Cheap calls abroad from Germany

Why an Allnet flat does not cover calls abroad, what calls to the EU may cost, which providers have international minutes and when a messenger is enough.

All prices in this guide come from our comparison of 385 German mobile tariffs and are average prices per month over 24 months, one-time costs included. As of 10 Nov 2026.

An Allnet flat covers Germany only

An Allnet flat (Allnet-Flat) covers calls and texts to all German networks. Calling a foreign number from Germany costs extra, at the provider’s price list. Depending on the country and provider, a single minute can cost more than a whole month’s fee. Before you call home for the first time, check your tariff’s price sheet.

Don’t confuse this with roaming, which means you are abroad yourself and use your German phone there. Within the EU, roaming costs the same as at home. This guide is about calls from Germany to other countries.

Calls to other EU countries

Calls from Germany to another EU country are capped by EU rules: at most 19 cents a minute and 6 cents per text, plus VAT. Some tariffs already include minutes to the EU, others offer a cheap add-on. If you regularly call Poland, Romania or Italy, for example, look out for this.

Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and other countries outside the EU

There is no cap for countries outside the EU. Here, providers with international minutes pay off. They are made for people who regularly call their home country, and depending on the package include minutes to certain countries or a whole group of countries.

• AY YILDIZ is aimed mainly at people with ties to Turkey.
• Ortel Mobile has packages with minutes to many countries, for example in Eastern Europe and Africa.
• Lyca Mobile and Lebara offer minutes to a great many countries, depending on the package.

Check the price sheet to see whether your country is included and whether the minutes cover calls to mobiles or only to landlines. There is a separate guide for people from Ukraine.

Cheapest of all: over the internet

Calls over WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Viber or FaceTime only use data, wherever you call. A voice call needs roughly half a megabyte a minute, a video call many times that. With a tariff of 10 GB or more you can talk for hours. The person you call needs internet too. In some countries, such as Russia, calls over some messengers are restricted; then a regular call or another service is the way.

Keep your number from home

Many phones can use two SIMs at once, often a regular SIM and an eSIM. That keeps your number from home reachable, for bank text messages for example, while you use a German tariff for data and calls. Turn off data roaming for the foreign SIM, or it can get expensive.

Comparisons: prepaid, no contract, 10 GB or more.