Google Fi
Ranked 2 of 9 mobile phone plans by recommenders
Recommended for cheap, seamless roaming in many countries, a per-GB bill that suits light users, and simple transactional service. Critics point to unannounced service cutoffs and weak customer support.
Recommended for cheap, seamless roaming in many countries, a per-GB bill that suits light users, and simple transactional service. Critics point to unannounced service cutoffs and weak customer support.
46 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 26
- criticize it
- 20
- approval share
- 57%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 9 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 26 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Cheap, seamless international roaming
“If you travel internationally, they're really cheap relative to everyone else who will charge you absolutely ridiculous roaming fees.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “HP realizes that mandatory 15-minute support call wait times isn't good support” “Google Fi is great, especially the fact that they work mostly seamlessly for the same price in like every country”
Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026” “MVNO roaming is bloody fantastic - I always had reception.”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “East coast. Verizon outage in US” - Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026”
- Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company”
Pay-per-GB billing keeps bills low
“my bill rarely goes over $30/month, only when travelling”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Prepaid vs. Postpaid Mobile: The cost breakdown nobody talks about” “overall I don't miss Verizon and pay drastically less”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “HP realizes that mandatory 15-minute support call wait times isn't good support” “The per-GB charging is smart for light users too.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Prepaid vs. Postpaid Mobile: The cost breakdown nobody talks about” Reliable service with no problems
“I've used Google Fi for gosh, 8-9+ years (honestly don't remember, but a good long while) and I've had ZERO problems with anything relating to using it as my cell provider.”
Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “Verizon is About to Break our Watches” “I've yet to encounter a circumstance where anything I've used has even seemed aware of the fact that I'm using it”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Verizon is About to Break our Watches” “I've never had a single problem with Google Fi.”
Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “Verizon is About to Break our Watches” Good spam protection and simple setup
“One of the most underrated features of being on Google Fi with a Pixel, you don't get any of those apps like Amazon and NFL you are unable to install.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Prepaid vs. Postpaid Mobile: The cost breakdown nobody talks about” “which has been life changing for me with regards to spam”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “Somebody please stop the spam texts”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Service cut off without warning
“We've exceeded that by months on multiple occasions and fully expected them to cut us off after reading similar dire warnings but they never have.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company” “cut off your service without warning, advanced notice, or spelling out anywhere when you sign up”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company” “Much too expensive and if you use it too much abroad, they cut you off.”
Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “Verizon is About to Break our Watches” Poor coverage outside metro areas
“you may find yourself riding the back of the bus and there is no independent way to check what service you are actually getting”
Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026” “the service was bad outside of Metro areas and didn't trust them to not arbitrarily shut down”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company” “I got downgraded to Google Fi's 2G in a well-traveled part of Virginia”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “PC Gamer Recommends RSS Readers in a 37MB Article That Just Keeps Downloading” Connectivity drops needing restart
“Every several weeks the mobile connectivity stops working and nothing short of a restart will get it working again.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Phone is about to stop being yours” “couldn't get connected to Google Fi to work, even with a SIM card”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple”
Other mobile phone plans people recommend
The four most recommended other mobile phone plans, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Mobile | 31 | 2 | 94% | 9 | 1 yr6 owners | Approved |
| Google FiThis page | 26 | 20 | 57% | 9 | 9 yrs3 owners | — |
| Cape mobile cell service | 19 | 10 | 66% | 7 | — | — |
| Airalo eSIM | 16 | 9 | 64% | 5 | — | — |
| Mint Mobile | 15 | 3 | 83% | 4 | 7 yrs3 owners | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 50 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“which has been life changing for me with regards to spam”
“Something I learned the hard way: it's a bad time if you are a Google Fi customer”
“Which admittedly did have better roaming.”
“you may find yourself riding the back of the bus and there is no independent way to check what service you are actually getting”
“Google Fi is great, especially the fact that they work mostly seamlessly for the same price in like every country”
“I've yet to encounter a circumstance where anything I've used has even seemed aware of the fact that I'm using it”
“I've used Google Fi for gosh, 8-9+ years (honestly don't remember, but a good long while) and I've had ZERO problems with anything relating to using it as my cell provider.”
“Much too expensive and if you use it too much abroad, they cut you off.”
“I've never had a single problem with Google Fi.”
“will detect a Google Fi or Google Voice number and not let you use them”
“I've seen multiple stories of people buying phones from Fi, the phones never arriving, google refusing a refund”
“Every several weeks the mobile connectivity stops working and nothing short of a restart will get it working again.”
“just call Google from your own Google Fi number”
“probably the only one that this is not susceptible to”
“It's apparently often even prioritized better than many telcos' own cheap plans.”
“getting a strange error message that didn't allude to the region”
“I got downgraded to Google Fi's 2G in a well-traveled part of Virginia”
“If you travel internationally, they're really cheap relative to everyone else who will charge you absolutely ridiculous roaming fees.”
“Their normal prices seem to start at $35/month for 30GB of data which is more than Verizon's Visible plans”
“overall I don't miss Verizon and pay drastically less”
“The data sim costs nothing extra on top of my cellular plan”
“We've exceeded that by months on multiple occasions and fully expected them to cut us off after reading similar dire warnings but they never have.”
“the service was bad outside of Metro areas and didn't trust them to not arbitrarily shut down”
“Fi’s customer service has long since turned to shit”
“cut off your service without warning, advanced notice, or spelling out anywhere when you sign up”
“Google Fi doesn't have that problem.”
“how easy international roaming is”
“It's honestly amazing to have a service that's purely transactional.”
“One of the most underrated features of being on Google Fi with a Pixel, you don't get any of those apps like Amazon and NFL you are unable to install.”
“The per-GB charging is smart for light users too.”
“my bill rarely goes over $30/month, only when travelling”
“Majorly embarrassing, took me tears to sign up because of this.”
“Even on Google FI, if I block a number on Messages it doesn't carry over to calls which doesn't carry over to voicemail.”
“It works but you need to install the Google Fi app from the Google Play Store.”
“couldn't get connected to Google Fi to work, even with a SIM card”
“MVNO roaming is bloody fantastic - I always had reception.”
“they’re pretty decent about it all”
“Google was not able to recover my Google Project Fi number because I was abroad.”
“you could just turn it off and still use VoIP and SMS from any web browser”
“I like the Google Messages sync SMS online with Google Fi”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.