Do VPNs Slow Down Your Internet? Here's What You Need to Know

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Few things are as frustrating as a slow internet connection. When your Wi-Fi crawls, working, streaming videos, or even messaging friends and family becomes difficult.

It's no surprise, then, that many people worry about a VPN slowing down their internet. But is this concern valid, and if so, by how much?

I'll explain how VPNs can affect your connection speed and share test data to see if today's top VPN providers really make a noticeable difference.

Can VPNs slow down your internet connection?

In short, yes, they can slow down your internet, but it's rare these days.

Let's start with the basics. A VPN sends your internet traffic through its own servers, acting like a middleman between you and the website you want to visit. This adds extra distance for your data to travel, which can cause a higher ping.

Ping is the delay between you doing something and seeing it happen. A high ping is annoying, but a low ping is only essential for things like gaming, where fast reactions are crucial. For everyday use, 100 milliseconds of ping is fine. You can minimize ping by choosing a server close to your location.

A VPN also encrypts your data, making it unreadable to anyone who might intercept it, like a hacker or your ISP. Encrypting and decrypting data can slow down upload and download speeds, leading to a slower connection. This means web pages load slowly, videos buffer, and overall performance is sluggish.

Finally, VPN servers have limited capacity. If too many people use the same server, speeds can drop unless the server is powerful enough. Many providers now use 10Gbps or 20Gbps servers, reducing the risk of slowdowns due to overcrowding.

So, while a poorly optimized VPN can slow your internet, advances in technology have made this impact much smaller. We'll look at some numbers to back this up soon.

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How have VPNs gotten faster?

These days, it's rare for a good VPN to slow down your internet connection significantly, and here’s why. First, VPN apps are now lightweight and efficient, meaning they don't put much strain on your device.

More importantly, VPN protocols have improved. These protocols are the methods VPNs use to encrypt your data and send it to its destination. If you want to learn more about how this works, check out our "What is a VPN?" guide.

A few years ago, OpenVPN was the most common protocol. It replaced older, less secure protocols and is still considered safe and reliable. However, OpenVPN is quite complex and was not originally designed for speed. As a result, different VPNs often had very different speeds using the same protocol, and VPNs did noticeably slow down connections.

Now, new protocols like WireGuard and ExpressVPN’s Lightway are designed to be fast and secure. These newer protocols allow even smaller VPNs to compete with the larger providers if they use WireGuard well.

Which VPNs are the fastest?

There are many very fast VPNs available. We don’t just rank them; we test their speeds using a superfast 1 Gbps connection. This way, if our recorded speeds are faster than your home internet, you know the VPN won’t slow you down.

NordVPN uses a modified version of WireGuard called NordLynx and often tops our speed rankings. It delivers speeds up to 880Mbps with NordLynx, compared to about 190Mbps with OpenVPN.

Express VPN’s Lightway protocol also showed great results, reaching speeds up to 580Mbps, while its OpenVPN speeds were over 300Mbps.

ProtonVPN, once not very fast, now reaches around 740Mbps with WireGuard and over 500Mbps with OpenVPN. If you prefer OpenVPN, ProtonVPN is a top choice for speed.

Even smaller VPNs can be fast with WireGuard. Atlas VPN, known for its free service, reached speeds up to 800Mbps, and ZenMate hit 500Mbps.

These improvements in protocols and technology mean that modern VPNs can be both fast and secure, ensuring a smooth online experience.

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Will a free VPN slow down your connection?

Unlike paid VPNs, free VPNs often have limits to encourage users to upgrade to a paid plan. One common limit is speed. For example, Hotspot Shield’s free version restricts users to a very slow 2Mbps, which is only good for basic web browsing. You won’t be able to watch 4K YouTube videos with that speed.

ProtonVPN’s free plan also limits speed. While it's not as slow as Hotspot Shield, you still won’t get high speeds.

So, yes, free VPNs are likely to slow down your connection because the provider sets speed limits. If you want better performance, consider a low-cost VPN instead.

Does a VPN slow down your internet connection?

In the past, VPNs often slowed down connections, but today’s VPNs are much better. Thanks to new protocols like WireGuard, even with a superfast connection of 1Gbps or more, a good VPN won’t slow you down.