Silent.link

Silent.link is the canonical no-KYC eSIM provider — global mobile data in 160+ countries, optional real US +1 or UK +44 phone number for SMS-receive (OTP / registration), pay-as-you-go pricing with no data limits, no email at signup, and crypto-only payment (BTC, Lightning, XMR, USDT, altcoins). Listed at Grade A · editor's pick because it is the most polished eSIM operator in the no-KYC space — actual phone numbers when you want them, actual global data when you don't, and an operational track record that GrapheneOS officially recommends.

Background. Silent.link operates out of the European Union with Internet gateways in Poland (per their public FAQ). The exact corporate identity behind the operator isn't publicly named, but the service has been live since 2021 and has accumulated a strong reputation across the privacy + GrapheneOS communities over four-plus years of continuous operation. Coverage is delivered through commercial roaming agreements that work seamlessly across the 160+ supported countries — including China, Mexico, and other locations where the user might want a non-local SIM identity. Tor onion mirror operator-published at silentlnit5ryavvfz5vw7s4qg62jujd666lnc4tg2chj64zuwuqtvqd.onion.

What you trust. Account-level: there is no account. No email, no username, no password, no signup form. When you pay, you receive a personal order-page URL — bookmark or save it; that URL *is* your account. Lose it, lose access. Top-ups and number renewals happen via the same URL. Payment leaves a crypto-payment trail (BTC, Lightning, XMR, USDT, etc.) but no identity link beyond what you choose to leak via the funding source. Operator-side: Silent.link's FAQ commits to "no user data whatsoever" gathered, but operators of any mobile data service necessarily see the underlying carrier-level metadata (cell IDs, IMSI, time-of-use) at the time of session — there's no way around this at the protocol level. The trust ask is: trust that Silent.link is not retaining or correlating that metadata after the session ends. No public audit of this claim exists.

Operational specs. Two plan tiers visible at the time of this review: DATA.PLUS — data-only eSIM, 5G/LTE, no phone number, one-off purchase, top-up as you go. US.PLUS (and equivalent UK plan) — data + a real US +1 or UK +44 phone number that receives SMS (one-year lease, renewable), incoming voice is allowed for voice-call-activation flows, outbound SMS is blocked (anti-spam policy), no legacy GSM voice (use VoIP apps for outbound voice). Hotspot tethering enabled on all plans. Data rates: ~$1.50/GB across most of Europe and the USA. Funds never expire. Tor onion mirror works. Plans are paid in crypto (BTC + Lightning native, XMR/USDT/altcoins via the "Altcoins" route).

Philosophy. Silent.link's editorial differentiator is the "URL is your account" architecture. By eliminating the signup form entirely — no email, no password, no recovery — Silent.link removes the most common KYC-leak vector for "anonymous" services (the recovery email that gets used for one other thing and becomes your identity link). The trade-off: bookmark discipline becomes the security model. Lose the URL, lose the eSIM. The architectural choice signals editorial seriousness: they're choosing to reduce their own data-collection surface to the absolute minimum even though it makes recovery harder for users. Compared to operators that ask for email-only or phone-number-only signup, that's a meaningfully smaller KYC surface.

Grade rationale. Grade A and editor's pick reflect: zero-account architecture (no email, no signup form, URL-as-credential); crypto-only payment including XMR; 160+ country coverage with no roaming surcharge games; real US/UK phone numbers when you need OTP-receive; ~$1.50/GB pricing that's competitive with regular travel eSIMs while adding the privacy properties; Tor onion mirror; four-plus years of operational continuity; GrapheneOS endorsement; absence of any reliability, coverage, or refund-dispute complaints in the last 12 months. Last verified 2026-05-13.

Useful when. You're travelling and don't want to hand your passport to a local SIM seller. You want a US or UK phone number for OTP receipt on services that won't accept VoIP or international numbers. You're on GrapheneOS or another privacy-focused mobile setup and want a SIM that matches the operating system's posture. You're holding XMR and want to spend it on mobile connectivity without converting first. You want a permanent data eSIM that doesn't expire if you go three months without using it. You need hotspot tethering for a laptop while travelling and don't want to trust hotel Wi-Fi.

Caveats. URL-is-your-account is brittle — lose the order-page URL and there's no recovery flow; treat the URL like a private key, store it in a password manager or paper backup. Phone-number lease is one year — renew via the order page before expiry, or the number gets reused and you keep only the data plan. Outbound SMS is blocked — Silent.link allows SMS-receive (perfect for OTPs and signup verification) but you cannot send SMS from your Silent.link number; use Signal / SimpleX / messengers for outbound. No legacy voice — outbound voice calls only work via VoIP apps (WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, etc.); the SIM does support incoming voice calls for service-activation flows (some banks/services require a callback during signup). Operator identity is not publicly named — fine for most threat models, relevant for users who need to know who they're trusting at a legal-entity level. Stock can be intermittent — Silent.link occasionally shows "sold out" between batches of eSIM provisioning; check the homepage or follow @silentlinkapp on X for restock alerts. Poland-based gateway — your traffic exits via Poland-based infrastructure; that's an EU jurisdiction with its own legal regime, generally privacy-friendly but factor it into your threat model if jurisdiction matters. Some carrier bans — some networks (notably US tier-1 carriers in certain conditions) have been known to flag roaming-eSIM traffic; failure modes are rare but not impossible.