The Best Free VPNs in 2026
Updated September 2, 2026 · By VPNSites Research Team
Most free VPNs are not free. They are funded by the people using them, through advertising, tracking libraries or resold bandwidth, and the ones that make the loudest promises are usually the ones charging the most in the currency you cannot see. The 5 below are the exceptions: every one is the free tier of a company with a real paid product, so the free plan exists to advertise the paid one rather than to monetise you. We checked every allowance directly with the provider, and two of the five had changed terms since our records were written, with 2 of them now placing no limit at all on how much data you use.
Ranked by what the free plan actually gives you · 5 VPNs
Free VPN Plans Compared
Our Free VPN Picks in Detail
1. ProtonVPN: Best for a free VPN with no catch at all
Proton VPN is the only free VPN on this page with nothing meaningful taken away, and it is not a close contest. There is no data cap and no time limit, so it is the one free plan you can leave switched on permanently. There are no ads, and no advertising SDK in the app to serve them. The no-logs policy is the same one the paid tiers run on, and Securitum has audited it every year since 2022 with the reports published in full. Proton funds the free tier from its paying subscribers rather than from the free users themselves, which is the structural reason it can afford to do this and most free VPNs cannot. What you give up is choice rather than quality: one device at a time, five countries assigned to you rather than picked, medium priority on speed when the network is busy, and no P2P or streaming servers. For protecting a laptop on hotel Wi-Fi or getting a phone off a café network, none of that matters. If you need more than one device covered at once, Windscribe below is the better free plan.
- Free data allowance
- Unlimited · No cap, no time limit
- Free server locations
- 5 countries · Assigned automatically
- Devices on the free plan
- 1 device
- Free speed
- Medium; paid plans get priority
- Ads on the free plan
- None
- Account required
- Yes, a free Proton account
- Torrenting on free
- Paid plans only
- Streaming on free
- Paid plans only
- Independent audits
- No-logs audited by Securitum every year since 2022
Pros
- Excellent free version
- Sleek, easy to use client
- Features lots of advanced privacy tools
- Strong encryption protocols
- Flexible, affordable plans
- ProtonMail bundle
Cons
- Servers and locations not extensive
- The free plan covers one device at a time
- No P2P or streaming servers on the free plan
- Limited client support options
2. Windscribe: Best for covering every device you own for free
Windscribe gives away the most usable free plan here, and the reason is a number nobody else on this page comes close to: it places no limit on simultaneous connections, on the free tier or any other. One free account covers every phone, laptop and tablet in a house at the same time, across ten countries you choose yourself, at full speed with no throttling. That is what puts it above hide.me despite the smaller allowance. The 10 GB a month is a real ceiling and you should treat it as one: it is a few hours of HD video, or a couple of months of ordinary browsing and banking. Confirm your email address when you sign up, because without it the plan is 2 GB. Its no-logs record is also unusually well tested for a free provider, having been audited by PacketLabs and then checked the hard way when authorities seized Windscribe servers and found nothing on them. The one thing to know before you commit: P2P is switched off on the free servers, so if torrenting is why you want a VPN, this is not the free plan for you.
- Free data allowance
- 10 GB/mo · With a confirmed email; 2 GB without
- Free server locations
- 10 countries · US, CA, UK, HK, FR, DE, NL, CH, NO, RO
- Devices on the free plan
- Unlimited
- Free speed
- Full; the free plan is not throttled
- Ads on the free plan
- None. R.O.B.E.R.T. blocks ads and trackers
- Account required
- Yes, and confirm the email for 10 GB
- Torrenting on free
- No, P2P is disabled on free servers
- Streaming on free
- Works, but 10 GB is roughly 3 hours of HD
- Independent audits
- Infrastructure audited by PacketLabs (2024); apps by Leviathan (2021, 2022)
Pros
- 10GB free plan
- Packed full of advanced functionalities and features
- Able to unblock streaming sites
- Features double-hop
- Flexible payment options
Cons
- P2P is disabled on the free plan
- Absence of 24/7 client support
- Low speed in some cases
- The software update takes time
3. hide.me: Best for unlimited free data with no sign-up
hide.me quietly removed the 10 GB monthly cap that used to define its free plan, and its pricing page now sells the free tier as unlimited data. That is a genuinely rare offer, and it comes with something rarer still: no sign-up. You install it and it works, with no email address, no account and therefore nothing linking the session to you. If handing over an address to get a free VPN is the part you object to, this is the only plan here that does not ask. Read the rest of the vendor’s own description before you choose it, though, because hide.me is unusually straight about the trade: the same page that promises unlimited data also says "Restricted speeds" and "1 Connection". The data is uncapped, the rate you receive it at is not, and only one device can use it. That is why it sits below Windscribe, which caps the total but delivers it at full speed to as many devices as you like. Pick hide.me if you want to leave a VPN running on one machine indefinitely without an account; pick Windscribe if you want speed or a household.
- Free data allowance
- Unlimited · But speeds are restricted
- Free server locations
- 8 locations · FI, FR, NL, CH, US, DE, UK, SG
- Devices on the free plan
- 1 device
- Free speed
- Restricted, in hide.me’s own wording
- Ads on the free plan
- None
- Account required
- No, there is no sign-up at all
- Torrenting on free
- Paid plans only
- Streaming on free
- Paid plans only
- Independent audits
- No-logs audited by Securitum (2024); VPN Trust Initiative seal renewed 2025
Pros
- Offers a free version
- Able to unblock most streaming sites
- Top-notch tunneling protocols
- Located in a friendly jurisdiction
- IPv6 support and SOCKS5 Proxy enabled
- Excellent customer service
Cons
- Free speeds are restricted and free servers get congested
- The free plan is one device and eight locations
- Has a high price point
- Mobile apps aren’t impressive
4. TunnelBear: Best for the simplest free VPN to actually use
TunnelBear is the free VPN to hand someone who has never used one. The app is a single switch, the encryption behind it is standard AES-256 over WireGuard, and unusually for anything free it covers unlimited devices at full speed on the same servers paying customers use. Its transparency record is the best on this page after Proton: Cure53 has audited it publicly every year since 2017, and the reports are published whether they are flattering or not. Two things keep it at four. The allowance is 2 GB a month, the smallest here by a wide margin and enough for email, banking and light browsing rather than anything sustained. And in January 2026 TunnelBear took country selection away from free users, citing infrastructure costs, so you no longer choose where you appear: the app assigns a location. That removes the main reason most people install a free VPN in the first place. As a safety net on public Wi-Fi it is excellent, and it is honest about being nothing more than that.
- Free data allowance
- 2 GB/mo · Resets on your sign-up date
- Free server locations
- Auto only · Country choice removed 26 Jan 2026
- Devices on the free plan
- Unlimited
- Free speed
- Full; the same servers as paid
- Ads on the free plan
- None
- Account required
- Yes
- Torrenting on free
- Not supported on any plan
- Streaming on free
- No, 2 GB and no country choice rule it out
- Independent audits
- Publicly audited by Cure53 every year since 2017
Pros
- High speeds
- Secure encryption
- Easy to use browser extensions
Cons
- Free users lost country selection in January 2026
- 2 GB a month is the smallest allowance here
- Few servers and locations compared to other VPNs
- Does not support the use of Paypal as a payment option
5. Hotspot Shield: Best for a quick free tunnel and nothing more
Hotspot Shield is on this page because it is one of the most searched-for free VPNs in the world, and the honest answer to that search is that four of the plans above it are better. The free tier gives you 500 MB a day, the tightest cap here, spread across three countries, on one device, in a client that is funded by advertising you rather than by subscriptions. The daily reset is the part people misjudge: 500 MB a day sounds like roughly 15 GB a month, but it is not a monthly pool, so a single video call can exhaust a whole day. The company’s own marketing describes this same plan as unlimited with no ads, which is not what independent testing finds, and that gap is itself worth knowing about. There is also history: the Center for Democracy and Technology filed a complaint with the FTC in 2017 over its advertising and data practices, and researchers reported leaks in the client afterwards. The service is fast and it needs no account, which is genuinely convenient for a one-off. For anything you do regularly, take Proton VPN instead: it is free too, uncapped, and audited.
- Free data allowance
- 500 MB/day · Hard daily cap, not a monthly pool
- Free server locations
- 3 countries · US, UK, Singapore
- Devices on the free plan
- 1 device
- Free speed
- Fast, but the client is ad-supported
- Ads on the free plan
- Yes, including pop-ups on mobile
- Account required
- No for the Basic app
- Torrenting on free
- Not supported
- Streaming on free
- No
- Independent audits
- No published no-logs audit; CDT filed an FTC complaint in 2017
Pros
- A free version is available.
- It is built with a kill switch.
- It offers a 45-day money-back guarantee.
- Offers excellent round-the-clock client support.
Cons
- 500 MB a day is the tightest cap on this page
- The free plan is ad-supported, with pop-ups on mobile
- The CDT filed an FTC complaint over its data practices in 2017
- Poor logging policy
- It is headquartered in the United States
- Not effective for streaming, would not recommend.
FreePaid plan from $2.99/mo on the 2-year plan
Get Hotspot Shield
Read our full Hotspot Shield review →How Free VPNs Actually Make Money
Someone pays for the bandwidth
A VPN provider rents servers and buys transit, and both are billed by the gigabyte. That cost does not disappear because the app is free, so the only question worth asking about any free VPN is who is covering it. On this page the answer is the same for four of the five: the free plan is a shop window for a paid plan, funded by subscribers, and the limits on it exist to make upgrading attractive rather than to extract anything from you. Hotspot Shield is the exception here, and it is the honest exception: its free client is ad-supported, which is a real business model rather than a hidden one, but it does mean you are the product in a way you are not on the other four.
The free VPNs to avoid have no paid plan at all
That is the single most useful filter, and it costs nothing to apply. A provider with no subscription product has no revenue except what it can make from its users, and academic surveys of free VPN apps have repeatedly found the results: embedded tracking libraries, permissions far beyond anything a tunnel needs, and in the worst cases traffic routed through users’ own devices and resold as a residential proxy network. If you cannot find the paid plan a free VPN is advertising, you have found the answer to how it is paid for.
What a free plan reliably costs you
Even the good ones take something, and it is nearly always the same three things. Data, capped either monthly or daily. Locations, cut down to a handful so the country you actually want is a paid feature. And priority, because free users share a smaller pool of servers and get what is left after paying customers. Notice that none of those is encryption: every provider here gives free users the same ciphers, the same protocols and the same no-logs policy as paying ones. A free tier that weakened the security itself would be a scandal; a free tier that limits how much you can move through it is just a price list.
What a Free VPN Can and Cannot Do
Good: public Wi-Fi, casual privacy, trying before buying
A free VPN is genuinely worth having for the things it was shaped to do. Encrypting a laptop on hotel or café Wi-Fi is the strongest case, because the threat there is other people on the same network and any of these five closes that door completely. Keeping an internet provider from logging what you browse at home is another, as is checking whether a VPN slows your connection enough to matter before you spend anything. For all three, the caps barely bite: a month of ordinary browsing and email fits inside 10 GB without effort.
Bad: streaming, torrenting, and anything continuous
These are the three things free plans are specifically built not to do, and it is deliberate rather than accidental. Streaming needs dedicated servers to get past the blocks, and those are withheld from every free plan here. P2P is expensive to carry and brings copyright complaints to the provider, so it is disabled on the free servers of every provider on this page, Windscribe included. And anything continuous, from a work VPN replacement to a always-on connection on every device, runs into the allowance within days. Proton VPN is the only free plan here you can leave on indefinitely, and even that is one device at a time.
When the free plan is the wrong tool
If you find yourself checking a data counter, the free plan has already failed at what you are asking of it, and the honest advice is that a paid plan costs a few dollars a month with a 30-day refund window behind it. The point of the free tiers on this page is not that they replace a subscription. It is that four of them are good enough to protect a real person doing real things on an untrusted network, at no cost and with no trick, which is a genuinely unusual thing to be able to say about anything free on the internet.
How We Rank Free VPNs
The order here is set by what the free tier actually gives you, not by how good the company’s paid product is. That distinction does real work on this page. A large server network, a fast paid tier and a generous connection limit are worth nothing to someone who is never going to pay, so what counts is the allowance first, then how many locations and devices the free plan reaches, then what it costs you in ads, throttling or privacy. Windscribe ranks above hide.me for exactly that reason, and it is the one contested call here: hide.me now advertises unlimited free data, but its own pricing page pairs that with restricted speeds and a single connection, while Windscribe’s 10 GB arrives at full speed across ten countries on as many devices as you own. Uncapped and slow on one machine is worth less than capped and quick everywhere. Hotspot Shield stays on the page at five rather than being cut, because it is one of the most searched-for free VPNs in the world and readers looking for it deserve a straight answer instead of an omission; its verdict gives them one. We never accept payment for placement. The links on this page are affiliate links and they fund the testing, but they do not influence the order, and two of these five providers pay us nothing at all. Every allowance above was verified directly with the provider on September 2, 2026, and where that contradicted our own stored data we went with the provider and flagged the record for correction.
Free VPN FAQ
The good ones are; most are not, and the difference comes down to who is paying. Running a VPN network costs real money, so if you are not paying for it, something else is. For the five here that something is a paid tier the free plan advertises: Proton VPN, Windscribe, hide.me and TunnelBear all fund their free users from subscribers and take nothing from them in return. Hotspot Shield is the exception on this page: its free client is ad-supported. The ones to avoid are the free VPNs with no paid product at all, because the only asset they have left to sell is your traffic. Academic surveys of free VPN apps have repeatedly found tracking libraries, and in some cases traffic being resold outright. Stick to a free plan that exists to advertise a paid one.
Two of them. Proton VPN has no cap and no time limit, and does not throttle you for being on the free plan, which makes it the only free VPN here you can genuinely leave running. hide.me also removed its old 10 GB monthly cap and now advertises unlimited free data, but its own plan comparison pairs that with "Restricted speeds" and a single connection, so the data is unlimited and the rate is not. Everything else on this page is capped: Windscribe gives 10 GB a month, TunnelBear 2 GB a month, and Hotspot Shield 500 MB a day.
Realistically, no, and you should be sceptical of any page that says otherwise. Streaming services block VPN traffic aggressively, and providers answer that by maintaining dedicated streaming servers, which are the first thing withheld from a free plan. Proton VPN and hide.me both restrict streaming access to paid plans outright. Windscribe free will often work, but 10 GB is roughly three hours of HD video, so a free month is one film and a couple of episodes. TunnelBear free no longer lets you pick a country at all, which rules out geo-shifting by definition. If streaming is the reason you want a VPN, a paid plan with a 30-day refund window costs less frustration than any of this.
Not on any of these five. Windscribe disables P2P on its free servers, and its knowledge base says so directly. Proton VPN and hide.me both keep BitTorrent support for paid plans. TunnelBear does not support P2P on any plan, free or paid. Hotspot Shield does not support it on the free tier either. This is one of the clearest lines between free and paid VPNs, because P2P traffic is expensive to carry and attracts copyright complaints to the provider, so free tiers almost never allow it. A free VPN that does advertise unlimited torrenting is worth a second look at how it makes money.
Usually one, but not always, and the exceptions are the useful part. Windscribe and TunnelBear place no limit on simultaneous connections on any plan, so a single free account covers every device in a house at once. Proton VPN, hide.me and Hotspot Shield all limit the free plan to one device at a time. That is why Windscribe ranks second here despite a smaller data allowance than hide.me: 10 GB shared across a household at full speed is worth more than unlimited throttled data on a single laptop.
Not always. hide.me asks for nothing at all: no account, no email, no payment method, so there is no record tying a session to you. Hotspot Shield’s Basic app also runs without an account. Proton VPN, Windscribe and TunnelBear all need a free account, and for Windscribe it matters more than usual: the plan is 2 GB a month until you confirm the email address, and 10 GB after. An email address is a modest thing to hand over to a provider that publishes no-logs audits, and rather less modest to hand to one that does not.
Generally yes, though the mechanism differs. hide.me throttles the free tier explicitly and says so on its pricing page. Proton VPN does not throttle, but free users get medium priority against paid users on a smaller pool of servers, so speeds fall when that pool is busy. Windscribe and TunnelBear put free users on the same servers as paying ones at the same speed, and simply limit how much you can transfer. Congestion is the other half of it: free servers carry far more users per server than paid ones, which is why a free VPN that felt quick at breakfast can crawl in the evening.
Start with Proton VPN. It is the only free plan with no data cap, no ads and an audited no-logs policy, and for one device it is not seriously challenged. Choose Windscribe instead if you need to cover several devices at once or want to pick your country from a real list, and confirm your email to get the full 10 GB. Choose hide.me if you want to avoid creating an account at all and can live with restricted speeds. TunnelBear suits someone who wants the simplest possible app as a public Wi-Fi safety net and will not miss choosing a country. Hotspot Shield is the one to skip unless you specifically want it: 500 MB a day in an ad-supported client is the weakest offer here.
