Does Mint Mobile work in Canada or are you out of luck?

Historically prepaid carriers haven’t offered some of the extra benefits found on postpaid plans from the big carriers including international roaming features. Thankfully this has changed in recent years and we’re slowly starting to see more prepaid options that offer international service either as an add-on or as a free perk. Mint Mobile is one of the carriers with basic international support but does Mint Mobile work in Canada? The short answer is yes.

The long answer is also yes, but there are a few small issues that sometimes trip people up which we’ll explain how to fix so you can fully enjoy this feature. 

Don’t have Mint Mobile but interested in giving it a chance? Right now is a great time to sign up. You even have the option of a free 7-day trial. Need a new device? Right now Mint Mobile is offering the Pixel 9 with a year of free service for just $399. This is beyond a crazy good deal! 

Mint Mobile includes free roaming in Canada for all its plans

Mint Mobile recently rolled out its Free Canada Roaming feature in July of 2024. This new feature is included with all Mint Mobile plans at no extra cost. Regardless of your specific Mint Mobile plan, you’ll get 3GB of monthly high-speed data specifically for use in Canada, which means it doesn’t count against your existing data allotment. As you’d expect, you also get unlimited talk and text.

Find yourself in Canada and want to carefully monitor your usage to ensure you don’t run out of data? Mint mobile makes it easy. Just go to your account at my.mintmobile.com and find the Add Ons sidebar, then select Free Canda Roaming. You’ll see a graph showing how much data you currently have. You’ll also have the option to buy extra data.

How much does additional Mint Mobile data cost while in Canada?

If you use up your 3GB of allotted data you’ll have the opportunity to buy one of the following data packages:

• 1GB for $5
• 3GB for $10
• 10GB for $20

Be aware you can’t add more data until you have used at least 80% of the existing Canadian roaming data. Data add-ons also expire at the end of the month, regardless of whether or not you’ve fully used them up or not.

While Mint Mobile’s Free Canada Roaming feature is a great addition, it doesn’t take long to find people on Reddit disgruntled by the fact they can’t get data to work. For some of these calling and text typically seem to work perfectly, however. So what’s the problem? While some users will run into zero issues with getting data working in Canada, if you run into a problem odds are there are two possible reasons.

First, it’s very possible your phone doesn’t have roaming data enabled by default. The exact instructions will vary depending on the device.

For iPhone users: For iPhone users, you’ll want to go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options and tap the slider next to Data Roaming. 

For Galaxy users: For Galaxy users, you’ll want to go to Settings > Connections > Mobile Networks and tap the Data Roaming switch to on. 

For Pixel users: For Pixel users you’ll want to go to Settings > Network & Internet > SIMs > Mint Mobile and then tap the Roaming switch to turn it on. 

Have a different brand of Android device than Samsung or Google? There’s a strong chance your phone will use the same general steps as Google’s Pixel, so it’s worth checking. otherwise, you’ll want to look up your specific device for instructions. 

Data roaming is already turned on and yet you are still having a problem?

If you have an Android device you might need to manually enter the correct AP settings. This isn’t a common problem as your phone should already be properly configured to Mint Mobile before you arrive in Canada, but it could fix the problem if it’s having issues after landing.

The exact steps may vary depending on your phone but the easiest thing to do is to type Access Point Names into the Settings search bar. From there you’ll see Mint Mobile listed as one of the options and there should be some kind of plus button or other toggle that lets you manually add the APN settings.

You should see a list of settings that includes the name, APN, Proxy, Port, and more. Here’s exactly what you should input manually for each field:

• Name – Mint
• APN – Wholesale
• Proxy – (leave blank)
• Port – (leave blank)
• Username – (leave blank)
• Password – (leave blank)
• Server – (leave blank)
• MMSC – http://wholesale.mmsmvno.com/mms/wapenc
• Multimedia Message Proxy – (leave blank)
• Multimedia Message Port – 8080
• MCC – (do not change default values)
• MNC – (do not change default values)
• Authentication Type – (leave blank)
• APN Type – default,supl,mms,is
• APN Protocol – IPv4/IPv6
• APN Roaming Protocol – IPv4/IPv6
• MVNO type: GID
• MVNO value: 756D