While VPNs, or virtual private networks, are great at protecting your privacy, there’s an unavoidable trade-off: slower internet speeds, often by 50% or more.
It’s the nature of how VPNs work, where your data has to bounce to another server to be encrypted, and there’s really no way around it. However, there are several things you can try if you want to achieve the fastest possible speeds from your VPN connection.
A VPN encrypts your online traffic and routes your internet connection through a secure server in a remote location of your choosing. Though this keeps your online activity private, it is this process that’s primarily responsible for the speed loss. It takes time to encrypt and decrypt your traffic and for your data to make the round trip to the VPN server and back to your device.
Other factors, such as the VPN protocol you’re using or how many people are using the same VPN server you’re connecting through, can also contribute to the overall speed loss.
The speed hit may be virtually imperceptible for normal internet use when you use a fast VPN, but you’ll want all the speeds you can get for data-heavy activities like gaming, streaming or video conferencing. A delay of even a few milliseconds can mean the difference between glory and failure in your online game. And slow VPN speeds can result in a ruined video streaming experience, spoiled by constant buffering and a heaping dose of pixelation. If you’re using a VPN while on a Zoom call, for example, you’ll want to do whatever you can to maximize your VPN speeds to ensure the call goes smoothly and doesn’t drop out.
If your VPN isn’t as fast as you need it to be, here’s what you can do to speed up your connection.
Read more: The Best VPNs, Tested and Rated
7 ways to improve your VPN speeds
Connect to a server closer to your physical location
Generally speaking, the closer the VPN server is to your physical location, the faster your connection speeds should be. Your traffic will have a shorter physical distance to cover when it’s routed through a VPN server that’s close by rather than one that’s halfway across the world. If you’re in Boston, your VPN connection should be a lot faster if you connect to a VPN server in New York City or Montreal than one in Sydney or Tokyo, for example.
This won’t always be practical if, say, you want to stream content from a specific country or access a gaming server from a particular location. But when you need a faster connection, try connecting to a few different VPN servers close to where you’re physically located and see which ones yield the fastest speeds. Some VPNs will have a speed test feature built into their apps, but you can always use a speed testing website like Ookla Speedtest to check the speed of your connection.
If you’re looking for a VPN with tons of server locations, try ExpressVPN, which offers servers in 160 locations across 94 countries — so you’re bound to find a few relatively close to where you are.
Connect to a server that isn’t overloaded
When too many people are using a single VPN server, the server can get overloaded and your connection speed can take a hit. Some VPN providers display the current server load on their servers either in the app itself or on the website. If you choose one with a lighter load, you’ll generally achieve faster speeds. If your VPN provider doesn’t display the current load on its servers, try connecting to a few different ones to see which gets you the fastest speeds. Sometimes, it just takes a little trial and error.
