Best VPN With Ad Blocker in 2026: 5 VPNs That Block Ads and Trackers

A VPN ad blocker never sees the ad itself. Before a banner, a pop-up, or a tracking script can load, your phone or laptop has to look up the address it comes from, and the blocker cancels that lookup when the address is on a known ad list.

Because the VPN handles those lookups for every app on the device, one filter covers Chrome, Safari, a news app, and a mobile game at once. That method has a blind spot. Ads that arrive from the same servers as the video, as many YouTube ads and the ads on Netflix’s and Hulu’s cheaper plans do, look like part of the show.

So, does a VPN block ads? Only when it has a blocker built in, and some block far more than others. We’ve tested 25+ VPNs, and these five have blockers we’d actually use.

VPN Ad Blockers Compared

The first row comes from d3ward’s ad-block test, which loads 135 known ad, tracker, and analytics addresses and counts how many the blocker stops. The rest shows what each blocker costs and what it covers.

	NordVPN	Proton VPN	ExpressVPN	PIA VPN	Surfshark
Ads and Trackers Blocked (d3ward)	76%	93%	71%	96%	79%
Blocker	Next-gen antivirus	NetShield	Advanced Protection	MACE	CleanWeb
Plans With the Blocker	Complete and Prime	VPN Plus and higher	Every plan (Basic skips trackers)	Every plan	Every plan
Blocks With the VPN Off	Yes (Windows, macOS)	No	No	No	No
Countries	152	149	113	113	100
Average Speed Loss	7.8%	10.2%	7.8%	12.7%	9.6%
Price With the Blocker (2-Year Plan)	About $4.50/mo	About $3/mo	About $3/mo	About $2/mo	About $2.50/mo

Best VPN With Ad Blocker in October 2026

1. NordVPN: Best All-in-One Ad Blocker With Antivirus

NordVPN, one of the most secure VPNs we’ve tested, builds its ad blocker into next-gen antivirus. The same switch blocks ads and trackers, checks downloaded files for malware, and warns you about scam sites. On Windows and macOS, it keeps working with the VPN disconnected, so you can browse at home without the VPN and still see far fewer ads.

On d3ward’s ad block test, it stopped 76% of ads and trackers, a bit disappointing for a feature sold as antivirus, and below PIA’s and Proton VPN’s results. If the leftover banners bother you, add a content-filtering extension to your browser, which also catches ads served from a site’s own domain.

When a site you like asks you to disable your ad blocker, put it on the allowlist instead of switching protection off. The blocker comes with the Complete plan, about $4.50 a month for two years. The Basic plan keeps a lighter filter for dangerous sites that works only while you’re connected, so choose Complete if ads are the reason you’re buying.

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2. Proton VPN: Best for Private, Device-Wide Ad Blocking

Proton VPN’s blocker, NetShield, runs on Proton’s own DNS servers. Each address your device looks up is checked against lists of ad, tracker, and malware domains, and matches never load. You choose between two levels: malware only, or malware plus ads and trackers.

In our Proton VPN tests, NetShield set to block everything stopped 93% of the test’s ads and trackers, close behind PIA’s MACE. Oddly, the Privacy Panel, the in-app counter for blocked ads and trackers, still read zero after the run. Judge NetShield by the pages you visit, not by that number. Its Chrome extension has no ad blocker, so keep the desktop app connected while you browse, and NetShield filters Chrome too.

NetShield comes with VPN Plus, roughly $3 a month across a two-year subscription, and every higher tier. Proton VPN’s free plan, which tops our list of the best free VPNs, leaves the blocker out, so treat it as a way to try the apps before paying.

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3. ExpressVPN: Best for Blocking Ads in the Browser

ExpressVPN keeps its blocker, Advanced Protection, under Add-ons instead of with the other settings, which confused us at first. It has four switches: ads, trackers, malicious sites, and adult sites. The Basic plan receives a lighter version that blocks ads but leaves trackers alone, so tracker blocking starts on the Advanced plan.

It’s about $4.50 a month with two years paid up front. With all four switches on, the desktop app blocked 71% of ads and trackers on d3ward’s test. Its Chrome extension did noticeably better, so use the extension in the browser and the app for everything else.

Advanced Protection also greys out WireGuard and OpenVPN, so leave the protocol on Automatic or Lightway while it’s enabled. The adult-site switch suits a shared family computer. On your own laptop, switch it off if you want to unblock Pornhub with this VPN in a state that blocks it.

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4. Private Internet Access: Best for Blocking the Most Ads

Private Internet Access calls its blocker MACE, and every PIA plan includes it. Enable it under Settings, then Privacy, and connect to a server. From then on, MACE filters ad, tracker, and malware domains for the whole device, browser and apps alike. On a US server, MACE blocked 96% of what d3ward’s test throws at it, the best result we recorded.

The browser extension is a different story: with MACE on, it stopped almost nothing, so do your ad blocking through the desktop app. The Windows and Mac apps feel cluttered and dated, but once MACE is enabled, you rarely need to open them.

On the longest plan, PIA comes to roughly $2 a month and covers every device in the house, so with Surfshark, it’s the cheapest VPN here.

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5. Surfshark: Best Value Ad Blocker With No Device Limit

Surfshark, a regular in our overall VPN ranking, includes CleanWeb on every plan, Starter included, and sets no device limit. One subscription can filter ads on every phone, laptop, and TV in the house.

On the same test, CleanWeb blocked 79% of ads and trackers, and the browser extension matched the app almost exactly. The extension also handles cookie pop-ups, warns you about sites that leaked user data, and checks Gmail for scam emails.

Outside ad blocking, it’s one of the best VPNs for streaming, and ITVX was the only service it couldn’t unblock in our tests. Antivirus comes only with Surfshark One, so if ads and trackers are all you want gone, the Starter plan, about $2.50 a month for a two-year term, covers it.

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How VPN Ad Blocking Works

A regular VPN doesn’t block ads. As our guide to how a VPN works explains, its job is to encrypt your connection and change your IP address. Every VPN in our ranking adds a filter on top, at the DNS level.

Before your device fetches anything, it asks a DNS server where to find it, and the blocker does not answer for domains on its ad, tracker, and malware lists. That approach is strong against:

• Banners and pop-ups on websites, in every browser on the device
• Ads inside free apps and games, which browser extensions can’t reach
• Trackers and analytics scripts that follow you from site to site
• Malware and phishing domains, before a page or file arrives

It’s weak against ads served from the same domain as the content:

• YouTube video ads, which usually share servers with the videos themselves
• Netflix and Hulu ad plans, whose ads come from the services’ own systems
• Sponsored posts on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, which are part of the feed
• Spotify’s in-app promotions for its Premium plan

Blocking still pays off on ordinary sites. With fewer scripts to download, pages often load faster and use less mobile data. Most of these blockers work only while the VPN is connected, and NordVPN’s next-gen antivirus on Windows and macOS is the exception.

How to Turn On a VPN’s Ad Blocker

Enable the blocker in the VPN app, then connect to a server. The switch has a different name in each app:

1. Install the VPN on your computer or phone and sign in.
2. Open the blocker setting: next-gen antivirus in NordVPN, NetShield in Proton VPN, Advanced Protection under Add-ons in ExpressVPN, MACE under Settings and Privacy in PIA, or CleanWeb in Surfshark.
3. Enable ad and tracker blocking, plus malware blocking if it’s a separate switch.
4. Connect to a server. A nearby one keeps browsing fast.
5. Run d3ward’s ad block test in your browser to see what the blocker catches.

If a site stops working, such as a login page or a shopping cart, add that site to the blocker’s allowlist where the app offers one, or disable the blocker for a moment and reload.

VPN Ad Blocker vs. Browser Extension

A browser extension such as uBlock Origin reads each page and removes ad elements, including many that come from the site’s own domain. It works only in the browser you install it on. A VPN blocker covers every browser and app on the device, but it can only stop whole domains.

The VPN companies’ own Chrome extensions muddy the picture, because each one blocks differently from its app. On d3ward’s test in Chrome:

• ExpressVPN: 87% with the extension, against 71% in the app
• Surfshark: 79% in both
• NordVPN: 52% with the extension, against 76% in the app
• PIA: 8% with the extension, against 96% in the app
• Proton VPN: 7% with the extension, which has no ad blocker, against 93% in the app

So check which part does the blocking before you rely on it. Surprisingly, the extension is the better blocker only on ExpressVPN.

VPN Ad Blocking on iPhone and Android

On a phone, a VPN is often the only practical way to block ads inside apps, since mobile browsers support few extensions. NordVPN, Proton VPN, ExpressVPN, PIA, and Surfshark offer their blockers on iPhone and Android, and they filter while the VPN is connected.

Android has two catches. A custom Private DNS setting takes priority over the VPN’s filter, and Proton VPN tells users to set it to Off or Automatic for NetShield to work. PIA also leaves MACE out of its Google Play app because of store policies, so Android users who want it install PIA’s app from its website.

Free VPN With Ad Blocker: What You Get

Free plans rarely include a working ad blocker, and many free VPN apps show ads of their own. Proton VPN’s free plan, our favorite overall, leaves NetShield for paying users.

Windscribe is the free exception. Its R.O.B.E.R.T. filter blocks ads, trackers, and malware domains on the free plan, with lists you can switch on and off. With a confirmed email address, the free plan allows 10 GB of data a month, enough for browsing but not much video.

Be wary of free VPN apps from companies you can’t identify. Some log your browsing and sell it to advertisers, which is the opposite of what you want from an ad blocker.

Conclusion

If ads in one desktop browser are all that bother you, a free extension such as uBlock Origin is the simpler fix, since it also removes ads that share a domain with the page.

A VPN ad blocker makes sense once the ads follow you into phone apps, games, and every browser in the house, and when you want trackers and malicious sites filtered on top of an encrypted connection.

For that job, we’d go with NordVPN. Its next-gen antivirus scans downloads and keeps blocking with the VPN off, though it requires the Complete plan. PIA and Proton VPN blocked the most ads, and Surfshark covers the most devices for the money.

After you enable any of them, run d3ward’s ad block test once with the blocker on and once with it off. The difference shows what it changes on your own devices.

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