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How to Get a PrivateVPN Free Trial

Updated Oct 26, 2023

Callum Tennent oversees how we test and review VPN services. He's a member of the IAPP, and his VPN advice has featured in Forbes and the Internet Society.

Our Verdict

PrivateVPN no longer offers a seven-day free trial. However, you can still use PrivateVPN for free for 30 days Simply sign up to a cheap subscription plan and claim a refund within 30 days to receive your money back risk-free.

PrivateVPN is a top-tier VPN that works particularly well for unblocking streaming content. It’s got a no-logs privacy policy, unblocks 14 Netflix regions, and has servers in 62 countries. Until recently, it also stood out for offering a 100% free 7-day trial on all devices.

PrivateVPN no longer has a genuine free trial, but you can still get it for free by using its 30-day money-back guarantee.

Summary: How to Get a PrivateVPN Free Trial in 2023

Sign up to PrivateVPN. You can use its refund guarantee on subscriptions of any length, but we recommend choosing the one month subscription to pay the smallest amount upfront — just $11.99.
Download and install the VPN software to your device. It’s available for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Kodi, and routers.
Open the VPN app. You can connect to a server by clicking the big button in the main VPN window, or use ‘Advanced View’ to change your security settings.
Cancel your subscription within 30 days to be eligible for a refund. To do this, log in to the PrivateVPN website, go to the ‘Control Panel’, and click the ‘Cancel Subscription’ button.
Once you’ve canceled, contact PrivateVPN customer support via email or live chat and request a refund.
You’ll now receive a refund of the entire subscription price. That means you’ve used PrivateVPN completely for free up until this point.

In this guide, we’ll explain exactly how to use PrivateVPN for free in more detail, how you qualify for a refund under the money-back guarantee, and how you can claim it back.

Does PrivateVPN Offer a Genuine Free Trial?

Before May 2022, PrivateVPN offered a seven-day free trial with unlimited bandwidth on all devices. In fact, the promotional page for it is still live now.

Disappointingly, PrivateVPN no longer offers a genuine free trial, and there is no 100% free version either. Although the feature is still advertised, it’ll redirect you to the premium subscription page if you try to sign up for it.

PrivateVPN’s free trial page is still online, even though the feature is not available.

This free trial was previously one of the VPN’s most notable features, particularly because it didn’t require any payment details. Its removal has made PrivateVPN a significantly worse product.

To use PrivateVPN for free now, you’ll need to sign up for a subscription and then claim your money back using its risk-free refund policy. This enables you to enjoy international streaming and secure torrenting for 30 days, and then receive a full refund for the money you paid.

Why Was the Free Trial Removed?

Like many VPN providers, PrivateVPN has struggled with its free trial being abused.

Before canceling the trial outright, PrivateVPN tried to offer limited trials. There has been a free trial link on the homepage in the past, which only worked for a number of months. At one point, PrivateVPN would give you a free trial if you contacted them and asked for a voucher code.

No wonder there is some confusion. We contacted PrivateVPN, and they told us:

“We regret to inform you that our trial account is not available at the moment due to abuse.”

It is good to see the efforts PrivateVPN went to to try to keep its free trial live before canceling it altogether. However, we will be pleasantly surprised if the free trial returns. In the meantime, we’d like to see the VPN adopt a freemium model instead, like Windscribe or Proton VPN.

How to Get a PrivateVPN Free Trial on All Devices

To use PrivateVPN for free for 30 days, follow these steps:

Sign up to PrivateVPN. The one month subscription is the cheapest upfront — just $11.99. The monthly cost of the long-term subscriptions is lower, but they’re more expensive upfront. PrivateVPN accepts Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit cards, PayPal, and Bitcoin.
Create an account. You’ll need to provide an email address, password, and country of residence.
Download and install the VPN software. It’s available for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Kodi, and routers.
Use the VPN. Click the large button on the main menu to connect to a VPN server, or choose a different location in the server menu. Use the ‘Advanced View’ to change your security settings.
Cancel your subscription within 30 days. To do this, log in to the PrivateVPN website, go to the ‘Control Panel’, and click the ‘Cancel Subscription’ button. You can continue to use the service until it expires.
Claim a refund. Once you’ve canceled your subscription, request a refund via the live chat feature on the PrivateVPN website, or email support@privatevpn.com .

EXPERT TIP: After you cancel your subscription, you can continue to use the service until it expires. If you’ve signed up for one month, you can cancel it immediately and still use the VPN for the remainder of the month. This will ensure you don’t get accidentally tied into a contract.

How to Cancel Your PrivateVPN Subscription

To cancel your PrivateVPN subscription and get a refund:

Log in to the PrivateVPN website.
Go to your Control Panel.
Click the ‘Cancel Subscription’ button. This means you will not be charged for any additional monthly payments.
Request a refund using the website’s live chat feature or by emailing support@privatevpn.com.

EXPERT TIP: Canceling your subscription does not automatically request a refund. To claim your money back, you need to open a live chat or contact email support. We recommend email support as the more reliable option. If you don’t hear back, send them a chaser email — we had to wait a week to get a response when we tested this method.

To get a refund under the money-back guarantee you must meet these conditions:

You must cancel within the first 30 days of the account.
You must provide a reason for the cancellation. Many VPNs offer no-questions-asked refunds, and we’d like to see PrivateVPN do the same. If you’re not sure what to say, we recommend simply stating you weren’t satisfied with the service.
You must not make any changes to the contract since your original purchase. If you upgrade to an extended billing term or buy more licenses under the same account, PrivateVPN states this will be considered a waiver of the refund option.

Previously, there was a rule that you couldn’t use more than 100GB of bandwidth if you wanted to claim a refund. We’ve asked PrivateVPN and they’ve confirmed this is no longer the case.

How Does PrivateVPN Compare to Other Free Trial VPNs?

	PrivateVPN	CyberGhost	Surfshark
Cheapest Price	$2.00	$2.03	$2.21
Free Trial Length	30-day money-back guarantee	1-day, 3-day and 7-day free trials, 45-day refund guarantee	7-day free trial, 30-day money-back guarantee
No. Of Netflix Libraries	14	13	10
Speed	95Mbps	94Mbps	95Mbps
Logging Policy	No Logs	No Identifying Data	No Identifying Data

PrivateVPN is an excellent VPN in general — it achieved a rating of 9.1 in our latest tests, and it features in our list of the 10 best VPNs of 2023.

It’s one of the top VPNs for unblocking streaming services (US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and more), and it’s extremely affordable too — just $2.00 on its longest subscription plan.

Watching geo-blocked HBO Max content using PrivateVPN

PrivateVPN streamed HBO Max on all of its US servers.

Aside from its streaming capabilities, PrivateVPN has a no-logs privacy policy, uses AES-256 encryption, and supports the OpenVPN protocol.

However, it doesn’t support WireGuard, has relatively slow speeds internationally, and lacks some advanced features like Smart DNS or multi-hop.

Unfortunately, one of PrivateVPN’s best features was its free trial. Although its money-back guarantee is good, there are now better VPN free trials available:

CyberGhost offers a one-day free trial on all devices, and a seven-day free trial on mobile. You don’t need to provide any payment details for the one-day trial, so it’s useful if you can’t pay anything upfront. This gives you access to servers in 90 countries and streaming-optimized servers, too. There’s also a 45-day money-back guarantee if you decide to subscribe.
Surfshark offers a seven-day free trial if you sign up through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee that you can claim twice, which gives you a total of 67 days of VPN usage for free — far more than other VPN providers. Unlike PrivateVPN, Surfshark also includes Smart DNS for unblocking websites on games consoles and Apple TV.

Some trustworthy VPNs offer 100% free versions, too. It’s expensive to operate a VPN service, so there are usually limitations.

ProtonVPN, for example, offers the best free VPN, but it only has three server locations and doesn’t allow torrenting. There are no data usage limits, though, and there are 200 fast, free servers available.

FAQs

Why did PrivateVPN stop its free trial?

Like many VPN providers, PrivateVPN canceled its free trial in May 2022 because it was being abused by users signing up multiple times. It now only offers a 30 day money-back guarantee.

Is there a better VPN free trial than PrivateVPN?

CyberGhost has the best VPN free trial. It offers a one-day free trial (with no payment details required) on desktop devices, a seven day trial on mobile, and a 45-day money-back guarantee.