VPN security features

Browse the web with peace of mind. Proton VPN is a fast and reliable VPN service that protects your online privacy by hiding your real IP address, so you can browse privately, avoid being tracked across the internet, and stop your browsing data from being sold to advertisers. With Proton VPN, you can also bypass censorship and access websites that might be blocked in your country.

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Mask your IP

Proton VPN hides your real IP address, preventing the easiest and most accurate way for websites to track you online.

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Swiss privacy

Switzerland has some of the strongest privacy laws in the world, is outside the EU, and isn't a member of any mass surveillance alliances.

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No-logs policy

Proton VPN keeps no logs that can compromise your privacy and under Swiss law we can’t be obligated to start logging.

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NetShield Ad-blocker

Block ads, trackers, and malicious scripts with NetShield Ad-blocker, our DNS filtering feature that prevents connections to unwanted domains.

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DNS leak protection

Ensures your browsing history is never leaked to your internet service provider. Website address lookups are always done by Proton.

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Tor over VPN

Connect to the Tor anonymity network and visit .onion sites from the convenience of your regular browser.

Protect your internet

  • Strict no-logs policy
  • All apps are open source and audited
  • High-speed servers (up to 10 Gbps)
  • Based in Switzerland
  • 30-day money-back guarantee

NetShield (Ad-blocker)

NetShield is a DNS filtering feature that protects you from malware, blocks ads, and prevents website trackers from following you as you surf the web. As NetShield prevents your device from loading unnecessary content from the websites you visit, it also reduces the amount of data you need to load and increases your browsing speed.

VPN Accelerator

VPN Accelerator is a set of technologies unique to Proton VPN that can increase your VPN connection speeds by up to 400%. VPN Accelerator dramatically increases performance by overcoming CPU limitations that affect how VPN protocols are processed, using advanced networking techniques to reduce latency, and redesigning VPN protocols themselves to reduce inefficiencies in their code.

Secure Core

Proton VPN's Secure Core architecture gives you the unique ability to defend against network-based attacks. Secure Core protects your connection by routing your traffic through multiple servers before leaving our network. This means an advanced adversary who can monitor the network traffic at the exit server will not be able to discover your true IP address or match your browsing activity to your IP address.

Secure Core servers are located in hardened data centers in Switzerland, Iceland, and Sweden, protected by strong privacy laws, and operated on our own dedicated networks.

Stealth

Proton VPN's Stealth(new window) is a unique VPN protocol that evades detection and allows you to bypass most firewalls and VPN blocking methods. Unlike other VPN services, we’re deeply committed to advancing freedom and developing new technologies to beat censorship worldwide. For instance, our alternative routing technology bypasses internet blocks by rerouting connections over other paths. Similarly, our Stealth VPN protocol fights censorship by making your VPN traffic look like regular traffic, allowing you to access otherwise blocked information.

Strong encryption

We use only the strongest encryption to protect your internet connection. This means we encrypt all your network traffic with AES-256, exchange keys with 4096-bit RSA, and use HMAC with SHA384 for message authentication.

Forward secrecy

We have carefully selected our encryption cipher suites to include only ones with perfect forward secrecy. This means that your encrypted traffic cannot be captured and decrypted later if the encryption key from a subsequent session gets compromised. We generate a new encryption key each time you connect to the VPN, so a key is never used for more than one session.

Strong protocols

We only use strong VPN protocols known to be secure: WireGuard, OpenVPN(new window),and IKEv2. Proton VPN does not have any servers that support PPTP and L2TP/IPSec, even though they are less costly to operate. By using Proton VPN, you can be confident that your VPN tunnel is protected by the most reliable protocol. If you live in a restrictive country, our unique Stealth VPN protocol allows you to avoid detection and bypass most internet censorship and VPN blocks.

Full disk encryption

Although they store virtually no personally identifiable data, we protect all Proton VPN servers with full disk encryption(new window). This helps protect them against resource-intensive man-in-the-middle attacks that governments can perform. Full disk encryption protects server certificates and all other configurations and software stored on our exit servers so that attackers cannot access any data, even if one was somehow compromised.

Swiss privacy

In addition to strong technical security, Proton VPN also benefits from strong legal protection. Because we’re based in Switzerland, Proton VPN is protected by some of the world's strongest privacy laws and remains outside US and EU jurisdiction. This means that unlike a VPN provider based in a fourteen eyes country(new window), we cannot be coerced into spying on our users.

Trusted

It’s important you use a trustworthy VPN, which is why we are one of the only VPN companies transparent about exactly who runs our service. Our team has a long track record in security, having previously built Proton Mail(new window) — the world's largest encrypted email service. Whether challenging governments(new window), educating the public(new window), or training journalists(new window), we have a long history of fighting for privacy online and contributing to the open-source community(new window).

Open source

Founded by MIT and CERN scientists, Proton VPN believes in transparency and peer review. Our apps are 100% open source(new window), so anyone can examine our code. This transparency means that you can be confident that our apps do what they’re supposed to — and only what they’re supposed to. You can see the code for all our apps on GitHub(new window).

Independently audited

Although being open source means anyone can check our code, Proton VPN also regularly commissions professional audits for all our full-release software from independent security experts. Unlike some VPN companies, we publish the full results of these audits(new window) online for all to see.

Physical security

We have gone to extreme lengths to protect Proton VPN's Secure Core servers to ensure their security. Critical infrastructure in Switzerland is located at a high-security data center outside of Zurich that requires biometric access, and our infrastructure in Iceland resides in a secure former military base. Our servers in Sweden are also located in an underground data center. By shipping our own equipment to these locations, we ensure that our servers are as protected at the hardware level.

No-logs policy

Under Swiss law, we are not obligated to save any user connection logs, nor can we be forced to perform targeted logging on specific users. This allows us to ensure that your private browsing history stays private and cannot be turned over to a third party under any circumstances. Our no-logs policy applies to all our users, including anyone using our free VPN.

DNS leak prevention

Proton VPN doesn't just protect your browsing traffic, we also protect your DNS queries. By routing your DNS queries through the encrypted tunnel and not relying on third-party DNS providers, we ensure that your browsing activity cannot be exposed by leaks from DNS queries.

Kill switch and always-on VPN

Proton VPN applications offer built-in kill switch and always-on VPN features. If you lose connection with the VPN server, kill switch blocks all network traffic,while always-on VPN automatically re-establishes your connection to a VPN server. These features prevent a VPN server disconnect from inadvertently compromising your privacy by revealing your true IP address.

Tor over VPN

Proton VPN comes with built-in Tor support. Through our VPN servers that are connected to Tor, you can route all of your traffic through the Tor anonymity network. This provides a convenient way to access Onion sites(new window) with just a single click.

Anonymous

We respect your privacy, so we don’t require any personal identifying information to obtain a Proton VPN account. You can sign up with a secure Proton Mail email account or a Proton Pass email alias(new window) to use Proton VPN without disclosing your identity.

High speed

For optimal performance, we use only high-speed servers. All Proton VPN servers have a minimum of 1 Gbps bandwidth, and many of our servers utilize 10 Gbps connections. This allows us to provide blazing-fast speeds even though we use only the strongest encryption, so you don’t have to sacrifice speed for security.

Easy to use

We understand that it’s important for security technology to be easy to use. We have designed all Proton VPN applications to have a simple and intuitive user interface so that you can browse privately with a single click. You can also create custom connection profiles that automatically protect your device whenever you connect to the internet.

Additional Features

  • P2P support
  • Unlimited bandwidth
  • Up to 10 devices
  • Professional support
  • Connection profiles
  • Quick Connect
  • Modern interface
  • Multi-platform support
  • Quick country selector

Learn more about Proton VPN