Families are stronger together, and so are the best family cell phone plans in my experience. The plans that I find the most appealing are the ones that add significant discounts as you add more lines — and those discounts keep scaling up as your family plan grows.
1. Best overall: AT&T
2. Best perks: T-Mobile
3. Best value: Total Wireless
4. Most flexible: Verizon
5. Cheapest: Mint Mobile
6. Best for Comcast customers: Xfinity Mobile
The end result of this approach? You're paying less per line each month than you would with a single line of the best cell phone plan overall. And that helps keep your monthly wireless bill manageable.
There's something else to keep in mind when looking for the best family cell phone plans: unlimited data is the way to go more often than not. That way, you don't have to worry about running out of data when you're all sharing one big pool. Instead, everyone covered by the plan gets the data they need each month.
My picks below reflect those two main criteria. But a decade of looking after cell phone plan prices for Tom's Guide has taught me a few other factors to take into consideration. It's always good when carriers let you mix and match different types of plan, as that can keep costs down as well. And I look for perks, too, particularly ones that will benefit the whole family like subscriptions to the best streaming services that come with your plan.
For this picks, we're going to look at plans that cover families of four, though below, you'll also find what two lines on a plan will cost you each month. Families of four can expect to pay between $120 to $220 a month for four lines from the major wireless carriers. Certain promotions can drive that cost down, particularly when carriers waive the cost of an extra line. Plans on the lower end of that range tend to have fewer perks — hotspot data, complementary streaming services, and more — so take that into consideration when making your choice.
New unlimited plans at T-Mobile have me rearranging my picks to give AT&T the nod as the best family cell phone plan, but T-Mobile's perks remain attractive. Anyone looking for a bargain, though, should consider Total Wireless due to its steep discount on four-line plans.
As the managing editor of mobile at Tom's Guide, I oversee our coverage on phones and wireless networks. That includes keeping track of all the different cell phone plans out there, which I've been handling for a decade now. With two other people in my immediate family, I have more than a passing interesting in staying up-to-date on what carriers are charging for multiple lines of their wireless service.
The best family cell phone plan overall
Best family plan perks
Best family plan value
The most flexible family cell phone plan
Cheapest family plan
Best family cell phone plan for Comcast customers
Best family cell phone plans compared
Here are all the best family cell phone plans we've recommended shown side by side so you can better see how the prices compare. We've included the prices for two lines of data as well as for families of four to illustrate how adding additional lines reduces the per line cost.
As a reminder, you don't get per-line discounts with Mint's plans, but all lines in a family plan qualify for the same discount when you pay for a year of service upfront.
Phone carrier plan | Data amount | Monthly cost per line (2 lines) | Monthly cost per line (4 lines) |
AT&T Unlimited Extra EL | Unlimited | $65.99 | $40.99 |
T-Mobile Experience More | Unlimited | $70 | $55 |
Total Wireless Total 5G Unlimited | Unlimited | $42.50 | $27.50 |
Verizon Unlimited Plus | Unlimited | $70 | $45 |
Mint 5GB plan | 5GB per line | $15 (with $360 annual payment) | $15 (with $720 annual payment) |
Xfinity Mobile Unlimited | Unlimited | $30 | $25 |
How to pick the best family cell phone plans
For families, picking the right cell phone plan comes down to balancing the costs of multiple lines of data with the perks each carrier offers. If you do a lot of video streaming, for example, you’ll want to pick a plan that not only throws in a streaming service as a perk (Netflix with T-Mobile, multiple streaming services with Verizon's add-ons) but also doesn’t slow your data if you consume a lot of data in a given month. Getting a plan with HD streaming can also be a good idea if you plan to stream on a screen larger than your smartphone's display.
As we've noted, many family plans also feature the best unlimited data plans at each carrier. But unlimited data still comes with some limits on just how much data you can use before your speed can slow down at some carriers. AT&T's Unlimited Extra customers will enjoy a 75GB cap, while Unlimited Elite subscribers face no cap at all. Other plans featured here — the ones from T-Mobile, Verizon and Total Wireless — don't have those caps.
Use an MVNO like Mint , and you can see your data speeds deprioritized in favor of other customers on the parent company's network (T-Mobile and AT&T, respectively).
