How much does it cost to add cellular data to my ipad

Tap on Settings > Cellular, when offered tap on the add-a-plan option, tap through the intentionally-confusing list of plans and options offered by the carriers purporting to offer service in your region, and see.

Different plans offer different prices, different durations, and different data caps, even for the same vendor.

Most carriers offer both auto-renewing plans, and one-shot plans.

If you have an existing iPhone plan, that vendor may offer you an add-on plan for the iPad.

The cellular vendors have seemingly intentionally created a confusing and price-obfuscating market, yes.

T-Mobile tends to be one of the cheaper options in this particular region, for one-shot, non-renewing iPad plans. What else might be an option in your region? Locally, T-Mobile was offering USD$15 (plus taxes and fees, etc) for three months and with a decent data cap, IIRC.

But at some point in this adventures-in-cellular “fun”, the cost of my time and effort and frustration poking around gets to be more expensive than the cost of buying something mostly-cheap and mostly-works.

“How long is a piece of string…”.

Depending upon your iPad model - and the region in which you are - you can add a cellular data plan to a Cellular model iPad in one of two ways:

1) Add a cellular plan directly from the iPad. These plans are typically intended for short-term use - for example, when travelling outside of your home country/state/region.

Set up mobile data service on your Wi-Fi + Cellular model iPad – Apple Support

2) Add a cellular plan from Cellular Operator of your choice. You will often sign an agreement for a minimum period, the cost being proportional to the amount of data that you require for each billing period - beyond which you will either pay a surcharge or have no service. Cellular service is provisioned either through installing a physical DataSIM card - or through set-up of the embedded eSIM within your iPad.

If you're talking about a new cellular data plan, contact your preferred mobile/cellular carrier and ask them.

If you mean something different, please clarify your needs.

Thanks and regards

Giulio