Cheapest Data Plan in Nigeria: What ₦5,000 Buys on 4 Networks

Glo gives you the most data on a ₦5,000 monthly budget, going by Technext's February list. Part of that bundle only works after midnight, mind you. Airtel comes second. MTN's best buy is a single plan that costs a little less than the full budget, while T2 needs two separate plans to get anywhere near it.

Most people hunting for the cheapest data plan in Nigeria already know what they can spend. So picture a student or a commuter with that money for the month. WhatsApp and TikTok run every day, mostly in daylight, with some YouTube on top, and running dry in the third week isn't an option.

Only MTN's prices come straight from the network, via mtn.ng. The Airtel, Glo and T2 figures come from Technext's February list, so any bundle on it could now be bigger, smaller or gone. Dial the menu yourself before paying. Every price here also carries the tariff rise the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approved in January 2025. Operators got room to charge up to half as much again.

How much data ₦1,000 and ₦2,000 buy on MTN, Airtel, Glo and T2

Start at ₦1,000. Only Glo and T2 sold a full month of data at that price on the lists we used, and Glo's bundle gave a little more. MTN and Airtel open their monthly menus higher, at ₦1,500. MTN fills the gap with short bundles instead. The biggest one dies the next day and a two-day version gives slightly less, so if you buy it on Monday you're back at the menu by Wednesday.

At ₦2,000 the gap gets wide enough to matter. MTN's monthly plan at that price gives the least data of the four, and Glo's February bundle gave more than twice as much for the same money. Airtel sits in between. So does T2, a little ahead of it.

Whether you can use Glo's extra gigabytes is another matter. No price list shows how strong its signal is on your street, and a student whose hostel room drops Glo to one bar won't see any of that value.

MTN's ₦1,000 daily bundle vs a 30-day plan: cost per day of cover

Per gigabyte, MTN's one-day bundle looks like a bargain. It beats every MTN monthly plan on this budget. Watch the clock, though, because it dies a day after you buy it and takes every unused megabyte with it. Tomorrow you pay again.

Spread MTN's big monthly plan over the month and it works out to about ₦150 a day. Someone who opens WhatsApp every morning would need the daily bundle every single day, and at that rate the whole budget is gone inside a week.

Price per gigabyte hides this.

It assumes you finish every megabyte before the bundle expires, which few people manage on an ordinary day of chats and short videos. Short bundles do earn a place on a heavy day, though. Think of a big download, a long session on a school portal, or a video interview that runs over. MTN's two-day bundle covers most of those without touching your monthly allowance. Pay for it once and don't make it a habit.

The cheapest data plan in Nigeria for a ₦5,000 month, on four SIMs

One budget, four networks: MTN prices as at 29 September 2026, the rest from Technext's February list. Each row runs from the cheapest monthly plan to the best single buy, or pair of buys, that keeps a full month under budget.

MTN monthly data plan: one ₦4,500 plan beats the obvious pair

Stacking two MTN plans feels like the smart way to spend every naira. It isn't. The obvious pair is the 7GB plan topped up with the smallest monthly one, and that swallows the whole budget. The single 10GB plan costs less and gives you a gigabyte more, which leaves change for airtime. MTN's page says it comes with some call time as well. If MTN is the only network that works where you live, that's your plan.

Cheap data plan on Airtel for ₦5,000: count only the main 13GB

Read Airtel's extras closely. Technext describes the YouTube allowance as night data, and the social bonus works only on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Daytime users should count the main allowance alone and treat the rest as a small gift.

Strip the night data out of both Airtel and Glo and the race tightens, with Airtel running close behind Glo for anyone who browses mostly in daylight.

Cheap data plan on Glo: the biggest bundle, with a night-time catch

On paper, Glo wins. Technext notes that almost all Glo plans carry bonus data you can use only between midnight and 5am. We found no page saying how much of the big bundle falls in that window, so your daytime share sits below the headline figure by an amount only your own line will show. Technext also lists a bigger "special" Glo plan at the same price, with no word on how long it lasts. Find out before you count it as a month of data.

If you top up family lines, AidaPay's Glo list has a 10GB monthly plan. It costs ₦4,400, with ₦51.76 back. That price is as at 30 September 2026. Set it beside Glo's own bundle on the buy cheap Glo data page and pick whichever suits the line you're filling.

T2 data plan codes: two plans to fill the month

Filling the budget on this network takes two purchases. Even together, the big plan and the small one give you the dearest gigabytes of the four. Both sit on the same USSD menu, and the codes are in the table. The middle of the range looks kinder, because its ₦2,000 plan beat MTN's comfortably on data. A light user may be happy to stop there.

Coverage decides which network is cheapest for you

Signal matters more than any column in that table. A cheap gigabyte on a network that barely reaches your hostel costs you twice, first in naira and then in minutes spent staring at a page that won't load. Weak Glo where you are? Pick Airtel. Where only MTN holds up, take its big plan.

Why data still vanishes: 23,396 depletion complaints in six months

Nigerian phone users filed 413,587 complaints with their networks between January and June, according to NCC figures reported by both BusinessDay and Technext. Data depletion made up 23,396 of them. MTN customers filed just over half. Airtel's came next, and Glo's filed far fewer, while T2's customers filed a mere handful. Across every category combined, though, Airtel topped the overall count, and operators resolved nearly all complaints.

MTN's explanation, as Technext reported it, starts with "high-definition video streaming, automatic video playback on feeds". The operator also blamed software updates, cloud backups and apps that keep syncing while the phone sits in your pocket.

Some of the vanishing is plain arithmetic. Netflix's help page puts its lowest video setting at up to 0.3GB an hour. Watch an hour a day for a month and you've eaten nearly all of MTN's big plan.

None of this proves the complaints wrong. A phone left on autoplay can still burn a month's data in days, so rule that out before you blame the network. Check your balance at the same time each day with the data balance codes for every network, and sudden drops show up fast.

Still losing data with autoplay and backups off? Complain to your network, but write down the times and balances first. A dated record is far harder to wave away than a vague feeling that the data went fast.

Before your next renewal, stand where you spend most of your day, whether that's a hostel room, a shop or a bus park, and see which network holds a signal there. Then dial that network's data menu (*312# on MTN) and check today's price and size before paying. The Airtel, Glo and T2 figures above date from February. If you top up several lines, our guide to the cheapest data app in Nigeria compares where to buy.

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Published 30 September 2026. Prices and codes change - if you spot one that has moved, tell us and we will fix it.