Best Free VPNs in 2026
Eight free VPN plans checked on their own pricing pages this month, with the real data cap, device limit and catch on each one.
Proton VPN Free is the best free VPN in 2026 for most people: no data cap, no ads and one device, confirmed on Proton's own free-plan page today. Windscribe and hide.me are the next picks when you want more server choice than Proton's random ten countries, and PrivadoVPN and TunnelBear suit occasional use with a firm monthly cap.
Cloudflare WARP and Opera VPN are free but are not full privacy VPNs: WARP will not let you pick a country, and Opera only protects traffic inside its own browser. Hotspot Shield Basic is the plan to skip, capped at 500 MB a day.
Key facts8 tools compared: Proton VPN Free, Windscribe, hide.me, PrivadoVPN, TunnelBear, Cloudflare…
- 8 tools compared: Proton VPN Free, Windscribe, hide.me, PrivadoVPN, TunnelBear, Cloudflare WARP, Opera VPN, Hotspot Shield Basic
- Windscribe (best for: People who want a real monthly allowance and a build-your-own paid plan): Free: 10GB/mo after email confirmation; Pro is $9/mo, or $69/yr ($5.75/mo).
- hide.me (best for: Daily use with no data cap and a fixed set of server choices): Free: unlimited data, 1 device, 8 locations; paid from $2.33/mo (24-month plan, USD).
- PrivadoVPN (best for: Light monthly use with the option to add 10 simultaneous devices later): Free: 10GB/30 days, 1 device; paid from $1.11/mo (24-month plan, USD).
What changed: Updated November 2026: prices re-checked, Proton VPN Plus, hide.me and TunnelBear rates corrected, and a question on 100% free VPNs and streaming added.
A safe free VPN keeps three promises: it does not sell your traffic, it says plainly what the free tier caps, and the company publishes a real paid plan instead of running only on ads. Most of the free apps in app stores fail at least one of those, so this list is limited to VPNs with a named company, a published privacy policy, and (in Proton's case) an outside audit.
Every plan here still trades something for the free price. Proton and hide.me cap nothing but the server list; Windscribe, PrivadoVPN, TunnelBear and Hotspot Shield cap the gigabytes instead; Cloudflare WARP and Opera VPN are not trying to be a location-spoofing privacy VPN at all.
Toolradar data: the November 2026 VPN ranking evaluated 37 tools, and only 3 of the 10 it lists have a free plan, which is why the shortlist below comes from each vendor's own free-plan page.
How we ranked: eight VPNs, prices and data caps checked on each vendor's own pricing or free-plan page in November 2026, in US dollars where the vendor publishes them.
Top Picks
Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.
The only plan on this list with unlimited data, no ads and an outside-audited no-logs policy, on one device.
Free forever, no card, 1 device, unlimited data; VPN Plus: $3.49/mo (24-month plan), $9.99/mo monthly.
Anyone who wants no data cap and no ads with only one device to cover
10GB a month free once you confirm an email, with a Pro plan priced per month or per year on Windscribe's own site.
Free: 10GB/mo after email confirmation; Pro is $9/mo, or $69/yr ($5.75/mo).
People who want a real monthly allowance and a build-your-own paid plan
Free: unlimited data, 1 device, 8 locations; paid from $2.33/mo (24-month plan, USD).
Daily use with no data cap and a fixed set of server choices
| Tool | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Proton VPN Free | Free forever, no card, 1 device, unlimited data; VPN Plus: $3.49/mo (24-month plan), $9.99/mo monthly. | Anyone who wants no data cap and no ads with only one device to cover |
| Windscribe | Free: 10GB/mo after email confirmation; Pro is $9/mo, or $69/yr ($5.75/mo). | People who want a real monthly allowance and a build-your-own paid plan |
| hide.me | Free: unlimited data, 1 device, 8 locations; paid from $2.33/mo (24-month plan, USD). | Daily use with no data cap and a fixed set of server choices |
| PrivadoVPN | Free: 10GB/30 days, 1 device; paid from $1.11/mo (24-month plan, USD). | Light monthly use with the option to add 10 simultaneous devices later |
| TunnelBear | Free: 2GB/mo, unlimited devices; Unlimited paid: from $3.33/mo. | Occasional public Wi-Fi use where 2GB a month is enough |
| Cloudflare WARP | Free; WARP+ pricing is sold as an in-app purchase, not listed on the web page. | Faster, more private DNS-level routing, not location spoofing |
| Opera VPN | Free, unlimited data, no account, browser-only. | Casual browsing inside the Opera browser with zero setup |
| Hotspot Shield Basic | Free: 500MB/day, 1 US location; Premium $7.99/mo billed annually (vendor lists 38% off). | A last-resort free VPN when the others above do not fit |
Pricing read from each vendor's own pricing page, checked Nov 2026. 1 of 8 publishes prices for some plans and quotes the rest.
Proton VPN Free
The only plan on this list with unlimited data, no ads and an outside-audited no-logs policy, on one device.
- Pricing
- Free forever, no card, 1 device, unlimited data; VPN Plus: $3.49/mo (24-month plan), $9.99/mo monthly.
Best for: Anyone who wants no data cap and no ads with only one device to cover
Pros
- Proton's own free-plan page states unlimited bandwidth with no data or speed limit, a real difference from every capped plan below.
- No ads and no activity logging, with the no-logs claim independently audited, which most free VPNs cannot say.
- Includes a kill switch and the Stealth protocol for restrictive networks, features some paid competitors reserve for higher tiers.
Cons
- One device only, so a phone and a laptop cannot both connect on the free plan.
- Server choice is roughly ten countries picked at random by Proton, not a location you select yourself.
Windscribe
10GB a month free once you confirm an email, with a Pro plan priced per month or per year on Windscribe's own site.
- Pricing
- Free: 10GB/mo after email confirmation; Pro is $9/mo, or $69/yr ($5.75/mo).
Best for: People who want a real monthly allowance and a build-your-own paid plan
Pros
- Windscribe's own page confirms 10GB every month once you verify an email address, well above TunnelBear's 2GB.
- The yearly Pro plan works out to $5.75/mo at $69/yr, cheaper per month than most competitors' entry tier.
- A build-a-plan option lets you buy only the server locations you need at $1/location/mo, confirmed on Windscribe's own upgrade page.
Cons
- Without email confirmation the free plan drops to a smaller starter allowance, so skipping that step costs you data.
- Free-tier server locations are a limited subset of Windscribe's full network, not the entire list Pro users get.
hide.me
Unlimited free data across eight fixed locations, on one device.
- Pricing
- Free: unlimited data, 1 device, 8 locations; paid from $2.33/mo (24-month plan, USD).
Best for: Daily use with no data cap and a fixed set of server choices
Pros
- hide.me's free-plan page states data is never capped, which suits daily use better than a gigabyte allowance.
- Eight server locations are yours to choose from directly, unlike Proton's random rotation.
- The paid plan drops to $2.33/mo on the 24-month term, billed as $69.99 and covering 30 months, cheaper per month than Windscribe's yearly rate.
Cons
- hide.me lists unrestricted speed as a Premium benefit, so unlimited free data does not mean unlimited speed.
- Only one device at a time on the free plan, the same limit as Proton's.
PrivadoVPN
10GB every 30 days free, with a paid tier that jumps to 10 simultaneous connections and unlimited data.
- Pricing
- Free: 10GB/30 days, 1 device; paid from $1.11/mo (24-month plan, USD).
Best for: Light monthly use with the option to add 10 simultaneous devices later
Pros
- PrivadoVPN's own pricing page confirms 10GB of data every 30 days on the free plan, matching Windscribe's allowance.
- The 24-month paid plan is $1.11/mo, among the cheapest headline rates on this list.
- Paid plans jump straight to 10 simultaneous connections and unlimited data, a bigger step up than most competitors offer.
Cons
- Free tier is one device only, so the 10-device jump is exclusive to paying customers.
- The billed-monthly rate is $10.99/mo with no discount, so month-to-month costs nearly ten times the 24-month rate.
TunnelBear
A tiny 2GB free allowance, but one of the few free plans that does not cap the number of devices you can install it on.
- Pricing
- Free: 2GB/mo, unlimited devices; Unlimited paid: from $3.33/mo.
Best for: Occasional public Wi-Fi use where 2GB a month is enough
Pros
- TunnelBear's own pricing page confirms the free tier at 2GB of secure browsing a month, small but with no device-count limit.
- The app itself is one of the simplest to set up, which matters for a plan meant for occasional, not daily, use.
- The paid Unlimited plan adds country selection, split tunneling and city-level servers if the free tier is not enough.
Cons
- 2GB a month is the smallest allowance on this list, well under Windscribe's or PrivadoVPN's 10GB.
- TunnelBear's pricing page shows Unlimited only as "from $3.33/mo", so the lowest rate depends on the longest term rather than the monthly plan.
Cloudflare WARP
Free, but it will not let a free user pick a country, so it is not a substitute for a privacy VPN.
- Pricing
- Free; WARP+ pricing is sold as an in-app purchase, not listed on the web page.
Best for: Faster, more private DNS-level routing, not location spoofing
Pros
- Cloudflare's own 1.1.1.1 page calls WARP a free app, available on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows and Linux.
- Routes your device's traffic through Cloudflare's network rather than your ISP, which can improve both privacy and latency.
- No account or card needed to turn it on, the fastest setup on this list.
Cons
- You cannot choose a country or city on the free tier, so it will not get around regional content blocks the way the other VPNs here can.
- WARP+ pricing is not published on Cloudflare's own web page, it is sold inside the app, so there is no list price to quote here.
Opera VPN
Free, unlimited and built into the browser, with no account and no data cap, but it never leaves the browser.
- Pricing
- Free, unlimited data, no account, browser-only.
Best for: Casual browsing inside the Opera browser with zero setup
Pros
- Opera's own feature page states no data cap and no account requirement, the only plan here you can turn on without signing up.
- The no-log claim has been independently audited by Deloitte, matching Proton on third-party verification.
- Available on desktop and mobile Opera, with three locations (the U.S., Europe and Asia) and an automatic optimal-location default, per Opera's own feature page.
Cons
- It only protects traffic inside the Opera browser itself, so any other app or browser on the same device is not covered.
- There is no separate paid tier to compare it against; Opera funds the free VPN through browser features and its VPN Pro product, not a direct upgrade path from this plan.
Hotspot Shield Basic
500MB a day and one US server on the free tier, with optional ads for more data, the most restrictive plan on this list.
- Pricing
- Free: 500MB/day, 1 US location; Premium $7.99/mo billed annually (vendor lists 38% off).
Best for: A last-resort free VPN when the others above do not fit
Pros
- Hotspot Shield's own plan page confirms 2 Mbps and 500MB of data a day, which does reset daily rather than requiring a monthly budget.
- Military-grade encryption is included even on the free tier, per the vendor's own plan page.
- The Premium plan is $7.99/mo billed annually per Hotspot Shield's own pricing page, cheaper per month than hide.me's monthly rate.
Cons
- 500MB a day is roughly 15GB a month at best, but it cannot be saved up, so an unused Tuesday does not carry over to Wednesday.
- Only one US virtual location on the free tier, so it is not useful for reaching content outside the US.
What it is
A free VPN is a virtual private network app you can run without paying, usually a stripped version of a paid product rather than a separate company. The free tier is the trial, the ad funnel, or (for Proton and hide.me) a deliberately unlimited plan meant to convert a share of users to the paid app later.
The limit is rarely the encryption. It is the data cap, the device count, the server list, or the speed, and each vendor picks a different one to cut. Reading which lever a given VPN pulls tells you whether the free plan fits daily browsing or only an occasional public Wi-Fi session.
A VPN that will not say what its free plan caps, or that has no separate business selling the paid app, is the one to skip. Every product below publishes its limit and its company name. It also covers only network traffic, not your inbox, so our email security guide is the piece a VPN alone does not handle.
Why it matters
The gigabyte cap decides whether a free VPN survives a normal week. Windscribe and PrivadoVPN both give 10GB every 30 days once you confirm an email, which covers browsing and messaging but not much video. TunnelBear caps at 2GB a month, enough for a login on public Wi-Fi and little else. Hotspot Shield's Basic plan caps at 500MB a day, which is roughly 15GB a month split into daily slices you cannot carry over.
Proton and hide.me cap the server list instead of the data: Proton Free rotates you across about ten countries with no manual pick, and hide.me Free holds you to eight fixed locations. Proton's paid bundle also folds in the password manager we cover in our Proton Pass review, useful context if you are already inside that ecosystem for the VPN. Neither throttles the gigabytes, so they suit anyone who streams or works over the VPN daily rather than only for a login.
Cloudflare WARP and Opera VPN are the two picks on this list that are not really privacy VPNs. WARP encrypts your device's traffic to Cloudflare's edge but does not let a free user choose a country, so it will not unblock region-locked content. Opera VPN only covers traffic inside the Opera browser, so anything outside it, another app, another browser, is unprotected.
Cyberpresso data: our security newsletter reaches 29,000+ readers at a 31% open rate, from the audience file updated November 8, 2026, which is who keeps asking us whether a given free VPN is safe enough to run daily.
Key features to look for
Pricing
Figures below were checked on each vendor's own pricing or free-plan page in November 2026, in US dollars where the vendor publishes them. Proton VPN Plus's cheapest confirmed rate is $3.49/mo on its 24-month plan, billed $83.76 for the first 24 months then renewing at $83.88/yr; the standalone monthly rate is $9.99/mo. TunnelBear's Unlimited plan starts from $3.33/mo on its pricing page, which lists unlimited devices and country selection.
Windscribe's cheapest confirmed rate is billed as $69 for the year; paying month to month is $9/mo instead. hide.me's cheapest confirmed rate is $2.33/mo on its 24-month plan, billed as $69.99 and covering 30 months, against $11.99/mo billed monthly. PrivadoVPN's cheapest confirmed rate is $1.11/mo on its 24-month plan, against $10.99/mo billed monthly.
Hotspot Shield Premium is $7.99/mo billed annually on the vendor's own plan page, which the page itself labels a 38% saving against its standard rate. Cloudflare does not publish a WARP+ price on its own web page at all; that purchase happens inside the app.
None of the free tiers above required a credit card to activate, which is the baseline for calling a VPN genuinely free rather than a disguised trial. Surfshark and NordVPN, both reviewed elsewhere on this site, sell a money-back guarantee window rather than a free plan, so they are not ranked here.
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Proton VPN Free | Free | Unlimited data, 1 device, about 10 random countries, no ads |
| Proton VPN Plus, 24-month plan | $3.49/mo | Billed $83.76 for 24 months, renews $83.88/yr |
| Proton VPN Plus, monthly | $9.99/mo | Month-to-month rate, no annual commitment |
| Windscribe Free | Free | 10GB/mo after email confirmation, limited locations |
| Windscribe Pro, yearly | $5.75/mo | Billed $69/yr; build-a-plan option at $1/location/mo |
| Windscribe Pro, monthly | $9/mo | Month-to-month rate, no annual commitment |
| hide.me Free | Free | Unlimited data, 1 device, 8 locations |
| hide.me, 24-month plan | $2.33/mo | Billed $69.99 for 30 months, unlimited data |
| hide.me, monthly | $11.99/mo | Month-to-month rate, no term discount |
| PrivadoVPN Free | Free | 10GB every 30 days, 1 device, select locations |
| PrivadoVPN, 24-month plan | $1.11/mo | 10 simultaneous connections, unlimited data |
| PrivadoVPN, monthly | $10.99/mo | Month-to-month rate, no term discount |
| TunnelBear Free | Free | 2GB/mo, unlimited devices, small country list |
| TunnelBear Unlimited | from $3.33/mo | Unlimited devices and data, country selection |
| Cloudflare WARP | Free | Free app, no country choice, device-wide |
| Cloudflare WARP+ | Check current pricing | Sold in-app, no price on Cloudflare's own web page |
| Opera VPN | Free | No cap, no account, browser traffic only |
| Hotspot Shield Basic | Free | 500MB/day, 2 Mbps, 1 US location, ads add more data |
| Hotspot Shield Premium, annual | $7.99/mo | Vendor page labels this a 38% saving, billed annually |
The bottom line
Proton VPN Free is the best free VPN in 2026 for most readers: no data cap, no ads, one device, and an outside-audited no-logs policy on Proton's own free-plan page. Our full Proton VPN review covers the paid Plus and Unlimited tiers in more depth than this free-plan roundup. Pick hide.me instead when you want to choose your own server from a fixed list rather than Proton's random rotation.
Choose TunnelBear or Windscribe for occasional use where a monthly gigabyte budget is fine, and PrivadoVPN when a low-cost paid tier with 10 devices matters more than the free plan itself. Use Cloudflare WARP or Opera VPN only when you want faster, more private routing rather than a location-spoofing privacy VPN, and skip Hotspot Shield Basic unless the other seven do not fit, since 500MB a day is the tightest cap here.
None of these free plans include the admin console a company account needs; a personal free VPN is not a substitute for one. Pair any of them with the two-factor apps in our 2FA guide, and Toolradar's own free VPN roundup is the wider-market version of this same question if you want a second read.
Cite this: Cyberpresso, "Best Free VPNs in 2026", November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free VPN in 2026 that is actually safe?
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