Prepaid Costa Rica eSIM | Kölbi, Claro & Movistar

Bottom line: On paper, Claro wins Costa Rica eSIM carriers outright — a median download of 84.51 Mbps against Kölbi’s 36.79 and Liberty’s 39.46, plus the best gaming score and the fastest network in 8 of the 10 largest cities (Ookla, H1 2025). In the rainforest, the ranking flips. Kölbi, the state-owned ICE network, runs more towers than anyone else and is the carrier that still has signal on the park roads — which matters if your itinerary includes Manuel Antonio, Monteverde or the Osa Peninsula. Tourists can buy a Kölbi prepaid SIM on arrival with just a passport, but its eSIM route runs through a store visit. If you want data working before you land, a Costa Rica travel eSIM skips the counter entirely — and free eSIM trial lets you test the network at no cost. This guide gets rebuilt every few months from what Roami’s own activation logs and support tickets show about Costa Rica, not just from press releases.

Quick answer: Pick Claro for speed in the cities, Kölbi for the widest footprint and the lowest cost per gigabyte, and install your eSIM before departure either way. The rest of this guide — Costa Rica speeds, prices and registration rules — fills in the detail behind that split.

The decision that matters is which network your Costa Rica eSIM should attach to, given where you are going. The coverage map is shaped by eco-tourism itself: dense and fast in the Central Valley, thinning exactly where the cloud forests and national parks begin. If you haven’t confirmed your phone supports eSIM, start with the compatibility lookup tool, then come back for the carrier decision.

Choosing your Costa Rica eSIM carrier

The three Costa Rica networks at a glance

Three names cover almost every signal you will meet in Costa Rica: Kölbi, the state carrier run by ICE; Claro, the América Móvil network; and Liberty, which absorbed Movistar’s Costa Rican operation in 2021. SUTEL licenses and supervises all three, and a fourth name in network reports — Telecable — is a fixed-line ISP worth knowing for apartment stays, not for your eSIM.

	Claro	Kölbi (ICE)	Liberty
Median download (H1 2025)	84.51 Mbps (fastest)	36.79 Mbps	39.46 Mbps
Standout metric	Best gaming (74.5), top-rated 3.95/5	Best video experience (68.31)	Best consistency (86.0%)
Rural and park coverage	Good on main routes, thinner off them	The widest footprint in the country	Strongest in the Central Valley and cities
5G status	Deploying after the January 2025 award	Pilot stage only	First 5G standalone launch, mid-2025
Visitor access	Prepaid SIM in stores and airport kiosks	Prepaid “chip turista” in stores, kiosks and supermarkets	Prepaid SIM in Liberty stores

Read the speed column and the coverage column together, because they point in opposite directions. Claro’s 84.51 Mbps is more than double anything else in the market, but speed is measured where people test — cities, highways, beach towns — and the tower count that keeps a signal alive on a jungle road belongs mostly to Kölbi. Liberty posted the best Consistency Score (86.0% of samples above 5 Mbps down / 1 Mbps up) — the metric that best predicts a connection that doesn’t stall mid-video-call.

Claro vs Kölbi: which Costa Rica carrier is faster?

Claro’s headline number is the strongest in the market: a median download of 84.51 Mbps, more than double Kölbi’s or Liberty’s, the fastest network in 8 of the 10 largest cities, the best gaming score (74.5) and the top user rating (3.95/5) on Ookla’s H1 2025 report. What that buys you is a network engineered for density — San José, the Central Valley, Liberia, and the beach towns tourists actually spend money in. Claro’s own consumer site now headlines 5G and pushes prepaid “Superpacks” as its entry product.

• Best at: raw speed and gaming in cities and along the main tourist corridors.
• Visitor purchase route: prepaid SIM or eSIM at a Claro store, an authorised dealer, or the Claro counter at Juan Santamaría airport (SJO); the same passport registration applies as everywhere else here.
• What it costs: prepaid bundles from a few thousand colones up to month-long packages; the national average sits at USD 1.86/GB.
• What goes wrong: the network is fast where it exists and thin where it does not. Buying Claro for the speed and then driving to Monteverde or Drake Bay is the classic mismatch — Claro’s footprint thins before Kölbi’s does.
• Scenario: you land at SJO, activate a Claro eSIM and stream your first evening in Escazú without a hiccup. Two days later, on the road south of Tamarindo, you are down to one bar watching the map tile grey out.

Kölbi: the widest coverage in Costa Rica

Kölbi is the state-owned ICE network, and it wins a different race. It runs the largest footprint in the country, which is why it is the carrier that still has signal on the park access roads and in the rural gaps between beach towns. Ookla’s H1 2025 data hands Kölbi the best video experience (68.31) and a 36.79 Mbps median download — a figure that reflects where Kölbi’s users test: not only in San José, but out where the other two networks have already dropped.

• Best at: reach — the widest footprint of the three, and the default answer when a lodge tells you “only one network works here.”
• Visitor purchase route: the “chip turista” prepaid product sold in Kölbi stores, in supermarkets and at the SJO airport kiosk.
• What it costs: the cheapest route to data in the country on a per-gigabyte basis, bought in colones at the counter — but you pay for it in counter time.
• What goes wrong: the eSIM path. Kölbi publishes an eSIM service, but visitor provisioning is unreliable remotely — the practical route is a store visit and a counter transaction, not a QR scan at home.
• Scenario: you are on the Corcovado approach near Drake Bay, your lodge has warned that Kölbi is the only network that reaches out there, and the travel eSIM in your phone is riding Kölbi’s towers because your provider built it that way.

Liberty: consistency and the first 5G standalone

Liberty — which absorbed Movistar’s Costa Rican operation in 2021 — posted the market’s best Consistency Score at 86.0%, the share of samples clearing the 5 Mbps down / 1 Mbps up threshold, and that is the metric that predicts a connection which does not stall halfway through a video call. Liberty also switched on Costa Rica’s first 5G Standalone network in mid-2025, built with Ericsson on 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz and aimed first at tourist and commercial hubs in Guanacaste, the Central Pacific and the Northern Zone.

• Best at: consistency in the places it covers, plus early 5G where the rollout has reached.
• Visitor purchase route: prepaid SIM or eSIM at a Liberty store, and Liberty’s stores cluster in the Central Valley and larger towns rather than in every beach village.
• What it costs: among the cheaper prepaid entries in the market.
• What goes wrong: the footprint is urban and resort-corridor first; deep rural and park-edge coverage is Kölbi’s territory.
• Scenario: a week in Jacó or Playas del Coco where you want one carrier that behaves predictably — consistency, not a headline speed, is what you are buying.

Every Ookla H1 2025 figure for Claro, Kölbi and Liberty

H1 2025 handed Claro the speed crown, Kölbi the video award and Liberty the consistency prize, and the table below lines up every per-carrier number Ookla published. Where a carrier’s figure was not broken out, the cell stays blank rather than estimated.

Metric (Ookla, H1 2025)	Claro	Kölbi (ICE)	Liberty
Median download, all technologies	84.51 Mbps (fastest)	36.79 Mbps	39.46 Mbps
Median 5G download	—	—	—
Median upload	—	—	—
Latency	—	—	—
5G availability	—	—	—
Video Streaming Score	—	68.31 (best)	—
Consistency (5 Mbps down / 1 Mbps up)	—	—	86.0% (best)
Gaming score	74.5 (best)	—	—
User rating	3.95/5 (top)	—	—
Fastest network in	8 of the 10 largest cities	—	—

The blanks are as informative as the numbers: nobody publishes a rural or per-park speed, because nobody can measure one consistently. On Ookla’s Global Index the national median mobile download stands at 70.96 Mbps, 63rd worldwide — the country performs well in aggregate even though the per-carrier split is lopsided.

Carrier picks by trip type

Your plans	Go-to carrier	What makes it the pick	Watch out for
City break — San José, Alajuela, Heredia, Cartago	Claro	Fastest network in the valley; Heredia Province leads the country at 51.23 Mbps	Nothing much — the Central Valley is the easy part of Costa Rica
Beach and resort stay — Tamarindo, Jacó, Playas del Coco	Claro or Liberty	Both are strong on the developed tourist corridors	The road between beach towns is where the gaps are
National-park circuit — Manuel Antonio, Monteverde, Arenal, Tortuguero	Kölbi	The widest footprint on park access roads	No network reaches the trails themselves
Osa Peninsula and Corcovado	Kölbi	The only carrier with usable signal on much of the approach	Drake Bay is intermittent; park-edge lodges are often offline entirely
Remote-work stay in the Central Valley	Liberty	Best consistency, plus early 5G; fixed fibre is faster still	Judge the rental’s Wi-Fi before you judge the mobile plan
Budget traveler	Claro or Liberty prepaid	Cheapest entry; local data averages USD 1.86/GB	Kölbi’s eSIM route wants a store visit
Border-crossing itinerary	A multi-country profile	A Costa Rica-only eSIM stops at the frontera with no warning	Paso Canoas and Peñas Blancas both add queues and paperwork

Where does coverage fail outside Costa Rica’s Central Valley?

This is the section a generic Costa Rica eSIM page won’t give you, because the answer is regional. Ookla’s provincial medians already show the gradient: Heredia Province leads at 51.23 Mbps, San José sits at 50.57, and the numbers slide as you leave the Central Valley — Guanacaste 46.04, Puntarenas 43.79, Limón 42.32. Coverage exists in all seven provinces; reliability is what fades.

Costa Rica Central Valley coverage: San José and the cordillera

The Central Valley — San José, Alajuela, Heredia, Cartago — is the easy part of Costa Rica. Every carrier is fast here, Pozos on the San José outskirts posts the fastest city median in the country at 72.76 Mbps, and 4G holds along the interurban highways. Even Río Segundo, the slowest measured city at 37.34 Mbps, is fine for maps and video. Poás and Irazú volcano day trips stay connected most of the way up, with the last kilometers of mountain road patchy on any carrier.

Guanacaste coverage: the northern Pacific beaches

Liberia, Tamarindo, Playas del Coco and the Rincón de la Vieja area are well covered, and Claro is the fastest provider across the province. The gaps appear between beach towns: the coastal road south from Tamarindo toward Nosara and Samara runs through long rural stretches where signal comes and goes, and the Nicoya Peninsula’s southern beaches (Montezuma, Santa Teresa) sit at the end of the grid. The same 46.04 Mbps provincial median coexists with 80.3% consistency — the network works, just not continuously.

Central Pacific coverage: Jacó and Manuel Antonio

The San José–Jacó–Quepos corridor is one of the better-covered tourist routes in the country, and Manuel Antonio itself — the country’s most-visited national park — sits next to Quepos, a real town with real towers. Signal inside the park trails is good at the beach end and thins on the forest loops. On the approach roads and lesser trails, Kölbi’s footprint shows its advantage over the faster but sparser Claro network.

Monteverde and the cloud forest highlands: coverage at altitude

Monteverde town and the Santa Elena side have usable signal from all carriers — surprising for a mountaintop village at 1,400 m. What doesn’t hold is the reserves themselves: once you descend into the cloud forest on the trails of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve or the Santa Elena Reserve, coverage drops away with the light. Download your trail map and your lodging’s WhatsApp number before you go up; WhatsApp is how everything in Costa Rica gets arranged, from shuttle pickups to guide confirmations.

Costa Rica Caribbean coast coverage and the far south

Puerto Viejo de Talamanca and Cahuita are covered, and Limón Province posts a 42.32 Mbps median — the lowest of the seven provinces. South of Puerto Viejo toward Manzanillo, coverage becomes intermittent, and the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge is effectively offline on its trails. Tortuguero is a special case: the village has 4G, but the canal network and the national park do not — boats are dead zones by definition. And the Osa Peninsula is the hardest place in the country to stay connected: Drake Bay is intermittent, and lodges on the edge of Corcovado National Park frequently have no cellular signal at all, which is why so many now advertise satellite Wi-Fi instead. Cerro Chirripó and the high Talamanca above roughly 3,000 m are beyond every carrier.

The practical rule: if more than two nights of your trip are east of Limón, south of Drake Bay, or above the cloud line, plan around silence rather than against it — offline maps, and a guide who can reach you by lodge Wi-Fi.

Costa Rica national park connectivity, park by park

The six parks that anchor most Costa Rica itineraries do not share a coverage profile. Here is the reality on the access road and inside the gate.

Park or area	On the access road	Inside	What to prepare
Manuel Antonio, by Quepos	Strong — the San José–Jacó–Quepos corridor is one of the best-covered tourist routes in the country	Good at the beach end, thinning on the forest loops	Screenshot your park ticket and entry time; do not count on entrance Wi-Fi
Monteverde and the Santa Elena reserves	Usable in Monteverde town and on the Santa Elena side	Signal drops away on the reserve trails	Download the trail map and your lodge’s WhatsApp number in town
Arenal / La Fortuna	Reliable 4G in La Fortuna and on the lake roads	Patchy on the volcano trails and hanging-bridge circuits	Buy your SIM in La Fortuna — both networks sell on the main street
Corcovado and the Osa Peninsula	Intermittent from Sierpe and Drake Bay onward	Effectively none at the lodges on the park edge	Ask whether your lodge runs satellite Wi-Fi before you book
Tortuguero	4G in the village itself	None on the canals or in the park — boats are dead zones by definition	Arrange transfers, tickets and cash before you board the lancha
Rincón de la Vieja, Guanacaste	Covered on the Liberia–Curubandé approach	Thins on the upper trails and the waterfall paths	Kölbi is the safer bet once you leave the main road

That table is this article’s whole argument in miniature: the roads to the parks are Kölbi’s country, the towns belong to anyone, and the parks belong to no one.

Coverage on the drives tourists actually take

Most visitors move along a handful of named roads, and the coverage on each one is knowable in advance.

Route 27 and the Costanera (Route 34). Route 27 is the toll highway from San José down to Caldera, and Route 34 — the Costanera — picks it up along the coast through Jacó, Parrita and Quepos. This is the best-covered long drive in the country: you will hold a data connection through almost all of it, which is exactly why so many itineraries use it. Keep small change or a card for the tolls, and expect the gaps on the secondary roads between coastal towns rather than on the highways themselves.

Route 32 to Limón. The San José–Limón highway runs through Braulio Carrillo National Park, and for years the stretch above the jungle was notorious for fog, landslides and a complete absence of signal. That is changing. ICE and its subsidiary CNFL began a ₡7.5 billion project in June 2025 to bring lighting and cellular coverage to a 26 km stretch, targeting completion on 20 February 2026, with the first segments going live between the Zurquí tunnel and kilometre 27, and from the Sucio River to the Guápiles aerial tram (TicosLand). Even so, drive it in daylight and download offline maps for the mountain section: Zurquí is the country’s only road tunnel, and tunnels stop data on every carrier.

The Puntarenas–Paquera ferry. If your itinerary crosses the Gulf of Nicoya to the southern peninsula — Montezuma, Santa Teresa, Mal País — the crossing is the practical shortcut, cutting hours off the drive around the gulf. Naviera Tambor has run the route since 1992, an 11-nautical-mile crossing with three vessels (Tambor II, III and IV) carrying both foot passengers and vehicles. Two connectivity notes: expect the signal to come and go at sea, and remember that vehicle space sells out in high season, so book ahead if you are driving on. After Paquera the onward roads to Montezuma and Santa Teresa are physically rough, so have your maps downloaded before you queue for boarding.

Waze, Google Maps and offline preparation. Google Maps offline areas are the dependable tool here: download the whole country, or at least Nicoya, Osa and the central highlands, on hotel Wi-Fi. Waze is the better live-traffic and addressing tool where you have signal, and its own offline mode is limited by comparison — so treat it as a supplement. This matters most on the Nicoya Peninsula’s inland dirt roads, the Osa approach and the Route 32 mountain pass, three places where a phone with no bars still has to tell you which fork to take.

Two habits for a self-drive Costa Rica trip

A shuttle driver already knows the route and its gaps; a self-drive itinerary does not. Two habits follow. First, activate data before you leave the airport rather than in a beach town — SJO arrivals Wi-Fi is free and there is a Kölbi/ICE kiosk opposite the baggage carousels, so the airport is the most efficient place to sort a line (Juan Santamaría International Airport). Second, keep a power bank in the car: on the Costanera between Parrita and Dominical, and on the Osa approach, your phone is also your map, and running it down to 4% at 4 p.m. is the mistake that turns a two-hour drive into a four-hour one.

Can tourists buy a local SIM in Costa Rica?

Yes — with one caveat about how. Kölbi is the friendliest carrier for walk-up visitors, and its official site runs a dedicated “chip turista” product alongside its standard prepaid lineup.

How the Kölbi prepaid route works:

1. Bring your passport. Every SIM sold in Costa Rica is registered against the buyer’s identity — a rule administered under SUTEL’s framework — so the counter staff scan your passport and tie the line to your name and document number. Budget 10–20 minutes, and don’t expect the line to work the moment you leave the counter.

2. Buy where it’s convenient. Kölbi sells through its own stores in most towns, a kiosk at Juan Santamaría airport (SJO) opposite baggage claim, pharmacies and supermarkets. The airport kiosk takes colones in cash, so use the ATM first if you land with dollars only.

3. Pick a tourist or prepaid data package. Traveler-reported pricing for tourist bundles runs roughly ₡5,000–12,500 (about USD 10–25) for 3–10 GB over 7–30 days. Standard “Dominio Prepago” tiers start lower if you’re comfortable managing top-ups through the Mi Kölbi app.

4. For an eSIM, go to a store. Kölbi publishes an eSIM service and supports it on compatible phones, but visitor reports are mixed on remote provisioning for non-residents — the reliable path is asking for the eSIM at a Kölbi store, where staff register and load it on the spot. (Kölbi’s “eSIM Global by Airalo”, launched July 2026, is the mirror image: data for Costa Ricans traveling abroad, not for inbound tourists.)

Claro and Liberty sell prepaid SIMs on similar passport-registration terms — Claro has an airport counter at SJO, and Liberty stores (mostly Central Valley and larger towns) sell both SIM and eSIM.

What the Kölbi “chip turista” route can and cannot do

The four steps above are the tourist-facing version. These are the details that decide whether it works on your trip.

• The registration is a legal formality, not a shop preference. Every prepaid line in Costa Rica is registered against an identity document, and for visitors that document is the passport. Bring the physical document; a photograph of it is sometimes refused.
• Where you can actually buy one: Kölbi’s own stores in most towns, the kiosk at Juan Santamaría airport opposite baggage claim, plus supermarkets, pharmacies and authorised resellers. The airport kiosk is the most convenient and the least flexible — colones in cash, and a queue behind every other arrival.
• What to check before you leave the counter: the balance and the data package, not just the SIM. Registration can lag, so a fresh line may show bars before it shows data. If nothing works within a few hours, go back to the counter rather than editing settings.
• The eSIM limit is the real constraint. Kölbi supports eSIM on compatible handsets, but for a non-resident visitor the reliable path is in-store — which means you cannot buy a Kölbi eSIM from your sofa at home the way you can buy a travel eSIM. If your plan depends on landing already connected, that single fact decides the argument for you.

Paying for and topping up a Costa Rica prepaid SIM

Costa Rica runs on prepaid, and topping up is genuinely easy once you hold a local line — the friction is everything that comes before.

• Where: corner shops, supermarkets, pharmacies, self-service recharge kiosks, the carrier’s own app, and via SINPE Móvil or local online banking if you have a Costa Rican bank account.
• How: scratch-card vouchers (tarjetas de recarga) remain widely available in small neighbourhood shops (pulperías), which is how you top up far from a bank.
• The cash problem: most of these channels assume colones in hand or a local payment method. A foreign card will not always be accepted, and smaller outlets are cash-only, so budget a cash float for top-ups even if your hotel takes cards.
• The rhythm: prepaid bundles run on fixed validity windows. If you are staying a month, check the active period on the package when you buy rather than discovering it on day 20.

That list is the practical case for a Costa Rica eSIM in one place. A prepaid line is cheaper per gigabyte, but every step above — the counter, the passport scan, the cash float, the top-up rhythm — is a task you complete in Spanish, on holiday, holding a phone that is not yet online. A Roami Costa Rica profile replaces all of it with one QR code before you fly.

Is there 5G in Costa Rica? Claro, Kölbi and ICE compared

Barely — and this is where old articles mislead. Costa Rica’s 5G spectrum auction was delayed for years and finally finished in January 2025, when SUTEL awarded national licenses in the 700 MHz, 2.3 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands to Claro and Liberty, plus regional licenses to five local operators (Cullen International). Liberty launched the country’s first 5G standalone network in mid-2025 with Ericsson; Claro is deploying on its newly won spectrum; and Kölbi’s 5G remains a pilot program while ICE runs a separate nationwide Open RAN tender (U.S. Trade Administration country guide).

What that means for your eSIM is straightforward: plan for 4G LTE. 5G exists in parts of San José on Claro and Liberty, but national 5G coverage is embryonic, and no Costa Rican network puts 5G where tourists’ parks and beaches are. On bands: 4G runs on LTE bands 2, 4, 5, 7, 12 and 17, with 5G on n78 and low-band n28 — any phone that passes the compatibility check will connect; a device missing a specific band just falls back to the still-excellent 4G layer.

Who leads 5G in Costa Rica?

Network	5G status	Where it is	What it means for you
Liberty	First 5G Standalone network in Costa Rica and Central America, launched mid-2025 with Ericsson	Tourist and commercial hubs in Guanacaste, the Central Pacific and the Northern Zone first	If your itinerary is a resort corridor, 5G is plausible — not guaranteed
Claro	Deploying on spectrum won in the January 2025 auction	Major cities, expanding	Fast 4G everywhere it matters; 5G where you happen to be standing
Kölbi (ICE)	Pilot stage, with a separate nationwide Open RAN tender under way	Trialling on low-band spectrum	Do not plan this trip around Kölbi 5G

The honest summary: your Costa Rica eSIM will live on 4G LTE, which is fast, well distributed and — for maps, bookings and photos — entirely sufficient. Treat 5G as a bonus that appears in some city centres and resort cores, never as the reason to choose a carrier.

Should you buy from a Costa Rican carrier or use a travel eSIM?

	Direct from Kölbi / Claro / Liberty	Travel eSIM
Paperwork	Passport registration, in person, 10–20 minutes	None — QR code or app install at home
Network	One carrier, fixed	Rides local carrier networks; multi-network profiles re-select as you move
Phone number	Yes, a real Costa Rican number	Usually data-only; SMS codes still arrive on your home SIM
Typical cost	~USD 10–25 for tourist data bundles; local data averages USD 1.86/GB (152nd of 237 markets, Cable.co.uk)	Single upfront price, no top-up management
Best for	Stays beyond three weeks, or if you need a local number	Trips of one to three weeks, landing connected

Context for those prices: DataReportal counts 4.76 million internet users (92.6% penetration) and 7.40 million mobile connections entering 2025 (Digital 2025: Costa Rica), and Ookla’s Global Index put the national median mobile download at 70.96 Mbps, 63rd worldwide (Speedtest Global Index). Your Costa Rica eSIM inherits the local networks’ speed, not a separate roaming pipeline. Renting for a month? Ask about fixed fiber instead — Ookla named Metrocom the fastest fixed ISP at 310.06 Mbps median down, with Telecable taking the best ISP video score.

Local prepaid vs tourist bundle vs travel eSIM

Option	What you pay	What you get	The catch
Local prepaid data	USD 1.86 per GB on average, 152nd of 237 markets (Cable.co.uk)	The cheapest gigabytes in the country	You must register with a passport and manage top-ups
Kölbi tourist bundle	Roughly ₡5,000–12,500 for 3–10 GB over 7–30 days	Data plus a local +506 number	The eSIM route wants a store visit
Travel eSIM, 10 GB / 14 days	A single upfront price, set before you fly	Data on arrival, no registration, no counter	Data-only; no local number, and SMS codes stay on your home SIM

The per-gigabyte arithmetic favours local prepaid, and it always will. What the table cannot show is the value of the hour you do not spend at a counter, the ATM detour before the airport kiosk, or the top-up you have to negotiate in Spanish on day nine. For a one-to-two-week trip the gap is single-digit dollars; if you are staying a month, get the local SIM.

Why you probably never need an APN in Costa Rica

APN settings are the last thing to touch and the first setting worth ruling out when data fails. For Costa Rica the honest answer is shorter than a table would suggest.

Provisioning is automatic on the products visitors actually buy. Kölbi, Claro and Liberty issue their own SIMs and eSIMs with the APN preloaded, and a travel eSIM carries its operator’s APN inside the profile. We do not publish APN values for the three Costa Rican carriers, because the products you buy arrive configured — and hand-editing one is more often the cause of a failure than the cure.

When a manual APN is still worth trying:

• An older handset that does not pick up carrier settings on its own
• A profile side-loaded with a manual activation code instead of a scanned QR
• A store-issued prepaid eSIM where automatic configuration did not run

In those cases, ask the counter or your eSIM provider for the value — they will have it — rather than copying one off a forum.

Where the fields live:

• iPhone: Settings → Cellular → tap the Costa Rica line → Cellular Data Network → type the APN
• Android: Settings → Connections → Mobile networks → Access Point Names → create a new APN for the Costa Rica line

The one Costa Rica-specific rule: after any change, confirm the eSIM — not your home SIM — is the selected data line. Nine times out of ten the “APN problem” is a data-line problem.

How to activate your Costa Rica eSIM without surprises

Install the profile at home on Wi-Fi before you fly — San José arrivals Wi-Fi is congested exactly when everyone else is installing theirs. The generic sequence (add eSIM, scan the QR code, label the line, set it as your data line, enable data roaming) is in our activation walkthrough, and the background on what your phone does during install is in eSIM activation mechanics. Costa Rica-specific notes:

• Travel eSIMs: the profile attaches to whichever local network your provider uses — many ride Kölbi’s towers, which is a genuine coverage advantage. Enable data roaming on the eSIM line only; leave it off on your home SIM.
• Local SIM registration: if you buy a Kölbi or Claro chip at the airport, test data before leaving the counter. Registration delays are the most common reason a fresh SIM “doesn’t work” — it may activate some hours later.
• Dual SIM: keep your home line active for SMS verification codes, and point mobile data at the eSIM.

When data fails, work the usual suspects in order: roaming toggle off, wrong data line selected, then the network-level fixes in our activation error troubleshooting guide. One Costa Rica wrinkle: “No signal” deep inside Corcovado, Tortuguero or the high Talamanca is not a settings problem — no profile fixes physics, so move toward the coast road or a town.

The six checks before you fly to Costa Rica

Most of the rows below are universal; the two that decide a Costa Rican arrival are the store-registration habit Kölbi uses for its “chip turista” and the offline maps for the parks and the Osa approach.

#	Check	What “good” looks like
1	Phone is not carrier-locked	Carrier Lock in Settings → General → About says “No SIM restrictions”
2	Phone supports eSIM	*#06# shows an EID, or the eSIM-capable device list confirms your model
3	QR code and activation code saved	Screenshot stored on the phone and in cloud storage
4	Profile installed before departure	Install on Wi-Fi at home; it connects when you land
5	Data line and roaming set	eSIM selected for mobile data, data roaming on for that line only
6	Offline maps downloaded	Google Maps offline area for Costa Rica saved, plus your first lodge pinned

How activation differs by carrier in Costa Rica

The generic install sequence — add eSIM, scan the QR, label the line, set it as the data line, enable data roaming — is in our step-by-step eSIM activation guide. What differs by carrier in Costa Rica:

• Kölbi (ICE): activation is tied to in-store registration, so the profile and the line are set up together at the counter — test data before you leave.
• Claro: prepaid SIMs and eSIMs are sold at stores, dealers and the SJO counter, with registration completed at purchase.
• Liberty: store-based activation for both SIM and eSIM, concentrated in the Central Valley and larger towns.
• Travel eSIMs: install by QR code at home; the profile roams onto whichever Costa Rican network your provider has agreements with, often Kölbi because of its footprint.

Five failure patterns on Costa Rican networks

The general error catalogue — a profile that will not download, a scan that fails, an eSIM that installs and never registers — is in our full troubleshooting guide. The Costa Rica-specific patterns are these.

A. The eSIM will not install

1. Settings → General → About: make sure Carrier Lock says “No SIM restrictions.”
2. Inspect the QR: a partial or already-used code is the usual culprit.
3. Ask your provider to reissue the profile; a pending status on their side blocks yours.

B. Installed, but no signal bars

1. Re-check the lock status.
2. Settings → Cellular → Network Selection → pick Kölbi, Claro or Liberty manually instead of automatic.
3. Do a network reset followed by a full restart.

C. Signal bars, but no data

1. In Cellular settings, point Mobile Data at the Costa Rica line, not your home SIM.
2. Switch data roaming on for the travel line alone — not for your home SIM.
3. Check whether you have burned the allowance — a used-up local bundle can leave you with bars and nothing behind them.

D. “SOS” or “Emergency calls only”

1. Open Settings → Cellular and check the Costa Rica profile is switched on.
2. Turn off (or delete) every other active profile so only the Costa Rica line competes for the network.
3. Reboot and reset network settings.
4. If nothing changes, delete the profile and reinstall it from a newly issued QR.

E. A local SIM shows bars, then nothing

1. This is usually a registration delay, not a settings fault — go back to the counter.
2. Ask staff to re-register or re-issue rather than editing APN fields.
3. If you are deep in Corcovado, Tortuguero or the high Talamanca, stop: no profile fixes physics, and no carrier reaches there.

Costa Rica eSIM support: details to gather first

Information	Where to find it
Order or account reference	Confirmation email
Phone model and OS version	Settings → About
EID	*#06#
Screenshot of the error	Take it before the screen changes
Current APN and data-line settings	Settings → Cellular Data Network
Data roaming status	Settings → Cellular → your eSIM line
Steps already tried	Keep a short list

What happens to your data at Paso Canoas and Peñas Blancas

Costa Rica-only eSIMs stop at the border, and both land crossings have their own quirks.

Paso Canoas, to Panama. The southern crossing on the Inter-American Highway is the region’s busiest land border and the messiest to navigate on foot: the two immigration buildings are not adjacent, so you bridge the gap by bus or taxi, and queues of 30–60 minutes for pedestrians are normal, longer during holiday peaks. Signal at the border itself is a coin toss on any carrier — a poor moment to be hunting for a bus timetable online.

Peñas Blancas, to Nicaragua. The northern crossing on the same highway carries the Guanacaste-to-Nicaragua traffic. Come early: queues build through the morning, and shuttle operators’ standing advice is to cross first thing rather than after lunch.

Two things to sort before either crossing:

• Exit paperwork and cash. Costa Rica’s land exit tax is settled before you reach immigration, and the system expects a local bank or a kiosk that is sometimes out of service — so complete it in advance rather than at the fence. Carry colones and small US dollar notes.
• A plan for your data. If your route crosses a border, buy a profile that lists every country on it rather than a single-country plan. For overland itineraries, see Roami’s separate Panama eSIM guide, the Guatemala carrier guide further north, or Mexico plans if your route continues up the isthmus. A multi-country Central America profile beats buying again at every frontera.

Costa Rica carrier and eSIM questions we hear most

Rural coverage in Costa Rica: Claro vs Kölbi

Kölbi. As the state-owned ICE network it operates the largest tower footprint, and it is the only carrier with dependable signal across much of the Osa Peninsula approach, Tortuguero village and the rural roads between national parks. Claro is faster everywhere it exists, but Kölbi exists in more places.

Who has the fastest network in Costa Rica?

On Claro’s H1 2025 medians: 84.51 Mbps against Kölbi’s 36.79. But the gap is an urban phenomenon — Ookla also found Liberty’s consistency ahead of everyone at 86.0%, and Kölbi won the video experience award. In a cloud forest, none of these numbers apply.

Do shops ask for ID to sell SIMs in Costa Rica?

Yes. All three carriers register prepaid SIMs against your passport under the SUTEL framework. Bring the physical document; copies are sometimes refused.

Where 5G works in Costa Rica

Only in fragments. The spectrum auction concluded in January 2025, Liberty launched the first 5G standalone network mid-2025 and Claro is building out, but coverage is limited to parts of major cities. Your Costa Rica eSIM will spend its life on 4G, which is fast and well distributed.

Will my phone work with a Costa Rica eSIM?

If it’s unlocked and eSIM-capable, essentially yes — Costa Rican carriers use common LTE bands (2/4/5/7/12/17) shared across the Americas. China-market iPhone models lack eSIM entirely. Check your exact model with the eSIM compatibility checker before buying.

Do you need to enter an APN in Costa Rica?

Almost never. Local carrier SIMs provision automatically during registration, and travel eSIMs carry their own APN in the profile — changing it usually breaks things. If a store-activated SIM shows signal but no data after hours of waiting, ask the counter staff to re-register rather than hand-editing settings.

What happens when I cross into Panama or Nicaragua?

A Costa Rica-only eSIM stops at the border. For overland itineraries, Roami has separate country guides and plans — see our Guatemala eSIM carrier guide, Panama eSIM options or Mexico eSIM plans, or pick a multi-country Central America profile if your route crosses several borders.

Why does my eSIM show “Kölbi” or “ICE” when I bought from a travel brand?

Because travel eSIMs ride local host networks. Seeing ICE/Kölbi, Claro or Liberty as the carrier name is normal and expected — it tells you which towers you’re actually using.

Claro vs Kölbi: coverage compared

Kölbi, on reach, and it is not close on the access roads — it runs the largest footprint and it is the network lodges mean when they say only one carrier works out there. But “best in the park” overstates what any carrier does: inside Corcovado, on Tortuguero’s canals, or above the Talamanca cloud line there is no signal on any network, and that is geography rather than a carrier weakness.

Is a prepaid SIM cheaper than a Costa Rica eSIM?

Per gigabyte, yes — local data averages USD 1.86/GB, among the cheaper rates in the region, and a Kölbi tourist bundle can be good value. Add the passport registration, the counter queue, the cash-only airport kiosk and the top-up rhythm, and the gap narrows fast for a short trip. Under two weeks, most visitors are better served by Costa Rica data plans; over a month, buy local.

Is a Costa Rican phone number necessary?

Only if you must make or take local calls or receive SMS from Costa Rican services. Everything practical — shuttle confirmations, guide messages, lodge check-ins — runs through WhatsApp, which works fine on a data-only eSIM. If you genuinely need a +506 number for a long stay, a bank or a lease, buy a local prepaid line and keep the eSIM for data.

Will my Costa Rica eSIM get 5G?

Rarely. Liberty’s 5G Standalone network and Claro’s build-out cover parts of the cities and some tourist corridors, and Kölbi’s 5G is still a pilot. Your eSIM will spend almost all of its time on 4G LTE, which is fast and well distributed. Choose your carrier on coverage where you are going, not on a 5G label that may not be there when you arrive.

Costa Rica eSIM data sources: what we measured and who published it

• Every carrier, city and province figure above traces back to Ookla’s Costa Rica H1 2025 report.
• The close of Costa Rica’s 5G auction in January 2025 is tracked by Cullen International’s Americas spectrum-award tracker.
• Liberty’s 5G launch, ICE’s 5G pilot and the Open RAN tender all appear in the U.S. International Trade Administration’s Costa Rica technology guide.
• Licensing and registration rules are administered by the regulator, SUTEL.
• Prepaid and “chip turista” product details come from the carrier’s own pages at Kölbi (ICE).
• The USD 1.86 per-gigabyte average is reported in Cable.co.uk’s worldwide data-pricing table.
• The 70.96 Mbps national median and its world ranking appear on the Ookla Speedtest Global Index.
• Internet-user and mobile-connection counts are from DataReportal’s Digital 2025: Costa Rica.
• Claro’s 5G messaging and prepaid Superpack lineup are described on Claro Costa Rica.
• The regional and national-park context behind the destination notes comes from Visit Costa Rica (ICT).
• Arrivals services, including the free Wi-Fi mentioned in the activation notes, are documented by Juan Santamaría International Airport.
• The Puntarenas–Paquera crossing described in the driving section is operated by Naviera Tambor.
• ICE’s ₡7.5 billion lighting and coverage project on the San José–Limón highway is reported by TicosLand. Two independent sources minimum — that is the bar for any figure on this page.

Figures are third-party measurements, not our own testing; your result will vary by handset, band and how many people share the nearest tower.

Get your Costa Rica eSIM ready before you fly

Order at home, scan the QR once, and be riding Costa Rica’s strongest local network by the time you clear arrivals — no counter queue, no passport photocopy, nothing billed to your home line. New customers can sample a free Costa Rica eSIM first, or go straight to choosing a Costa Rica plan.

Buy Costa Rica eSIM now

First-time buyer offer

Free Costa Rica trial eSIM

And when you are ready to buy: Roami’s free network test is the zero-risk starting point for Costa Rica, with WEB20 giving 20% off your first paid plan if you decide to stay connected the whole trip.