NetShield Ad-blocker is available for everyone on a paid Proton VPN plan. How you enable NetShield depends on which operating system and device you use. To find out how to enable NetShield on your device, visit our NetShield support page.
Proton VPN’s NetShield Ad-blocker
Proton VPN comes with NetShield, which uses DNS filtering to speed up your browsing while protecting your device.
- Block privacy-invading ads
- Stop trackers from monitoring your browsing
- Prevent malware from infecting your device
- See how many ads and trackers are blocked with NetShield Privacy Panel
Fast VPN with NetShield Ad-blocker
NetShield works by checking the domain requests of every website and app you use against a database of domains that are known to host malware, ads, or trackers. When NetShield finds a match, our DNS server protects your device by automatically blocking the flagged resource from loading.
Block ads
NetShield uses DNS filtering to block ads as well as the online trackers that advertisement companies use to follow you around the internet. This keeps your device secure and your browsing private.
Faster browsing speeds
NetShield prevents your device from loading unnecessary content from a website, like ads and trackers. This reduces the amount of data you need to load to visit a site, speeding up your browsing.
Stay in control
You decide what NetShield blocks. Monitor how many ads, trackers, and malware are blocked using NetShield Privacy Panel, and then choose your level of protection — block only malware, block malware, ads, and trackers, or turn NetShield off entirely.
Get fast, easy, and private internet browsing with Proton VPN
High-speed servers
We only use high-speed servers (up to 10 Gbps) to ensure that our VPN offers the fastest browsing experience while also providing you with the strongest encryption and security.
No-logs VPN
Proton VPN offers a strict no-logs policy, meaning we don’t collect any user connection logs, nor can we be forced to perform targeted logging. This means we have no data to share with anyone.
Easy to use
Once you have downloaded and installed the Proton VPN app on your device, you can connect to the fastest available high-speed server in just one click using our Quick Connect button.
The safe, private, and fast VPN
VPN Accelerator
Our unique VPN Accelerator increases the browsing speed over long-distance VPN connections by over 400%.
High-speed streaming
Our network of high-speed servers allows you to stream your favorite TV shows and movies in 4K on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Disney+ without buffering or throttling.
Trusted
Journalists, activists, and millions of people around the world use Proton VPN to protect their data and online activity.
Open source
For complete transparency, we’ve made all our apps 100% open source and available for anyone to examine.
Audited by independent experts
We have commissioned professional security experts to audit our software and published the results on our website.
Kill switch
Our kill switch feature protects your device’s IP address by shutting down all connections if you are disconnected from the VPN.
Secure Core VPN
Our Secure Core architecture helps defend against network-based attacks by routing traffic through multiple servers.
DNS leak protection
Proton VPN routes your DNS queries through the encrypted tunnel so that your browsing activity cannot be exposed by DNS leaks.
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Download a trustworthy VPN
Open source- Audited by independent experts
- Strict no-logs policy
- Supported by the Proton community
- Zero ads in our apps or on our website
Frequently Asked Questions
Within the NetShield Ad-blocker settings on your device, there is the option to choose either Block malware only or Block malware, tracking and ads. Malware, tracking and ads blocking is enabled as default. You can also turn NetShield on or off as necessary.
NetShield can be used on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS/iPadOS devices. You can visit our support page for more information about using NetShield on your device.
Once you’ve connected to a VPN server in our Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS/iPadOS apps, NetShield Privacy Panel will display statistics showing:
- The number of ads blocked
- The number of trackers blocked
- The total amount of data saved
These statistics show how NetShield Ad-blocker is protecting you. NetShield Privacy Panel stats are reset each time you end a VPN session (manually disconnect from a VPN server). NetShield Privacy Panel doesn’t reset if you suffer an accidental disconnection, change your kill switch settings, or change VPN protocols.
NetShield Privacy Panel isn’t currently available on the Linux app.