Best Chrome VPN in 2024

NordVPN is an excellent standalone VPN, and its Chrome VPN extension tops our list. It promises a secure browsing experience without sacrificing transfer speeds and comes with a number of handy extras aimed at enhancing security and convenience with as few common stumbling blocks as possible.

Chief amongst the NordVPN extension’s features is Threat Protection Lite, the lightweight version of the full client’s Threat Protection. Threat Protection Lite blocks ads and protects users from unsafe connections and known malicious websites. The full version of Threat Protection works independently of the VPN, but you must be connected to a NordVPN server for it to kick in and start protecting your browsing sessions.

The NordVPN proxy extension also takes additional steps to prevent IP leaking, which can expose your IP address even while it’s being masked by a VPN. By disabling the WebRTC protocol, the extension reduces the possibility of an IP leak while reducing your exposure to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and other threats.

Learn More: Read our full NordVPN review.

Alongside the standard fare of masking your location and allowing you to browse anonymously, the Surfshark extension includes a cookie blocker, which blocks cookie request popups, as well as a website safety warning. This will trigger an alert anytime a user visits a site that’s experienced a security breach or other relevant incident. The feature will even detail when a breach occurred and what information was exposed as a result of the breach.

Surfshark is also one of the best VPNs for users with multiple devices, as it allows for unlimited devices on a single account. If you use a VPN on multiple desktops, laptops and your phone, Surfshark is an excellent choice. Surfshark also doesn’t impose any bandwidth restrictions on subscribers.

The company also hosts a large number of servers (more than 3,200 in over 100 countries) in an attempt to reduce the distance from customers to the servers to which they’re connecting and ensure the highest possible connection and transfer speeds.

Learn More: Read our full Surfshark review.

PureVPN’s extension is another solid option for Chrome users who value unlimited bandwidth. It also includes WebRTC leak protection to ensure your IP isn’t exposed when you’re connected to a VPN server. PureVPN also maintains a zero logs policy and promises to never collect user data around when you connect to its service, what IP or location you’re connecting from or your activity online.

PureVPN is simple to use: just install the extension, and when you’re ready to connect, log in, choose the country you want to route your traffic through and you’ll be automatically connected. PureVPN promises lightning-fast speed, and as part of that promise, the extension will prevent intentional speed throttling. While PureVPN doesn’t provide access for unlimited devices, the ten-device cap is relatively generous.

One of the handiest features, particularly for those who frequently stream content from other countries, is the redirect feature included with the extension. It allows you to select a popular website from a list, like Netflix UK or the BBC, and will automatically connect you to a server that will allow access to that site and its content.

ProtonVPN’s browser extension for Chrome offers the ability to quickly connect and start browsing securely with a single click. It’s also compatible with most Chromium-based browsers, meaning it’ll work on Edge and Brave. This also means you can access content from different countries in different browsers if you want to surf a number of international sites at the same time.

With a 10 Gbps server network and servers in over 3,000 locations, ProtonVPN is well-equipped to provide high connection speeds. Like PureVPN, it restricts the number of devices that can be connected simultaneously, though also, like PureVPN, it allows for a ceiling of 10 devices, which should cover most users’ needs.

PureVPN also uses a proprietary technology called Secure Core to add an additional layer of security and privacy to your activity online. Secure Core is a network of servers the company operates in countries with strong data privacy laws, and the servers are stored in high-security data centers that add an additional layer of encryption. This ensures that no one can access the data without its encryption keys.

Learn More: Read our full ProtonVPN review.

CyberGhost aims to live up to its moniker by making your online activity truly invisible. The Chrome extension is available for free and, in a nod to the company’s dedication to user privacy, doesn’t even require an account to use. However, to access additional servers and features, a premium subscription is required for the standalone VPN client. The free Chrome app only gives you access to eight dedicated servers.

CyberGhost’s VPN extension supports unlimited bandwidth, so you don’t need to worry about tracking your data usage while you’re connected. It also promises to keep all of your data private and will never log your browsing history, traffic destination, data content or search preferences.

There’s also support for blocking online trackers and malicious content that sneak into your browser, and the technology takes advantage of military-grade AES-256 encryption and VPN protocols to make sure your data is as secure as possible. The extension also includes WebRTC leak protection to ensure your IP doesn’t get temporarily exposed while the VPN is engaged.

Learn More: Read our full CyberGhost review.

Private Internet Access (PIA) offers a Chrome extension that provides most of the same features as its discrete standalone VPN client, though it’s important to note that there’s no free version of the extension available and access to the VPN requires a subscription. PIA does, however, offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you sign up for its service and are unsatisfied.

PIA’s Chrome extension is very fully featured, with robust blocking and security tools. Chief among them is a suite of anti-tracking features that block the tracking of cookies, URLs and scripts. PIA also features a tool called MACE designed to block ads while connected and stop sites from accessing or sharing your location data. Like many of the best Chrome VPN extensions, PIA places no caps on bandwidth while connected to its servers.

PIA also places no limits on the number of connected devices you can shield with its browser VPN, and 24/7 customer support is available if you encounter any issues using the service. The company relies on 10 Gbps connections to ensure fast, reliable connections.

Learn More: Read our full Private Internet Access (PIA) review.

ExpressVPN’s Chrome extension is essentially a remote control for the full app, letting you toggle it on and off within the browser for easy access. However, this does mean that you need the full app to be installed on your device, and you’ll need a subscription for the extension to function properly. That said, it also means that you get access to the entire suite of features and protection offered by the full ExpressVPN app.

Users get access to the depth and powerful set of features inherent in ExpressVPN’s dedicated desktop and mobile app, including access to servers in 105 countries (though ExpressVPN isn’t specific with how many servers it has, just stating that there are thousands). There’s the 256-bit AES encryption, a network lock kill switch that will immediately shut down network traffic if your connection to the VPN server drops, advanced leak protection and anti-throttling measures.

ExpressVPN also takes user privacy and security very seriously and commissions and publishes a number of third-party audits as part of its transparency policy. These include both internal penetration tests as well as third-party audits of their security measures, and the company frequently shares the results of the audits on its website.

Learn More: Read our full ExpressVPN review.

The TorGuard VPN extension for Chrome goes beyond the basic functionality offered by a number of similar extensions and offers most of the functionality of the full client. It allows users to connect to servers in over 50 countries and protects those connections with robust 256-bit AES encryption. However, there’s no free option available, and users will have to pay for a premium subscription to activate the VPN.

TorGuard also offers a full spectrum of DNS/IPV6/WebRTC leak blocking to keep the possibility of your IP being exposed to an absolute minimum and allows users to bypass sites that blockade VPN traffic with a wide range of stealth options. Those include OpenVPN obfuscation, Stunnel, OpenConnect and Shadowsocks.

TorGuard doesn’t cap the amount of bandwidth you can filter through its VPN and allows eight simultaneous devices on its Standard Plan and 12 on its Pro Plan. The company also supports users with 24/7 customer service, 365 days a year and enables port forwarding to allow only the remote connections to your network that you authorize.

Learn More: Read our full TorGuard VPN review.

If you’re looking for a breezy, lightweight and simple VPN extension for Chrome, hide.me may be the solution for you. While it doesn’t offer access to servers in the large number of countries of some of its competitors (the Chrome extension can only connect to servers located in Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands), it is entirely free and doesn’t impose any sort of data cap on connections.

The user-friendly approach evident throughout the browser extension also applies to registration, requiring no registration or contact details to start using. Once you’ve installed the extension from the browser store, activating it is as simple as clicking a toggle on the extension panel in the corner of your browser and your data is instantly protected. There are a handful of options built into the extension to disable WebRTC, enable SOCKs and toggle whether you always want to enable proxy, but beyond that, there’s very little to the interface.

While it may not be the most full-featured VPN extension, it’s one of the most approachable, and for basic IP masking, it’s perfectly competent. It’s a great solution for those completely unfamiliar with VPNs with fairly basic privacy needs, and especially for newbies who want to access content that’s usually only available in Canada, Germany or the Netherlands.

Learn More: Read our full hide.me review.

Windscribe’s VPN extension for Chrome is an interesting proposition, as its free offering is both more complete and more limited in some ways than other free extensions, like hide.me. On the one hand, it offers a level of feature support and customization not available in most other free VPN extensions, like the ability to block ads and malware and the ability to choose to block sites like social networks and gambling sites. It allows users to set granular privacy options.

Windscribe also allows users to spoof their GPS location. This is important as the location API in many browsers will bypass most VPNs and ascertain your location based on GPS GPS or Wi-Fi SSID name. Windscribe’s Location Warp feature spoofs the GPS data to make it appear that you’re physically located at the site of the VPN server to which you’re connected.

On the downside, Windscribe does curtain some features for free users, including the number of locations available, as well as imposing a data cap of 10 GB (or as low as 2 GB if you don’t provide and verify an email address). However, the price of its subscription plan is one of the lowest of comparable services at $9 monthly.

Learn More: Read our full Windscribe review.