ExpressVPN Test Results

Our latest ExpressVPN test showed excellent nearby performance in Sweden and Germany using WireGuard. ExpressVPN retained 95.3% of our VPN-off download speed in Sweden and 93.2% in Germany. UK throughput was substantially lower at 50.1% retention, while US East and Singapore showed the expected larger long-distance reductions. Across all five tested regions, our fixed-target stability test recorded 0% packet loss.

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PPG LAB TESTED · PAID PLAN

We tested ExpressVPN on Windows using WireGuard across all five Private Proxy Guide core regions. Sweden and Germany both retained more than 93% of our VPN-off download speed. UK performance was much weaker in this batch at 50.1% retention, while US East and Singapore showed the expected larger long-distance throughput reductions. All five regions recorded 0% packet loss in our fixed-target stability test.

Test date: August 25, 2026 Test ID: PPG-VPN-2026-08-9CA2 Plan: Paid App version: 14.2.1 Protocol: WireGuard Runner: v0.4.7
95.3%
Best speed retention
Sweden median download
18.2 ms
Sweden latency
+9.1 ms vs baseline
0%
Stability packet loss
Across all five regions
5/5
DNS checks passed
No baseline resolver reused

What our ExpressVPN test showed

ExpressVPN delivered excellent nearby performance in Sweden. Median download speed reached 90.37 Mbps against our 94.84 Mbps VPN-off baseline, corresponding to 95.29% speed retention.

Germany was also strong at 88.43 Mbps and 93.24% retention. The UK result stood out in the opposite direction: median download speed fell to 47.52 Mbps, or 50.11% retention, despite regional latency remaining relatively low.

Long-distance performance was more consistent with the other providers tested from Sweden. US East retained 23.18% of baseline throughput and Singapore retained 12.78%.

Tunnel stability remained strong across the entire batch. All five regions recorded 0% packet loss, low stability jitter and no detected latency spikes.

ExpressVPN speed test results

Our VPN-off baseline was 94.84 Mbps download, 94.41 Mbps upload and 9.14 ms latency. We performed five VPN-off baseline runs and three speed-test runs per ExpressVPN region. Median values are used for reporting.

Download speed retained

Sweden95.3%
 
Germany93.2%
 
United Kingdom50.1%
 
US East23.2%
 
Singapore12.8%
 

Quick interpretation

  • Sweden: excellent near-baseline throughput.
  • Germany: also excellent at more than 93% retention.
  • UK: unusually large throughput reduction for a nearby European route.
  • US East: substantial long-distance speed reduction.
  • Singapore: highest latency but slightly better retention than US East relative to distance.
Location Download Upload Speed retained Regional ping Added latency Ookla jitter
Sweden 90.37 Mbps 87.26 Mbps 95.29% 18.22 ms +9.08 ms 0.221 ms
Germany 88.43 Mbps 82.35 Mbps 93.24% 21.27 ms +12.13 ms 0.523 ms
United Kingdom 47.52 Mbps 72.96 Mbps 50.11% 25.27 ms +16.13 ms 0.405 ms
US East 21.98 Mbps 21.55 Mbps 23.18% 95.23 ms +86.08 ms 0.348 ms
Singapore 12.12 Mbps 12.06 Mbps 12.78% 171.68 ms +162.53 ms 0.398 ms
UK result: the three UK download measurements were 78.48 Mbps, 47.52 Mbps and 46.80 Mbps. We report the median rather than selecting the faster first run. The low median is therefore retained as the official result for this batch.

Gaming latency and connection stability

We separate regional latency from tunnel stability. Regional latency comes from the locked Ookla endpoint used for each VPN location. A separate 50-sample fixed-target ICMP test measures median latency, p95 latency, jitter, packet loss and latency spikes.

Important: these measurements describe ExpressVPN’s network path from our Swedish test environment. They are not direct ping measurements to any particular game’s servers.
Location Regional ping Stability median p95 Stability jitter Packet loss Spike rate
Sweden 18.22 ms 19 ms 20 ms 0.510 ms 0% 0%
United Kingdom 25.27 ms 25 ms 26 ms 0.653 ms 0% 0%
Germany 21.27 ms 21 ms 22 ms 0.429 ms 0% 0%
US East 95.23 ms 95 ms 96 ms 0.531 ms 0% 0%
Singapore 171.68 ms 172 ms 172 ms 0.449 ms 0% 0%

The stability results were very consistent. Even though UK throughput fell sharply in two of the three speed runs, its stability test remained tight at 25 ms median and 26 ms p95 with 0% packet loss. That suggests the result was primarily a throughput or routing issue rather than general tunnel instability during the test window.

Exit-location validation

ExpressVPN completed all five location checks successfully using the runner’s multi-source geolocation consensus model.

Location Selected ExpressVPN target Consensus country Result
Sweden Sweden SE PASS CONSENSUS
United Kingdom UK – London GB PASS CONSENSUS
Germany Germany – Frankfurt – 1 DE PASS CONSENSUS
US East USA – New York US PASS CONSENSUS
Singapore Singapore – Marina Bay SG PASS CONSENSUS

Location validation combines multiple external geolocation observations rather than relying on a single IP database.

DNS leak testing

IPLeak.net DNS testing was enabled for this batch. The VPN-off baseline detected resolver IPs before ExpressVPN was connected. Each VPN-region observation was then compared with that baseline set.

Location DNS result Interpretation
Sweden PASS No baseline resolver IP was reused while ExpressVPN was active.
United Kingdom PASS No baseline resolver IP was reused while ExpressVPN was active.
Germany PASS No baseline resolver IP was reused while ExpressVPN was active.
US East PASS No baseline resolver IP was reused while ExpressVPN was active.
Singapore PASS No baseline resolver IP was reused while ExpressVPN was active.

All five regions returned PASS_NO_BASELINE_RESOLVER_REUSED. This test identifies reuse of DNS resolvers observed while the VPN was disconnected; it does not by itself establish ownership of every resolver involved.

Browser evidence

BrowserLeaks evidence collection was enabled for this ExpressVPN test. IP, DNS and WebRTC evidence was captured for the VPN-off baseline and all five VPN regions.

6 BrowserLeaks IP evidence sets: baseline plus five VPN regions.
6 BrowserLeaks DNS evidence sets: baseline plus five VPN regions.
6 BrowserLeaks WebRTC evidence sets: baseline plus five VPN regions.

Browser evidence is retained as supporting material and reviewed conservatively. Capturing a BrowserLeaks page is not automatically converted into a security Pass or Fail unless the evidence supports that conclusion.

IPv4, IPv6 and security observations

  • IPv4 location validation: PASS CONSENSUS across all five PPG core regions.
  • DNS baseline comparison: PASS across all five regions. None of the resolver IPs observed during the VPN-off baseline were reused.
  • IPv6: INCONCLUSIVE BASELINE. The IPv6 lookup hostnames could not be resolved during the baseline, so this batch does not support a reliable IPv6 Pass or Fail conclusion.
  • BrowserLeaks: IP, DNS and WebRTC evidence captured for baseline and all five VPN regions.
  • Kill switch: not tested in this batch.
Why IPv6 remains inconclusive: all IPv6 lookup attempts failed at DNS resolution before a usable baseline could be established. We therefore do not interpret the absence of an IPv6 result as evidence that ExpressVPN either passed or failed an IPv6 leak test.

Connection timing

The automated ExpressVPN provider adapter returned quickly after issuing each connection command. The runner did not record a separate end-to-end tunnel-establishment timing method, so these values remain diagnostic rather than provider connection-speed measurements.

Location Command return time Interpretation
Sweden 0.44 s Diagnostic only
United Kingdom 0.09 s Diagnostic only
Germany 0.10 s Diagnostic only
US East 0.09 s Diagnostic only
Singapore 0.09 s Diagnostic only

These figures indicate provider-command return time, not verified end-to-end VPN tunnel establishment. We do not use them to rank connection speed.

Test evidence

The ExpressVPN batch generated raw speed-test measurements, fixed-target stability data, IPLeak DNS evidence, multi-source geolocation data, BrowserLeaks captures and automatic screenshots.

26/26 Desktop and Speedtest screenshot captures completed.
20 Ookla runs: 5 VPN-off baseline runs and 15 ExpressVPN runs.
18 BrowserLeaks captures covering IP, DNS and WebRTC across six scopes.

How we tested ExpressVPN

  • Plan: ExpressVPN paid plan.
  • Application: ExpressVPN 14.2.1 for Windows.
  • Protocol: WireGuard.
  • Test location: Sweden.
  • Baseline: 5 VPN-off Ookla runs.
  • Core PPG regions: Sweden, United Kingdom, Germany, US East and Singapore.
  • Core-region coverage: 5/5.
  • Speed testing: 3 runs per region, reported using medians.
  • Regional Speedtest locking: enabled.
  • Post-connect stabilization: 20 seconds.
  • Gaming stability: 50 ICMP samples against the fixed PPG stability target.
  • Location validation: multi-source geolocation consensus.
  • IPLeak.net DNS test: enabled.
  • BrowserLeaks IP/DNS/WebRTC evidence: enabled.
  • Automatic screenshots: enabled.
  • Kill switch: not tested.

Raw ExpressVPN speed-test runs

The summary values above use medians. All 20 individual speed-test measurements used in this batch are shown below.

Show all 20 individual speed-test runs

Baseline – VPN disconnected

Run Download Upload Ping Jitter Loss Ookla server
#1 94.96 Mbps 94.41 Mbps 8.833 ms 0.047 ms 0% Telenor Denmark, Søborg
#2 94.63 Mbps 94.57 Mbps 9.189 ms 0.206 ms 0% Telenor Denmark, Søborg
#3 94.84 Mbps 94.45 Mbps 9.143 ms 0.113 ms 0% Telenor Denmark, Søborg
#4 95.01 Mbps 94.19 Mbps 9.133 ms 0.087 ms 0% Telenor Denmark, Søborg
#5 94.54 Mbps 94.28 Mbps 9.507 ms 0.256 ms 0% Telenor Denmark, Søborg

Sweden

Run Download Upload Ping Jitter Loss Ookla server
#1 90.21 Mbps 87.26 Mbps 18.150 ms 0.192 ms 0% SUNET, Stockholm
#2 90.37 Mbps 85.83 Mbps 18.221 ms 0.221 ms 0% SUNET, Stockholm
#3 90.60 Mbps 87.39 Mbps 18.341 ms 0.633 ms 0% SUNET, Stockholm

United Kingdom

Run Download Upload Ping Jitter Loss Ookla server
#1 78.48 Mbps 68.52 Mbps 24.774 ms 0.274 ms N/A Hyperoptic Limited, London
#2 47.52 Mbps 72.96 Mbps 25.273 ms 0.975 ms N/A Hyperoptic Limited, London
#3 46.80 Mbps 73.74 Mbps 25.652 ms 0.405 ms N/A Hyperoptic Limited, London

Germany

Run Download Upload Ping Jitter Loss Ookla server
#1 88.43 Mbps 82.35 Mbps 21.271 ms 0.363 ms 0% WEMACOM Telekommunikation GmbH, Frankfurt
#2 88.49 Mbps 82.40 Mbps 21.284 ms 0.543 ms 0% WEMACOM Telekommunikation GmbH, Frankfurt
#3 87.66 Mbps 81.84 Mbps 21.093 ms 0.523 ms 0% WEMACOM Telekommunikation GmbH, Frankfurt

US East

Run Download Upload Ping Jitter Loss Ookla server
#1 21.98 Mbps 21.55 Mbps 95.331 ms 0.348 ms 0% Wnet, New York, NY
#2 21.96 Mbps 21.68 Mbps 95.226 ms 0.172 ms 0% Wnet, New York, NY
#3 21.99 Mbps 21.33 Mbps 95.075 ms 0.418 ms 0% Wnet, New York, NY

Singapore

Run Download Upload Ping Jitter Loss Ookla server
#1 12.10 Mbps 12.06 Mbps 171.675 ms 0.253 ms 0% Symphony Communication PCL, Singapore
#2 12.14 Mbps 12.06 Mbps 171.691 ms 0.398 ms 0% Symphony Communication PCL, Singapore
#3 12.12 Mbps 12.09 Mbps 171.675 ms 0.788 ms 0% Symphony Communication PCL, Singapore

ExpressVPN test conclusion

ExpressVPN delivered excellent throughput on two of our nearby European routes. Sweden retained 95.29% of baseline download speed, while Germany retained 93.24%.

The UK was the clear outlier. Two of the three UK runs fell below 48 Mbps, producing a median of 47.52 Mbps and 50.11% retention. Because the regional latency and 50-sample stability test remained normal, we retain this as a measured throughput result rather than treating the tunnel itself as unstable.

Long-distance results were broadly in line with the pattern seen across our Swedish testing environment. US East retained 23.18% of baseline throughput and Singapore retained 12.78%.

Network validation was particularly clean in this batch. All five exit regions passed multi-source geolocation consensus, all five stability tests recorded 0% packet loss, and all five IPLeak DNS comparisons returned PASS_NO_BASELINE_RESOLVER_REUSED.

IPv6 remains inconclusive because the baseline IPv6 lookup endpoints could not be resolved. This dataset covers ExpressVPN’s paid Windows app using WireGuard and does not establish performance for other protocols, specific game servers, streaming services or kill-switch behavior.

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