Proton VPN features (2024)

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.

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.

Although they store virtually no personally identifiable data, we protect all Proton VPN servers with full disk encryption.

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.

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.

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.

Proton VPN's Stealth 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.

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 — the world's largest encrypted email service.

Whether challenging governments, educating the public, or training journalists, we have a long history of fighting for privacy online and contributing to the open-source community.

Founded by MIT and CERN scientists, Proton VPN believes in transparency and peer review. Our apps are 100% open source, 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.

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 online for all to see.

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.

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.

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 with just a single click.

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 to use Proton VPN without disclosing your identity.

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.

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.