If you want more protection from hackers and online monitoring, you can make your connection more secure with a virtual private network (VPN) by Google One. Turn on VPN by Google One in the Google One app to encrypt your online activity for an extra layer of protection wherever you’re connected.
After you turn on the VPN, you can:
- Help shield against hackers on unsecure networks, like public Wi-Fi.
- Hide your IP address. When you hide your IP address, others can’t use your IP address to track your location.
What's happening to VPN by Google One?
- On June 10, 2024, VPN by Google One will no longer be available.
- Members will get a 30-day notice before VPN by Google One is deactivated.
- The VPN functionality will continue to be available to Google One members on Pixel 7, 7 Pro, 7a, and Fold devices through VPN by Google. This built-in VPN will be available on June 3, 2024.
Where VPN by Google One is available
VPN by Google One is available in select countries or regions, and is included for eligible Google One members. This feature is available in these locations:
- Austria
- Australia
- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Norway
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- United Kingdom
- United States
If you have VPN by Google One turned on and your country or region is listed above, VPN by Google One still works when you travel to other countries or regions.
If your VPN by Google One is turned on, and your home country or region is listed above, VPN by Google One still works when you travel to other countries or regions. When you travel outside your home country or region, the countries or regions where VPN by Google One still works are listed below. If a country or region isn’t listed below, VPN by Google One won’t work when you travel to that location.
Tip: All countries or regions where VPN by Google One is available, as listed in the above section “Where VPN by Google One is available,” also support travel functionality.
- Åland Islands
- Albania
- Algeria
- American Samoa
- Andorra
- Anguilla
- Antarctica
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Aruba
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Benin
- Bermuda
- Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bouvet Island
- British Indian Ocean Territory
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Cabo Verde
- Cameroon
- Cayman Islands
- Chad
- Christmas Island
- Cocos (Keeling) Islands
- Colombia
- Cook Islands
- Costa Rica
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Croatia
- Curaçao
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Ethiopia
- Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
- Faroe Islands
- Fiji
- French Polynesia
- French Southern Territories
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guadeloupe
- Guatemala
- Guernsey
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Haiti
- Heard Island and McDonald Islands
- Holy See
- Honduras
- Hungary
- Isle of Man
- Israel
- Jamaica
- Jersey
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kiribati
- Kyrgyzstan
- Latvia
- Liberia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Martinique
- Mauritania
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Montserrat
- Morocco
- Nauru
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Niue
- Norfolk Island
- Panama
- Pitcairn
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Republic of North Macedonia
- Romania
- Saint Barthélemy
- Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
- Saint Martin (French)
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Sierra Leone
- Sint Maarten (Dutch)
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Solomon Islands
- South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
- Svalbard and Jan Mayen
- Tajikistan
- Togo
- Tokelau
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- United States Minor Outlying Islands
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Virgin Islands (British)
- Virgin Islands (US)
- Wallis and Futuna
- Western Sahara
A VPN adds a layer of encryption to your network traffic that makes it “unrecognizable” to:
- Your network operator.
- Your network operator can include your internet service provider, carrier, or public Wi-Fi provider.
- Other observers on the network, like potential hackers.
A VPN also masks your IP address from the sites and apps that you go to. Otherwise, sites and apps could use your IP address to track your activity over time or to determine your physical location.
When you turn on the VPN, your network traffic is encrypted and re-routed through the VPN proxy servers. This ensures that your network traffic stays private to you and makes it harder for trackers, sites and apps to track you. To learn more about how VPN by Google One protects and keeps you private visit g.co/vpn/howitworks.
To allow websites to show the right content for your region, VPN by Google One will assign you an IP address based on your current region. However, websites can't use this IP address to determine your precise location. You won't have the option to change your IP address region.
Privacy and security are at the core of the products and services we build. A VPN provides an important additional layer of privacy and security for your online activity, but it is critical to ensure that it is implemented with robust privacy and security guarantees.
VPN by Google One leverages advanced cryptographic techniques to ensure that no one, not even Google, can associate your network traffic with your account or identity. In addition, your network traffic and IP address will never be logged, and Google will never use the VPN connection to track, log, or sell your online activity.
To ensure a healthy and performant VPN connection, we collect fully de-identified metrics such as overall network throughput, uptime or latency.
To improve the overall experience, debug the service, and prevent fraud without compromising user privacy, the following data may be collected for a user:
- Use of the service in the last 28 days. This metric collects how often the service was used in the last 28 days but does not track the specific times they used the service nor the duration of the usage nor the amount of data used.
- Number of recent attempts by a user to set up a VPN session to ensure that the user does not exceed the maximum number of allowed concurrent sessions. User IDs are encrypted and therefore cannot be personally identified by the concurrent session check.
- Server error logs without request or response data.
Finally, for those users that wish to share feedback or errors with Google, the Google One application provides users the option to send logs from their device which contain personally identifiable information (such as email) and is used for debugging purposes. This is an optional capability and requires the user to submit the report each time any information is sent.
Learn more about our technical implementation and data practices.
If you’re on an eligible Google One plan, you can use VPN on up to 6 devices per plan. You must install the Google One app on each device.
If you share your Google One plan with a family group, they can use VPN too. Members of the family group must download the Google One app on their own devices and turn on VPN. Supervised children’s accounts are not eligible. Learn more about how to share your plan with your family group.
Set up VPN by Google One
- This feature is available for iOS version 14.0 and up.
- To use the VPN by Google One, you need to install the Google One app.
- Make sure you have the latest version of the Google One app.
Turn on the VPN by Google One
- Sign in to your Google Account.
- Tap VPN.
- At the bottom, tap Benefits.
- Find the VPN benefit and tap View details.
- Turn on Enable VPN. You may need to allow the use of a VPN in your device settings.
Turn off the VPN by Google One
Tip: You can turn off your VPN at any time. In the Google One app, turn the VPN off and on again to try to fix any issues.
- Sign in to your Google Account.
- On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google One app
.
- At the bottom, tap Benefits.
- Find the VPN benefit and tap View details.
- Turn off Enable VPN.
.Find your VPN by Google One details
- Make sure that you're signed in to your Google Account.
- On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google One app
- At the bottom, tap Benefits.
- Find the VPN benefit.
- Tap View Details.
- In the "Your network info" section, you can find your VPN status and details:
- VPN status: Connected or disconnected
- When VPN isn't enabled: Your IP address and network
- When VPN is enabled: "Hidden"
Connect on Demand with iOS
When you activate the VPN by Google One, your Apple device uses Connect on Demand to establish a connection as needed. If the connection fails, Connect on Demand will work in the background to keep the VPN connected and keep you online. For more info, visit the Apple support page.
To manually disable Connect On Demand without disrupting your VPN:
- Open your Apple settings.
- Tap General
VPN & Device Management
- On the right of "VPN by Google One," turn off Connect On Demand.
VPN & Device Management Use a broader IP address region
Important: For even more privacy, toggle on to use a broader region, like your country instead of your local region. This may affect location-based experiences in apps and websites you visit.
- On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google One app
- At the bottom, tap Benefits.
- Find the VPN benefit and tap View Details.
- Tap View Settings.
- Turn Use a broader IP address region on or off.
Tips:
- If the VPN is already connected, it disconnects and reconnects automatically so the new setting takes effect.
- If the VPN is disconnected, the change takes effect when you connect the VPN. The setting won’t start a new VPN connection.
Frequently asked questions
Does this keep Google or others from saving my history?No. Third-party sites and apps may still save information about your browsing or personalize your experience in other ways. Some examples include cookies or other technologies, or moments when you sign into an account on another company’s website.
Also, while VPN by Google One secures your device connection, it does not affect how Google collects data when you use our other products and services. For example, depending on your sync settings, Chrome will continue to store your Chrome browsing history to your Google Account. To manage the kinds of data saved to your account, you can review your Google Account’s privacy controls.
When VPN and other tools that mask your IP address are off, your IP address can be used to:
- Track your online activity to send you spam and personalized ads. Businesses can collect data about how you interact with their ads, articles, and websites with embedded tracking programs that can record your IP address to send you spam and show personalized ads that you may not want.
- Determine your location. Anyone may be able to enter your IP address on various websites to get your rough location like city, state, and country. IP addresses associated with Wi-Fi hotspots can be much more precise. Businesses can use hotspot scanning and app partners to build large databases correlating IP addresses with hotspot locations. Companies can use these services to determine your location.
- Obtain your personal info. Your IP address could be used to track down your internet service provider (ISP). If someone has your ISP, they could impersonate you and trick the ISP into disclosing personal information stored in their database, like your Social Security number, bank account numbers, phone number, or birthdate.
- Sell your IP address and other sensitive information. Your IP address can be stolen and sold.
Tip: A Wi-Fi hotspot is a wireless access point that lets you connect phones, tablets, computers, and other devices to the internet when you’re on the go. They’re built into most smartphones, but you can also get a dedicated mobile hotspot device. You can also find public Wi-Fi hotspots at many restaurants and public buildings.
How do I mask my IP address?
To mask your IP address, turn on VPN.
A virtual private network (VPN) helps keep your online activity private and secure by adding a layer of encryption. For example, if you log in to your bank account from a public Wi-Fi at a cafe, a VPN works seamlessly in the background to help shield your financial information from anyone eavesdropping on your activity.
You can use VPN by Google One to help:
- Shield your online activity from hackers, internet service providers, phone carriers, and public Wi-Fi providers.
- Prevent others from knowing your IP address from the sites and apps that you visit.
- Protect your online connection on any device — computer, phone, or tablet.
To check the status of the VPN on your iPhone or iPad:
- Open the Google One app
- At the bottom, tap Benefits.
- Find the VPN benefit and tap View details.
- If the status says "VPN is connected," then your VPN is turned on.
Tip: When your VPN is connected, at the top right corner there is a small Phone icon.
Because of the extra step of encrypting your data to keep it private, VPNs inherently use more battery. This extra encryption also means about 5-10% more data is consumed. So you may notice a little more battery drain and data usage while the VPN is running and you use the internet.
If your provider zero-rates certain apps or services’ traffic, your internet or mobile data plan might affect your data usage.
Since the VPN obscures your traffic from your internet or mobile data provider, they can’t detect your traffic while you have the VPN on.
- To exclude apps that are zero-rated in your internet or mobile data plan, turn off the VPN or use the app bypass feature.
Use of any VPN might:
- Increase data costs based on your data plan
- Reduce your internet speeds
- Increase connection latency
- Reduce battery life
If you're a Google One member with a 100 GB, 200 GB, or Premium plan, we include the VPN at no charge. Learn how to check your storage or change your plan.
If you're interested in an upgrade to your Google One membership, you can upgrade your plan.
Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro users can use VPN by Google One at no charge on those devices through the Google One app without a Google One subscription.
Your VPN by Google One may not work if:
- There isn’t an available internet connection on your device. Check your network settings and troubleshoot connection issues.
- You’re in a country or region that we don’t support. Check where VPN by Google One is available.
- Your Google Account isn’t eligible for VPN by Google One. Workspace and certain supervised accounts, like a child’s account, aren't eligible.
- Your Google One app or VPN by Google One app isn’t up to date. To get the latest version, update your app.
- Your device is rooted or isn’t up to date with security updates.
- Your bootloader is unlocked.
- You're on Android 8.1 or lower.
- You run a beta or other unofficial version of Android.