Almost every week someone messages us a version of the same question: how long does this thing actually last? It's a fair thing to ask before you pay, and the answer isn't quite the one most travel sites give.
The Short Answer
A Telkomsel tourist plan from GetBaliSIM runs 30 days from the moment we activate it — not from the day you order, and not from the day you install the eSIM on your phone. Topping up adds more data, never more days. When the 30 days are up, that plan and that Indonesian number are finished, so a longer stay means a second eSIM or SIM card.
There is a second limit, and it's the one almost nobody mentions: your passport and your phone, as a pair, can only be registered twice in any 12 months. On our 30-day plans that works out to a maximum of 60 days of local line per year. More on what that means for a long stay below.
What Starts the Clock
This is the part that trips people up. Three different dates are involved, and only one of them matters.
| What you do | Does it start your 30 days? |
|---|---|
| Pay and get your QR code by email | No |
| Install the eSIM on your phone | No |
| We activate the line on Telkomsel | Yes |
For an eSIM, we activate about 24 hours before you land, using the arrival date you give us at checkout. So you can order weeks ahead, install it calmly at home on Wi-Fi, and still land with a full 30 days in front of you. For a physical SIM, the clock starts when our staff registers and activates the card at your hotel or villa.
That's also why we ask for an arrival date at all. It isn't admin for the sake of it — it's what keeps your first day from being spent before you've left home.
Topping Up Adds Data, Not Days
If you run low halfway through, a top-up puts more gigabytes on your existing number. What it can't do is push the end date back. The validity is set by the plan Telkomsel registered your number on, and more data doesn't buy more time.
It's worth knowing this before you top up on day 26. If you've got four days left and you're nearly out of data, a top-up makes sense. If you've got four days left and you're staying another three weeks, you want a new plan, not more data on a plan that's about to end — assuming you still have a registration left, which we come back to below.
Checking Where You Stand
You don't have to guess how much is left either. From the Telkomsel line, send an SMS reading UL INFO to 3636 and you'll get your data and dates back — in Indonesian, but the numbers read at a glance. More ways to check if you'd rather use an app or just ask us.
If the menus leave you squinting at a screen in a language you don't read, message us on WhatsApp. We can look your number up from our side and tell you plainly how much data and how many days you have.
You Don't Have to Keep Track of This
Nobody on holiday counts days. You land, the trip takes over, and day 30 arrives while you're thinking about dinner.
So we count for you. Three days before your plan ends, we email you — the same reminder whether you took an eSIM or a physical SIM card, sent automatically once your line has been running. It tells you the end is coming and gives you a one-tap way to get the same plan again, with your details already filled in. That works once more, not indefinitely — the registration limit below is the reason, and if you're unsure where you stand, message us before you pay rather than after.
You can ignore it if you're flying home that week. If you're staying, it means the first you hear about the end date isn't your phone going quiet.
What Happens at the End
On day 30 the line stops. Data stops, the number stops, and any data you hadn't used goes with it. We can't extend a finished plan, and neither can a top-up.
The fix, once, is a new plan: a second eSIM, or a physical SIM card delivered to wherever you're staying. It'll come with a new Indonesian number, which matters more than it sounds like — see below. "Once" is doing real work in that sentence, and the next-but-one section explains why.
Coming Back to Bali Later? Expect a New Number
Your +62 number belongs to that plan, not to you. Once it ends, it's gone, and we can't bring it back for a trip six months from now. Returning travellers get a new number every time.
Two practical consequences:
- Don't attach anything permanent to it. Your bank's two-factor codes, your main WhatsApp account, your email recovery — keep all of that on your home number, which keeps working for texts and calls if you run dual SIM.
- Do use it for everything local. Ride-hailing accounts, your villa host, a driver you'll call twice this week, restaurant bookings. Local life in Bali runs on a local number, and none of those need to outlive the trip.
If you set up a ride-hailing app on the Bali number, you'll be setting it up again next trip. Mildly annoying, not a disaster, and worth knowing in advance rather than discovering at the airport taxi rank.
One thing to watch if Bali is a regular trip for you: those two registrations per 12 months apply to repeat visits too. Two trips in a year, both covered. A third trip inside the same 12 months can't be registered on the same passport and phone until the oldest registration falls outside the window.
If You're Staying Longer Than 30 Days
This is where the second limit bites, so it's worth reading before you book anything.
Your passport and your phone, as a pair, can only be registered twice in any 12 months — a rolling 12 months, not a calendar year. A registration lasts exactly as long as the plan it came with, and it ends on the plan's last day. Our plans are 30 days, so through us you get at most 60 days of local line in a year: two plans, back to back or months apart.
A few things that surprise people about this:
- It counts across networks. A registration with any Indonesian operator uses one of your two. Buying your second plan from a different company doesn't reset anything.
- A short plan costs the same slot as a long one. Use three days of a 30-day plan and you've still spent a registration.
- Travel eSIMs don't count. Roaming eSIMs like Airalo connect as foreign lines, need no registration, and leave both of your slots untouched. They also give you no local number.
So, by stay length:
| Your stay | What works |
|---|---|
| Up to 30 days | One plan from us. This is what we're built for. |
| 31–60 days | Two of our 30-day plans back to back — order the second a few days early so there's no dark gap. New number the second time. |
| More than 60 days | We're not the right fit, and we'd rather say so than sell you something that stops. |
If you're staying longer than 60 days, the two routes that do work are a 90-day plan from a seller who offers one (that's one registration covering 90 days instead of 30), or registering your phone with Indonesian customs — Bea Cukai — in person, which has to happen within 60 days of your arrival and then stays with the phone for good.
We sell 30-day plans only, on purpose. Short trips are what we do well, and a plan list with three validity options and a toggle is how a simple purchase turns into homework.
Quick Recap
- 30 days, counted from activation — not from payment, not from installing the eSIM
- For eSIMs, we activate about 24 hours before you land
- Top-ups add data only; nothing extends the validity
- We email you three days before it ends, so you don't have to track it
- At the end, the plan and the number both finish — a longer stay needs a new one
- Two registrations per passport and phone in any 12 months, across all Indonesian networks — so 60 days a year on 30-day plans, and two trips a year
- Staying more than 60 days? A 90-day plan elsewhere or customs registration in person, not us
- Keep your home number for banking and 2FA, and use the Bali number for Bali
Still unsure which plan size fits your trip? Message us before you order — we'd rather talk it through than have you buy twice.
