How to Install a China eSIM on Google Pixel
Add a China eSIM to your Pixel before departure: the Settings path, the per-SIM roaming switch, and why the install has to happen before the flight.
Updated August 24, 2026
Nothing about a Pixel makes the installation hard. What makes a Pixel trip to China unusual is how much of the phone assumes Google is reachable — and on a local Chinese connection, it is not. Land unprepared and the situation stacks: Google Play will not load to fetch the app you meant to download, and the services the phone leans on follow the local network’s rules rather than yours. The airport counter’s alternative is a local SIM sold under real-name registration, which means a passport, a form and a queue.
An eSIM turns all of that into something you do at home on a Tuesday evening. Buy the plan in the China eSIM app, install the line over your own Wi-Fi, leave it switched off, and arrive with one toggle between you and a working phone. Because the line is a roaming line, its data routes through an international network — the way roaming has always worked — so maps, mail, messaging and the rest of the phone’s Google plumbing carry on as they do at home, with no VPN to set up. There is no penalty for installing early: the plan counts from its first connection in mainland China, not from the moment of purchase. Prices sit on the pricing page, and the rest of what we get asked is on the FAQ.
The Pixel path is Settings, Network & internet, SIMs, then Download a SIM instead. Two details are worth reading twice. Google’s wording — Download a SIM instead — sounds like a fallback and is in fact the option you want, sitting one screen behind an offer to search for carrier plans. And the Roaming switch on a Pixel is per SIM, so you can leave it on for the travel line and off for your home line, which is precisely the arrangement you want here. Other phones are covered on the iPhone and Samsung pages, or the general Android one if yours is neither.
Now the two things we will not soften. The plan is data-only, so it gives you no Chinese phone number; your own number keeps working on your own SIM, and only the occasional local app that demands a +86 number will notice the difference. And coverage in China follows the towers: excellent in the cities, along the high-speed rail corridors and in most towns, thin to absent on the high plateau of the far west and across the desert stretches. A different SIM would not move them. Download offline maps before heading out there and you will barely notice; drive in expecting full bars and you will.
Installation steps
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Step 1
Buy the plan in the China eSIM app
Choose your plan and pay. The QR code and manual activation details are filed under the order and stay there, so you can come back if the first install does not take.
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Step 2
Install at home, on Wi-Fi — this one is not optional
A Pixel leans on Google services for nearly everything, and on a Chinese local connection Google Play is effectively unreachable. Whatever is not installed and updated before the flight stays that way, the eSIM included. Doing it early loses you nothing: the plan begins counting at its first connection in mainland China, not at purchase.
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Step 3
Open Settings, then Network & internet
Pixels run close to stock Android, so the path is short and has held steady across recent releases. If your build words it differently, type SIM into the Settings search box.
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Step 4
Tap SIMs, or the plus icon beside it
With a physical SIM in use the entry reads SIMs with a small plus next to it. On a Pixel carrying no SIM you may instead see a direct invitation to add one. Both reach the same screen.
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Step 5
Pick Download a SIM instead, then scan
Android first offers to look for a carrier plan; skip that and choose Download a SIM instead, Google's wording for the option that accepts a provider QR code. Hold the Pixel over the code on another screen, or tap Need help for manual entry and copy the SM-DP+ address and activation code.
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Step 6
Name the line, then switch it off
The Pixel downloads the profile and asks you to confirm. Label it China so the dual-SIM screens make sense at three in the morning, keep your home SIM as the default for calls, and disable the new line until you arrive.
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Step 7
After landing, enable it and make it the data SIM
Open Settings, Network & internet, SIMs, select the China line and switch it on, then set Mobile data to that line. Your usual number stays active on its own SIM for calls and texts.
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Step 8
Turn Roaming on for the China line only
With the China line open, switch Roaming on. Android keeps this toggle per SIM, which is exactly what you want here: it grants this line permission to attach to a visited network — and roaming is the arrangement that routes the data internationally and keeps your apps behaving as they do at home. Confirm your home SIM still has its roaming switch off.
Troubleshooting
Which Pixels take an eSIM?
Pixel 3 and everything after it, broadly, with regional exceptions — a handful of variants sold into particular markets shipped without the hardware. Rather than trust a list, dial *#06# on the phone you are holding: an EID beside the IMEI means the hardware is there.
Will Google services and my other apps work on a Pixel in China?
On this eSIM they work the way they do when you roam anywhere: the line's data routes through an international network, so the phone's apps — a Pixel's Google-dependent core included — behave as they do at home, with no VPN to set up. That is the factual property of a roaming line, not a guarantee about any individual service. The same is not true of local Wi-Fi, which follows local network rules; when an app stalls on hotel Wi-Fi, switch Wi-Fi off and let the eSIM carry it.
Do I get a Chinese phone number with the plan?
No. This is a data-only plan, so no +86 number comes with it and none can be attached. Your own number stays on your own SIM and remains reachable. Most services a visitor uses accept a foreign number; the few local apps that insist on a +86 number are the one thing a data eSIM cannot help with.
I cannot find Download a SIM instead.
Make sure you are in Settings, Network & internet, SIMs and not inside a carrier app. If the option really is absent while *#06# does show an EID, the Pixel is probably carrier-locked — operator handsets sometimes restrict which profiles they accept. That is a much easier phone call to make before you fly.
I have landed and the eSIM has no signal.
Check in order that the line is enabled under SIMs, selected for mobile data, and has Roaming on. Then toggle Airplane mode to force a fresh search. If it stays blank, open the line's network settings, switch off automatic selection, pick a network by hand, and put selection back to automatic once it registers.
Can I share the connection with a laptop?
Yes, hotspot is included. Turn it on under Network & internet, Hotspot & tethering. Anything connected through the hotspot rides the same international route as the phone, which makes it the practical answer for a hotel room and a colleague's laptop at the same time.