How much speed is your VPN costing you?
Measure your connection with the VPN off, then with it on, and see exactly what the difference is and whether it is more than a VPN should cost.
We cannot see or control your VPN — no website can. You switch it on and off yourself, and tell us which state each test was in by choosing the matching button.
1. Without the VPN
Disconnect your VPN completely, wait a few seconds, then run this test.
2. With the VPN
Connect your VPN, wait until it reports itself as connected, then run this test.
Not enough to compare yet
Low confidence
We need both tests before we can compare
Run one test with the VPN disconnected and one with it connected. The difference between them is the only thing that shows what the VPN is costing you.
What we do not know
- No test with the VPN disconnected. Without it there is nothing to compare against.
Why a VPN slows things down at all
Two reasons, and both are the VPN working rather than failing. Everything you send is encrypted and decrypted, which costs a little processing at each end. More significantly, your traffic no longer goes straight to its destination — it goes to the VPN server first, and then on. If that server is in another country, every request makes a much longer journey.
So some reduction is the price of the thing doing its job. A well-chosen nearby server on a modern protocol typically costs somewhere between 5% and 20%. Losing more than that usually points at something specific and changeable.
How to test fairly
The two tests should differ in one respect only: whether the VPN is connected. Run them close together, on the same device, in the same place, with nothing else heavy using the connection. If you can, use an Ethernet cable — Wi-Fi variation between two tests can easily be larger than the VPN effect you are trying to measure.
Even then, two tests at two moments cannot fully separate the VPN from ordinary congestion. Running the pair again later is the only way to know how much of the difference is consistent.
What this tool does not do
It does not connect, disconnect or detect your VPN. No website can — a browser has no access to that. You control the VPN and tell us which state each test was in.
It also says nothing about whether your VPN is any good at the thing you actually pay it for. Speed and trustworthiness are unrelated: a fast VPN is not a private one, and a slow one is not necessarily secure.