Cheap VPN: what the cheap end costs once the term ends
The cheap end of this market is genuinely cheap and it is cheap for one reason: you are paying for two or three years at once. This page is about what that buys, what it costs later, and the handful of providers where cheap does not turn into something else at the end of the term.
- median printed entry price, per month
- $2.69
- providers with a verified printed price
- 11
- use cases with measured demand
- 3
Figures on this page come from the VPNCompareHQ price index: 11 providers, median printed entry price $2.69 a month, each quoted from the provider's own page and dated.
- 11 VPN pricing pages verifiedevery figure matched verbatim to the provider's page
- Quoted and dated, never estimatedlast verification pass 2026-09-09
- 3 use cases coveredeach with measured search demand behind it
Printed prices, verified
| Provider | Entry price | Renews at | Prepaid term | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private Internet Access | $1.79/mo | $69.81/3yr | 39 mo term | privateinternetaccess.com | September 2026 |
| CyberGhost | $1.99/mo | $51.74/yr | 26 mo term | cyberghostvpn.com | September 2026 |
| PureVPN | $2.15/mo | $47.95/yr | 27 mo term | purevpn.com | September 2026 |
| IPVanish | $2.49/mo | $99.99/yr | 24 mo term | ipvanish.com | September 2026 |
| Surfshark | $2.49/mo | 27 mo term | surfshark.com | September 2026 | |
| hide.me | $2.69/mo | $69.99/26mo | 26 mo term | hide.me | September 2026 |
| ExpressVPN | $2.99/mo | $99.95/yr | 28 mo term | expressvpn.com | September 2026 |
| TunnelBear | $3.33/mo | tunnelbear.com | September 2026 | ||
| NordVPN | $3.49/mo | $139/yr | 27 mo term | nordvpn.com | September 2026 |
| Windscribe | $5.75/mo | 12 mo term | windscribe.com | September 2026 | |
| IVPN | $6/mo | 1 mo term | ivpn.net | September 2026 | |
| Mullvad | No printed price on the page; quote or in-app only (checked September 2026) | ||||
| Proton VPN | Pricing page could not be read (checked September 2026) |
Reading a cheap VPN offer
- Separate the price from the term. A figure under two dollars a month is a real printed price attached to a prepayment of two to three years. It is not a monthly rate, and comparing providers on it alone ranks them by commitment length.
- Find the standing price. The renewal is the price from year three onward. In this index it ranges from close to the intro to nearly four times it, on providers whose headlines are within a pound of each other.
- Count the whole first term, not the month. The providers print the total as well: it is the number you will actually be charged on the day, and it is a larger number than the monthly figure suggests.
- Ask whether cheap is the constraint. If the answer is a hard budget, the cheap end is where to look. If the answer is that everything looked expensive, the monthly plans are what looked expensive and the term is what fixes it.
Where the cheap end sits, and what separates it
Private Internet Access, CyberGhost, IPVanish, Surfshark, PureVPN and hide.me all print between $1.79 and $2.69 a month on their own pages, every one on a prepayment of two years or more. On the headline they are almost indistinguishable.
On the renewal they are not. CyberGhost renews at $51.74 a year and PureVPN at $47.95 a year; IPVanish renews at $99.99 a year against a first term of $59.76 for two years, which is close to a fourfold step. Those are three different products behind three nearly identical adverts.
The provider that promises the price will not move
hide.me prints a guarantee at the top of its own pricing page that a plan renews with the same price and duration, beside a 26-month plan at $2.69 a month billed at $69.99. That makes it the one cheap headline in this index that is also a standing price.
Everything else at this end of the table is an introductory offer, which is not a criticism so much as the shape of the market. It simply means the cheap number and the long-term number are different numbers, and both are printed.
Common questions
- Is a cheap VPN worth it?
- The cheap end of this index is established providers publishing on their own domains. It is cheap because of the prepayment, not because of the service.
- What is the cheapest VPN?
- Private Internet Access prints the lowest monthly headline at $1.79, on a thirty-nine month term. The cheapest without a multi-year commitment is Windscribe at $5.75 a month billed annually.
- Do cheap VPNs sell my data?
- The providers in this index publish policies on their own domains, linked from each profile. That is the checkable part; a free app with no published policy is a different proposition.
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Cite or embed this figure
The median printed entry price per month in the consumer VPN market was $2.69 in September 2026, across 11 verified provider pricing pages recorded in VPNCompareHQ Consumer VPN Price Index.
Cite as: "VPNCompareHQ Consumer VPN Price Index", updated 2026-09-09, https://vpncomparehq.com/cheap-vpn/.