Proton VPN Test Results

Our latest Proton VPN test showed strong nearby performance using WireGuard. Proton VPN retained 95.2% of our VPN-off download speed in Sweden and 95.0% in Germany. UK performance reached 80.3%, while US East and Singapore showed much larger long-distance throughput reductions. Across all five tested regions, our fixed-target stability test recorded 0% packet loss and 0% detected latency spikes.

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PPG LAB TESTED · PAID PLAN

We tested Proton VPN on Windows using WireGuard across all five Private Proxy Guide core regions. Sweden retained 95.23% of our VPN-off download speed and Germany retained 94.98%. The UK reached 80.28%, while US East and Singapore showed the expected larger long-distance throughput reductions. All five regions recorded 0% packet loss and 0% detected latency spikes in our fixed-target stability test.

Test date: August 28, 2026 Test ID: PPG-VPN-2026-08-7DDF Plan: Paid App version: 5.1.7 Protocol: WireGuard Runner: v0.5.2
95.2%
Best speed retention
Sweden median download
18.8 ms
Sweden latency
+9.7 ms vs baseline
0%
Stability packet loss
Across all five regions
5/5
Geo consensus passed
All PPG core regions

What our Proton VPN test showed

Proton VPN delivered strong nearby European throughput. Sweden reached 90.31 Mbps against our 94.83 Mbps VPN-off baseline, corresponding to 95.23% download-speed retention. Germany was close behind at 90.07 Mbps and 94.98% retention.

The UK retained 80.28% of baseline download throughput. Long-distance results dropped substantially, with US East retaining 22.18% and Singapore retaining 12.04%.

Tunnel stability was very consistent across the complete batch. All five tested VPN regions recorded 0% packet loss and 0% detected latency spikes. Fixed-target p95 latency was identical to the median in Sweden, the UK, Germany and US East, and only 1 ms higher in Singapore.

Proton VPN speed test results

Our VPN-off baseline was 94.83 Mbps download, 94.57 Mbps upload and 9.13 ms latency. We performed five VPN-off baseline runs and three speed-test runs per Proton VPN region. Median values are used for reporting.

Download speed retained

Sweden95.2%
 
Germany95.0%
 
United Kingdom80.3%
 
US East22.2%
 
Singapore12.0%
 

Quick interpretation

  • Sweden: excellent near-baseline throughput.
  • Germany: also very strong at almost 95% retention.
  • UK: solid European performance at just over 80% retention.
  • US East: substantial long-distance throughput reduction.
  • Singapore: lowest throughput and highest regional latency in this batch.
Location Download Upload Speed retained
Sweden 90.31 Mbps 90.58 Mbps 95.23%
Germany 90.07 Mbps 90.38 Mbps 94.98%
United Kingdom 76.13 Mbps 76.76 Mbps 80.28%
US East 21.03 Mbps 21.44 Mbps 22.18%
Singapore 11.42 Mbps 11.48 Mbps 12.04%

Regional latency

Location Regional ping Added latency Ookla jitter
Sweden 18.84 ms +9.71 ms 0.144 ms
Germany 32.59 ms +23.47 ms 13.773 ms
United Kingdom 27.69 ms +18.57 ms 0.353 ms
US East 96.27 ms +87.15 ms 0.335 ms
Singapore 180.14 ms +171.01 ms 0.220 ms
Germany latency outlier: the median Speedtest ping for Germany was 32.59 ms because the three individual measurements were 21.48 ms, 32.59 ms and 43.15 ms. The separate fixed-target stability probe remained much tighter at 21 ms median and 21 ms p95. We keep these measurements separate rather than replacing the published Speedtest median with the lower stability result.

Gaming latency and connection stability

We separate regional Speedtest latency from the fixed-target stability probe. The latter uses 50 ICMP samples against the same PPG target to measure median latency, p95 latency, jitter, packet loss and latency spikes.

Important: these are Proton VPN network measurements from our Swedish test environment. They are not direct latency measurements against specific game servers.
Location Stability median p95 Packet loss
Sweden 19 ms 19 ms 0%
Germany 21 ms 21 ms 0%
United Kingdom 28 ms 28 ms 0%
US East 97 ms 97 ms 0%
Singapore 180 ms 181 ms 0%

Stability jitter and spikes

Location Stability jitter Spike rate Result
Sweden 0.061 ms 0% Stable
Germany 0.082 ms 0% Stable
United Kingdom 0.245 ms 0% Stable
US East 0.306 ms 0% Stable
Singapore 0.327 ms 0% Stable

The fixed-target results were consistently tight. Sweden, Germany, the UK and US East had identical median and p95 values. Singapore’s p95 was only 1 ms above its median. No packet loss or latency spikes were detected in any region.

Exit-location validation

All five requested Proton VPN regions passed the runner’s multi-source exit-country consensus checks before regional benchmark data was accepted.

Location Requested target Consensus Result
Sweden Sweden / Stockholm SE PASS CONSENSUS
United Kingdom United Kingdom / London GB PASS CONSENSUS
Germany Germany / Frankfurt DE PASS CONSENSUS
US East United States / New York US PASS CONSENSUS
Singapore Singapore / Singapore SG PASS CONSENSUS
Why multi-source validation matters: one geolocation source classified several Proton VPN addresses differently from the other sources. For the Sweden exit IP, for example, one source reported the US while two other geolocation providers and IPLeak identified Sweden. The final result was therefore based on consensus rather than a single external database.

Proton VPN server selection

The Proton VPN Windows adapter attempted automatic location selection through Windows UI Automation. In this batch, automatic selection could not be verified reliably, so all five connections used the runner’s guided manual fallback.

The tester selected the requested Proton VPN country/city in the already-running official Windows application. The runner then detected the public-IP transition and required the exit-country validation to pass before benchmark collection continued.

This means the dataset remains location-verified, but the server-selection process itself was not fully automated in this test batch.

Location Connection mode IP transition Geo verification
Sweden Manual fallback 1.17 s PASS
United Kingdom Manual fallback 0.98 s PASS
Germany Manual fallback 0.97 s PASS
US East Manual fallback 2.31 s PASS
Singapore Manual fallback 4.94 s PASS

These figures measure the interval until the runner detected the public-IP transition after manual connection. They are diagnostic observations and are not used to rank Proton VPN’s connection speed against other providers.

DNS observations

Unlike several earlier test batches, Proton VPN’s VPN-off IPLeak DNS baseline was captured successfully. Two baseline resolver IPs were observed:

172.253.94.153
192.178.94.21

However, IPLeak did not return a usable resolver list while Proton VPN was connected. The regional DNS results were therefore classified as INCONCLUSIVE_VPN.

Location Baseline VPN observation DNS result
Sweden 2 resolvers observed No resolvers detected INCONCLUSIVE
United Kingdom 2 resolvers observed No resolvers detected INCONCLUSIVE
Germany 2 resolvers observed No resolvers detected INCONCLUSIVE
US East 2 resolvers observed No resolvers detected INCONCLUSIVE
Singapore 2 resolvers observed No resolvers detected INCONCLUSIVE
What this means: this is not evidence that Proton VPN leaked DNS. A valid VPN-off baseline was captured, but IPLeak did not provide a usable resolver set while Proton VPN was connected. Without VPN-side resolver observations, we cannot determine whether the baseline resolvers were reused. The conservative result is therefore INCONCLUSIVE_VPN, not Pass or Fail.

Browser evidence

BrowserLeaks IP, DNS and WebRTC evidence was captured for the VPN-off baseline and all five Proton VPN regions.

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

Browser evidence is retained as supporting evidence. Capturing a page does not automatically create a security Pass or Fail without a machine-readable or reviewed conclusion.

IPv4, IPv6 and security observations

  • IPv4 location validation: PASS CONSENSUS across all five core regions.
  • DNS: INCONCLUSIVE VPN. A valid baseline was captured, but VPN-side resolver detection returned no usable resolver list.
  • IPv6: INCONCLUSIVE BASELINE. IPv6 lookup hostnames could not be resolved during baseline testing.
  • BrowserLeaks: IP, DNS and WebRTC evidence captured across baseline and all five VPN regions.
  • Server selection: guided manual fallback followed by strict public-IP and geo-consensus verification.
  • Kill switch: not tested in this batch.
IPv6 limitation: the baseline IPv6 requests failed at DNS resolution before a usable IPv6 baseline could be established. We therefore do not interpret the IPv6 result as either a Proton VPN Pass or Fail.

Test evidence

The Proton VPN batch generated raw Ookla measurements, fixed-target stability data, multi-source public-IP evidence, IPLeak DNS observations, BrowserLeaks captures and automatic desktop and Speedtest screenshots.

26/26 Automatic desktop and Speedtest screenshot captures completed successfully.
20 Ookla runs: 5 VPN-off baseline tests plus 15 Proton VPN regional tests.
18 BrowserLeaks captures covering IP, DNS and WebRTC across six scopes.

How we tested Proton VPN

  • Plan: Proton VPN paid plan.
  • Application: Proton VPN 5.1.7 for Windows.
  • Protocol: WireGuard.
  • Test location: Sweden.
  • Runner: Private Proxy Guide VPN Test Runner v0.5.2.
  • 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 median values.
  • Regional Speedtest locking: enabled.
  • Gaming stability: 50 ICMP samples against the fixed PPG stability target.
  • Proton VPN connection mode: guided manual fallback after automatic Windows UI selection could not be verified reliably.
  • Location validation: multi-source public-IP geolocation consensus required before benchmark acceptance.
  • IPLeak DNS evidence: enabled.
  • BrowserLeaks IP/DNS/WebRTC evidence: enabled.
  • Automatic screenshots: enabled.
  • Kill switch: not tested.

Raw Proton VPN speed-test runs

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

Show all 20 individual speed-test runs

Baseline – VPN disconnected

Run Download Upload Ping
#1 94.80 Mbps 94.27 Mbps 9.191 ms
#2 94.71 Mbps 94.60 Mbps 9.126 ms
#3 94.83 Mbps 94.68 Mbps 8.971 ms
#4 94.94 Mbps 94.57 Mbps 8.905 ms
#5 94.88 Mbps 94.49 Mbps 9.298 ms

Locked Ookla endpoint: Telenor Denmark, Søborg.

Sweden

Run Download Upload Ping
#1 90.33 Mbps 90.58 Mbps 18.867 ms
#2 90.21 Mbps 90.56 Mbps 18.836 ms
#3 90.31 Mbps 90.61 Mbps 18.471 ms

Locked Ookla endpoint: Tele2 Sweden, Stockholm.

United Kingdom

Run Download Upload Ping
#1 75.93 Mbps 75.37 Mbps 27.311 ms
#2 76.13 Mbps 76.76 Mbps 27.692 ms
#3 76.32 Mbps 77.04 Mbps 27.815 ms

Locked Ookla endpoint: Structured Communications, London.

Germany

Run Download Upload Ping
#1 90.28 Mbps 90.38 Mbps 21.477 ms
#2 90.07 Mbps 90.38 Mbps 32.592 ms
#3 89.32 Mbps 86.14 Mbps 43.150 ms

Locked Ookla endpoint: Pingless.com, Frankfurt am Main.

US East

Run Download Upload Ping
#1 20.87 Mbps 21.55 Mbps 96.310 ms
#2 21.03 Mbps 21.44 Mbps 96.273 ms
#3 21.04 Mbps 21.39 Mbps 95.969 ms

Locked Ookla endpoint: Surfshark Ltd, New York, NY.

Singapore

Run Download Upload Ping
#1 11.42 Mbps 11.44 Mbps 179.810 ms
#2 11.48 Mbps 11.48 Mbps 180.588 ms
#3 11.42 Mbps 11.49 Mbps 180.135 ms

Locked Ookla endpoint: Symphony Communication PCL, Singapore.

Proton VPN test conclusion

Proton VPN delivered excellent nearby European throughput in this standardized test batch. Sweden retained 95.23% of baseline download speed and Germany retained 94.98%, while the UK retained 80.28%.

Long-distance performance was much lower, with US East retaining 22.18% and Singapore 12.04%. These results reinforce why we test geographically different routes instead of publishing one generic VPN speed figure.

Fixed-target stability was particularly consistent. All five regions recorded 0% packet loss and 0% detected latency spikes, and p95 latency was identical to the median in four of the five regions.

All five requested exit countries passed multi-source geolocation consensus. Proton VPN’s Windows UI could not be automated reliably enough for server selection in this batch, so guided manual fallback was used, followed by public-IP transition detection and strict exit-country validation before benchmark data was accepted.

Germany produced an unusual Speedtest latency pattern: throughput remained near baseline, but individual regional ping measurements increased from 21.48 ms to 32.59 ms and 43.15 ms. The independent stability probe remained at 21 ms median/p95, so both observations are retained rather than treating one as a replacement for the other.

DNS remains inconclusive for a different reason than several earlier batches: a valid VPN-off DNS baseline was captured, but IPLeak did not return usable resolver observations while Proton VPN was connected. IPv6 also remains inconclusive because the baseline IPv6 hostnames could not be resolved. This dataset therefore does not support a DNS-leak or IPv6-leak Pass/Fail conclusion, nor does it establish performance for OpenVPN, Secure Core, specialized servers, specific game servers or kill-switch behavior.

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