AT&T appears on our list of the best cell phone plans, and for good reason. In addition to unlimited data, you can also find some unique features like the inclusion of HBO Max, roaming in Mexico and Canada and security add-ons such as caller ID and fraud blocking.
Best unlimited data plans: Where AT&T ranksFind the best 5G phones at AT&T
You’ll also find the best AT&T phone plans among the best family cell phone plans, with significant savings for four-line plans. While not as cheap as T-Mobile or Visible, AT&T can challenge those rivals with coverage and performance. Prepaid plans at AT&T offer further chances to save money on wireless service. Here’s a closer look at the options at AT&T and which are the best AT&T phone plans for your needs.
AT&T plans: What kind of offers are available?
When you break it down, AT&T realistically offers two kinds of plans — unlimited or prepaid. While both are great options, these plans offer very different kinds of service. If you’re looking for a family plan or just want the most features and add-ons for your money, going for an unlimited plan is the quickest way to find the best AT&T phone plans. You can pick from three versions of AT&T’s unlimited plan at differing costs, with the more expensive options packing in more features These options can range from a basic plan offering unlimited data, calls and texts on 5G but with no hotspots, premium data or add-ons, all the way up to a plan with hotspots, premium data with no throttling, an HBO Max subscription, security features and plenty more. These unlimited plans see their best per-line prices when bought in a family plan with four lines. If you want something more flexible, prepaid AT&T options are available too. These are mostly low data, low cost options and while they’re more limited in their features and lack 5G, many will find their pricing to be more suitable than unlimited data.
Unlimited and family AT&T plans
Unlimited data and family plans go hand in hand with AT&T. The carrier offers three different tiers, depending on how many features you’re going to need and how much you’re willing to pay. Where the family factor comes in is that the best per-line prices come as you tack on additional lines to your plan. To get the lowest monthly price per line, you need to get a four line plan with AT&T — this applies on all three unlimited data offers. AT&T’s Unlimited Starter, the cheapest of the three, is pretty bare-bones in what it offers, with limits on streaming quality and no hotspot data. But you do get unlimited calls, texts and data. The other two plans — Unlimited Extra and Elite — step it up, offering hotspot data, free streaming services, advanced mobile security and more. In fact, AT&T boosted the perks included with Unlimited Elite last year, making it a better option than before.
AT&T prepaid plans
While AT&T’s best value can be found in the unlimited plans above, it also offers a selection of prepaid plans. These prepaid options vary drastically in what they provide, with data caps ranging from 5GB through to unlimited. While AT&T prepaid plans don’t have quite as many features as the unlimited plans, they do follow a similar format in terms of hotspot data, whether you can access HD video or not and more. However, it is well worth noting that AT&T’s prepaid plans do not offer 5G coverage, with the exception of the pricey Unlimited Plus plan.
Is AT&T a good carrier?
In our guide to the best phone carriers, AT&T takes the third spot behind T-Mobile and Verizon. This is no surprise as AT&T has a lot going for it, mostly due to its rapidly growing 5G coverage — AT&T 5G now reaches 250 million people, and C-Band 5G coverage is now available in eight cities — and extensive network. Pros: Great price for the amount of data; Mobile hotspot Cons: Requires you to prepay for a full year; No 5G coverage Pros: Affordable price tag; Mobile hotspot; Data rollover Cons: No HD video or 5G; Not much data Pros: Good amount of data; Hotspot; Data rollover Cons: Expensive; No HD video or 5G Pros: No caps on data; Can use in Mexico and Canada; 5G Cons: High price tag When we did our last test of network performance, AT&T finished in second place for LTE download speeds. Rootmetrics’ most recent nationwide report (opens in new tab), covering the first half of last year, ranked AT&T first for download speeds overall. However, AT&T is in a bit of a weird spot. It’s not quite as large a network as Verizon and lacks its intensive coverage and it isn’t as affordable as our top ranked carrier - T-Mobile. While some of AT&T’s plans can be quite expensive, it offers ways around this, most noticeably through family plan discounts and savings for nurses, teachers, first responders, military and more; you can also save with some schools, organizations and employers. As we said above, AT&T isn’t the cheapest carrier, but it does have some of the most feature-filled plans, most noticeably its Unlimited Elite plan with HBO Max.
