Private Internet Access Review: The Safest US-Based VPN

Welcome to the Private Internet Access review, where we analyze its overwhelming number of features and functionalities. PIA has been around for ages and is undoubtedly the best American VPN provider. With so many security functions under its belt, this VPN has plenty to offer for little money (very little).

As some may know, this is a reliable service whose monthly price always lingers around $2. On top of that, it has reliable P2P servers, a heap of locations, modern protocols, and every other feature that makes a premium VPN worthy of its status. So what’s the catch? Can you really get a good VPN service for this money?

Drawing from our experience with Private Internet Access, we’ll say we’re satisfied with what we derived from it. In other words, this sum of money can afford you a great VPN. This in-depth Private Internet Access review covers our years-long experience with it. Here is more information on its advantages and shortcomings.

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Private Internet Access Review: Quick Look

💸 Starting price	$2.03 per month for 24 months
🔖 Money-back guarantee	30 days
🌐 Protocols	OpenVPN (UDP and TCP) and WireGuard
🥸 No-log policy	Yes
💾 Servers	30,000 in 91 countries
⚡ Speeds	Middling
⚙️ Ease of Use	Average
⏸️ Double VPN/Multi-hop	Yes
🦠 Malware and virus protection	Yes
📺 Streaming and P2P	Allowed (works with Netflix US)
💯 Third-party audits	Yes (Deloitte)
💻 Supported platforms	Windows, iOS, Android, macOS, Linux, routers, browsers, and more
#️⃣ Simultaneous connections	Unlimited
☎️ Customer support	24/7 live chat, email, help center

Private Internet Access Pricing: How Much Does It Cost?

PIA is famous for its laid-back approach to pricing. This VPN doesn’t charge you a fortune, but it doesn’t skimp on the quality. As you see below, the pricing structure is simple. The plan in the middle sticks out like a sore thumb. In a good way, of course. It’s a 2-year deal with 4 free months at $2.03 per month.

This is a special discount through our site for new users who’d like to try PIA for the first time. What about other plans? The monthly plan is still affordable, but way pricier than the 2-year offer. The 6-month plan at $7.50 is reasonably priced, too. Renewal prices are fair, and when the initial deal ends, PIA charges $57 per year.

If you’re searching for an amazing, inexpensive VPN, this is your chance to get one. At this price, it’s not going to get much better, as you’ll soon learn in this Private Internet Access review. Before that, let’s explore its refund policy.

Visit Private Internet Access Website

🤑 Money-Back Guarantee/Free Trial

Since we’ve started our Private Internet Access review with the price, let’s touch on its 30-day money-back guarantee. It lets you test PIA and get a refund if you find it lacking. Private Internet Access will refund you, as the refund policy is non-conditional. When it comes to the free trial, the VPN offers none.

It’s also a paid service, so free plans are a no-go. The good news is that mobile users can obtain a 7-day free trial if they register through their iOS or Android phones (more about the best Android VPNs here). In this case, after the first 7 days, users will be charged a standard price without a discount.

💳 Payment Methods

You can purchase PIA VPN using several payment gateways that include:

• Debit and credit cards
• PayPal
• Amazon Pay
• Cryptocurrencies

While not the widest range of payment methods, it’s more than enough. With credit/debit cards and PayPal, we think everyone can get Private Internet Access. Since you can also pay using crypto, you can purchase PIA completely anonymously.

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Ease of Use and Compatibility

Our experience with Private Internet Access was never excellent in terms of ease of use. The  VPN is simple to set up and even easier to get into. However, the app just doesn’t look great to us, plus, it can be clunky and slow to connect at times. We don’t like that the app sort of extends down (look at the middle).

This happens when you want to open the server list, which then extends the app window downwards. The Settings menu is also a separate window, which we honestly don’t prefer. However, in this PIA review, this is just a minor nitpick. We prefer the mobile version of Private Internet Access.

It resembles the PC version but, obviously, without those extensions when opening the server list. Everything is in one window and works a little better for more than obvious reasons. Device compatibility is good—not excellent.

You’ll be able to test and use it on:

• Windows, Linux, and macOS computers and laptops
• Android and iOS smartphones and tablets
• Smart TVs (including Android TVs like Nvidia Shield)
• Routers (by extension, gaming consoles)
• Web browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Brave, Edge, and Opera)

The selling point of this provider is unlimited simultaneous connections. In this regard, it beats ExpressVPN, NordVPN, CyberGhost, Hide.me, and dozens of others. Our experience with Private Internet Access was cut short on the Fire TV Stick. In other words, Amazon Fire TV isn’t supported by a native app from the provider.

This is a huge missed opportunity, as every other competitor (even cheaper ones, like Surfshark) offers an app for this platform. Check out the best Fire TV Stick VPN providers here if that’s what you need.

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Security Features of Private Internet Access

Our Private Internet Access review will analyze every security feature of this provider. It’s easy to see what the provider’s focus is, as it has some of the most advanced options. Let’s make haste and analyze each right away.

🔐 Basic VPN Features

Under the hood, PIA offers plentiful basic but mandatory features, such as:

• Customizable encryption: PIA lets you customize your encryption by choosing 128-bit or 256-bit GCM options. While both are impenetrable, reducing your encryption to 128-bit speeds up your connection for gaming and streaming.
• VPN Kill Switch: We tested it by shutting down the VPN process to see if the kill switch would work. It worked without a hitch, disabling our internet connection to ensure our IP doesn’t leak to the public.
• Advanced Kill Switch: This kill switch blocks internet access until you connect to a VPN. That said, if you use it, you won’t be able to go online unless you connect to PIA. We kept this feature OFF because we didn’t need a VPN at all times.
• PIA MACE: It’s a simple feature that blocks ads, trackers, and malware. We don’t like that it doesn’t list blocked threats like Threat Protection Pro in NordVPN.
• Split Tunneling: It allows you to choose which apps will use a VPN. However, there’s also an IP Split Tunneling, which lets you apply the effect to IP addresses and domains. Enter the IP address of the website and apply the settings.

⭐ Advanced Security Features

Despite being a low-cost option, Private Internet Access pushes the limits of what many of its rivals can provide for the money. Look at the features we tested in this PIA review for 2026, and you’ll be impressed at the variety.

🛠️ Protocol Customization

Private Internet Access doesn’t offer many protocols. OpenVPN and WireGuard are the only options. However, we tested both, and they’re more than enough. OpenVPN speeds are on the slower side, with WireGuard being much quicker. The great thing about both protocols is their customization.

OpenVPN, in particular, allows you to choose the transport method from UDP or TCP depending on your preferences. Moreover, the OpenVPN protocol allows you to customize the encryption (128-bit or 256-bit GCM). We love the option to choose a custom remote port and configure the packet size.

WireGuard isn’t customizable. Still, we customized the connection timeout and MTU (packet size). Admittedly, the lack of an Automatic option is baffling. The app can’t automatically determine the best protocol. It uses OpenVPN by default, but if you want, you can set it to WireGuard and enable the Alternate Settings option.

This option automatically tries other settings if custom settings don’t work.

🌐 Several DNS Options

Among our favorite security features in this PIA review is Private DNS. It’s great because the VPN doesn’t rely on third-party DNS services to handle your DNS requests. This means no third-party interference that could compromise your online identity and spy on you. In addition, the provider offers a few DNS options.

You can use a built-in resolver, Handshake DNS, or even a custom one. In our experience, keeping this setting at PIA DNS yields the best results privacy-wise. From this menu, you can also request port forwarding and permit or forbid LAN traffic, even when you have the kill switch enabled, for added customization.

📍 Multi-Hop With Obfuscation and Proxies

Unlike ExpressVPN, its more expensive brother, Private Internet Access, includes Multi-Hop. It’s vastly different from the Multi-Hop from Surfshark or Double VPN from NordVPN. Multi-Hop from PIA comes with obfuscation in the form of a proxy. It will first route your traffic through the VPN server and then through a proxy.

Thereby, the activation of Multi-Hop automatically activates the Shadowsocks proxy whose location can be chosen from the app. PIA includes a few Shadowsocks locations—the Netherlands, the US, the UK, Canada, Switzerland, and Japan. Plus, Multi-Hop is customizable and has no pre-built location pairs like NordVPN.

This adds freedom, as it provides more control and customization for those willing to go deeper. If you don’t want to use Shadowsocks, you can opt for SOCKS5, which can be handy when downloading torrents with a VPN. However, you must manually provide the IP address, port, and username/password.

Stay Safe with PIA VPN

🤖 Automation

Automation is more of a convenience, rather than a security feature. We love it because it simplifies the use of a VPN. You can use it to make Private Internet Access automatically connect or disconnect from a server on specific networks. These rules can be applied to protected and open WiFi or wired connections.

For instance, if you connect to a protected WiFi network, the VPN will immediately connect and encrypt your traffic. In our test, we didn’t like that we couldn’t choose the location. We would like to have an option to automatically connect the VPN to, let’s say, the US. With the existing setup, PIA will connect to a random server.

In our case, the VPN pretty much always went for the Hungarian VPN server.

🦠 Antivirus (Optional)

Private Internet Access has an optional antivirus, which worked well in our test. After trying this antivirus, we detected a few threats on our test computer. It’s not on the level of the top antivirus services on the market, but it’ll detect at least 95% of the threats. Bear in mind that PIA Antivirus works only on Windows.

It’s still not on macOS, which is a bit of a bummer. If you pick the 2-year plan mentioned in this Private Internet Access review, you can get Antivirus for just $1.45 per month on top, a fair price for a reliable virus blocker.

💾 Servers Hosted on RAM

RAM-only servers are a staple of every VPN that calls itself safe and secure. Private Internet Access is no exception. All of its servers are hosted on RAM, allowing for easier maintenance and stronger security because of RAM’s volatile nature. Every reboot means all data is lost, so it can’t linger around for long.

While Private Internet Access doesn’t store logs, its RAM servers also hold nothing. If a server is seized, PIA can restart it, wipe all data, and leave nothing for the snooper.

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Private Internet Access Review: IP and DNS Leak Tests

Changing your IP address with Private Internet Access is the safest thing. That’s because it doesn’t display any leaks in our test. As always, we connected to the US server and used two websites to test the VPN—the first is ipleak.net.

The screenshot above shows exquisite results, with no IP or DNS addresses being leaked. We went to another site: browserleaks.com. No IP or DNS addresses are displayed, apart from the ones in the US. At the time of writing, we were in Belgrade.

So, based on our experience with Private Internet Access, we can only praise its level of security. The provider excels in quality in theory and practice.

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Does PIA VPN Keep Logs?

Private Internet Access is a US-based company, which, at first, raises many concerns over logging. The 5 Eyes, the USA, data retention… Well, no worries about that. This is easily one of the safest providers with a no-log policy proven in court multiple times. On top of that, the provider’s parent company is Kape Technologies.

This company owns recently reviewed ExpressVPN and CyberGhost. Both are immensely secure and have an impressive history of storing zero logs. So, it’s safe to say in this review that PIA is trustworthy. However, as this is a comprehensive analysis, we’ll examine its privacy policy for more information.

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🔎 Private Internet Access Review of Privacy Policy

Private Internet Access is straightforward and doesn’t use euphemisms like some of its rivals. First of all, the VPN will store no logs of your:

• IP address
• Used bandwidth
• Browsing history
• DNS requests
• VPN session timestamps
• Connection logs

The privacy policy mentions the collection of some data necessary for the service to function. Email address and payment data are mandatory because this is a premium service. The VPN also keeps a bit of anonymized data for product delivery and optimization. For example, the global number of users, server uptime, and so on.

Users who opt to send usage reports also won’t have to worry because PIA will NEVER request sensitive data. Again, the collected info includes anonymized connection events, app version, debugging information, and a few other parameters.

To digress, the only collected personal data is your email, payment info, and a ZIP code for tax analysis. Can these bits of data ruin your privacy? Absolutely not.

🧐 Third-Party Audits

If you don’t trust our Private Internet Access review, you can trust a big auditing firm. It’s called Deloitte, and we’re sure you’re familiar with it. This company audited PIA’s no-logs policy to verify its claims. Do you need more proof? Deloitte worked with NordVPN and Surfshark as well, performing multiple audits on these VPNs.

Finally, PIA came into the spotlight more than a few times, as some of its users were taking advantage of its privacy to perform illicit activities. When confronted in court with user data requests from the authorities, the company came out empty-handed. It also publishes transparency reports a few times a year.

This is definitive proof that this VPN doesn’t store sensitive data.

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Private Internet Access Review: Speed Test Results

If you’ve come here for speed test results, we won’t complicate things. It’s important to note our testing parameters, and above all, our reference point. Without using a VPN, our internet speeds are quite fast—not that we brag about them, but…

As explained previously in the PIA review, our location is Belgrade. Our team tested Private Internet Access for three days in a row, performing each test three times a day. To avoid making this in-depth review too deep, we used three locations: the UK, the US, and Japan. We also used WireGuard for most tests.

Here’s how well Private Internet Access performed in our tests:

UK Speed Test Results:

US Speed Test Results:

Japan Speed Test Results:

While the download speed was decent, Private Internet Access suffered from underwhelming upload speeds during the entire test. Nevertheless, it performs well in the majority of cases, but if you prioritize uploads, we suggest another option. NordVPN is the quickest VPN and a much faster replacement that won’t cost a lot.

	UK Server	US Server	Japan Server
⬇️ DL Speed Loss	15.7%	35.2%	45%
⬆️ UL Speed Loss	82%	85.5%	78%

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Streaming and Torrenting: How Does PIA VPN Perform?

During our Private Internet Access test, the provider displayed impressive performance for torrenting. In addition, you can enable port forwarding in the app to gain better speeds and improve the performance. While it has no dedicated P2P servers, all are at least capable of torrenting without restrictions.

As you see, everything worked well and without a hitch. Using nearby servers is smart here due to some speed reductions on more distant server locations. We started with torrenting because streaming isn’t a great experience with this VPN.

Download via P2P securely with PIA VPN

It has more than a few streaming-optimized locations. However, only the US ones worked with Netflix in our test. We tested Netflix UK and couldn’t find any UK-unique content. BBC iPlayer at least worked, but only when using a streaming-optimized location in the UK. Other popular platforms brought mixed results.

Private Internet Access was inconsistent in our tests. Testing HBO Max and a few others resulted in partial success, and in some cases, they worked, but with a bit of buffering. Bear in mind that we tested OpenVPN and WireGuard, so both protocols are covered properly. In our case, unblocking prowess hasn’t changed.

Netflix US	BBC iPlayer	Disney+ US	Hulu US	Prime Video US	HBO Max US
✅ Works	✅ Works	✅ Works	❌ Blocked	❌ Blocked	✅ Works

Being so affordable, some corners must’ve been cut, and streaming is one of these corners. Luckily, alternatives are available. We’ll point you to NordVPN as the VPN that can unblock Netflix. Surfshark turned out to be very good, along with the more expensive ExpressVPN. They’re more reliable for accessing streaming services.

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Private Internet Access Review: Server Locations

This is the largest VPN in the world. At first, its 91 countries seem small, as ExpressVPN and NordVPN offer 105 and 130, respectively. However, after asking around its customer service, we found that the provider has over 30,000 servers. No, we didn’t add a 0 by mistake. You can verify it yourself if you want.

Private Internet Access offers thousands of RAM-only servers. It also includes city-level locations and covers every American state. We also want to mention its specialty servers for streaming. Our team found them in the app, but if you’re a newbie, you might struggle because they’re not separated like in CyberGhost.

🗺️ Private Internet Access Dedicated IP Countries

Belgium	Sweden	United States	Australia	Canada
Switzerland	Germany	United Kingdom	Singapore	Japan

In addition, Private Internet Access offers a handful of dedicated IP addresses at some of the cheapest prices ($2.50/mo per IP). We appreciate that the company offers 26 locations for its dedicated IP addresses—more than most of its rivals. These locations include the US, Australia, Canada, Belgium, Japan, Singapore, and more.

PIA’s server distribution is excellent. The server fleet is a combination of virtual and physical servers. This allows the VPN to cover non-convenient locations. However, we found it interesting that the service has a variety of servers in China and India. These are, by all standards, inconvenient locations, unless they’re virtual servers.

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Using Private Internet Access for Bypassing Censorship

When discussing geo-blocks and restrictions, Private Internet Access is fine unless pinned against mightier foes. The Great Firewall of China is an unbeatable foe for many VPNs, and in 2026, PIA isn’t an exception. Our team tested it on multiple occasions. However, we couldn’t connect to the VPN for the most part.

The Shadowsocks proxy made things slightly better at times, but the connection speed was very slow. We suggest using OpenVPN TCP as your protocol; it’s better than WireGuard in this case. Then, enable the Shadowsocks protocol and experiment with different locations. Shadowsocks is slower because of additional encryption.

That said, streaming or gaming won’t be as enjoyable as usual. If we had to give an approximation, we’d say that PIA works in China 3/10 times, so it’s not great. Much better results in our test were in Russia, the UAE, Qatar, and other grey areas. But then, VPNs with no obfuscation also work here.

Lighter firewalls are no match for this VPN, though. You can use it in school or the workplace to circumvent website blocks. For most people, this will suffice, as not everyone travels far and wide frequently.

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Customer Support

As we near the Private Internet Access review for 2026, we’ll examine its customer support. The support is one of the friendliest we’ve had the chance to meet. 24/7 live chat support is there for those in a hurry. However, email support exists too. Users can get in touch by, for example, sending a support request.

Private Internet Access is quick to respond, and from there, resolving an issue is a walk in the park. We love its on-site support as well. The Help Center is particularly information-rich.PIA includes at least a hundred guides regarding the setup, using different features, and getting around its interface.

Of course, the Knowledge Base is here, which explains the way VPNs work, 2FA, and other tidbits. We’re delighted to know that there’s a Community. As expected, it’s a user forum where you can also get plenty of help tips. You can suggest an improvement or request a server location that the provider should implement.

For a provider this inexpensive, PIA’s customer support is state-of-the-art.

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Private Internet Access Review: Final Thoughts

After our thorough Private Internet Access review, it’s time for a conclusion. It does many things right, considering its budget category. At $2.03 or so per month, it offers unlimited simultaneous connections, which pricier rivals don’t offer. PIA is safe and secure. It’s a verified no-log provider with proof of its claims all around us.

We liked its advanced features, such as Multi-Hop, protocol customization, and RAM servers. Many will appreciate its P2P-friendliness and streaming-optimized locations. But, Private Internet Access is not perfect by any stretch. Its flaws are subpar speeds, streaming issues with Netflix, and the lack of a Fire TV Stick app.

While it also won’t work in China, this is an issue only for a specific subset of people. At the end, it’s time to answer the big question: Should you get Private Internet Access? Based on our review, we say that this VPN is worth the asking price. For two dollars, you’ll hardly find a safer and more feature-rich VPN.

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Frequently Asked Questions