Mint Mobile vs. T-Mobile: Which plan fits your needs and budget?

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Since T-Mobile acquired Mint Mobile in early 2024, it's become easier to differentiate the two entities and their respective offerings, which all run on T-Mobile's nationwide network.

Mint Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that offers some of the best cheap cell phone plans with its prepaid options for budget-conscious users or those with more typical and casual needs, like making calls, messaging, and using basic apps. T-Mobile is a major carrier that offers prepaid and postpaid plans with perks and premium features, including prioritized data, for higher prices.

Given their matching coverage, the choice between Mint Mobile and T-Mobile essentially comes down to your budget and data needs.

Plan offerings

Mint Mobile and T-Mobile offer prepaid plans. Prepaid plans are often budget-friendly, with fewer premium features than many postpaid plans. Prepaid plans historically provided more flexibility than postpaid plans, like T-Mobile's mainstream plans, as they aren't based on contracts, and users could pay monthly (at the beginning of the month) without incurring early termination fees when canceling or changing plans.

However, T-Mobile's postpaid plans are also now paid monthly and no longer based on contracts, so you won't be charged an early termination fee. The major difference is that you pay at the end of the month, and they're usually more expensive due to their premium features.

While Mint Mobile's plans are less expensive than T-Mobile's, Mint Mobile's offerings are relatively inflexible as far as prepaid plans go, as they require upfront payment for three, six, or 12 months, with the 12-month option being the most cost-effective. You won't get a prorated refund if you want to cancel service or change to a cheaper plan before your current plan's period is over.

To help you determine whether Mint Mobile is right for you in the long term, the MVNO offers a $15/month new customer promotion for any data plan over three months.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile's prepaid offerings are paid monthly and extend more flexibility. Conversely, they're more expensive than Mint Mobile's comparatively inflexible plans.

Mint Mobile and T-Mobile Prepaid offer unlimited and less expensive limited data plans, all of which feature standard data subject to deprioritized speeds behind higher-paying T-Mobile customers.

Mint Mobile and T-Mobile prepaid plans

Read our full Mint Mobile review for a comprehensive assessment of the MNVO's plans.

In contrast, T-Mobile's postpaid plans are among the best cell phone plans you can buy on the high end and include extra features, like premium data, more hotspot data, and perks like taxes and fees bundled with plan pricing, scam protection, and voicemail to text. Many also include discounts on streaming services.

T-Mobile postpaid plans

Premium features

As a budget carrier, Mint Mobile offers substantially fewer high-end features than T-Mobile, which includes various advantages and perks to entice customers into paying higher monthly fees, as detailed below.

"Unlimited" limits

Mint's "unlimited" data plan is capped at 40GB a month. After you've used 40GB of data, data speeds are dramatically reduced to 3G speeds (512kbps), which are nigh unusably slow. Mint states that most data-intensive tasks will be "limited and/or inaccessible."

Meanwhile, T-Mobile's unlimited data plans are truly unlimited, and data speeds will remain as fast as the network allows. The only exception is customers with standard data (versus premium data) may experience temporarily reduced speeds during times of network congestion (more on that below).

Premium data

Only T-Mobile's postpaid plans include premium data, which is prioritized over the standard data on Mint Mobile and T-Mobile prepaid plans.

Premium data is as fast as the network allows at all times within your premium data allotment. In contrast, standard data can be temporarily deprioritized and artificially slowed when the network is congested in a given coverage area.

No doubt, even premium data speeds can be slower than usual depending on signal strength, what kind of network you're connected to, and when the network is congested, but not to the same extent as deprioritized data.

Mobile hotspot

Mint's and T-Mobile Prepaid's limited data plans offer hotspot data that pulls from your monthly data allotment. However, Mint's and T-Mobile Prepaid's Unlimited plans are limited to 10GB and 3GB of hotspot data, respectively.

You get much more hotspot data with T-Mobile's postpaid plans, including up to 50GB with the pricier Go5G Plus and Go5G Next plans. Be aware, however, that the Essentials Saver postpaid plan only offers hotspot data at 3G speeds. It might be unlimited, but it's likely unusably slow.

Smartwatch connectivity

Mint doesn't offer a plan for smartwatches, while T-Mobile does for prepaid or postpaid customers.

T-Mobile data-connected smartwatch plans start at $12/month. T-Mobile's most expensive Go5G Next postpaid plan reduces the price of a smartwatch plan to $5/month.

Family or group plans

Mint allows family plans with up to five lines, but there are no multi-line discounts.

T-Mobile prepaid plans let you add up to four lines with multi-line discounts. The same goes for T-Mobile's postpaid plans, where you can add five lines in an online order or more by calling T-Mobile.

Despite T-Mobile's multi-line discounts, it's worth noting that a multi-line Mint plan is still less expensive than any of T-Mobile's plans. In addition, Mint lets you create family plans with varying plans, while T-Mobile doesn't.

Contracts

There are no time-based Mint or T-Mobile plan contracts. You can cancel or change plans anytime without incurring early termination fees.

The only contract you can encounter is if you take advantage of a T-Mobile device deal, like getting four iPhone 16s free with four lines at $25/month or getting the iPhone 15 free. For these device deals, you're committing to at least 24 months with that specific device and an eligible plan. If you break the deal's terms, you need to pay off the remaining balance of the phone based on how many months remain in the 24-month contract.

Essentially, these deals are subsidies for a new phone in exchange for a two-year commitment. They can be worth it if you're sure you'll stay on T-Mobile for at least two years. Otherwise, we recommend buying your phone without a deal if you prefer flexibility.

Coverage

Mint Mobile runs on T-Mobile's network, so both have identical coverage in the US. Both have excellent coverage in most cities, most highways, and some suburbs. However, coverage can vary greatly in rural areas.

It's true that Mint's and T-Mobile's coverage maps look different, which is simply proof that coverage maps aren't exactly accurate; as T-Mobile notes in fine print, its map "approximates anticipated coverage outdoors" and "does not guarantee service availability."

While using coverage maps as a general approximation, you should also figure out whether Mint or T-Mobile has good coverage in your area by asking local friends, family, and neighbors. Expand your survey by asking locals on social media, like Facebook or Nextdoor.

Data speeds

Mint offers access to T-Mobile's 4G LTE and basic 5G networks with a maximum advertised speed of 357Mbps. That's more than sufficient for data-intensive apps like social media and streaming video and music.

T-Mobile offers its prepaid and postpaid customers access to 4G LTE, basic 5G, and advanced 5G (mmWave and C-band 5G) with a maximum advertised speed of 418Mbps. The only variance is T-Mobile's Essentials Saver plan, which has a maximum advertised speed of 357Mbps.

Note that Mint and T-Mobile Prepaid are subject to temporarily deprioritized data speeds at any time. T-Mobile postpaid customers who exceed their premium data amount are also subject to temporarily deprioritized data.

Perks and discounts

Mint has a new customer promotion where you can try any of its three-month plans, even the Unlimited (40GB) plan, for $15/month. Just note that you have to pay $45 upfront.

Mint also offers deals for its plans if you buy a phone from the MVNO at full price. For example, if you buy the iPhone 16 for $829 through Mint, you get 12 months of Mint's Unlimited plan for $15/month, a 50% discount of $180 off the full $360 cost of a 12-month Unlimited plan.

T-Mobile Prepaid comes with various perks:

• T-Mobile Tuesdays offer "free stuff" and deals on food, gas, entertainment, and more, which can be claimed in the T-Mobile app.
• Scam Shield helps identify and block scam calls.
• Data Maximizer limits video streams to 2.5Mbps, therefore limiting resolution to save data when watching videos on your phone.
• Caller ID and WiFi Calling.
• Music Unlimited lets you stream music on most streaming services without counting toward your 4G LTE data allotment.

T-Mobile postpaid perks vary by certain plans, and they include:

• Discounts on streaming services.
• Taxes and fees bundled in price.
• Enhanced scam protection with Scam Shield Premium.
• Voicemail to text.
• Smartwatch plan discounts.

Customer support

Mint has one of the best reputations in the business for customer support, and its app is class-leading for simplicity and user-friendliness. Reaching a customer service representative is quick through the in-app chat function or by phone.

T-Mobile's app is also straightforward with a little more clutter than Mint's, but you can still easily check your account and manage plans. We haven't had a reason to test T-Mobile's customer support yet, so we can't comment on its responsiveness and effectiveness.

Which should you sign up for?

Mint Mobile and T-Mobile have the same coverage, so that shouldn't be a consideration here as long as you've established that T-Mobile's coverage works for you.

Most people with common needs, like making phone calls, messaging, and using basic (rather than intensive) apps over data, will be happy with Mint. The MVNO's low prices are hard to pass up, especially if you know you don't need unlimited data and can opt for a limited data plan. Remember that Mint's best value comes with its 12-month plan options, which are less flexible than T-Mobile Prepaid's month-to-month options but notably more affordable.

T-Mobile's postpaid unlimited plans make more sense for heavy data users who value reliably fast, prioritized speeds from premium data, plenty of hotspot data, and the myriad perks that work to justify the higher costs.