McAfee VPN Review 2026: Is the VPN in Your Antivirus Good Enough?

Most people know McAfee for its antivirus, the software that came preinstalled as a trial on many Windows laptops. Over the years, the company has grown into a wider cybersecurity brand, adding identity monitoring, scam detection, and a VPN to its security plans. That means if you pay for McAfee, you may already have a VPN without knowing it, as a tab in the same app. It’s tempting to switch it on and skip paying for a separate subscription.

The question is whether a VPN that comes as an extra protects you as well as one from a company that only makes VPNs. I used McAfee VPN the way most people would: for everyday browsing, for shows from other countries, for downloads, and with the connection dropping now and then. The basics worked well, and one result surprised me in a good way.

Still, a couple of its settings work differently from what their names promise, so check those before you rely on it. Here’s what I found.

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McAfee VPN Review: Quick Look

Price	From $29.99 for the first year (Basic plan, 1 device)
Money-back guarantee	30 days, not on monthly plans
Devices	1, 5, or unlimited, depending on the plan
Server locations	48 countries, no city choice
Protocol	WireGuard on Windows, no manual choice
Encryption	AES-256
Kill switch	Safe Reconnect, off by default, leaked on restart
Split tunneling	Fixed list of streaming platforms, not editable
Leak tests	No IP, DNS, WebRTC, or IPv6 leaks on any of the 48 locations
Average speed loss	25.8% across UK, US, and Japanese servers
Streaming	Netflix US, UK, Canada, and Australia
Torrenting	Torrents didn’t download
No-logs policy	Claimed, never independently audited
Company base	United States
Apps	Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, ChromeOS

McAfee VPN Pricing and Plans

McAfee’s US site doesn’t sell the VPN as a separate product. It comes with three security plans, and each one includes Secure VPN, antivirus, Scam Detector, identity monitoring, and web protection. Introductory prices for new customers:

• Basic plan: $29.99 for the first year, 1 device
• Essential plan: $39.99 for the first year, 5 devices
• Advanced plan: $89.99 for the first year, unlimited devices, plus personal information removal, Social Privacy Manager, credit monitoring, and up to $2 million in identity theft coverage

The Basic plan covers a single device, so if you want the VPN on a laptop and a phone, the Essential plan is the cheapest one that covers both. Purchases come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, though monthly subscriptions don’t qualify.

McAfee also offers a free trial, but it requires payment details and charges you when the trial ends unless you cancel first. If the VPN is all you’re after, a dedicated VPN usually offers more for similar money, or for less with current VPN deals.

Who Makes McAfee VPN?

McAfee VPN comes from McAfee LLC, the security company headquartered in San Jose, California. In McAfee’s app, it’s labeled Secure VPN, and older versions were sold as McAfee Safe Connect. It’s the same VPN in every plan, so I tested it in McAfee Total Protection on Windows 11.

McAfee bought TunnelBear, a Canadian VPN company, in 2018 and said at the time that it would build TunnelBear’s technology into its own VPN. Four years later, McAfee itself was taken private by a group of investors led by Advent International and Permira.

Does McAfee VPN Keep Logs?

McAfee says it doesn’t log what you do while connected. Its privacy notice, last updated in January 2026, states that the VPN doesn’t collect your original IP address, your DNS queries, or the apps and websites you use while it’s on. It does say the VPN may collect “certain telemetry,” meaning technical data about how the app performs, without listing what that covers.

There’s no separate privacy policy for the VPN, and no independent audit backs the no-logs claim. McAfee’s VPN page calls its technology independently reviewed and audited, but the source it links to is a 2020 security audit of TunnelBear, a different VPN with its own apps. I wouldn’t treat that as proof of how McAfee VPN treats your data.

The company’s location is the other concern. As a US company, McAfee has to comply with US court orders and other legal requests for user data. The US is also a member of the Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing alliance with the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. For everyday browsing on public Wi-Fi, that’s unlikely to affect you, but if privacy is your main reason for a VPN, choose an audited one based outside the US.

McAfee VPN Security Features

A VPN’s core job is to encrypt your connection and hide your IP address. McAfee VPN does that well, but its extra protections are thin.

Encryption and Protocols

McAfee encrypts traffic with AES-256, the standard most VPNs and banks use. On Windows, the VPN connected over WireGuard, a modern protocol known for fast, stable connections. I confirmed it in the Windows network adapter list, which showed McAfee’s connection as a WireGuard tunnel.

The app also installs an OpenVPN adapter, though it stayed unused during my tests. McAfee lists OpenVPN and IKEv2 support too, but the app has no protocol menu, so you can’t switch. That’s a drawback on hotel or office Wi-Fi that blocks WireGuard, where changing the protocol is often the quickest fix.

Safe Reconnect: McAfee’s Kill Switch

A kill switch cuts your internet if the VPN drops, so your own IP address isn’t exposed. McAfee’s version is called Safe Reconnect, and it’s off by default, so turn it on in the VPN settings first. Even switched on, it’s a basic kill switch. Safe Reconnect pauses your internet while the VPN tries to reconnect.

However, McAfee’s own description says that if reconnecting fails, the app notifies you and restores your internet without VPN protection. It also works only once the VPN is connected. When I restarted my PC with Safe Reconnect on, my traffic leaked before the VPN connected again.

There’s no stricter mode that keeps the PC offline until the VPN is back, and for privacy-focused users, I consider that a serious flaw. If you rely on the VPN for privacy, check that it’s connected after every restart before you sign in to sensitive accounts.

Split Tunneling

Split tunneling lets chosen apps or websites skip the VPN and use your normal connection. McAfee’s version is one of the worst I’ve seen. You can’t pick apps or sites yourself.

Turn it on, and McAfee sends a fixed list of streaming platforms around the VPN, with no way to change it. It’s off by default, and I’d leave it that way. With it on, those platforms see your own IP address, so you’d see your home catalog instead of the one you connected for.

Auto-Connect and Trusted Networks

Auto-connect is off by default too. McAfee says the VPN can switch on by itself on unsecured networks such as public Wi-Fi, so enable it if you often connect in coffee shops or airports. You can also mark home or office networks as trusted, and the VPN stays off on them. A separate alert, on from the start, warns you when you join a network with weak security.

Leak Tests

A leak happens when your own IP address or DNS requests show up outside the VPN tunnel. I checked for IP, DNS, WebRTC, and IPv6 leaks on browserleaks.com, and McAfee VPN didn’t leak in any of them. Every check showed only the VPN’s IP address and DNS server.

I had some spare time during testing, so I repeated the same checks on all 48 of its locations. With a network this size, that took about an hour, and I was pleasantly surprised: none of them leaked. On a VPN with servers in 100+ countries, the same exercise would take far longer.

McAfee VPN Speed Test Results

I tested speeds in October on a Windows 11 PC in Europe, with a 190.36 Mbps connection, 19.37 Mbps of upload speed, and a 10 ms ping. I used Speedtest on McAfee’s UK, US, and Japanese servers. Nearby, McAfee VPN is quick. The UK server lost 8.2% of my download speed, which you wouldn’t notice while browsing or streaming.

Server	Download	Upload	Ping	Download speed loss
No VPN	190.36 Mbps	19.37 Mbps	10 ms	None
UK	174.78 Mbps	18.75 Mbps	42 ms	8.2%
US	146.52 Mbps	18.30 Mbps	123 ms	23.0%
Japan	102.34 Mbps	16.73 Mbps	274 ms	46.2%

Distance slows it more than most VPNs I’ve tested, though. The US server cut my download speed by 23%, and the Japanese server almost halved it, with a 46.2% speed loss. No other VPN I’ve tested slowed down this much in Japan. Averaged across the three locations, McAfee VPN lost 25.8% of my download speed.

UK Results:

US Results:

Japan Results:

In everyday terms, even 102 Mbps is enough for 4K video, which Netflix puts at 15 Mbps, so the slowdown shows mostly in large downloads. Uploads stayed close to my baseline on the UK and US servers and dropped 13.6% on the Japanese server. Connecting also took more than five seconds on every location, longer than most VPNs I’ve used.

Is McAfee VPN Good for Gaming?

Only on nearby servers. Ping depends on your distance from the server, and from my PC in Europe, the UK server came in at 42 ms, which is fine for online games. The US server’s 123 ms is enough for noticeable lag in shooters, and the Japanese server’s 274 ms is too high for fast, real-time games. If you play online, connect to the location closest to the game’s servers.

Streaming: What McAfee VPN Unblocks

I tested streaming with split tunneling off, McAfee’s default, so every platform saw the VPN’s IP address. The results:

• Unblocked: Netflix US, Netflix UK, Netflix Canada, and Netflix Australia
• Blocked: Netflix Japan, BBC iPlayer, ITVX, HBO Max, Hulu, Prime Video, and Pluto TV

BBC iPlayer showed its region error, ITVX played a black screen instead of the live channel, and Pluto TV detected the VPN. Unless you only want English-language Netflix libraries, McAfee VPN is one of the worst VPNs for streaming I’ve tested.

Even free VPNs such as Windscribe and PrivadoVPN unblocked more platforms, and with less effort. For US platforms beyond Netflix, such as Peacock outside the US, use a VPN built for streaming.

Can You Use McAfee VPN for Torrenting?

No. I tried a Linux Mint torrent on McAfee’s US, UK, Japanese, Finnish, and German servers, plus a few other locations, and it never started downloading. The download speed stayed at zero on every server.

To rule out a problem with my own network, I turned the VPN off, and the same torrent started downloading straight away. If you download torrents, use a VPN that allows P2P traffic, like the VPNs for torrenting we recommend.

McAfee VPN Server Locations

McAfee VPN offers servers in 48 countries, but you can choose only a country, never a city. That’s limiting in large countries like the US, where you can’t pick a coast closer to you or to the website you want. McAfee also doesn’t say how many servers it operates in each country.

There’s no search bar either, so finding a location means scrolling through the whole list, which became tedious quickly. India and Hong Kong aren’t on the list. If you travel to either or want a local IP address there, see our guides to the best VPNs for India and VPNs that work in Hong Kong.

Apps and Ease of Use

On Windows, the VPN is a tab in McAfee’s security app: one large toggle, a Change button for the location, and a VPN settings menu under them. It takes seconds to figure out, though a panel promoting the phone app takes up a lot of the screen.

The settings menu is short, with auto-connect, Safe Reconnect, split tunneling, weak-network alerts, and trusted networks. McAfee offers apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS. I tested only the Windows app, so for a VPN chosen mainly for your phone, our list of the best VPNs for iPhone is a better starting point.

There are no apps for Linux or smart TVs, and McAfee VPN can’t be set up on a router, so every device requires its own app. A VPN on a router covers a whole household from one place instead.

Customer Support

McAfee offers live chat and phone support around the clock, with phone lines in more than 60 countries. When I contacted support during an earlier McAfee test, the chat assistant asked for a short description of the problem and passed me to a person in under a minute.

Better Alternatives to McAfee VPN

If you want a VPN for more than public Wi-Fi, such as foreign streaming catalogs, torrenting, or region-locked YouTube videos, consider these three VPNs instead:

• NordVPN: it lost just 7.8% of my download speed across UK, US, and Japanese servers and unblocked BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and Netflix Japan. It also covers 152 countries, with city choice in larger ones, and offers dedicated P2P servers.
• Proton VPN: a Swiss VPN with an independently audited no-logs policy, so its privacy claims have outside proof. It unblocked BBC iPlayer and Netflix Japan, and port forwarding speeds up torrent downloads on its paid plans.
• ExpressVPN: it unblocked every streaming platform I tried and offers apps for routers, smart TVs, and Linux, the devices McAfee VPN can’t cover.

For a closer look, the McAfee VPN vs NordVPN showdown compares the two side by side, and more VPNs appear on our best VPN page.

Verdict

McAfee VPN covers the basics of online protection well. It encrypted my traffic, didn’t leak on any of its 48 locations, and stayed fast on nearby servers. If you already pay for McAfee, that’s enough to protect a laptop on hotel or airport Wi-Fi. Beyond that, it falls short of a dedicated VPN. Its kill switch leaked after a restart and can fall back to an unprotected connection.

Worse yet, the VPN couldn’t unblock most streaming platforms, and no torrent downloaded on any server I tried. Distant servers also slowed it down sharply, and McAfee has never had its no-logs claim independently audited. If you’re a McAfee customer and mainly want safer public Wi-Fi, turn on Safe Reconnect and use the VPN you already have.

If privacy, streaming, or torrenting is why you want a VPN, choose NordVPN or Proton VPN instead.

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