How Much Does a VPN Cost?

Here’s a table comparing the prices of the top 15 VPN services:

VPN Service	Price (per month)	Required Plan Length	Money-Back Guarantee	Our Ranking
ExpressVPN	$6.67	15 months	30 days	#1
NordVPN	$3.30	24 months	30 days	#2
CyberGhost	$2.25	36 months	45 days	#3
IPVanish	$3.75	12 months	30 days	#4
Surfshark	$2.49	27 months	30 days	#5
PrivateVPN	$1.98	24 months	30 days	#6
PIA	$2.08	24 months	30 days	#7
Windscribe	$4.08	12 months	3 days	#8
ProtonVPN	$4.00	24 months	30 days	#9
VPNArea	$2.99	36 months	30 days	#10
Astrill	$10.00	12 months	N/A	#11
HideMyAss	$2.99	36 months	30 days	#12
VPN.ac	$3.75	24 months	7 days	#13
FastestVPN	$1.11	36 months	15 days	#14
Hide.me	$2.75	26 months	30 days	#15

^{A money-back guarantee is similar to a free trial, but you need to pay for the duration of the subscription first and then claim a refund.}

As the table above shows, price isn’t always an accurate indicator of quality within the VPN market.

That said, the best VPNs simply aren’t free. You should expect to pay a modest monthly fee to protect your privacy, security, and freedom online.

Based on the cheapest available price for each of our top 20 VPNs, the average monthly cost of a VPN in August 2021 is $3.96. If you only want to pay for a month at a time, the average price rises to $11.32

To get the best deal on a VPN, you’ll almost always need to commit to at least a 12-month contract. You’ll probably also need to pay for the entire subscription up front.

Purchasing a VPN can therefore feel like quite an investment, so it’s worth doing your research. Check out our VPN reviews for a detailed look at 68 different services, or see our best VPNs for an overview of our top-rated VPNs.

If you’re not willing to commit to a long-term subscription in order to unlock the cheapest VPN prices, there’s also the option of paying on a rolling monthly basis.

For an overview of the most affordable VPNs, read our list of the best cheap VPNs. For now, here’s a table comparing the VPNs with the cheapest month-to-month prices:

VPN Service	Single Month Cost	Netflix US	Works in China	Our Ranking
IPVanish	$4.99*	Yes	No	#4
Mullvad	$5.80	Yes**	Unreliable	#19
AzireVPN	$6.08	Unreliable	No	#23
CactusVPN	$6.99	Yes	Unreliable	#26
AirVPN	$8.33	No	Yes	#21
PrivateVPN	$8.49	Yes	Yes	#6
Trust.Zone	$8.88	Unreliable	Unreliable	#27
Windscribe	$9.00	Yes	Unreliable	#8
VPN.ac	$9.00	Yes	Yes	#13

^{* IPVanish costs $4.99 for the first month, but then $9.99/month after that.
** Only Mullvad’s US servers in San Jose and Charlotte successfully unblock Netflix.}

Pay-as-You-Go Plans

Mullvad is unique among VPN providers in that it doesn’t offer any long-term subscription plans. You simply pay a one-time fee of $5.80 and you get to use the service for a month. If you want to use the VPN for another month, you pay another $5.80.

This pay-as-you-go approach means you don’t have to worry about remembering to cancel your subscription before the end of the month in order to avoid being charged again.

Mullvad is one of the most privacy-conscious VPN providers we’ve tested. It even lets you pay for the product in cash in order to maximize your anonymity.

Be aware, though, that Mullvad isn’t a great VPN for streaming Netflix and it doesn’t work reliably in China or other high-censorship regimes. It is, however, an excellent VPN for torrenting and P2P file-sharing. You can read more about Mullvad in our full review here.

Another option if you’re uncomfortable committing to a long-term plan is to try the service for free by taking advantage of a free trial or money-back guarantee.

The main difference between a true free trial and a money-back guarantee is whether or not you have to make a payment first. Many trials, such as PrivateVPN and Hide.me, won’t require you to provide your payment details up front, so testing the service carries no financial risk.

To learn more about using premium VPNs for free, read our VPN Free Trials guide.

100% Free VPNs

There’s also the option of using a completely free VPN that won’t cost you anything, ever.

Unfortunately, while these services are certainly appealing, most of them do little or nothing to safeguard your online privacy, and some are a greater risk to your safety than not using a VPN at all.

For example, Hola VPN collects huge amounts of data on all of its users and even lets other people in the network use your IP address for their own activity. In fact, just like a worrying number of so-called free VPNs, Hola isn’t actually a true VPN. It’s a network of proxy servers that falsely advertises itself as a VPN service, but won’t deliver the same levels of privacy, security, and freedom that users want from a VPN.

That being said, our research has shown that there are still a small handful of free VPNs that are safe to use in 2021. They come with their own drawbacks, such as data limits and slow speeds, but at least they won’t put you at risk.