Install your eSIM on iPhone — step by step

Which iPhones can use an eSIM

eSIM begins with iPhone XS, XS Max and XR (2018) and covers every iPhone released since, including iPhone SE (2nd generation) and later. iPhone X and earlier have no eSIM hardware, and no iOS update adds it.

What the model name cannot tell you is where the phone was sold. The same model can be dual-tray in one market and eSIM-capable in another, so the hardware check below beats any list.

The check that settles it

Settings → General → About, then scroll to EID. If an EID is listed, the phone has eSIM hardware. If there is no EID row at all, it has none — whatever the model name says.

Bought in mainland China

Those iPhones ship with two nano-SIM trays and no eSIM. The known exceptions are iPhone Air, which is eSIM-only, and iPhone 17e. Go by the EID, not by the model year.

Bought in Hong Kong or Macao

Also dual nano-SIM as a rule. eSIM is present on iPhone XS, 12 mini, 13 mini, SE (2nd and 3rd generation), 16e and the iPhone 17 line.

iPhones with no SIM tray at all

Every iPhone from 14 onward sold in the US is eSIM-only, as are iPhone 17 and 17 Pro in about a dozen markets (the US, Canada and Japan among them) and iPhone Air everywhere. On those, your home line is already an eSIM and Roamzy becomes a second one.

How many lines can be active

iPhone 13 and later can keep two eSIMs active at the same time. iPhone XS through 12 run one eSIM alongside the physical SIM — you can store several profiles and switch between them, but only one is active at a time.

Dual SIM on iPhone: which line does what

iOS assigns voice, messaging and data to lines separately, and each assignment is its own setting. Your home line keeps your number for calls and texts; the Roamzy line carries data and nothing else. The settings below are what keep both halves working.

Apple moves these rows between iOS versions and renames the section by region — Cellular in US English, Mobile Data or Mobile Service elsewhere. If a toggle is not where it is described here, it is usually one level in: on the line's own screen, or under Cellular Data Options.

Default Voice Line

Settings → Cellular → Default Voice Line. Set it to your home line, so calls and texts keep leaving from your home number.

Cellular Data

Settings → Cellular → Cellular Data. Set it to the Roamzy line. This setting decides which line your data goes out on.

Allow Cellular Data Switching

On that same Cellular Data screen, below the list of lines. Leave it off. With it on, iOS can move data back to your home line on its own — during a call on that line, for example — and if that line's Data Roaming is on too, the traffic bills at your home carrier's roaming rate instead of ours.

Data Roaming is set per line

Tap the Roamzy line and turn Data Roaming on; leave it off on your home line. The toggle sits inside each line's screen, not on the main Cellular screen, so switching it on once does not cover both. On the Roamzy line it only tells iOS to use the international plan — it is not a switch that adds fees.

iMessage and FaceTime

The Roamzy line has no phone number of its own, so iMessage and FaceTime stay attached to your primary number and Apple ID, and keep working over Roamzy data. If they go quiet, open Settings → Messages → Send & Receive and confirm your home number is still selected.

If the QR code will not scan

iOS has a typed path for exactly this. Underneath the QR, your dashboard shows the same profile as one long string labelled SM-DP+ activation code (LPA URI) — that string is all the manual path needs.

Enter Details Manually

Settings → Cellular → Add eSIM → Use QR Code, then Enter Details Manually at the bottom of the camera screen. On iOS 15 and earlier, Add eSIM reads Add Cellular Plan.

Paste the whole string first

iOS asks for an SM-DP+ Address and an Activation Code. Paste the entire LPA:1$… string into the SM-DP+ Address field — iOS normally recognises the prefix and fills in the rest itself.

If iOS does not split it for you

The string has the shape LPA:1$server$code$1.3.6…. The SM-DP+ Address is what sits between the first and second $; the Activation Code is what sits between the second and third. The trailing 1.3.6… is a GSMA identifier and belongs in neither field. Leave Confirmation Code empty — Roamzy profiles do not use one.

Installing with no QR at all

On iOS 17.4 and later, open your eSIM's QR card in the dashboard on the iPhone you are setting up and tap the activation link; iOS opens the installer directly. It has to be tapped on that iPhone, not on the device displaying the QR — and the phone needs Wi-Fi or your home line's data to download the profile.

"Add eSIM" missing or greyed out

Usually the iPhone has no EID, or it is carrier-locked: check Settings → General → About → Carrier Lock, which should read No SIM restrictions. A locked iPhone will not accept another carrier's profile. A work-managed iPhone can also have eSIM changes blocked by its device-management profile.

Afterwards: renaming the line, switching it off, and stopping iOS from spending data

The Roamzy line stays in Settings → Cellular as its own entry with its own settings. Because data is billed per megabyte from your balance, two iOS defaults on that screen are worth changing on the first day.

Rename the line

Tap the line → Cellular Plan Label. iOS offers a few presets plus a custom label; something like Roamzy or Japan keeps it distinct from your home line in every menu that lists both.

Switch it off between trips

The toggle at the top of that line's screen — labelled Turn On This Line — switches the line off without deleting it. The profile stays installed and your balance stays where it is; nothing is billed while no data flows.

Removing is the permanent one

Remove eSIM at the bottom of the same screen (Remove Cellular Plan on older iOS) deletes the profile from the phone. That cannot be undone from the phone — getting it back means asking support to reissue it. To pause, use the toggle above instead.

Wi-Fi Assist

Settings → Cellular, at the very bottom of the list. It falls back to cellular whenever Wi-Fi goes weak, with nothing on screen to say so, and that traffic leaves on whichever line carries data — now the metered one. Turn it off.

Low Data Mode

Tap the Roamzy line → Low Data Mode (one level in, under Cellular Data Options, on some iOS versions). It holds back background traffic on that line only — automatic updates, iCloud photo syncing, background app refresh — and leaves your home line alone. Third-party apps honour it to varying degrees.