VPN Usage Statistics 2026

42 percent of U.S. adults use a VPN for personal or work purposes, up from 32 percent in 2025.

Personal-only use drove much of the increase, rising eight percentage points to 25 percent.

Overall, 60 percent of women did not use a VPN, compared with 50 percent of men.

More than half of Gen Z parents (56%) do not use a password manager, and nearly two-thirds (64%) do not use a VPN for added protection.

General privacy (56 percent) and general security (51 percent) remained the most common reasons for using a VPN.

Access to international or non-local media and reducing online tracking tied for third at 27 percent each.

That last point is also the most common misconception: 36 percent of respondents incorrectly believed a VPN alone can protect a device from viruses or malware.

Smaller shares say they have stopped using a digital device, website or app because they were worried about how their personal information was being used (49%); used a browser or search engine that doesn’t keep track of what they’re doing (44%); or used a messaging app or service that encrypts their private communication with others (36%).

NordVPN remained the most-used brand, rising from 17 percent of users in 2025 to 24 percent in 2026.

Proton VPN ranked second at 15 percent.

Among users who paid, the average reported cost was $21 per month.

Meanwhile, the share attributed to other brands declined from 31 percent in 2023 to 11 percent in 2026, suggesting that use has become more concentrated among named providers.

Barriers to VPN Adoption The largest barrier to VPN adoption was not price or technical difficulty, but perceived necessity: 39 percent of non-users simply said they did not need a VPN.

Ultimately, TTP determined that 20 of the top 100 free VPN apps in the App Store were owned by companies or individuals based in mainland China or Hong Kong but did not clearly disclose their China ties.

The VPN apps identified by TTP have been downloaded more than 70 million times from U.S. app stores, according to data from AppMagic, a mobile apps market intelligence firm.

It was higher still over the following days, increasing by 1,712% above the baseline on July 26 and 1,987% on July 27.

Demand spiked further on November 30 at 350% above the average.

VPN demand first rose 108% above the daily average over the previous 28 days on March 6, before jumping 308% on March 7 and reaching 330% on March 8.

In the seven days leading up to the law taking effect on December 10, demand for VPNs was 51% higher than the previous week .

Demand for VPNs jumped 59% on November 1 compared to the daily average over the previous 28 days, as Italian users sought to access online content without mandatory ID checks.

It was 2,034% higher than usual on September 6 and 2,892% above the baseline on September 7.

On May 26, when connectivity was restored after a record 88-day nationwide internet blackout, VPN demand spiked by 934% compared to the daily average over the previous 28 days.

Azerbaijan - October 12, 2026 +43,000% increase over the baseline Users across Azerbaijan reported that Instagram and TikTok were inaccessible amid protests against new school dress code rules.

At its peak, hourly sign-ups exceeded 1,400% above the same hour the previous week, and on a daily basis, total sign-ups ran nearly 300% over baseline.

Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition documented at least 313 shutdowns in 52 countries, topping the dismal 2024 (304) 7 and 2023 (289) 8 records.

Perpetrators continued to increase the number of communications platform blocks in 2025, with a record of 94 blocks in 40 countries, compared to 77 blocks in 37 countries in 2024 and 58 blocks in 27 countries in 2023.

Policymakers in 10 of the 38 countries covered by FOTN had proposed, passed, or implemented age-assurance laws for social media platforms or other nonpornographic online content as of June 2026.

During this report’s coverage period, from June 2025 through May 2026, conditions deteriorated in 16 of the 38 countries assessed, while 8 countries registered overall gains.

Demand increased even further the following day, peaking at 2,557% above the pre-blackout baseline.

Guinea - April 16, 2026 +8000% increase over baseline Local authorities imposed a sudden social media blackout including Facebook, YouTube and TikTok for several days in the country.

Global internet freedom declined for the 16th consecutive year.

Less than half of enterprises reported using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) (49.64%) or maintaining log files for analysis after security incidents (45.16%).

However, adoption of more advanced controls like two-factor authentication (47% businesses and 38% charities), a virtual private network for staff connecting remotely (36% businesses and 17% charities) and user monitoring (30% businesses and 31% charities) remain lower than other measures.

The percentage of edge devices and VPNs as a target on our exploitation of vulnerabilities action was 22%, and it grew almost eight-fold12 from the 3% found in last year’s report.

Organizations worked very hard to patch those edge device vulnerabilities, but our analysis showed only about 54% of those were fully remediated throughout the year, and it took a median of 32 days to accomplish.

Without much surprise, we see that 44% of the connection types are VPN, followed closely by some type of remote desktop application (e.g., RDP, RDPweb, VNC).

This can be partially attributed to more exploited vulnerabilities against these types of services, while VPN maintains a similar level as last year, around 16%.

45% of offers were obtained via the use of legitimate but compromised login credentials, while 37% of offers provided unauthorized access via compromised corporate remote access portals such as VPN-based devices.

Slow Access Leads to Workarounds: 63% of users bypass VPN controls to reach apps faster, creating unmanaged risk.

VPNs are Acting like Blind “Encrypted Pipes”: 1 in 3 organizations inspect 0% of encrypted VPN traffic.

Attackers are Outpacing Patch Cycles: 61% of organizations believe adversaries move faster than their patching process.

They Can’t See AI-Driven Attack Signals: 70% of survey respondents admit to limited or no visibility into AI threats moving over their VPN.

Initial Infection Vectors: Exploits remained the most common initial infection vector for the sixth consecutive year, accounting for 32% of intrusions.

M-Trends 2026 reveals that the mean time to exploit vulnerabilities dropped to an estimated -7 days, meaning exploitation is routinely occurring before a patch is even released.

#1 Fear is Attacker Speed: 79% of survey respondents say AI lets attackers exploit vulnerabilities faster than patches can be deployed.