What a Free VPN Limits: Data, Countries, Devices

A free VPN from a reputable maker usually limits one of three things: how much data you can use, how many countries you can connect through, or how many devices you can connect at once. Proton VPN and hide.me drop the data cap but allow one device and a short list of locations; Windscribe, TunnelBear and PrivadoVPN cap your data instead.

Everything below is from each maker’s own pages, read on 7 October 2026. This is not a ranking, and we have not used any of these plans.

The free plans side by side

Free plan	Data	Locations	Devices	Streaming / P2P	Ads
Proton VPN Free	No data limit	10 countries, server chosen for you	1 at a time	Both listed as paid features	None, says Proton
Windscribe Free	2GB a month; 10GB with a confirmed email	10 countries	Unlimited	Not stated	No ad networks, says Windscribe
TunnelBear Free	2GB a month (10GB in selected censored countries)	Country selection listed under the paid plan	Not stated for Free	Streaming may be blocked on any plan	Not stated
hide.me Free	Unlimited	8 locations	1 connection	Streaming servers are Premium-only	None, says hide.me
PrivadoVPN Free	10GB every 30 days, then 1 Mbps	12 cities or 13 locations (its pages differ)	1 connection at a time	Streaming support listed under Premium	Ad-free, says PrivadoVPN
Cloudflare WARP	Not stated	Does not change your country	Not stated	Location-licensed streaming may not work	Not stated

Where each plan draws its line

Proton VPN Free is unlimited on data and time, and Proton chooses the server: its free servers are in 10 countries, and you cannot pick among them. Its support page says each change of server lands you somewhere random, with a 45-second wait after the first change and 10 minutes after each one after that. The free plan covers one device; P2P, streaming and Proton’s ad blocker sit on the paid side of the comparison table.

Windscribe gives 2GB a month to an account without an email address and 10GB once you confirm one. Its free countries are the US, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway and Romania, and it allows unlimited devices on a free account. Windscribe says free users run on a shared pool of free servers but are not throttled.

TunnelBear gives 2GB a month, resetting on the anniversary of sign-up, and unused data does not carry over. TunnelBear itself describes the free plan as best used for testing. Users in some countries facing internet censorship get 10GB instead. Its pricing page lists country selection among the paid plan’s features and not the free one’s.

hide.me states no data cap, but its pricing page lists “Restricted speeds” for the free plan alongside 8 locations and one connection. Its streaming-optimised servers are for Premium users.

PrivadoVPN gives 10GB every 30 days. Its support article says that after the allowance runs out, your speed is limited to 1 Mbps until the next renewal — slow, but still connected. You can install the app on any number of devices, with one connected at a time.

Speed is a limit too

The five VPNs do not agree on whether free users get paid-tier speed:

Free plan	What the maker says about speed
Proton VPN	“Medium” on its pricing table, against “Highest” for paid plans
hide.me	“Restricted speeds”
Windscribe	Not throttled; free users share a separate server pool
TunnelBear	“The same performance levels” as paid plans
PrivadoVPN	1 Mbps once the 10GB is used

Proton’s own pages pull in two directions here: the free-VPN page promises no speed limits, while the pricing table rates Free as medium. A fixed list of locations also matters for speed, because distance to the server is usually the biggest cost of any VPN connection, and a free plan may not have a server near you.

Cloudflare WARP is a different kind of product

Cloudflare’s free 1.1.1.1 with WARP app encrypts your traffic, but its FAQ says WARP replaces your IP address with one that “consistently and accurately represents your approximate location”. WARP will not make you appear to be in another country, which is often what people want from a VPN. Cloudflare also warns that apps relying on location for content licensing, such as some streaming services, may not work through it. The 1.1.1.1 app without WARP secures only your DNS lookups, and Cloudflare answers “Is the 1.1.1.1 app a VPN?” with “No.”

What “free” costs in privacy

The worry about free VPNs is that the user pays with their data. Here is what each of these makers says about its own free tier:

• Proton: the free service “is supported by paying users”, with no ads and no activity logs.
• Windscribe: paying Pro users cover the costs, and a free account stores your username, a hashed password, your email if you gave one, total bandwidth used this period and your last-activity time.
• TunnelBear: “we make 100% of our revenue from paid subscriptions”.
• hide.me: funded by Premium users, with no ads.
• Cloudflare: “We won’t sell your data, ever.”

These are the makers’ own claims, which we have not audited. What they do give you is a test for any free VPN not listed here: if its site does not say who pays for the servers, that is worth noticing.

If you outgrow a free plan, check what the paid plan renews at, not just the introductory rate. Proton and PrivadoVPN both list a kill switch among their free features; how a VPN kill switch actually behaves varies more than the label suggests.

Questions people ask

What is the catch with a free VPN?

Among the reputable makers, it is a limit rather than a hidden cost. Windscribe, TunnelBear and PrivadoVPN cap monthly data; Proton VPN and hide.me drop the cap but allow one device and a short list of locations. Proton and hide.me also rate free speeds below paid ones.

Which free VPN has no data limit?

Of the plans we read, Proton VPN Free and hide.me Free both state unlimited data. Both allow one device at a time, Proton picks your server from 10 countries, and hide.me offers 8 locations with what its pricing page calls restricted speeds.

Can I watch Netflix with a free VPN?

Proton lists streaming as a paid feature, and hide.me says its streaming-optimised servers are for Premium users only. TunnelBear says streaming services often block VPN traffic on any plan, and Cloudflare says location-licensed streaming may not work through WARP.

Is Cloudflare WARP a free VPN?

It encrypts your traffic, but Cloudflare says WARP gives you an IP address that represents your approximate location, so it will not make you appear in another country. Its 1.1.1.1 app on its own only secures DNS, and Cloudflare says plainly that it is not a VPN.

How many devices can I use on a free VPN?

Proton VPN Free, hide.me Free and PrivadoVPN Free allow one connection at a time; PrivadoVPN lets you install it on as many devices as you like. Windscribe’s free plan allows unlimited devices. TunnelBear does not state a device limit for its free plan specifically.

Is a free VPN safe for privacy?

That depends on who pays for it. Proton, Windscribe, TunnelBear and hide.me each say their free tier is funded by paying users rather than ads or data sales, and Windscribe publishes what it stores on a free account. Those are the makers’ own claims; we have not audited them.