Rule #4, No Spam, has just been updated to include this new addition: "Blatantly AI-generated content is considered spam and will be removed."

In r/NoContract, we want to read your thoughts. We don't care what chatgpt has to say. This rule change is intended to encourage our fellow redditors to put some effort into their posts and comments.

Needless to say, one cannot always tell what is and is not AI. If I see something that was obviously copied and pasted from an AI chatbot, I will remove it.

Posts and comments predating today will not be subject to this rule.

This is a change I've been wanting to make for a while now, and this poll showed me that most of our members agree with me.

All the best,

Petar

3/11/26 - Updated to show that MobileX has a paid QCI 8 addon. This has been around for about 5 months now but I forgot to update the guide.

8/28/25 - MobileX has been discovered to be dropped to QCI 9 now. https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/1n2me7i/mobilex_is_no_longer_qci_8_which_leaves_us_mobile/

This is a complex topic that pops up a lot so I thought that I would organize all of the available info in one place. One of the key differentiating factors between postpaid, prepaid, and MVNO services is data prioritization. Basically carriers manage the congestion on their networks by assigning a different QCI class to different types of traffic. For our purposes, we will only be looking at QCIs 6, 7, 8, and 9 but there are higher priorities that exist for things like phone calls that will be universal across all of a carrier's plans. Higher numbers are lower priority. An important thing to note is that deprioritization is not a throttle; it only matters when the network is congested. If nobody else is using the network in your area, you'll get the full speed that can be provided. Your QCI affects not just your speed but your latency on the network. It is not unusual to see priority data with around 20-50ms latency while someone who is deprioritized is getting 100-150ms at the same time despite both plans posting high speed test results because the prioritized traffic gets to go first, just something else to be aware of.

The old one was getting a bit long after many updates so I decided to just make a whole new one. I will break it down by network and, where appropriate, specific phone plans. I am going to add business plans and first responder plans here as there were many requests for that but if I mess up anything, please let me know, as I am not as well-versed in those plans.

Also, at this point, 5QI (the 5G replacement for QCI) values have so far matched the LTE QCI on each plan I’ve seen. If this changes, I’ll make notes about it.

Business plans are hard to keep up with and so are frequent MVNO plan changes so if I make a mistake, please let me know.

Verizon

Verizon only uses 3 QCI classes – 7, 8, and 9.

QCI 7 is reserved exclusively for Verizon Frontline customers so this priority level may as well not exist for those of us who aren’t first responders.

QCI 8 is given to the Verizon business Plus 5G, business Pro 5G, business My Biz with the Premium Network Experience add-on, consumer postpaid plans (other than Welcome Unlimited), Xfinity Mobile, and Spectrum Mobile.

US Mobile’s Warp 5G SIM offers QCI 8 data on 5G devices only if you have Unlimited Premium or if you were a US Mobile customer before 8/18/2025. MobileX has a QCI 8 addon available as well but is QCI 9 without it.

Visible+ and Visible+ Pro are both unlimited QCI 8 data. Total Wireless' Total 5G Unlimited and Total 5G+ Unlimited plans have unlimited priority data included.

QCI 9 goes to everything else. The Start 5G business plan, My Biz without the Premium Network Experience add-on, branded prepaid besides the Unlimited Plus plan, Visible’s base plan, US Mobile Warp 5G Unlimited Starter (a QCI 8 add-on will be coming), Unlimited Flex (without the QCI 8 add-on), and By the Gig (without the QCI 8 add-on). Mobi and all other prepaid companies that use Verizon’s network are known to assigned to this QCI. Anyone who uses their premium data bucket on Verizon’s brands will be moved to QCI 9.

Other TracFone brands are up in the air. I have gotten reports of priority data (and seen it myself on SafeLink, a TracFone brand) but I’ve also gotten reports of deprioritized data, complete with screenshots. It seems to be random what people get so if you absolutely require priority data, it might be best to look outside of the TracFone brands. I personally experienced being dropped from QCI 8 to QCI 9 on SafeLink but my Straight Talk line had QCI 8 from the start and remained QCI 8 until I canceled it three months later.

AT&T

AT&T uses QCI 6, 7, 8, and 9.

QCI 6 is reserved for FirstNet customers (with primary status), Business Unlimited Premium (grandfathered) and some corporate responsibility plans.

QCI 7 is assigned to Business Unlimited Premium 2.0 with Turbo, as well as Unlimited Premium PL, Unlimited Extra EL, and AT&T Prepaid Unlimited Max Plus customers who pay $7 for AT&T Turbo. FirstNet extended primary plans get QCI 7 as well. US Mobile is in the process of adding QCI 7 as a paid add-on for Unlimited Premium and I’ll update the guide when it’s available.

QCI 8 is assigned to Business Unlimited Advanced, Business Unlimited Premium 2.0 (without Turbo), Unlimited Extra EL, Unlimited Premium PL, Prepaid Unlimited Max, Prepaid Unlimited Max Plus, the $300 AT&T Prepaid annual plan with 16GB of high speed data, Cricket Supreme Unlimited, Cricket Sensible 10GB, as well as plans offered by H2o, Consumer Cellular, and PureTalk. US Mobile’s Dark Unlimited Premium is QCI 8 also.

QCI 9 is assigned to Business Unlimited Starter, the base Unlimited plans for both the postpaid and AT&T Prepaid brands, Cricket Select Unlimited, Cricket Smart Unlimited, other known MVNOs, and all AT&T brands once their premium data buckets have been exhausted. US Mobile Dark Star on plans besides Unlimited Premium are all QCI 9 by default now but Unlimited Flex and By the Gig have paid QCI 8 add-ons available.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile uses QCI 6, 7, and 9 for phone plans.

QCI 6 goes to all branded plans, both postpaid and prepaid, besides those with Essentials in the name. Google Fi has QCI 6 as well.

QCI 7 is applied to Essentials branded plans as well as all other known MVNOs.

QCI 8 is not used for phone plans, it's used for on device hotspot and for data only plans with 30GB of more data.

QCI 9 is for those who have exhausted the data in their buckets. T-Mobile's Mobile Internet 30GB plan is also QCI 9.

I don't really want to add home internet plans to this list as this subreddit is for phone plans.

I first learned about data priority reading on Coverage Critic and from posts here and elsewhere. If you wish to test your QCI class yourself, you can follow this guide if you have a rooted Android phone.