The VPNShortlist Price Index
What you really pay for VPN services, compiled across 15 options from their own pricing pages. As of July 2026, the average is $3.17/mo.
Prices last checked on
Average per month
$3.17/mo
↓ 11%since June 2026
Median
$2.99/mo
Cheapest
$1.99/mo
Private Internet Access
Providers tracked
15
Entry price, ranked
Lowest paid plan per provider. Cheapest first.
Free tiers are excluded from the paid average.
The trend
Since June 2026, the average has moved from $3.55/mo to $3.17/mo, a drop of $0.38/mo (11%).
Cite this data
According to the VPNShortlist Price Index, the average VPN service costs $3.17/mo as of July 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.