Best free VPN (2026): the free plans worth using, and their limits

The best free VPN for most people is Proton VPN’s free plan: it has no data cap and no ads, and the trade-off is one device, a random choice of 10 countries, and no streaming or torrenting. If you want to pick your country or cover several devices and use little data, Windscribe’s free plan (10 GB a month) is the alternative.

Both come from companies that make their money from paid subscriptions you can see, which is the first thing to check in any free VPN. This roundup sets out how we chose, the three free options we’d consider, three more reputable free plans we haven’t reviewed in depth, and the paid VPNs you can try for free through trials or refund windows. Everything below comes from the providers’ own pages and named third parties, checked on November 12, 2026. We haven’t run speed tests. If you want the background on why many free VPNs are risky, our free vs paid VPN guide covers the research; we won’t repeat it here.

How did we choose these free VPNs?

We only included free plans from providers with a visible paid business behind them, a published privacy or no-logs record, and limits stated plainly on their own site. Free apps with no clear way of making money were left out, however popular.

The EFF’s guide to choosing a VPN asks the right question of any free service: “If the VPN doesn’t sell its service, how is it keeping its business afloat?”¹ A free tier that exists to sell a paid tier has an answer to that. So our criteria were:

• A paid business you can see. The free plan is a sample of a paid product, not the product.
• Evidence behind the no-logs claim, such as an independent audit or a court case or seizure that turned up nothing.
• Honest limits. Data caps, device limits and locations published on the provider’s own pages, so you know what you’re getting before you install it.
• No sale of your data. Ads alone don’t rule a plan out, but we say where they are.

Which free VPN is best?

Proton VPN Free if you want one device with no data cap; Windscribe Free if you want more countries or several devices and stay under 10 GB a month; EventVPN if you’re on an iPhone or Mac and don’t mind ads.

1. Proton VPN Free. Pick it if you want a free VPN you can leave on all day on one device. Skip it if you need to choose your country, streaming, torrenting, or a second device.
2. Windscribe Free. Pick it if you want to choose among 10 countries, use it on every device you own, and only switch it on for public Wi-Fi. Skip it if you stream video or download much, because 10 GB runs out fast.
3. EventVPN (from ExpressVPN’s team). Pick it if you use Apple devices and want 20 free locations. Skip it if you dislike ads, or you’re on Windows or Android.

Is Proton VPN Free really unlimited?

On data, yes: Proton’s free page says the plan has “no data or speed limits”³ and “no advertisements.” Speed is less clear-cut, and the other limits are one device, 10 countries you don’t choose, and no streaming or P2P.

Proton’s free VPN page³ lists what free users get: 1 device, no logging of online activity, a kill switch and its Stealth protocol for networks that block VPNs. Everything else on that page is marked as a paid feature: up to 10 devices, the full list of countries, “works with streaming platforms,” P2P support, its NetShield ad blocker, and its highest speeds. Proton’s pricing page⁴ is more specific about the free tier: “servers in 10 countries (randomly selected),” “1 device at a time” and “Medium VPN speed.” Read together, there’s no cap and no artificial throttle, but free users don’t get the fastest servers or a choice of country.

What makes the free plan trustworthy is what sits behind it. Proton AG is a Swiss company, and the free tier is covered by the same no-logs audits as the paid one: Securitum’s 2026 audit, Proton’s fifth annual one, looked at production servers from both the free and paid tiers⁶ and found nothing indicating logging of browsing, DNS queries or traffic. Like any audit, it was a point-in-time check of a sample of servers. If you later want more, VPN Plus was listed at $2.99 a month on the 1-year plan⁴ ($35.88 for the first year, renewing at $83.88) on Nov 12, 2026, with a 30-day refund⁵ on purchases made directly from Proton. Prices and promotions change.

How much data does Windscribe’s free plan give you?

10 GB a month if you confirm an email address, 2 GB if you don’t. Windscribe says the cap is the only limit: free users get 10 countries and unlimited devices, and it says the free plan isn’t throttled.

Windscribe puts it plainly on its free plan page⁷: “Give us an email and get 10 GB a month, or don’t and get 2 GB.” Posting about Windscribe on X adds 5 GB, and each referral adds 1 GB. Free users connect to shared free servers in 10 countries (the US, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway and Romania; Pro has 69 or more), on unlimited devices, with the same encryption and protocols as paid users, and its R.O.B.E.R.T. blocker for ads, trackers and malware domains runs on the free plan too.

A monthly cap means Windscribe has to count your data. Its no-logs page⁸ says what it keeps: the date you last used the service (not the time), your total bandwidth over 30 days, and which app versions you activated. That’s a narrow list, and Windscribe’s record supports it: a Greek case against its CEO over a server allegedly used in a 2023 intrusion was dismissed in April 2025, with Windscribe saying it had no logs to hand over, as CyberInsider reported¹¹. What it lacks is a Big Four-style no-logs assurance report; its audit page¹⁰ points instead to a 2024 Packetlabs penetration test of its new server stack and earlier app audits.

If you outgrow 10 GB, Windscribe Pro was listed at $69 a year or $9 month to month⁹ on Nov 12, 2026, and its Build-A-Plan option charges $1 per location per month (minimum $3), each location adding 10 GB. For a head-to-head of the two free plans, see Proton VPN vs Windscribe.

Is EventVPN safe to use?

It has a more direct security record than most free apps: Cure53 tested it in 2026, found serious issues, and its report marks them fixed. The trade-off is ads, so some data goes to advertising partners.

EventVPN is a free app for Apple devices launched in September 2025 by ExpressVPN’s team¹². According to Tom’s Guide, it shows 30-second ads when you connect or disconnect, offers 20 free server locations, runs on RAM-only servers, and has a paid ad-free version at $69.99 a year. ExpressVPN itself has no free plan; its cheapest paid tier and 30-day refund¹⁴ are covered in our ExpressVPN review.

The security record is the reason it’s on this list rather than with the anonymous free apps. Cure53 tested EventVPN in February and March 2026 and found one critical and two high-severity issues¹³. The critical one let premium features be unlocked with fake transactions; one of the high-severity issues let IPv6 traffic bypass the VPN on dual-stack networks, which is exactly the kind of leak a VPN exists to prevent. Cure53’s report says all findings were fixed or mitigated and that it verified the fixes. Publishing that is a good sign; needing it is a reminder that a new app is a new codebase. Read its privacy policy for what the ad partners receive before you install it.

How do the free plans compare?

Proton and hide.me trade devices for unlimited data; Windscribe, PrivadoVPN and TunnelBear trade data for flexibility; EventVPN trades ads for locations.

As stated on each provider’s pricing or free-plan page, or by Tom’s Guide for EventVPN, checked Nov 12, 2026. “Not stated” means the page we opened didn’t say; it doesn’t mean there’s no limit. Free plans change without much notice, so check the provider’s page before you rely on one.

What about hide.me, PrivadoVPN and TunnelBear?

All three have real free plans from companies with paid tiers, so they pass the first test. We haven’t reviewed them on this site, so treat what follows as what their own pages say, not a recommendation.

• hide.me. Its pricing page lists a free plan with unlimited data, 1 connection and 8 locations¹⁵, against 10 connections and 92+ locations on Premium. Its about page¹⁶ says it doesn’t serve ads, sell data or throttle free users, links a no-logs audit report by Securitum (the same firm that audits Proton), and publishes a transparency report covering data requests from 2013 to 2025. On paper it’s the closest thing to Proton’s free plan, with more locations; we haven’t checked its record further.
• PrivadoVPN. Its pricing page offers 10 GB of data every 30 days¹⁷ on the free plan, limited to one device and “a handful of server locations,” with free emergency servers once the cap runs out. It describes itself as a Switzerland-based company. It’s like Windscribe’s free plan but with one device instead of unlimited.
• TunnelBear. The free plan gives 2 GB of secure browsing¹⁸ a month, and its pricing page lists country selection only on paid plans. TunnelBear has been owned by the US security company McAfee since 2018, per Wikipedia¹⁹. At 2 GB it suits checking email on hotel Wi-Fi and little else.

Can you try a paid VPN for free?

Yes, in two ways: a handful of paid VPNs offer short free trials, and all ten we cover have a money-back window. Both usually need payment details up front and turn into a paid subscription unless you cancel in time.

Free trials, as described on the providers’ pages on Nov 12, 2026:

• NordVPN: a 7-day trial in 15 countries²⁰, including the US, UK, Canada and Australia, but only on 1- and 2-year plans of its top tiers (Prime, Ultimate Max, Ultra or Complete Max).
• Surfshark: a 7-day trial²¹ for new users who buy a 12- or 24-month plan on its website, on up to 3 devices²².
• CyberGhost: 24 hours on Windows and macOS, 3 days on Android and 7 days on iOS²³.
• PIA: a 7-day free trial²⁵ advertised on its iOS App Store listing.
• PureVPN: its refund policy describes a 7-day trial that converts to a paid subscription²⁷, and trial renewals aren’t refundable.

Refund windows are the longer route to trying a VPN for free. CyberGhost offers 45 days on plans of 6 months or more²⁴ (14 days on monthly), PIA 30 days for new subscribers²⁶, and most others 30 days; Mullvad offers 14 and Windscribe 7 business days with conditions. The full list, with each provider’s conditions, is in our free vs paid guide, and real prices are compared in the cheapest VPNs.

Can you stream or torrent on a free VPN?

Rarely, and not on the plans above in any way we’d rely on. Proton lists streaming and P2P as paid features, and the capped plans run out quickly on video.

Streaming HD video uses data quickly, so a 10 GB or 2 GB monthly allowance won’t last long. Using a VPN to reach another country’s streaming catalog also usually breaks the streaming service’s terms, and providers’ “works with” claims change often, so we don’t promise any VPN will unblock a given service. For torrenting, Proton’s free page³ marks P2P as paid-only. A VPN doesn’t make copyright infringement legal, and nothing here is legal advice. If either use is why you want a VPN, look at the best VPNs for streaming and for torrenting.

What do you give up with a free plan?

Data, devices, locations or features, depending on the plan. For occasional use that’s a fair trade; for an always-on VPN it usually isn’t.

It’s also worth knowing what a VPN doesn’t do. The FTC’s consumer advice notes that because of the widespread use of encryption, connecting through a public Wi-Fi network is usually safe² when sites use HTTPS; a VPN mainly hides which sites you visit from the network and your ISP. Our Do I need a VPN? guide helps you decide how much you’d use one.

Who should skip a free VPN?

Anyone who needs a VPN for safety rather than convenience, and anyone who’d be tempted by a free app whose owner they can’t identify.

If you’re a journalist, activist or anyone with a serious adversary, the limits of a free tier (one device, a short server list, a data cap that can run out mid-session) are a real risk, and you should weigh providers on their no-logs evidence first; see the best no-logs VPNs and how to check a no-logs claim. And if the only free VPN you can find is one with no company, no paid tier and no explanation of how it makes money, our free vs paid guide explains why that’s worse than no VPN.

Which free VPN should you pick?

Pick Proton VPN Free if you want one device protected with no data cap and the strongest audit record of the free plans we review. Pick Windscribe Free if you want to pick among 10 countries, cover every device and you’ll stay under 10 GB a month. Pick EventVPN if you’re on Apple devices, want 20 locations, and accept ads.

If none of them fits, try a paid VPN through its trial or refund window rather than a free app you know nothing about. Our reviews of Proton VPN and Windscribe cover their paid plans, and the comparison table lists all ten providers side by side.

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