How to install an eSIM on your iPhone, safely.
Use this guide when you have an eSIM QR code or install link and want to add it without disturbing your current number. We cover the install, the labels to choose, and the data setting to change when you switch which line carries data.
You've already got a line. We're not touching it.
Right now your phone has a line that carries your number: your calls, your texts, mobile data, the codes your bank sends. That line might be a physical SIM, the little plastic card that slots into the tray. It might already be an eSIM, set up inside the phone with no card at all; newer US iPhones come that way.
The eSIM you're about to install doesn't touch any of that. Your existing line keeps doing what it has always done. The install really does two things. It adds a second line to the phone, from whichever carrier you bought the eSIM from (it doesn't have to be your existing provider). And it changes a few settings so the phone knows which line to use for what (calls, texts, data). What that second line is for is up to you: a local plan for a trip, a separate domestic number, or a data-only plan. The install and the settings are the same in every case.
What you do have to do is get a handful of settings right the first time you install. This is a one-time setup. Once the lines are labelled (and Data Roaming is on, if it is a travel line), you don't touch any of this again. On a trip, or any time you want the other line to carry data, the move is one path: Settings → Cellular (Mobile Data) → Cellular Data (Mobile Data), then tap the line you want.
Install: two ways onto the phone
eSIM Copilot emails you the eSIM. That email holds two things: a QR code and a one-tap install button. Which one you use comes down to a single question. Are you reading the email on the iPhone that is getting the eSIM, or on another screen?
Way 01 · Tap the button
Email open on the iPhone itself
Tap the install button in the eSIM Copilot email. iOS opens cellular setup and fills in the plan for you, handling the first four steps below on its own. You pick up at step 05, labelling the line.
Way 02 · Scan the QR
Email open on another screen
If the email is on a laptop or a second phone, use the QR code in it. You scan that from the iPhone's cellular settings, the full path in the carousel below.
Swipe through the install
Tap Cellular
Open Settings, tap Cellular.
On some regions this is "Mobile Service" instead of "Cellular". Same thing.
SIMs
Tap Add eSIM
Tap "Add eSIM".
Sits at the top of the Cellular page on iOS 17 and newer.
Choose how to add your new eSIM.
Tap Use QR Code
Choose "Use QR Code".
Use the QR code from your eSIM Copilot email. Not Transfer, not manual entry.
Centre your QR in the frame
Phone reads it automatically
Scan the QR.
Centre it in the viewfinder. iPhone reads it and shows the plan name.
Give this line a name you'll recognise.
Label the line.
Name it "eSIM Copilot" so you can spot it next to your home line. You can rename it later.
Cellular Data
Default Voice Line
Pick defaults.
Keep your home line for calls and texts. Pick the eSIM Copilot line for data when you need it.
Required for travel eSIMs
Turn on Data Roaming.
Cellular → tap your new eSIM → Data Roaming → On. Required for travel eSIMs to connect abroad.
Swipe for the next step
That's the install finished. The phone doesn't restart, and there's no waiting around. You now have a second line under Settings → Cellular (Mobile Data), and it sits idle until you switch data to it.
After: two lines, one phone
When you add an eSIM you don't replace anything. You go from one line to two, both running at the same time, on one device. Apple calls this Dual SIM. It has been there since 2018.
One detail worth getting straight, because almost nobody does on the first try: the two lines don't work the same way. Voice and texts work on both at the same time. Cellular data does not. Only one line carries data at any one moment. And a data-only eSIM, which plenty of travel plans are, has no phone number of its own, so calls and texts never run over it at all.
Calls
Both lines, always
When the eSIM has its own number, either line can ring, and you set a default for outbound calls. A data-only eSIM has no number, so it makes no calls.
SMS / 2FA
Both lines, always
When the eSIM has its own number, texts to either number reach you, all in the same Messages app. A data-only eSIM has no number, so no texts arrive on it.
Mobile data
One line at a time
Only one line is the cellular-data line at any moment. This is the one you switch when you want the other line online.
That last column is the whole reason this article exists. Whatever kind of eSIM you installed, the one thing you actively switch afterwards is the data line, and that is the section below.
Using it: switching the data line
This is the section that matters. The install was done earlier, somewhere quiet, probably on Wi-Fi. What you actually do later is flip the data line over to the eSIM. For most people that moment is a trip, at the airport when you land or on the plane before takeoff. It is the same three taps whenever you want the other line carrying data, travel or not.
Step 01
Switch your data line.
Settings → Cellular (Mobile Data) → Cellular Data (Mobile Data)
Tap Cellular Data, then tap the eSIM. From this moment on, anything your phone fetches (maps, Slack, Instagram, the boarding-pass refresh) goes over that plan. On a trip, that means the local plan rather than international roaming on your home carrier.
Step 02
Leave Default Voice Line on your home number.
Settings → Cellular (Mobile Data) → Default Voice Line
Do not change this. Your home number stays the one that rings, the one your bank's SMS codes land on, the one your family reaches. Calls cost very little; data is the expensive bit, and that is what you have moved.
Step 03
Done with it? Switch back.
Settings → Cellular (Mobile Data) → Cellular Data (Mobile Data)
Tap Cellular Data, tap your home SIM. The eSIM goes back to being dormant. If it was a single-use plan it expires on its own; if it was a longer subscription it is there whenever you need it next.
That is the whole loop. Install once in about ninety seconds, flip the data line to the eSIM when you want it carrying data, flip it back when you are done. On a trip that is the moment you land and the moment you leave. The phone does the rest.
Common worries
Will I lose my phone number?
No. The eSIM is an addition, not a replacement. Your number lives on your physical SIM (or your existing eSIM if your iPhone is already eSIM-only), and it stays exactly where it is.
What if I'm halfway through and something goes wrong?
If the QR scan fails, iPhone tells you. It doesn't half-install. If the download stalls, you start over. There is no broken state to recover from.
Will it eat my battery?
A second line running in standby uses a tiny bit of extra battery, in the same range as having Bluetooth on. If you're worried, you can turn the eSIM off when you're not using it: Settings → Cellular (Mobile Data) → tap the line → Turn On This Line.
Can I delete it later?
Yes. Settings → Cellular (Mobile Data) → tap the eSIM line → Delete eSIM. It's gone. Your phone is back to where it was.
Do I need to be online to install it?
Yes, briefly. iPhone downloads the profile over Wi-Fi or your existing cellular connection. The carrier hands the profile over, and after that the eSIM works on its own. Most people install on hotel Wi-Fi the night before a trip.
If you're managing eSIMs for a team, not just yourself
The flow above is for one person installing one eSIM. If you're an IT lead handing eSIMs to thirty employees who are about to travel, the QR-code-by-email approach scales badly. Lost emails, forwarded QRs, someone installing the wrong plan on the wrong device. This is the bit that eSIM Copilot exists for: provision once, push to the employee's iPhone via Slack or Teams, and stop company mobile access when the trip or role ends.
Get started
Pushing eSIMs to a team, not just one phone?
See how eSIM Copilot handles employee eSIMs end to end: central provisioning, install via Slack or Teams, visibility while the plan is active, and access control when the trip or role ends.
Related
Tested on iOS 17 and iOS 18, May 2026. Menu paths can drift one tap either way between minor releases; the underlying flow has been stable since iOS 12.4.