Verizon bills international use in two separate ways. Calling another country from the US is charged per minute unless you add a monthly calling plan. Using your phone while you travel is charged through TravelPass, a monthly travel plan, or pay-as-you-go roaming. Every Verizon price below comes from Verizon's own pages, checked 3 October 2026.
Calling from the US vs using your phone abroad
| Situation | Default charge | Verizon add-on that lowers it |
|---|---|---|
| In the US, calling a number in another country | Pay per minute, $0.49/min to Canada, $2.49/min to India | Global Calling ($5/month), Global Choice ($10/month) or Global Calling Plus ($15/month) |
| Abroad, using your phone on a local network | Pay as you go, per minute, per text and per MB | TravelPass ($12/day, $6/day in Canada and Mexico) or the $100 International Monthly Plan |
| Abroad on Wi-Fi calling, dialling a country other than the US | International long distance rates, as if you had dialled from the US | An international calling plan |
Calling international numbers from the US
With no add-on, Verizon charges its pay per minute rates, which it advertises as "starting from $0.49/min". Most destinations cost far more than that: in Verizon's own country lookup, checked 3 October 2026, a call from the US to a UK landline or mobile costs $1.99 a minute and a call to India $2.49. Mexico and Canada are the exception for most customers, because Verizon's Unlimited plans let you "call Mexico and Canada from the US as much as you want".
Verizon's three international calling plans
- Global Calling, $5/month per line: unlimited calls to Mexico and Canada, plus discounted rates to 220+ countries starting at $0.05/min.
- Global Choice, $10/month per line: pick one of 140 countries and get a monthly allowance to it of up to 300 minutes. The UK and India get the full 300; the Philippines and Nigeria get 120. After the allowance you pay a lower per-minute rate to that country. Unlimited calls to Mexico and Canada are included.
- Global Calling Plus, $15/month per line: unlimited calls to landlines in 60+ countries and to mobiles in 30+, with discounted calls to 160+ more from $0.05/min.
The fine print is the same on all three. Adding one replaces any international calling plan already on the line, and Verizon notes that domestic airtime applies unless your plan includes unlimited talk in the US. Some destinations need extra permission before calls go through, which requires an account that has been active for 34 days and is in good standing.
Per-minute rates to popular countries
Verizon rates for calls made from the US, checked ; CallSky rates as of . Where Verizon prices landlines and mobiles differently, the cell shows landline / mobile. A $0 means the plan includes unlimited calls to that country.
| Country | Verizon, no plan | Global Calling ($5/mo) | Global Calling Plus ($15/mo) | CallSky (our product) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | $1.99 | $0.06 / $0.26 | $0 | $0.04 |
| India | $2.49 | $0.29 / $0.30 | $0.05 | $0.09 |
| Mexico | Free on Unlimited plans | $0 | $0 | $0.04 |
Verizon rates come from its international calling country lookup and the Global Calling Plus rate table. CallSky rates are the same for landlines and mobiles.
What a month of calls costs
The cheapest option depends on how many minutes you call, more than on the per-minute rate:
- 60 minutes to a UK mobile: $119.40 with no plan, $20.60 on Global Calling ($5 plus 60 × $0.26), $10 on Global Choice with the UK as your country, $15 on Global Calling Plus, or $2.40 on CallSky.
- 300 minutes to an Indian mobile: $747 with no plan, $95 on Global Calling, $10 on Global Choice with India selected, $30 on Global Calling Plus ($15 plus 300 × $0.05), or $27 on CallSky.
Never call internationally with no plan: one 20-minute call to India costs $49.80. If you call one country for hours every month, Global Choice at $10 is hard to beat, CallSky included. If you call now and then, or spread calls across several countries, a monthly fee is wasted in quiet months and a pay-as-you-go app costs less. To the Philippines and Nigeria, Verizon's Global Calling Plus rates, from $0.19 a minute, are lower than ours.
Using your phone abroad: TravelPass and the monthly plan
TravelPass
Per Verizon's TravelPass FAQs, TravelPass costs $12 per day in 210+ countries and destinations and $6 per day in Mexico and Canada (where Unlimited plans already include talk, text and data at no extra cost). Each day gets unlimited talk, text and data, with the first 5 GB at high speed and 3G speeds after that. Another 2 GB of high-speed data costs $10, or $5 in Mexico and Canada.
A 24-hour session starts automatically the first time you make or answer a call, send a text or use data in a TravelPass country, and Verizon warns that background app refreshes and email syncing count. Crossing into a second country within the same session costs nothing extra, unless the two countries have different daily fees (Mexico to Italy, for example), which starts a new session. TravelPass covers calls within the country you are visiting and calls back to the US; calling any third country is billed as if you had dialled it from the US.
TravelPass is added automatically to Unlimited Plus and Unlimited Welcome lines. It can't be added to Unlimited Ultimate, which already includes international data, talk and text.
The $100 International Monthly Plan and other passes
For longer trips, Verizon's international travel page lists a $100 International Monthly Plan with 250 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data (20 GB at high speed, then 3G speeds). Verizon pitches it for trips of 9 days or more, and the arithmetic agrees: 14 days of TravelPass costs $168.
The same page lists a $20-per-day Cruise Daily Pass (0.5 GB of high-speed data, unlimited calls to the US and unlimited texts, charged only on days you use the phone at sea) and a $20-per-day In-flight Daily Pass on participating flights. With no pass, or in a country outside the 210+, you pay as you go per minute, per text and per MB.
One trap: Verizon says Wi-Fi calling "isn't included with TravelPass", and that a Wi-Fi call to any country other than the US is charged international long distance rates. Calling a UK number from a hotel in Paris on Verizon Wi-Fi calling, with no calling plan, costs the same $1.99 a minute as dialling it from home. Our guide to what Wi-Fi calling is explains how carriers route those calls.
Where a calling app fits
CallSky is our product, so weigh this section accordingly. CallSky places calls to landlines and mobiles over the internet with prepaid credit and no monthly fee; it runs in a web browser and on iPhone and Android. Because the call travels over the internet, it never touches Verizon's international calling rates. Abroad, make it on Wi-Fi: mobile data in a TravelPass country starts a TravelPass day. Calls to US numbers cost $0.03 a minute, which matters most when you are abroad on hotel Wi-Fi without a TravelPass day running.
It is not cheaper for everyone. A heavy caller to one Global Choice country, or to the countries Global Calling Plus covers for free, pays less with Verizon. Our guide to apps for cheap international calls compares other providers.
Frequently asked questions
Does my Verizon Unlimited plan include international calls?
Only to Mexico and Canada. Verizon's Unlimited plans include calls from the US to those two countries and texts to over 200 countries. Calls anywhere else need an international calling plan ($5, $10 or $15 a month) or cost the pay-per-minute rate, such as $1.99 a minute to the UK and $2.49 to India.
What is the difference between TravelPass and an international calling plan?
TravelPass is for using your phone outside the US: $12 a day in 210+ countries, or $6 a day in Mexico and Canada. Global Calling, Global Choice and Global Calling Plus are for calling other countries while you are in the US, for a monthly fee of $5, $10 or $15.
Is a calling app cheaper than Verizon for international calls?
It is cheaper than Verizon's pay-per-minute rates for every destination in the table above, and usually cheaper than paying a monthly fee for occasional calls. For heavy calling to one country, Verizon's $10 Global Choice plan can cost less than any per-minute service, CallSky included.
Related guides
- AT&T International Day Pass
- T-Mobile international calling
- Visible international calling
- US Mobile international calling
- Spectrum international calling
- How to make international calls
CallSky is our product. It calls 180+ countries on pay-as-you-go credit that never expires, with no subscription.