Private Internet Access Review 2025: A Solid, Affordable Service

Private Internet Access (PIA) is a budget-friendly VPN with decent speed performance and consistent streaming abilities. Starting at about $2 per month, you might expect a bare-bones VPN service that’s slow and barely gets the job done, but that isn't the case at all.

Our Private Internet Access review shows a high-quality service with loads of server locations and a strict no-logs policy that’s been tested in court. 

We don’t love that PIA is based out of the U.S. (a known Five Eyes alliance country), but it has an audited no-logs policy. Our testing also proved it's not the fastest VPN, but we were still able to browse wihtout much issue.

Check out our PIA VPN review to dig into details about speed tests, Netflix compatibility, customer support, and more.

Overview

Price	$2.19–$11.99/mo
Free version	No
Max # of connected devices	Unlimited
# of server locations	Unlisted in 91 countries and 50 U.S. states
VPN protocol	WireGuard, OpenVPN, IPsec
No-logs policy	No logs
Headquarters	Denver, Colorado, United States
Netflix access	Yes
Learn more	Get Private Internet Access

We last tested Private Internet Access on March 11, 2025. 

Our experience

Private Internet Access was easy to set up. Once you've purchased your subscription, just select your preferred operating system and start your download.

We like that PIA has an option for a quick tour, which can be helpful for VPN beginners. It provided tips on how to customize your dashboard, download other PIA apps, and more. 

Beginners to VPNs should be able to navigate through the interface easily enough. If you keep it the app simple, there's a power button, a recommended server, along with your new IP address. 

If you wish to tinker with the app, there are lots of customization options, such as moving widgets around in the display and setting up your home screen. It could be overwhelming for newer users, but we didn't have too much trouble finding the server list or to connecting to different servers. 

Private Internet Access's app may be even better suited for mobile in our eyes. It's sleek and includes all the essential features right on the main dashboard page. It  also had about the same impact on our speeds on desktop as on mobile (33% download speed drop vs. 31% download speed drop).

Ultimately, we like Private Internet Access's simplicity and would recommend the service, especially for mobile protection. 

Who is Private Internet Access best for?

• Recommended for people who want a fast and affordable VPN that can unblock streaming services, provides plenty of server locations, and has a tested no-logs policy.

Private Internet Access is a virtual private network (VPN) service based out of Denver, Colorado, that offers one of the cheapest VPNs on the market. But “cheap VPN” doesn’t necessarily mean lacking in quality.

Our tests show that PIA can offer fast speeds, high levels of privacy and security, and the opportunity to unblock regional streaming content. It’s especially helpful to know that the PIA no-logs policy has been tested multiple times in court without any user information being leaked — primarily because PIA doesn’t keep logs of user activity.

PIA prices and subscriptions

Private Internet Access costs between $2.19–$11.99/mo. It offers subscription plans for one month, six months, and two years. 

All plans come with the same features, so the only differences are the price and subscription length. Your overall monthly price goes with the longer subscription options.

The cheapest option for PIA VPN: Two-year plan for $2.19/mo (billed every two years)

The most expensive option for PIA VPN: Monthly plan for $11.99/mo

You might only need a VPN for a short period of time, including if you’re traveling abroad for a vacation and want a VPN for streaming purposes. But it’s typically the most expensive option to pay for a VPN one month at a time.

If you want to save money on a VPN, it’s often much cheaper overall to choose a longer subscription length. And with PIA, you can get some dirt cheap prices.

Here’s how PIA VPN compares to other popular VPNs and their lowest monthly rates:

• ExpressVPN: $4.99/mo (billed every two years)
• Proton VPN: $4.49/mo (billed every two years)
  
• NordVPN: $3.09/mo (billed every two years)
• Private Internet Access: $2.19/mo (billed every two years)

Private Internet Access costs the same or less than all the VPNs listed. And compared with ExpressVPN, PIA is four times cheaper. But remember that price isn’t everything and there are a few competitors that don’t cost much more than PIA.

For example, would it be worth it to pay about an extra $12 per year for NordVPN and its high-quality service and fast speeds?

It depends on your situation, but it’s important to realize that VPNs are generally inexpensive and you have plenty of options to choose from to meet your needs.

	1 month	6 months	Best Value 2 years	Learn more
Price per month	$11.99/mo	$7.50/mo (billed every six months)	$2.19/mo (billed every two years)	View plans

PIA's payment methods include:

• Credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover)
• PayPal
• Amazon Pay
• Cryptocurrencies through BitPay (bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin)

PIA makes a point of accepting crypto as a form of payment because they’re more anonymous options.

Private Internet Access features

We primarily tested PIA using its Windows app, so our experience is generally based on the features available to the Private Internet Access VPN app on Windows. We found that PIA has loads of servers to choose from, a strict no-logs policy, and an app interface that’s fairly easy to use and navigate. 

PIA's key features include:

1. Server count and countries
2. No-logs policy
3. Kill switch
4. Split tunneling
5. Encryption
6. VPN protocol
7. Identity Guard
8. Smart DNS
9. Multi-Hop
10. MACE

1. Server count and countries

• Unlisted in 91 countries and all 50 U.S. states

PIA doesn’t release a list of how many servers it actually has, but it verified with us that you can connect to servers in 91 countries and every U.S. state. That’s a sizable number of server locations and likely more than enough for your average VPN user.

Here’s how PIA compares to other popular VPN providers with its number of countries with servers:

• Private Internet Access: 91 countries + 50 U.S. states
  
• NordVPN: 118 countries
• ExpressVPN: 105 countries
• Surfshark: 100 countries

Although Private Internet Access offers a lower number of server countries than most popular VPNs, 91 countries is a decent number. This is important because more server locations mean more ways to use VPNs. For example, it could mean additional opportunities for you to unblock streaming services in different regions.

If you look at the PIA server list, you’ll see servers ordered by latency numbers. In general, latency is one way to measure your internet speed. So servers with lower latencies (depicted by a green color) are typically your fastest connection options based on your location.

Servers with higher latencies (depicted by an orange color) are typically your slowest connection options based on your location.

You might also notice some servers have a small globe symbol next to them. This means the server is in a “geo-located region,” which means it isn’t physically located in that country. 

Note that connecting to one of these virtual servers still makes it seem like your connection is coming from the applicable country.

2. No-logs policy and headquarters

• PIA logs policy: No logs
• PIA headquarters: United States

PIA VPN has a strict no-logs policy and is headquartered in Colorado, United States. PIA doesn’t collect or store your data, including your internet protocol (IP) address, browsing history, DNS queries, bandwidth consumption, VPN session timestamps, or connection logs.

In general, PIA doesn’t store any data about your VPN usage or what you do while using its VPN. PIA’s no-logs policy has been tested multiple times in court without PIA releasing any relevant information. This is because PIA doesn’t track or store user information and has nothing to give, as outlined in its transparency reports.

PIA also had its no-logs policy independently audited in April 2024 by Deloitte. The report confirmed PIA’s no-logs policy because Deloitte couldn’t find any trace of user activity on PIA’s servers.

PIA uses RAM-only servers, which means data is frequently deleted and difficult to steal. And so far, the U.S. government hasn’t been able to force PIA to violate its no-logs policy. This is because of U.S. consumer protection laws, according to PIA.

Although it hasn’t happened yet, that doesn’t mean PIA can’t eventually be forced to breach its own policies. Private Internet Access is U.S.-based and the U.S. is part of the Five Eyes alliances, which are global networks involved in mass surveillance, including within their own countries.

PIA has done an excellent job so far with its privacy initiatives, and we hope it continues to do an excellent job. But being located in a country that’s part of a global surveillance network might not be the best thing for maintaining user privacy.

Note that Private Internet Access was acquired by Kape Technologies in 2019. Kape Technologies owns other VPNs, including ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN. All VPNs under the Kape brand are believed to run independently of each other.

3. Kill switch

PIA VPN provides a kill switch feature located in the Privacy section of the app settings. A VPN kill switch is designed to prevent data leaks from happening if your secure connection is interrupted.

You can choose between two different kill switch options:

• VPN Kill Switch: Your basic kill switch that prevents leaks by blocking your internet traffic from moving outside the VPN, including during an interrupted connection.
• Advanced Kill Switch: Blocks all internet traffic unless you’re connected to the VPN.

4. Split tunneling

Split tunneling is a feature that allows you to bypass the secure VPN connection with specific apps and IP addresses. PIA offers this feature in the app settings on the Split Tunnel tab.

You might use the split tunneling feature if you don’t want an app to be slowed down by a VPN and you aren’t worried about security or privacy within that app. 

For example, you might allow an online video game to bypass the VPN connection so you can maintain fast speeds while gaming. In the meantime, your other online activities remain private and secure.

5. Encryption

PIA lets you choose between AES-128-GCM or AES-256-GCM encryption. These are some of the strongest encryption algorithms available and are widely used by organizations worldwide. 

You can find the encryption options in the Protocols tab of the app settings within the OpenVPN protocol section.

6. VPN protocol

PIA offers multiple VPN protocols to help ensure your security while maintaining high levels of transparency. This includes the open-source WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols, as well as IKEv2/IPsec. 

You can find the available protocols in your app settings in the Protocols tab.

Note that Private Internet Access with OpenVPN and WireGuard were the only available options we saw on the Windows desktop app. But we did see all three protocols, including IKEv2/IPsec, were available in the iOS app.

7. Identity Guard

PIA Identity Guard is a feature that can help you see whether an email address has been part of a data breach. We found this feature in our online account using a Chrome browser.

Selecting the Identity Guard tab brings you to a breach monitoring page on the PIA website. Here, you can enter an email address and PIA will check to see whether it’s been exposed.

8. Smart DNS

Smart DNS is a way to use a VPN on devices that might not typically have access to a VPN app. For example, your PlayStation, Xbox, Apple TV, or smart TV might not have an app store with the PIA VPN app. But you can still use the Smart DNS feature to set up different devices with PIA functionality.

You can find Smart DNS options in your online account in the Smart DNS tab.

Note that Smart DNS won’t give your device a secure VPN connection, but it can change your device’s virtual location. For example, you can choose locations in the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., and the Netherlands. This can be helpful for accessing regional streaming content.

9. Multi-Hop

Multi-Hop is a feature within the PIA app settings in the Multi-Hop tab. This security feature routes your VPN connection through an additional server. This is often called “double VPN” on other VPNs.

Multi-Hop is designed to offer more security with your connection by offering another layer of encryption. You can also hide that you’re using a VPN, which is called obfuscating your connection.

The PIA Multi-Hop feature offers the Shadowsocks and SOCKS5 proxies. SOCKS5 proxy servers, which include Shadowsocks, are designed to mask your true IP address by routing you through a server with a different IP address. They aren’t as secure or private as VPNs, but they can offer an additional layer of anonymity.

10. MACE

PIA MACE is a feature you can find in the app that blocks ads, trackers, and malware. It’s located in the app settings in the Privacy tab.

PIA VPN test results

We conducted a speed test and some leak tests to see how PIA VPN performed with maintaining reasonable internet speeds and overall privacy. We also tested whether PIA could unblock different Netflix content libraries.

These tests were run using the PIA Windows app on a laptop running Windows 11 from a physical location in the U.S.

Speed tests

• Speed test results: Private Internet Access slowed our download speeds by an average of 33%. 

How a VPN affects your internet speeds is often one of the primary concerns when choosing a VPN. We tested Private Internet Access by connecting to different servers around the world and measuring how it impacted our internet connection. 

While it's normal for a VPN to take up some bandwidth and reduce your internet speed, we were looking for unusual, significant dips in speeds.

We began our testing by establishing a baseline and measured our internet speed without PIA turned on. 

Test type	No VPN	US to US	US to CA	US to EU	US to AU
Download speed	360.31 Mbps	303.68 Mbps	251.40 Mbps	250.96 Mbps	159.96 Mbps
Upload speed	450.16  Mbps	198.28 Mbps	146.98 Mbps	58.22 Mbps	42.25 Mbps
Latency (ping)	16 ms	9 ms	53 ms	122 ms	200 ms
Download speed % difference	N/A	-15%	-30%	-30%	-56%
Upload speed % difference	N/A	-56%	-67%	-87%	-91%
Latency % difference	N/A	-44%	+231%	+663%	+1,150%

Private Internet Access slowed our speeds slightly, but it performed better than it has in the past. The U.S. server dropped our download speeds by about 15% and the other servers dropped our download speeds by 30 to 56%.  

The most significant drop by far was while connected to a Sydney server. Our download speed dropped by 56% and our upload almost completely tanked. 

Luckily, we noticed minimal slow downs while browsing and streaming Netflix. The further the server location from your physical location, the larger the impact on speed, so the Australia results weren't surprising. 

Note that increased latency is an issue for gamers who need a quick response for their playing. This may not impact you if you plan to only casually use your VPN, but is worth noting if you plan to use international servers.

The good news is that we didn't experience any issues or delays in connecting to any servers. You can easily connect to several different servers to find one with a speed that works for you.

Netflix tests

• Netflix test results: Private Internet Access easily unblocked all four regional Netflix libraries. 

Some people use a VPN to watch Netflix, but sometimes streaming apps block VPN usage. We conducted tests with Private Internet Access to see if we could watch Netflix while connected to different servers around the world.

	US to US	US to CA	US to UK	US to AU
Did it work with Netflix?

PIA has streaming-optimized servers, so we tried them out for our Netflix tests if they were available. We connected to servers in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. 

After connecting to the server, we opened up Netflix to see if it would connect and then sampled a show to see if there were any lag issues. PIA let us stream shows seamlessly, even while connected to servers on the other side of the world.

DNS leak tests

• DNS leak test results: Private Internet Access passed its DNS leak test.

The domain name system (DNS) leak test reveals if a VPN is successfully masking your IP address, internet service provider (ISP), and general location. If it doesn't, it's leaking data. We used BrowserLeaks to conduct our DNS leak test.

Once we connected to Private Internet Access, we ran the DNS leak test. The VPN was able to hide our information and show the VPN server instead.

WebRTC leak tests

• WebRTC leak test results: Private Internet Access passed its WebRTC leak test.

A WebRTC leak occurs when there's a vulnerability in your internet connection and it doesn't successfully hide your information from third parties. Instead, it exposes your IP address and makes it easy for third parties to identify you.

Once again, we used BrowserLeaks to conduct the WebRTC leak test. Without the VPN on, we could see our real IP address. Then we connected to Private Internet Access. The leak test showed the VPN server IP address instead of our real IP address, so there were no WebRTC leaks detected.

Kill switch test

• Kill switch test results: Private Internet Access passed its kill switch test.

A kill switch is an essential feature for security. With a kill switch, your online activities should always be protected because it stops your internet connection if your VPN drops. 

We tested the kill switch by starting with a server in Mexico then opening ipleak.net. We swapped to a server in Canada to see if Private Internet Access would leak our true IP address. Luckily, PIA kept our real location a secret. 

PIA compatibility

You can set up the PIA VPN app on an unlimited number of devices, operating systems, mobile apps, and browser extensions, including:

• Windows (8.1, 10, and 11)
• macOS (11.0+)
• Linux (Ubuntu 18.04+, Mint 19+, Debian, Fedora, or Arch)
• Android (Android 7.0+)
• iOS (iOS 12.1+)
• Chrome
• Firefox
• Opera
• Android TV
• Amazon Fire TV
• Routers
• Consoles (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and more)

You can find Private Internet Access download options in your PIA account on a web browser. We were able to find download links for the Private Internet Access Chrome extension and other apps in the Downloads tab.

We noticed that PIA VPN had loads of excellent reviews and high ratings for both its iOS and Android apps. The PIA VPN app on Google Play has 4.4 out of 5 stars with more than 94,000 reviews. The PIA VPN app on the Apple App Store has 4.7 out of 5 stars with over 120,000 ratings.

PIA customer support

Private Internet Access offers customer support through its support website, email, live chat, forums, and social media channels. You can also submit error reports through the PIA app (we were able to see this option on the Windows app) and fill out a contact form through the support portal.

The PIA social media channels include Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. PIA also has a YouTube channel, but the last upload was more than a year ago. You can send an email to the PIA support team at support@privateinternetaccess.com.

Live chat

Private Internet Access offers 24/7 live chat available to anyone on its website. We decided to see what the chat experience was like by asking a PIA representative a few questions. You can find the chat button in the bottom right corner of just about any page on the main PIA website.

After starting the live chat, we were quickly (within a few seconds) transferred to a live agent to begin our conversation. 

Our first question was regarding the issues we had while using the streaming-optimized servers. The representative was thorough about asking us our location, operating system, and how we were accessing Netflix. They provided us with tips to troubleshoot our connection.

Overall, the customer support agent was polite, friendly, and understandable.

Support portal

The PIA support portal provides loads of resources for PIA users or anyone who’s interested in learning more about this VPN. This includes guides, announcements, and a knowledge base area with FAQs.

The news section of the support website is especially helpful because it provides updates about relevant events for PIA users. For example, an announcement about maintenance on a specific server gives you a heads-up that you won’t be able to use that server for a certain period of time.

The section with different guides can also be helpful if you need a few tips on how to use PIA in different ways or how to set it up on certain devices. This could include installing PIA VPN on Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS devices.

Top alternatives

Private Internet Access has a lot to offer, but it struggled with some speed tests and is based in a Five Eyes alliance country. We've compiled some of our top alternatives that excel in speed, security, and more: 

FAQs

Bottom line: Is Private Internet Access good?

Yes, Private Internet Access is a good VPN that’s fast, affordable, private, and secure. And you get plenty of server locations with opportunities to unblock regional streaming content. Even better, the PIA no-logs policy has been tested in court and successfully audited by an independent third party.

But the PIA headquarters in the U.S. is a tad concerning. Nothing has happened yet for PIA to breach its no-logs policy, but the U.S. is a well-known member of a global surveillance group of countries. It also had some mediocre speed test results on our most recent round of testing. 

PIA has a lot going for it, including 24/7 customer service. If you're not sold on this service, see how PIA compares with other top VPNs:

• Private Internet Access vs. NordVPN
• Private Internet Access vs. Proton VPN
• Private Internet Access vs. ExpressVPN
• Private Internet Access vs. Surfshark
• Private Internet Access vs. IPVanish