How to Install a FlightSIM eSIM on Google Pixel
Add a FlightSIM eSIM to your Pixel before departure: the Settings path, the per-SIM roaming switch, and an honest note on coverage away from major cities.
Updated August 28, 2026
Nothing about a Pixel makes this hard. The friction on most trips is elsewhere: in what your own carrier charges for the out-of-region band, usually the priciest row on the sheet, and in the twenty minutes after landing when the airport Wi-Fi login page will not load and the shuttle desk wants a confirmation email you cannot open. A local prepaid SIM means locating a store during opening hours and, at some counters, handing over identification.
An eSIM turns that into something you do at home on a Tuesday evening. Buy the plan in the FlightSIM app, install the line over your own Wi-Fi, leave it switched off, and arrive with one toggle between you and a working map. There is no penalty for installing early: the plan counts from its first connection to a network at the destination, not from the moment of purchase. Prices sit on the pricing page, and the rest of what we get asked is on the FAQ.
The Pixel path is Settings, Network & internet, SIMs, then Download a SIM instead. Two details are worth reading twice. Google’s wording — Download a SIM instead — sounds like a fallback and is in fact the option you want, sitting one screen behind an offer to search for carrier plans. And the Roaming switch on a Pixel is per SIM, so you can leave it on for the travel line and off for your home line, which is precisely the arrangement you want anywhere you travel. Other phones are covered on the iPhone and Samsung pages, or the general Android one if yours is neither.
Now the two things we will not soften. The plan is data-only, so it gives you no local phone number, and a verification text, a booking confirmation or a rental-desk callback that wants one has no workaround we can sell you — your own number keeps working on your own SIM throughout. And coverage follows the local networks, not the SIM: strong in dense, well-covered areas, thinner in remote ones, exactly as a physical SIM bought after landing would be. Download offline maps before you head somewhere quiet and you will barely notice; expect full bars everywhere and you occasionally will not.
Installation steps
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Step 1
Buy the plan in the FlightSIM app
Choose your destination and plan and pay. The QR code and manual activation details are filed under the order and stay there, so you can come back if the first install does not take.
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Step 2
Install at home, on Wi-Fi
A profile download needs a real connection. Doing it before departure loses you nothing, because the plan begins counting at its first connection to a network at the destination rather than at purchase.
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Step 3
Open Settings, then Network & internet
Pixels run close to stock Android, so the path is short and has held steady across recent releases. If your build words it differently, type SIM into the Settings search box.
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Step 4
Tap SIMs, or the plus icon beside it
With a physical SIM in use the entry reads SIMs with a small plus next to it. On a Pixel carrying no SIM you may instead see a direct invitation to add one. Both reach the same screen.
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Step 5
Pick Download a SIM instead, then scan
Android first offers to look for a carrier plan; skip that and choose Download a SIM instead, Google's wording for the option that accepts a provider QR code. Hold the Pixel over the code on another screen, or tap Need help for manual entry and copy the SM-DP+ address and activation code.
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Step 6
Name the line, then switch it off
The Pixel downloads the profile and asks you to confirm. Label it Travel so the dual-SIM screens make sense at three in the morning, keep your home SIM as the default for calls, and disable the new line until you arrive.
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Step 7
After landing, enable it and make it the data SIM
Open Settings, Network & internet, SIMs, select the FlightSIM line and switch it on, then set Mobile data to that line. Your usual number stays active on its own SIM for calls and texts.
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Step 8
Turn Roaming on for the FlightSIM line only
With the FlightSIM line open, switch Roaming on. Android keeps this toggle per SIM, which is exactly what you want here: it grants this line permission to attach to a visited network and adds nothing to a prepaid plan. Confirm your home SIM still has its roaming switch off.
Troubleshooting
Which Pixels take an eSIM?
Pixel 3 and everything after it, broadly, with regional exceptions — a handful of variants sold into particular markets shipped without the hardware. Rather than trust a list, dial *#06# on the phone you are holding: an EID beside the IMEI means the hardware is there.
Do I get a local phone number with the plan?
No. This is a data-only plan, so no local number comes with it and none can be attached. Your own number stays on your own SIM and remains reachable. Take it seriously when planning: a delivery app, a booking confirmation or a rental desk that wants to send a verification code or ring you back needs a local number, and a data eSIM has none to give them.
How good is coverage away from major cities?
The eSIM connects to the same local networks a prepaid SIM bought on arrival would use — strong where those networks are strong, thinner in remote or mountainous stretches, the same as for any SIM. If your trip goes off the beaten path, download offline maps in the last town with signal.
I cannot find Download a SIM instead.
Make sure you are in Settings, Network & internet, SIMs and not inside a carrier app. If the option really is absent while *#06# does show an EID, the Pixel is probably carrier-locked — operator handsets sometimes restrict which profiles they accept. That is a much easier phone call to make before you fly.
I have landed and the eSIM has no signal.
Check in order that the line is enabled under SIMs, selected for mobile data, and has Roaming on. Then toggle Airplane mode to force a fresh search. If it stays blank, open the line's network settings, switch off automatic selection, pick a network by hand, and put selection back to automatic once it registers.
Can I share the connection with a laptop?
Yes, hotspot is included. Turn it on under Network & internet, Hotspot & tethering. It is the practical answer for a hotel room whose Wi-Fi is unusable, and for a hire car where one phone keeps everyone else online.