I switched to Mint Mobile for 3 months — here's my pros and cons

If you've listened to a podcast or watched a YouTube video, you've probably come across an ad for Mint Mobile. So chances are good that you know this phone carrier promises lower monthly rates than what you'd pay for service from a higher-profile wireless provider. But do you know how reliable Mint's service actually is?

To find out, I spent a few months as a Mint Mobile customer, trying out its wireless coverage and measuring what kind of service it provides. In this Mint Mobile review, we'll look at whether the low-cost cell phone plans offered by this carrier get you stellar service in return.

Mint Mobile review: What you'll pay

Before I talk about my experience using Mint for wireless coverage, let's go over Mint cell phone plan pricing since that's the factor that likely drew you to the carrier in the first place. Mint offers plans with talk, text and data that cost a fraction of what you'll pay at some of the best phone carriers.

Specifically, Mint offers four different plans, starting at an entry-level option with 5GB of data and scaling up to an unlimited data plan. For the first three months of service, you'll pay Mint's lowest rate — that's $15/month for the 5GB plan, $20 for a 15GB option, $25 for the 20GB offering and $30 for unlimited data.

Truth be told, unless you do a lot of mobile streaming, 5GB is more than enough data each month, though I like the multiple options to fit different needs. On tiered data plans, you're not hit with a charge should you go over your limit; your data speeds will simply slow down, though you do have the option of adding on more data.

Note that you'll pay for that first three months of data in one installment. That means a $45 total payment should you try out the 5GB plan. Get used to paying for service in advance at Mint — it's a key part of the carrier's approach to offering low-cost plans.

Mint Mobile review: Getting the best rate

When those first three months of service are up at Mint, you've got a decision to make — commit to the carrier's service for a full-year or opt for a shorter obligation of three or six months. Go for the full year, though, and you'll get to keep the low introductory rate from before — $15/month in the case of the that 5GB plan or $30 for unlimited date.

You do have to pay all of that money up front. In other words, the 5GB plan requires a $180 payment while unlimited customers pay $360. While that means not having to remember to make a monthly payment, it can be a big chunk of change to pay in one sitting.

Still, there are advantages to opting for Mint's year-long plan, namely bigger savings over time. If you were to go for the six-month option for the 15GB plan you'd pay $20/month ($120 total). That's $5 more each month than annual customers are putting up, meaning you're saving $60 over the course of a year.

Mint Mobile review: How Mint's prices compare

You'll definitely pay less for data at Mint than you would at one of the major carriers. T-Mobile, which owns Mint, charges $60/month for one line of its bare-bones unlimited plan — that's double the cost of unlimited data at Mint. A T-Mobile Connect plan charges $15/month for 5GB of data without Mint's upfront payment requirement. But when you run out of data on a T-Mobile Connect plan, you can't use any more for the rest of the month, compared to Mint's slower data speeds.

Comparisons become trickier when you stack up Mint against its fellow discount carriers. Verizon-owned Visible offers the best unlimited data plan by my reckoning, with a $35/month option. That's $5 more than what Mint charges, but Visible lets you go month-to-month with your bill.

If you want to pay less for data, Visible also has a $25/month unlimited plan as does Tello. So Mint's not necessarily the cheapest option in addition to requiring a big upfront payment for its best rate.

Mint Mobile review: What about family plans?

Mint doesn't specifically offer family plans, where you get escalating discounts as you add more lines. That's in stark contrast to a service like Total Wireless, where a single line of the carrier's Total 5G Unlimited plan costs $50/month, but adding three more lines drops the per-line cost to $27.50.

However, at Mint, each line of data is subject to the same discount if you sign up for a year of service, and you can mix-and-match plans — setting up a 5GB plan for your kid, for example, while you sign up for Mint's unlimited option. Still, having to pay for a year of service covering multiple lines makes the upfront payment even steeper, which is why it's hard to include Mint among the best family plans.

Mint Mobile review: Performance

Even before T-Mobile's purchase of Mint closed in 2024, Mint was using T-Mobile's towers to provide its wireless service. This is pretty common practice among mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs, that turn to other carrier's networks for their coverage.

In Mint's case, that's good news, as T-Mobile is currently regarded as the top-performing network by testing firms like Ookla and Opensignal. If T-Mobile's coverage is strong in your area, you should expect equally robust coverage from Mint, with the caveat that your data speed can be slowed down — the technical term is "deprioritized" when there's a lot of traffic on T-Mobile's network.

That said, I didn't experience any noticeable slowdowns during my time on Mint. I was able to surf the web, stream and even engage in some online multiplayer gaming with PUBG Mobile, relying entirely on Mint to stay connected.

In general, speeds on Mint's network as measured by Ookla's Speedtest.net app were on par with what I normally see from my regular coverage through Verizon (with the caveat that my speed under Verizon's Unlimited Welcome plan is subject to slowdowns if there's a lot of traffic).

In one test, Mint hit upload speeds of 155 Mbps on my Galaxy S25 Plus, compared to 151 Mbps on an iPhone 17 connected to Verizon. Even in less robust conditions, Mint's 67.7 Mbps download speeds topped the 45.7 Mbps result I recorded on Verizon in the same location.

The bottom line: if you think Mint's lower rates doom you to slower service, you're very mistaken. Mint's coverage is every bit as good as what you'd get from a bigger name carrier.

Mint Mobile review: Perks

I've been using Mint's unlimited data plan in my tests, which recently doubled the amount of hotspot data available — it's now 20GB. Last February, Mint said it was doing away with a speed cap on its unlimited data plan, though as of this review, the Mint web page notes that unlimited data speeds can slow after 50GB of use. That's at least consistent with the caps on the Visible Plus and Tello unlimited data plans.

Otherwise, perks are the same on Mint's unlimited and tiered data plans, with customers getting free calling to Mexico, Canada and the U.K. Tiered data plans can also their data allotment for hotspotting. If those perks seem minimal, well, that's the trade-off for most of the best cheap cell phone plans.

Mint Mobile review: Customer service

Another way Mint is able to charge less for its service is by having no physical retail presence — this is an online-only operation. That applies to customer service, too, as there's no retail store to turn to work out any issues with your service. You're left to find the answers to your questions either through Mint's website or its mobile app.

Besides FAQs, Mint has a chatbot both online and in its app. For those times you need to talk to a human, Mint offers an 800-number, that's available from 8 a.m. ET to 10 p.m. ET seven days a week.

Besides the big upfront payment, the lack of in-person service is the biggest hurdle some people will face in making Mint their wireless carrier. If you're uncomfortable seeking out help online, you'd best look elsewhere for service, whether that's from a more established carrier or a lower-cost option like Metro by T-Mobile, Cricket or Total Wireless.

Mint Mobile review: Verdict

Mint's service proved reliable in my testing, so if you're comfortable with coverage on T-Mobile's network, turning to Mint is an appealing option for lowering your monthly costs.

To me, the biggest obstacle for potential Mint customers would be how comfortable you are making the year-long commitment required to get the carrier's best rate. There's also the not insignificant matter of ponying up anywhere from $180 to $360 for a full year of service in one payment. Mint's three-month introductory period at least gives you a chance to try out the service at a lower rate, but the question of a big annual payment is going to come down to what your budget can bear.

If you can make a big upfront payment, you'll certainly find a lot of value in Mint's service given its robust coverage via T-Mobile. And if not, other low-cost carriers like Visible and Tello offer cheap plans of their own without the year-long commitment.