Proton VPN Free Review 2026

Verdict

Proton VPN’s free plan has no data cap and no ads. It is limited to one device, places you in one of ten countries at random, and leaves out streaming and P2P. Paid plans cost $9.99 a month on a monthly term, with lower rates on longer terms.

It is run by a named Swiss company, its apps are open source, and Securitum has reviewed its no-logs claim every year since 2022, in reviews Proton pays for. It suits steady everyday browsing on one device, not foreign streaming libraries.

Who it suits, and who should skip it

• Good fit: anyone who wants a free VPN for daily browsing without counting megabytes.
• Good fit: privacy-minded users who want published audit reports they can read.
• Poor fit: streaming fans, because streaming support is a paid feature.
• Poor fit: torrent users. P2P is blocked on free servers.
• Poor fit: households that want several devices on the free plan, unless they connect through a router.

The free plan in practice

Proton states that the free plan has no data cap. Proton’s pricing page labels free speed as “medium”, while its free-plan page says there are no artificial speed limits. Its VPN policy also reserves the right to throttle excessive use on free servers. So “unlimited” is fair for data, with that caveat on heavy use.

Ten countries are available: the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, Poland, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Mexico, Canada and the United States. They are randomly selected, and you can switch to another random country, but you cannot pick one. An earlier version of this review said you could. That was wrong, and we have corrected it.

The free plan covers one device at a time, though Proton says more can connect through a router. There are no ads. NetShield, Secure Core and connection profiles are paid features. Streaming and P2P are also paid features.

The account rules vary by platform. The website path asks you to create an account, while guest mode on mobile lets you start without one. Proton’s terms forbid multiple free accounts and allow it to remove free accounts after 12 months of inactivity.

Paid plans and refunds

These are the US-dollar prices shown on the pricing page on November 5, 2026. Longer terms use introductory prices, and Black Friday offers may change them, so check before buying.

App Store prices are higher, so buying direct is usually cheaper. Proton’s terms offer a 30-day refund once per user on direct purchases, excluding cash and bank transfers. Purchases through an app store follow that store’s rules.

Who runs Proton VPN

Proton VPN is run by Proton AG, based in Geneva. Proton says it was founded in 2014 by scientists who met at CERN, and that the VPN launched in 2017. The non-profit Proton Foundation has been its primary shareholder since 2024, and a change of control needs the foundation’s consent. Proton does not state the exact percentage it holds.

Proton’s Swiss base is a major part of its privacy pitch, and it needs two caveats. Proposed changes to Swiss surveillance rules could require services to keep more metadata, and Proton has said it would leave Switzerland if they pass. We could not confirm the current status of that proposal. Proton is also moving parts of its infrastructure out of Switzerland, although that report does not say Proton VPN is affected.

What the privacy policy says

Proton says it does not log the websites you visit, your traffic, your IP address, session lengths or location data. It does keep account information and some maintenance data. The details matter here:

• The Proton-wide policy says there are no permanent IP logs by default, but logs may be held temporarily for abuse and fraud, and IPs may be kept for breaches of the terms.
• Paid accounts involve payment data, such as cardholder name and the last four digits. Proton also accepts cash and Bitcoin.
• Apps may send telemetry and crash reports, and most retention periods are not stated.
• Free servers use live traffic identification to block BitTorrent. The 2025 Securitum report calls this monitoring without logging, and judged it no privacy risk. It is still an exception to the idea that no traffic is inspected.

Audits and their limits

Proton’s no-logs audits are by Securitum and cover 2022 to 2026. We read the full 2025 report, which attests that the service complied with its no-logs policy when examined and found no user activity, connection metadata or user-to-server mapping on the servers it looked at.

The report sets out these limits:

• Proton commissioned and paid for it.
• It covers one moment in time and a sample of servers, not the full fleet.
• It was a guided review, in which Proton engineers demonstrated systems. The report says this differs from an unsupervised forensic investigation.
• Source code review, binary analysis and systems such as account management were out of scope.

Proton’s apps are open source on GitHub, so outsiders can inspect the client code. Proton also says it contracted an independent researcher for client security audits. We did not open those reports.

How it handles legal requests

Proton says it only acts on binding orders from Swiss authorities. Its transparency report lists 458 VPN orders from 2019 to June 2026, all marked as denied, and Proton says it could not provide identifying data because the logs do not exist. That is Proton’s account, and we did not review court records.

Account and payment data are the likelier exposure. In a case reported by heise in March 2026, payment data from a paid Proton Mail account helped identify its holder, through Swiss orders. That was Mail, not VPN, but it shows why anonymous payment matters if your threat model is serious. In France, Paris courts ordered Proton VPN to block 31 pirate domains in January 2026, a reminder that a VPN’s Swiss base does not shield it from every foreign order.

Security features and protocols

Proton states it uses WireGuard, OpenVPN and its own Stealth protocol, with AES-256 or ChaCha20. Features include a kill switch, Tor over VPN and Secure Core routing, though Secure Core is paid. Servers use full-disk encryption, but Proton does not claim RAM-only servers. Post-quantum encryption is described as future work, not a shipped feature.

Server claims

The servers page lists 21,722 servers across 149 countries, while other Proton pages say 20,000+ and 140+, or 110+. These figures probably reflect updates at different times, but they do not match. The page does not say how many locations are virtual. We also could not find a current count of free servers. Proton says it owns all Secure Core servers, and a majority in Switzerland and Germany, so not every server is necessarily Proton-owned.

Platforms and support

Apps cover Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chromebook, Android TV, Apple TV and Fire TV, plus Chrome and Firefox extensions. Live chat is for paid users. Free users get the help centre and contact forms.

What store listings show

Proton VPN has 4.65 from 128,773 ratings on the US App Store and 4.68 from about 1.48 million reviews on Google Play, with 100M+ downloads. The App Store label lists email and crash data, both not linked to you. The Google Play form lists more, including user IDs and purchase history. These are developer declarations, and neither store verifies them.

How it compares

SingLink has a smaller daily allowance, but no device limit and a lower monthly price. VPN Cat needs no account, but it is ad-supported and declares tracking on its App Store label.

What we have not tested

We have not yet measured speed, streaming, leaks or kill-switch behaviour. Everything above comes from documents, not from our own use.

Changes to this review

• November 5, 2026: Added document-based scores. Rewritten after rechecking all sources. Corrected the claim that free users can choose among ten countries. Added paid prices, audit limits, legal-order data and Swiss jurisdiction risks.
• September 23, 2026: First published.

Sources

All pages were read on November 5, 2026. Provider pages can change after that date.

• Proton VPN free plan
• Proton VPN pricing
• Proton VPN privacy policy
• Proton VPN plans explained
• Proton VPN streaming guide
• Proton VPN BitTorrent support page
• Proton VPN fall and winter 2026 recap
• Proton terms of service
• Proton VPN on the US App Store
• Proton Foundation announcement
• heise: Proton relocates parts of its infrastructure
• Proton VPN no-logs explainer
• Proton privacy policy
• Securitum no-logs report, 2025 (PDF)
• Proton VPN no-logs audit post
• Proton VPN open-source post
• Proton transparency report
• heise: Proton Mail payment data case
• TorrentFreak: French blocking orders
• Proton VPN security
• Proton VPN features
• Proton VPN servers page
• Proton VPN downloads
• Proton VPN on Google Play