Key Takeaways: What Is the Best Free India VPN

1. Windscribe — Excellent connection speed and feature set
2. Proton VPN — Free VPN with unlimited data
3. hide.me — Access to almost all premium features on the free plan
4. TunnelBear — Free VPN servers in over 40 countries
5. PrivadoVPN — Excellent user interface

Freedom House rates India’s internet freedom as only partly free. From banning Chinese apps to the new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2020, several events have limited internet freedom in India. However, if you’re in India, you can use a VPN to access any content you want online. In this guide, we help you select the best free India VPN.

Before we get to the VPNs, you need to know about India’s new VPN laws. The law makes it mandatory for VPN service providers to log user data and store it for a minimum of five years. The service provider must provide data to the Indian government upon request.

Many VPN service providers have removed physical servers from India and now offer virtual servers to avoid logging data.

However, some services continue to have physical servers in India. Using those services can put your data at risk. However, if you’re in India, not having an Indian VPN server isn’t a big deal. Below, we discuss the best free VPNs for India and what makes them the best.

Top Free VPNs for India

Time's up

How to Choose the Best Free Indian VPN

We will discuss each service individually in the next section. However, you should know what to look for in a VPN before you pick one.

Security and Privacy

Security and privacy are a VPN’s primary purposes — see our most secure VPNs list to learn more. You should select a VPN that offers a good combination of encryption protocols and ciphers. The best VPNs offer OpenVPN combined with AES-256 or WireGuard combined with ChaCha20, or both.

You should also always pick a VPN that has a strict no-logs policy. A VPN that doesn’t log user data is critical to your privacy. You should steer clear of any VPNs that are headquartered in one of the countries that belong to the Five, Nine or 14 Eyes alliances.

Connection Speeds

You need fast connection speeds when streaming content online. Slow speeds cause video content to buffer, which translates to a poor streaming experience.

All VPNs slow down your connection speeds, though they can also increase connection speeds if your internet service provider has been throttling your bandwidth.

The fastest VPNs ensure that the reduction in speed is minimal, so you can continue streaming content in high quality while using another country’s IP address.

Unblocking Streaming Services

All VPNs can help you acquire another country’s IP address as long as the service has a server in that country. The problem? Having a server doesn’t guarantee the VPN will help you unblock regional content.

For example, many VPNs can’t access Netflix U.S. even when you connect to a U.S. server. Websites like Netflix actively ban VPNs, so you’ll need a reliable VPN that can consistently access geoblocked content.

Free Indian Servers

Many VPNs offer Indian servers, but a lot of them only offer Indian servers on their paid plans. Other services have physical servers in India, which we don’t recommend using given India’s VPN laws.

That said, not having an Indian server probably won’t be a big problem for you. You can access Indian content on your unprotected connection. However, if you want to securely access online banking services, and the service doesn’t allow access to anyone outside India, you might need an Indian server. Using a service with virtual Indian servers is best.

Unfortunately, none of the free VPNs on our list have free Indian servers. If getting an Indian IP address is a must for you, we recommend opting for a premium VPN such as ExpressVPN, which has virtual Indian servers via the U.K. and Singapore.

The Best Free VPN With India Servers: Comparison Table

1. Windscribe

More details about Windscribe:

• Pricing: 15 GB free; premium plan for $5.75 per month (one-year plan)
• Provider website: windscribe.com

Windscribe is the best free VPN out there. With Windscribe, you get excellent security. It comes with the standard OpenVPN and AES-256 combination. Alternatively, you can choose WireGuard and ChaCha20. If you’re on a mobile device, you also have the option to select IKEv2 for better performance.

Windscribe’s privacy policy is transparent and commits to not logging any user data. Connection speeds are impressive too. Our speed tests show that Windscribe beats some premium VPNs with its lightning-fast connection speeds. Add the ability to unblock all major streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video and you’ve got a top-notch VPN to stream geoblocked content with.

Windscribe packs in all the essential features, and then some. For example, it has a kill switch to cut off your internet traffic if the VPN connection drops, and split tunneling that allows you to route an app’s internet traffic via one of two tunnels — the encrypted VPN tunnel and the unprotected tunnel that offers better speed.

Excellent Free Plan

The free plan offers up to 15GB of free data every month, provided you confirm your email address and tweet about Windscribe. You can access servers in 10 countries on the free plan, including the U.S., but you don’t get access to an Indian server, meaning you can’t get a local IP address. 

The free plan also comes with limited access to R.O.B.E.R.T., Windscribe’s ad blocker. We discuss more about R.O.B.E.R.T. and other Windscribe features in our Windscribe review.

The build-a-plan option lets you add server locations to your plan without paying for one of Windscribe’s existing plans. You can either choose three server locations for $1 each per month each, or two server locations and unlimited data plus access to R.O.B.E.R.T., which also costs $1 per month. The build-a-plan option comes with a minimum $3 per month checkout value. 

If you want to access the entire server list, one of the existing Windscribe plans makes more sense. The best value plan costs $5.75 per month. That’s more expensive than other premium services, but you get unlimited simultaneous connections, so you can always share the account and reduce the per user cost. You can also try Windscribe risk-free using its three-day money-back guarantee.

3-days money-back guarantee

Free

• Up to 15 GB free with email confirmation and Tweet
• 15GB
• Unlimited

FREE

Pro Plan

• Unlimited GB
• Unlimited
• Yes

1-month plan

1-month plan

$9/month

1-year plan

$5.75/month

$69 billed every year

Save 36%

2. Proton VPN

More details about Proton VPN:

• Pricing: Unlimited GB on 3 servers for free; premium plan for $4.99 per month (two-year plan)
• Provider website: protonvpn.com

Proton VPN checks all the boxes of an excellent VPN. It offers good connection speed, robust features and the best encryption protocols — OpenVPN, IKEv2, WireGuard and Stealth.

In addition to encryption protocols, Proton VPN offers security essentials like a kill switch and split tunneling — though the latter is only available for Android and Windows users. It also has a strict no-logging policy. You can access all major streaming services, including Netflix. Proton VPN has an excellent user interface too. 

There’s hardly anything to dislike about Proton VPN, except that it only offers three server locations on the free plan. Of course, you also can’t use ProtonVPN to acquire an Indian IP address, since the free plan doesn’t offer an Indian server.

Unlimited Data

Proton VPN is one of the few reliable VPNs that offer unlimited data. However, it only has servers in the U.S., Japan and Netherlands, so if you’re far from these locations, you might experience slower connection speeds. We discuss Proton VPN and its features in more detail in our Proton VPN review if you want to learn more.

Proton VPN’s paid plan costs $4.99 per month on the 2-year deal. That’s more expensive than some of the best VPNs, like NordVPN and CyberGhost. However, if you like Proton VPN’s interface and feature set, Proton VPN might be worth the price. You can always use the 30-day money-back guarantee to claim a full refund if you don’t like the service.

30-days money-back guarantee

Free

• Unlimited GB
• 1
• Yes

FREE

Plus

• Unlimited GB
• 5
• Yes

1-month plan, 1-year plan

1-month plan

$9.99/month

1-year plan

$5.99/month

$71.88 billed every year

Save 40%

2-year plan

$4.99/month

$119.75 billed every 2 years

Save 50%

3. hide.me

More details about hide.me:

• Pricing: 10GB free; premium plan for $4.57 per month (one-year plan)
• Provider website: hide.me

hide.me offers unlimited data. The website mentions a 10GB data cap, but it’s not really a limit on data usage. You can continue using the VPN for free even beyond 10GB — you just don’t get the option to choose a server location. Beyond 10GB, hide.me connects you to a random server, so you effectively get unlimited data with hide.me.

You don’t get a free VPN server in India, so you can’t get an Indian IP address. The free server locations include Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.

hide.me doesn’t unblock Netflix. Of course, you can still watch Netflix India — you don’t need a VPN for that. However, you can’t access other countries’ content libraries using hide.me. The service can still help you stay safe when torrenting, though. While the speeds aren’t impressive, they’re fairly decent.

Access to Premium Features

hide.me lets you use almost every feature it offers to paid plan VPN subscribers. For example, you can use the fallback protocol feature to ensure you’re always safe, even if your encryption protocol fails for some reason.

When your primary protocol fails, the fallback protocol will automatically activate and maintain an encrypted connection. Learn about hide.me’s full feature set in our comprehensive hide.me review.

hide.me offers low-cost plans and shorter commitments from users. Most VPN services offer their best rates on annual, two-year and three-year plans. hide.me’s best value plan is its 12-month plan at just $4.57 per month. You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee in case you’re not fully satisfied with the service.

30-days money-back guarantee

Free

• 5 servers
• 10GB
• 1

FREE

Premium

• Unlimited GB
• 10
• Yes

1-month plan, 1-year plan

1-month plan

$9.95/month

1-year plan

$4.57/month

$54.84 billed every year

Save 54%

$2.69/month

Save 72%

4. TunnelBear

More details about TunnelBear:

• Pricing: 500MB free; premium plan for $3.33 per month (three-year plan)
• Provider website: tunnelbear.com

TunnelBear is a great, secure VPN for India. It uses OpenVPN and AES-256 to secure your connection and claims to not log any user data. With TunnelBear, you get a minimalist interface that’s perfect for beginners. However, don’t let TunnelBear’s simplicity lead you into thinking it is bare-boned.

You get all VPN essentials like a kill switch (called VigilantBear) and split tunneling (called SplitBear), although split tunneling is only available on Android and iOS devices. TunnelBear also has GhostBear, which conceals VPN usage, allowing you to access blocked content in countries with heavy internet censorship like China.

TunnelBear doesn’t effectively unblock services like Netflix. Moreover, TunnelBear only offers 2GB of free data each month — not enough for binge-watching your favorite shows. We talk more about TunnelBear and its features in our TunnelBear review.

Access to More Than 40 Servers

TunnelBear offers free servers in many countries over 40 countries, which means you can acquire an IP address for all of those countries. You might be able to get past geoblocked websites, but TunnelBear doesn’t work that well for unblocking streaming services.

For example, you can’t access Netflix U.S. to watch House of Cards, but you can access your bank account in the US or view a UK-based news site that’s unavailable in India.

TunnelBear has servers in all these countries and 37 other countries — that’s more than any free VPNs in this list. However, TunnelBear doesn’t offer an Indian server. This means you can’t use TunnelBear to acquire an Indian IP address.

If you want unlimited data, you can get TunnelBear’s best value plan for $3.33 per month, if you’re willing to commit to three years up-front. If you like the simplistic interface, switching to the paid plan is a great move — you get unlimited data and access to most major streaming services.

Free

• 2GB
• 2GB
• 5

FREE

Individual

• Unlimited GB, five devices, priority customer service
• Unlimited GB
• 5
• Yes

1-month plan, 1-year plan

1-month plan

$9.99/month

1-year plan

$4.99/month

$59.88 billed every year

Save 50%

3-year plan

$3.33/month

$120 billed every 3 years

Save 66%

Teams

• Unlimited GB, five devices per user, centralized billing, account manager, price per user per month
• Unlimited GB
• 5
• Yes

1-year plan

$5.75/month

$69 billed every year

5. PrivadoVPN

More details about PrivadoVPN:

• Pricing: 10GB free; premium plan for $2.50 per month (one-year plan)
• Provider website: privadovpn.com

As a free PrivadoVPN user, you get 10GB of free data each month. That’s more than what most free services offer. If you stream a lot of content, 10GB might be better than TunnelBear’s 1GB. You also get access to servers in nine countries, though India isn’t one of them. This means you can’t use PrivadoVPN to acquire an Indian IP address.

Your connection is well protected when you use PrivadoVPN. The service offers OpenVPN, IKEv2 and WireGuard combined with AES-256 and ChaCha20 for superior protection. The privacy policy promises to not log any user data, but we did find a few concerning points, as we discuss in detail in our PrivadoVPN review.

PrivadoVPN bypasses geoblocks on all popular streaming websites including Netflix, BBC iPlayer and Disney Plus. While the speeds aren’t impressive, you can still stream content comfortably in standard definition. 4K streamers might experience buffering, though.

Excellent User Interface

We also like how PrivadoVPN’s interface is designed to be compact, but manages to pack in a ton of details. For example, we’ve repeatedly praised CyberGhost’s detailed interface, and PrivadoVPN offers similar options like sorting the server list in alphabetical order or by latency.

PrivadoVPN costs more than some major streaming services like NordVPN and Surfshark. The best value plan costs $2.50 per month for the one-year plan. If you want to reduce the per-user cost, PrivadoVPN offers 10 simultaneous connections, so you can share your account with friends or family.

You can also just try the service using its 30-day money-back guarantee.

30-days money-back guarantee

Free

• 10GB
• 1

FREE

Premium

• Unlimited GB
• 10
• Yes

1-month plan, 1-year plan

1-month plan

$10.99/month

1-year plan

$2.50/month

$30 billed every year

Save 77%

2-year plan

$1/month

$23.88 billed every 2 years

Save 90%

How to Get an Indian IP Address Free

You need a VPN with an Indian server, which may be virtual or physical, to get an Indian IP address. None of the VPNs in this list have an Indian server. However, if you absolutely need an Indian IP address, consider getting one of the premium VPNs.

A paid VPN like NordVPN or Surfshark won’t cost you a lot. It will give you access to an Indian server and offer superior performance and security compared to most free VPNs on the market. All you need to do to acquire an Indian IP address is download and install the premium VPN, connect to the Indian server and that’s it.

Free VPNs vs Paid VPNs vs Proxies

Proxies don’t offer any security. They don’t encrypt your connection like VPNs do and in most cases, are slower than VPNs.

Free VPNs are generally a bad idea. Most aren’t secure and some even harm your computer by infecting it with malware and ransomware — see our list of the worst VPNs.

Paid VPNs offer fast connection speeds and top-notch security and privacy. If you’re on a budget, you can always select a low-cost service like Surfshark or CyberGhost. You can reduce the cost even further by sharing your Surfshark account with friends and family — it offers unlimited simultaneous connections and unlimited bandwidth.

Why Do I Need an Indian VPN?

You need an Indian VPN to ensure nobody has access to your data and online activities. A VPN encrypts your connection so no one can snoop on what you’re doing online.

India is also witnessing double-digit growth in instances of cybercrime. When you use public WiFi, your data is prone to theft. However, using a good VPN makes it nearly impossible for a hacker to intercept and read your data.

You might also need an Indian VPN when trying to access another country’s content library on a streaming platform. For example, you can use a VPN to access Netflix U.S. even when you’re physically located in India.

What Are the Risks of Using a Free VPN for India?

Most free VPNs are insecure and unreliable. Picking up any random free VPN for India puts your data at risk. For example, your ISP might be able to log your data if your VPN connection suddenly drops and it doesn’t have a kill switch.

Using one of the free VPNs in this guide will ensure you’re not compromising your security or privacy when using a free VPN for India.

Final Thoughts

You can protect your data and identity when online by using a free VPN. India isn’t as censorship-heavy as China, but you can’t access Chinese platforms like TikTok when you’re in India. That’s where VPNs can help — check out our guide for the best VPN for TikTok.

Free VPNs are generally bad news because most are insecure, slow and unreliable, but a few exceptions do exist. We recommended five free services for India in this guide, with Windscribe claiming the top spot.

Do you know of more free VPNs for India that are trustworthy? Have you used them? What was your experience like? Let us know in the comments, and as always, thank you for reading.

FAQ

• Which Free VPN Has an India Server?

  None of the VPNs on this list have a free Indian server. If you don’t want to spend a lot on a VPN but still need an Indian IP address, consider a low-cost VPN service like NordVPN, Surfshark or CyberGhost.

• How Can I Get an Indian IP Address Free?

  You can get an Indian IP address by using a VPN service that has an Indian server. None of the VPNs listed here offer a free India server, but you can always get a low-cost VPN to access an Indian server. Download and install your chosen VPN app, connect to an Indian server and you’ll have acquired an Indian IP address.