How to use a VPN on an iPhone

iOS has VPN support built into the operating system, so there is no configuration to write and nothing to download outside the App Store. The setup is genuinely two minutes. The part worth reading is what comes after — the four settings that decide whether the connection stays up when you are not looking at it.

Set it up

1. 1

   Subscribe on the website, not in the app

   Buy your plan on the provider's own site. The same plan bought as an in-app purchase is usually more expensive, because Apple takes a commission, and a website subscription works on Windows, Android and a Fire TV Stick as well — an App Store one can be awkward to move.

2. 2

   Install the app

   Search the App Store for the provider by name. Check the developer line before you install. VPN brand names attract look-alikes, and an app that gets permission to route all your traffic is the wrong place to be careless.

3. 3

   Sign in

   Open it and enter the email and password from your subscription.

4. 4

   Allow the VPN configuration

   iOS shows a system dialog: "[App] would like to add VPN configurations." Tap Allow and confirm with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. This is iOS asking permission to route your traffic, and it only appears once per app.

   The iOS 'would like to add VPN configurations' permission dialogpublic/screenshots/how-to-use-vpn-on-iphone/01-vpn-permission.png

5. 5

   Connect

   Tap Connect for the nearest server, or choose a country first if you want a specific one. A VPN badge appears in the status bar — that badge, not the app's own screen, is the reliable indicator that the tunnel is up.

   The iOS status bar showing the VPN badge while connectedpublic/screenshots/how-to-use-vpn-on-iphone/02-status-badge.png

6. 6

   Turn on the two settings that matter

   In the app's own settings, enable the kill switch (often called Network Protection or similar) and auto-connect on untrusted Wi-Fi. Details below.

The four settings that decide whether it works

The app connecting is the easy part. Staying connected on a phone that sleeps, changes networks and gets suspended by the OS is the real problem.

Auto-connect on untrusted Wi-Fi

The whole point of a VPN on a phone is the networks you did not choose — the café, the hotel, the airport. Those are exactly the moments you will not remember to open an app.

Set auto-connect to trigger on any Wi-Fi except your home network. From then on it is automatic, and the one habit you have to build disappears.

The kill switch

If the tunnel drops, everything keeps sending — unencrypted, from your real IP. On a phone this happens more than you would think: moving between Wi-Fi and cellular, waking from sleep, walking out of range.

Every VPN we rate has a kill switch on iOS. Turn it on. There is a trade-off worth knowing: with it enabled, a failed connection means no internet at all rather than an unprotected one, which is occasionally confusing when you are in a hurry. That is the correct behaviour and it is the reason the feature exists.

The protocol

Use WireGuard — or the provider's variant of it, NordLynx on NordVPN, Lightway on ExpressVPN. It is faster, it reconnects in a fraction of a second after the phone wakes, and it uses less battery than OpenVPN. Most apps default to it now; check anyway, because some still default to "Automatic" and pick something else on cellular.

Background App Refresh

iOS suspends background apps to save power, and a suspended VPN app cannot reconnect after a drop. Settings → General → Background App Refresh → make sure your VPN is enabled.

Which app to install matters more on iOS than on desktop, because reconnection behaviour is where the cheaper clients come apart:

VPN	Added ping	Avg speed	Devices	2-year price
NordVPN	+4 ms	712 Mbps	10	$3.39/mo
Surfshark	+6 ms	655 Mbps	Unlimited	$2.19/mo
ExpressVPN	+7 ms	598 Mbps	8	$4.99/mo
Proton VPN	+9 ms	541 Mbps	10	$4.49/mo
Mullvad	+8 ms	590 Mbps	5	$5.40/mo

The iOS quirk nobody mentions

Apple's own VPN implementation has a known limitation: some connections established before the tunnel came up can keep using the old route for a while rather than being reset. In practice this means a push notification or a background sync that was already open may briefly continue outside the tunnel after you connect.

For ordinary privacy — stopping your ISP or a café network from logging your browsing — this does not matter much. If your threat model is more serious than that, the reliable fix is to toggle Airplane Mode on and off after connecting, which forces every connection to rebuild through the tunnel.

Providers have worked around parts of this; none of them can fully fix it, because it is in iOS rather than in their app. Anyone claiming a complete fix is overstating it.

Split tunnelling: not on iOS

On Windows and Android you can send some apps outside the tunnel. iOS does not permit this — the platform routes all traffic or none.

Workarounds you will see suggested (per-app VPN via a mobile device management profile) apply to managed corporate devices, not personal phones. If you need one app to bypass the VPN, the only real option is to disconnect while you use it.

Do you need it on cellular too?

Yes, if the reason you wanted a VPN was privacy. Your mobile carrier is in the same position as your home ISP: it sees every domain you connect to, and in many countries it is allowed to do things with that. The tunnel works identically over 5G.

If the reason was public Wi-Fi specifically, cellular is already a private connection between you and your carrier, and auto-connect on Wi-Fi-only is a reasonable setting.

When something goes wrong

Keeps disconnecting. Enable Background App Refresh, switch to WireGuard, turn on auto-connect. If it persists, delete the VPN configuration under Settings → General → VPN & Device Management, then reconnect from the app to recreate it.

Connected but sites are blocked. You are probably on a server the site has blocked. Change server, then close and reopen the app or page.

Everything is slow. Check which server you are on — people leave the VPN on a country they picked for one evening and forget. Switch back to the nearest server.

No internet at all. The kill switch is doing its job on a failed connection. Reconnect, or disable the kill switch temporarily to confirm that is what it is.

The VPN badge is missing. The tunnel is not up, whatever the app says. Reconnect.

Removing it

Delete the app, then go to Settings → General → VPN & Device Management and remove the leftover configuration profile. iOS keeps the profile after the app is gone, and a stale one is the usual reason a "removed" VPN still shows in Settings.