Pricele #54: Mobile data (1 GB) in Hungary 🇭🇺
The puzzle for 23 August 2026 asked what a gigabyte of mobile data costs in Hungary. Here is the answer and the context behind it.
The answer
Mobile data (1 GB) · Hungary
$1.71
About 12 minutes of the average local wage buys a gigabyte of mobile data.
More expensive than 67% of the 49 countries in the game.
Source: Cable.co.uk worldwide mobile data pricing, 2023.
About mobile data
The only price in the game that has collapsed rather than risen: the world average fell from $8.18 a gigabyte in 2019 to $2.61 four years later. Countries that built dense 4G networks early and then let operators fight over them are pennies a gigabyte; countries running data over satellite or through a single incumbent are still tens of dollars. Rich and cheap are almost unrelated here, which is what makes it hard to guess.
Where Hungary sits
Of the 49 countries priced for mobile data, Hungary ranks #17 from the top at $1.71, 2.7× the median of $0.63.
Hungary charges 27% VAT, the highest standard rate in the world, and that single fact explains more about Hungarian prices than anything else in this note. Food falls to 18% for milk, dairy and cereal products and to 5% for a few others, but the gap between the headline rate and what a shopper actually pays is smaller here than almost anywhere. Pulling the other way, household energy is heavily regulated: the long-running utility price cap holds electricity and gas well below what the market would charge, so those rows look out of step with the rest of the country's prices.
| Nearby on the mobile data table | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | $1.50 | — | 5 min |
| Netherlands | $1.61 | — | 5 min |
| Hungary | $1.71 | — | 12 min |
| Portugal | $1.79 | — | 12 min |
| South Africa | $1.81 | — | 24 min |
What else costs what in Hungary
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $4.99 | 1,660 HUF | 35 min |
| Diesel (1 litre) | $2.09 | 659 HUF | 15 min |
| Electricity (100 kWh) | $12.30 | 3,895 HUF | 86 min |
| Natural gas (100 kWh) | $9.60 | 3,042.4 HUF | 67 min |
| Cigarettes (20-pack) | $6.29 | 2,300 HUF | 44 min |
| Beer (330ml) | $0.58 | 210.54 HUF | 4 min |
| Spirits (750ml bottle) | $10.11 | 3,696 HUF | 71 min |
| A day's healthy diet | $2.92 | 1,031.79 HUF | 20 min |
Go deeper
See the full table for mobile data in every country or everything priced in Hungary.