Under 200 rupees is the busiest shelf in Indian prepaid, and the easiest one to get wrong. The plans look nearly identical and the differences that matter are the ones printed smallest.
What the budget typically buys
At this price you are generally looking at somewhere around 1 to 1.5 GB per day, a validity in the region of three to four weeks, and unlimited voice calls.
That last one is worth saying plainly: unlimited calling is standard now. Jio, Airtel, Vi and BSNL all include it on nearly every prepaid plan. A plan advertising unlimited calls as though it were a feature is not offering you anything the others do not.
So calls are not the differentiator. Data and validity are.
Who this shelf actually suits
Sub-200 works well if you mostly message, call, browse and watch a moderate amount of video. It works badly if you stream in high definition daily, tether a laptop, or take long video calls — you will run dry partway through and end up buying add-ons, which pushes your real monthly spend above the next tier up anyway.
The honest test is not what you think you use. It is what your operator's app says you used last month. Check it before you choose.
The trap: comparing on price alone
Two plans on this shelf can differ by 10 rupees and by a full week of validity. The cheaper one is often the worse deal, because the number that decides value is price divided by validity, not price.
We wrote about that arithmetic in how cost per day works.
Where the extra rupees actually go
Moving up a tier usually buys validity rather than data. If you find yourself recharging every four weeks, the tier above may cover eight weeks for less than two of your current recharges. That is the single most common saving available on this shelf, and almost nobody takes it.
The figures here describe the shape of the shelf, not today's prices. For what is actually available right now, see all plans.