How many eSIM profiles can I store?
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Stored profiles and active lines are different limits
A phone can keep several travel profiles and still use only one or two at a time.
How many eSIM profiles you can store depends on the phone. It is a different number from how many lines can be active. Recent iPhones commonly keep several profiles on the phone and use two lines at once. Apple’s model pages give the exact numbers. Android limits are set by the phone maker. A stored travel profile is not a second data plan that is already running.
The short answer
How many eSIM profiles you can store depends on the model, and it is separate from how many lines can be active. If you delete a travel profile to make room, you often cannot install that profile again.
Why This Matters
If you buy a new country plan on top of last year’s profiles, the store fills up. People then delete the live trip by mistake. A travel QR that has been used will not scan a second time.
What the two limits mean
The storage limit is how many profiles can sit in Settings, including ones you have switched off. The active limit is how many can register at the same time. That is often one plastic SIM plus one eSIM, or two eSIMs on phones with no tray. DSDS, the standby behaviour, applies to the active lines, not to the switched-off library. Do not treat a forum number as your phone’s number. Models from the iPhone XS onwards can use eSIM, and later models can do more at once. A Settings screen that offers Add eSIM is the practical test that this phone can take a travel profile. If that menu is missing, the storage question does not arise. The compatibility page is the place to start.
Making room without losing the trip you are on
Deleting is not the same as switching off
Switch off a line you might need again. Delete only a profile you are finished with. A used travel QR often will not install a second time, so a tidy-up at the airport can strand you.
Switch off profiles from old trips first. An off profile does not register and gets no signal icon. If you are at the storage limit and must delete, delete a finished trip. Do not delete the plan whose dates still cover today. Most travel profiles are tied to one install. Removing one to free a slot does not give you a fresh QR. A home network’s eSIM and a travel eSIM count separately against the same phone limits. Moving the home line to a plastic SIM, where the phone still has a tray, can free an active eSIM slot. That is a job for your home network. The travel plan cannot do it for you. Ask your home network before you erase their profile.
The eighth profile
Amira’s phone refuses another add at the start of a new trip. Settings shows a list of old city plans. All are stored, and none is the data line. She turns the oldest off to check she does not need it. Then she removes that one finished profile and adds the new plan. She does not remove the plan she installed yesterday. Her active pair is still the home line and the new trip.
A library, and a live pair
Final Thoughts
Look up your model’s stored and active limits, and switch old trips off before you delete anything.
Read next: the compatibility check, the install steps, the main guide in this series.
Check this phone can add a profile
Storage numbers only matter once the phone shows an Add eSIM option. If the menu is missing, you cannot install a travel plan.
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