This page explains how identification happens rather than how to avoid consequences, and the distinction matters. BitTorrent is a public protocol: everyone sharing a file can see the addresses of everyone else sharing it, which is not a flaw but the mechanism by which a swarm works at all. Monitoring firms join swarms and record those addresses.
What the monitoring actually observes
A rights holder's agent joins the swarm as an ordinary peer and logs the addresses it sees offering the file, with timestamps. It then asks the internet provider that owns each address to pass a notice to the subscriber. Nothing is decrypted and nothing is intercepted; the address was broadcast to every participant by design. A VPN changes which address is broadcast, which is why it changes the outcome, and it changes nothing else about the process.
The three ways people are identified anyway
First, the tunnel drops mid-transfer and the client keeps going on the ordinary connection, which is the reason a kill switch exists. Second, a DNS or IPv6 leak sends part of the traffic outside the tunnel while the rest is protected. Third, the client announces a local address, or a separate application is logged into an account that identifies the person regardless of address. All three are configuration failures rather than failures of the encryption.
Where the provider's policy becomes the whole question
If a provider keeps records connecting an address and a timestamp to an account, the chain can be reassembled by anyone able to compel those records. That is why the no-logs question, otherwise abstract, has a concrete answer here. Five providers in this index publish a dedicated page on what they retain; that page, and the jurisdiction the company operates from, are the two things worth reading, and both are linked from each provider profile.
What this page is not saying
Nothing here is a method for infringing copyright without consequence, and nothing here is legal advice. Downloading material you have no licence for is unlawful in every market this site covers, whatever address it is done from. The purpose of the page is to describe the mechanism accurately, because the widely held belief that a VPN makes the question disappear is simply false.
Questions people ask about can i get caught torrenting with vpn
Does a VPN make torrenting anonymous?
It replaces the address the swarm sees. It does not make the activity lawful, and it fails if the tunnel drops, if traffic leaks, or if the provider retains records.
Do internet providers know I am torrenting?
On an ordinary connection they can see the traffic pattern, and they pass on notices they receive. Through a VPN they see an encrypted connection to the VPN server.
Which providers allow it?
Several state a position on peer-to-peer traffic on their own pages. This site links those pages rather than characterising any provider's stance in its own words.