US phone plans · interactive calculator
Phone Switch Cost Calculator: Plans, Devices and Fees
The phone switch cost calculator loads a published plan and price, then adds only the personal costs the snapshot cannot know. It expands your stay into billing events and keeps missing taxes, device balances or home costs visibly missing. Personal inputs stay in this browser.
Data version 2026-11-01.3, model cost-model-1.1.0. Published prices read on October 26, 2026. Not a carrier quote.
Build a dated cash-flow estimate
Dataset 2026-11-01.3Pick a real published quote, then add only the personal amounts the dataset does not know. Official, user input and unverified rows stay separate. No personal value is written to the URL or sent to a server.
Personal costs and eligibility
Start date and stay length are user inputs. The plan prices are from the snapshot named above.
Your estimate
Partial input estimateSimplicity Plan · 1 line · November 1, 2026 to November 1, 2027 (exclusive) · 12 months
Known cash subtotal
$540.00
Missing items are listed below
Average per month
Not given
No average for a partial total
Service after promotion
$45.00
Monthly service only, not the all-in bill
Price conditions
- AutoPay: unknown. The selected price requires AutoPay; AutoPay is not specified.
- paperless billing: unknown. Paperless billing is required by this price and has not been confirmed.
Missing or unverified, so the total is partial
- The selected price requires AutoPay; AutoPay is not specified.
- Paperless billing is required by this price and has not been confirmed.
- Monthly taxes and fees were not provided; the total is partial.
- Activation or one-time fees were not provided.
Assumptions
- No separate home-internet bill is included.
Promotions applied
None. No unverified promotion is applied automatically.
Promotions not applied
- vz-simplicity-switch-15Requires a switch from another carrier; this scenario uses a new number. Requires a new customer. Requires AutoPay. The promotion start date is not stated; the promotion terms have not been confirmed. Promotions were not selected for this calculation.
Billing events
| Date | Period | Component | Description | Gross | Net | Provenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-11-01 | 1 | service | Plan service, billing period 1 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
| 2026-12-01 | 2 | service | Plan service, billing period 2 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
| 2027-01-01 | 3 | service | Plan service, billing period 3 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
| 2027-02-01 | 4 | service | Plan service, billing period 4 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
| 2027-03-01 | 5 | service | Plan service, billing period 5 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
| 2027-04-01 | 6 | service | Plan service, billing period 6 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
| 2027-05-01 | 7 | service | Plan service, billing period 7 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
| 2027-06-01 | 8 | service | Plan service, billing period 8 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
| 2027-07-01 | 9 | service | Plan service, billing period 9 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
| 2027-08-01 | 10 | service | Plan service, billing period 10 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
| 2027-09-01 | 11 | service | Plan service, billing period 11 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
| 2027-10-01 | 12 | service | Plan service, billing period 12 ($45/month per line with AutoPay and paper-free billing; base $55 without AutoPay) | $45.00 | $45.00 | Official |
This is an estimate built from the named data version and the inputs above. It is not a carrier quote, an approval, or a promise that a plan can be opened. Taxes, device settlement and eligibility can change the final bill.
Compare with a second plan
B reuses A's stay, line count, personal costs, device settlement and eligibility answers. This is a like-for-like plan swap, not an independent BYOD-versus-new-device comparison. A difference is shown only when both estimates are complete, share the same tax basis and have the same scope.
What is prefilled, and what is yours
The calculator loads a public plan ID, price ID and dataset version. The published service price, first period, AutoPay condition, tax treatment and promotion terms come from that record. Your start date, stay length, taxes, device payments, exit balance, one-time fees and home-internet cost stay in this browser session. They are not written into the URL, a log or a third-party request.
| Field | Where it comes from | What the result does with it |
|---|---|---|
| Plan and monthly price | Official carrier page, with a checked date and source ID | Creates one service event per billed period |
| AutoPay or discount | A separate price condition, never assumed | Uses the conditional price only when you confirm the condition |
| Promotion | Promotion record with eligibility and a known end period | Applies only if its conditions match and its duration is verified |
| Taxes and fees | Carrier label says included, excluded or unverified | Blank stays missing, never zero |
| Device | Your financing or purchase amounts | Counts installments paid plus the exit balance, not the full price again |
| Home internet | Included, not needed, or your separate estimate | Adds no invented saving and no duplicate mobile line |
Billing periods, not “months times a price”
A stay is a calendar interval: start date included, end date excluded. A monthly plan is charged on its anchor day, with a month-end clamp that returns to the original day in a later month. A 28-day plan is charged every 28 days, not twelve times a year. An annual upfront charge is not prorated just because the stay is shorter. That is why the calculator can show a different number of charges from the number of calendar months, and why it refuses to average a partial total.
The same engine uses a ledger. Each service charge, promotion credit, tax, fee, device payment, exit amount and home-internet charge is one event with a date, a component, a gross amount, a net amount and provenance. A promotion is applied once per eligible period. A device payment plan is not counted as a full device price plus installments plus a remaining balance.
A fictional $755 teaching example
This example is labeled fictional on purpose. It tests the arithmetic, not a carrier. Twelve monthly service charges of $60 are $720. A $10 credit on each of the first six charges removes $60, leaving $660 for service. Twelve monthly taxes of $5 add $60. A one-time activation charge of $35 brings the total to $755. The average is $62.92 per month, calculated from $755 over 12 months. No real plan is attached to it, and it is not a quote.
Teaching example: $755 over 12 months
Fictional, not a carrier quote| Service | 12 × $60 = $720 |
|---|---|
| Promotion | 6 × $10 = -$60 |
| Service after promotion | $660 |
| Additional tax | 12 × $5 = $60 |
| Activation | $35 |
| Device | $0 |
| Total | $755 |
| Average per month | $62.92 |
The live calculator can load this example. Its result keeps the same label after you edit a field; editing one line does not turn a fictional price into an official one.
What the result will not do
- It will not turn an unverified tax into zero. A blank tax field produces a partial estimate with the known subtotal.
- It will not call a partial estimate the cheapest plan or compute a winner against a complete estimate.
- It will not approve an account, collect an SSN, check an IMEI, or promise that a carrier will open the line.
- It will not add a bundle's included mobile line again as a separate full charge.
- It will not apply an advertised device credit total as if you received all of it during a shorter stay.
How to use the result
Start with the known subtotal and the missing list. If taxes are blank, enter your own monthly estimate and the row becomes a user estimate, not an official price. Change the stay length and the billing events are rebuilt. Change the device plan and the exit balance must be confirmed again. The copy and download actions include the dataset and model versions, the plan and price IDs, the period, assumptions, personal edits and missing items.
To choose a plan first, use the phone plan comparison. For the reference explanations behind the fields, read Verizon BYOD versus a new phone, Verizon One for an apartment and switch to Verizon with an existing number.
Data and method
The public snapshot contains 11 plans and 23 price records from 6 brands. The calculator reads the same version as the comparison page. If a link names a different dataset version, the calculator refuses to mix it with the current prices and asks you to select the offer again.
The teaching example returns 755 dollars over 12 months. It is arithmetic from the fictional inputs above. The formal calculator rows use the named carrier records only.