Virtual private networks (VPNs) are popular because they keep what you do on the internet private, help defeat censorship, and allow you to watch your favorite streaming content securely. Under most circumstances, a VPN will slightly slow down your internet connection, although the chances are you’d never notice this. However, in this article, we’ll look at how you can improve your internet speeds when using a VPN. How VPNs work When you run a VPN app on your laptop or phone, it connects to a VPN server run by a VPN provider (such as UbiVPN) using an encrypted connection (which is sometimes known as a “VPN tunnel”). This VPN server acts as an intermediary between your device and the internet. Your internet service provider (ISP) or router host (if using public WiFi) can see that you’ve connected to the IP address of the VPN server. However, it can’t see what you do on the internet after that because its “view” is blocked by the VPN server. It also can’t see the contents of your internet traffic because it’s encrypted by the VPN tunnel. In the other direction, websites and other internet resources you visit see the IP address of the VPN server, but the VPN server also blocks their “view” of your real IP address. This means all they can see is the IP address of the VPN server — not your real IP address or who your ISP is. Why does a VPN slow down your internet? As we can see, VPNs are useful tools. However, some of the core aspects of VPN design that make them so useful also have a (usually small) impact on your internet speeds. 1. Distance to the VPN server When using a VPN, your data is routed via a VPN server as it travels between your device and the internet. This means it travels further, which takes extra time. And the further it travels, the more time it takes. So if you live in Australia and connect to a VPN server in the UK, It’s going to take longer for your data to travel from your device in Australia → UK VPN server → website → UK VPN server → Australia than it would to travel from your device in Australia → website → Australia. This is even more true if the website you’re looking at is hosted in Australia. The extra distance your data must travel to the VPN server is the most important factor that slows down VPN connections. Learn more about why distance affects internet speeds 2. Encryption When you connect to a VPN, it encrypts the data traveling between your device and the VPN server to keep it secure. That is, it’s scrambled in such a way that only your device and the VPN server can unscramble and read it. Learn more about encryption This encryption and decryption process requires your device and the VPN server to perform complex mathematical calculations, which takes time. Still, all but the most low-end modern devices (including smartphones) can perform encryption and decryption for a single connection so fast that any impact on your internet speed will be negligible. However, for a VPN server doing this for perhaps hundreds of connections at once, the encryption/decryption overhead can have a meaningful impact on internet speeds and contribute to the overall server load. 3. Server load VPN servers are computers with finite resources — processing power, memory (RAM), storage capacity, and so on. As more people connect to a VPN server, they use more of these resources. This is known as server load — a measurement of how stretched a server’s resources are, which is itself a direct result of the number of people using that server. A VPN server with resources to spare (for example, with a low to moderate load) can handle its tasks (such as verifying accounts, connecting users to their destinations, encrypting and decrypting traffic, and more) quickly and efficiently. But when a server is struggling to divide its resources among many users (when it has a high load), customers connected to it may experience slower connection speeds. 4. Quality of the VPN provider VPN services usually allow their customers to connect to VPN servers located in many locations around the world. To do this, they partner with local server centers to rent use of their servers from them. Of course, servers with fewer resources to start with will become heavily loaded much more quickly than high-end servers with powerful processors, lots of RAM, and ample storage. A good VPN service will rent high-performance servers with high load capacity (that is, they can handle a great many connections before their performance is impaired). They will also rent many of these, as the server load of 1,000 customers spread across 100 servers will be much lower per server than if all customers use a single server at a location. UbiVPN offers over 3,000 high-performance servers in over 70 countries. Our high-speed Plus servers offer up to 10 Gbps connectivity in most locations. Bandwidth Another factor that affects your connection speeds is bandwidth. Your raw bandwidth is determined by the internet infrastructure available at your location and the broadband or mobile internet packet package you’ve purchased from your ISP. However, when using a VPN, your data is routed through a server center, which itself leases bandwidth from ISPs. Much like server load, the more people using that bandwidth, the less bandwidth is available to each person. And if the available bandwidth falls below the raw amount of bandwidth you pay your ISP for (plus the usual bandwidth losses associated with connecting over a distance), your internet connection will slow down.