VPN prices, compared
What you really pay for VPN services, compiled across 15 options from their own pricing pages. As of September 2026, the average is $3.17/mo.
Prices last checked on
Average per month
$3.17/mo
Median
$2.99/mo
Cheapest
$1.99/mo
Private Internet Access
Providers tracked
15
VPN price list, cheapest first
The lowest paid plan each provider offers, read from their own pricing page.
| Rank | Provider | Relative price | Entry price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Private Internet Access | $1.99/mo | |
| 2 | PrivadoVPN | $1.99/mo | |
| 3 | PrivateVPN | $2.00/mo | |
| 4 | PureVPN | $2.14/mo | |
| 5 | CyberGhost | $2.19/mo | |
| 6 | Surfshark | $2.49/mo | |
| 7 | hide.me | $2.69/mo | |
| 8 | Proton VPN | $2.99/mo | |
| 9 | IPVanish | $2.99/mo | |
| 10 | NordVPN | $3.09/mo | |
| 11 | TunnelBear | $3.33/mo | |
| 12 | ExpressVPN | $3.49/mo | |
| 13 | Mozilla VPN | $4.99/mo | |
| 14 | Mullvad VPN | $5.50/mo | |
| 15 | Windscribe | $5.75/mo |
Free tiers are excluded from the paid average.
Where these prices come from
Every price on this page was read from the provider’s own pricing page. Those pages are listed below, so you can check any number yourself. Prices change without notice, so the provider’s page always wins over ours.
The trend
Measured on the same 10 providers in both months: August 2026 $4.01/mo to September 2026 $4.88/mo, a rise of $0.87/mo (22%). The average at the top of this page is the guide price across all 15 providers we list, so it is a different set and not the same series.
Cite this data
According to the VPNShortlist Price Index, the average VPN service costs $3.17/mo as of September 2026 (https://vpnshortlist.com/data/price-index).
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution and a link. Machine-readable version:
https://vpnshortlist.com/data/price-index.jsonMethodology
For every provider we track, we take the lowest paid monthly price (the realistic entry price) and report the average, the median, and the cheapest and most expensive across the 15 options that sell a paid plan. Free tiers are excluded from the paid average.
Prices are guide prices verified periodically and can change with promotions, which is why we plan to re-measure them automatically and keep the history. The full series is in the machine-readable feed.
This index is one input into our rankings. The full picture, including the sources we trust and why a commission never moves the order, is in how we rank.