decision found). (Our test, 1 Oct 2026)
• Reports in June 2026 that Roblox had reopened were not confirmed: BTK’s records still listed the block two days later. (Cumhuriyet, 20 June 2026)
• A Turkish block shows as no answer at all. Bot protection answers in a fraction of a second. Most published blocklists do not tell these apart. (Our method)
• Booking.com cannot book Turkish hotels from inside Turkey since a March 2017 court ruling. Foreign hotels still work. (Court ruling)

The live table is on what is blocked in Turkey.

VPN websites

• 8 of 10 major VPN provider websites were blocked or unreachable from Istanbul. (Our test, 10 Sept 2026; same on 1 Oct 2026)
• 2 of 10 loaded: Windscribe and IVPN. (Our test, 10 Sept 2026; same on 1 Oct 2026)
• Unreachable: NordVPN, ExpressVPN, ProtonVPN, Private Internet Access, PureVPN, hide.me. Blocked with a reset: Surfshark, CyberGhost. (Our test, 10 Sept 2026)
• VPN sites were blocked in waves: about 10 in December 2016, 16 in December 2023, about 27 in August 2024. (Press reports collected in our timeline)

A VPN website being blocked does not mean the VPN app fails. We test websites, not tunnels.

Turkey internet blocks since 2014

• 27 major block, unblock and throttling events recorded from March 2014 to June 2026. (Our timeline, sources per event)
• Of those: 15 blocks, 5 unblocks, 3 partial blocks, 3 throttling episodes and 1 reported reopening that was not confirmed. (Our timeline)
• Twitter was blocked on 21 March 2014 and restored 3 April 2014 after a Constitutional Court ruling. (Al Jazeera)
• Wikipedia was blocked from April 2017 to January 2020. (Constitutional Court ruling)
• Social media was throttled during political events in March 2025 and September 2025, for hours to days each time. (NetBlocks, Turkish Minute)
• 9 live-streaming apps were blocked on 14 February 2026. (Gazete Birlik)
• Parliament passed a law allowing social media restrictions on 23 April 2026. (Al Jazeera)

For what the eSIM blocks mean for buying a plan, see eSIM after the BTK block.

Every event, with its source, is on the blocked-in-Turkey timeline.

How to cite

Nomad Istanbul, Turkey eSIM and Internet Block Statistics 2026, nomadistanbul.com/kb/turkey-esim-internet-statistics/, updated 30 September 2026. Raw data: turkey-esim.json and turkey-blocks.json, both CC BY 4.0.

Found a number that is out of date? Email hello@nomadistanbul.com with the line and the source. We date every correction.

Disclosure

The Simbye link on this page is an affiliate link. Using it supports this site at no cost to you. Our test results do not depend on any provider.