Private Internet Access (PIA) Review 2026: The Cheapest VPN for Unlimited Devices?
Private Internet Access is one of the cheapest VPNs with an independently assessed no-logs policy, and it lets you connect unlimited devices. The trade-off is slower speeds and weaker results with some streaming services. Through our partner offer it costs $56.94 for 26 months, or €51.74 with VAT included when bought from the Czech Republic or Slovakia, and then renews every year. We went through PIA’s pricing, terms, help center, audits, court cases and independent tests. Everything here is current as of October 1, 2026.
Private Internet Access, or PIA, has been around since 2010 and has belonged to Kape Technologies since 2019, the same group that owns ExpressVPN and CyberGhost. It’s based in the US and has long positioned itself as a privacy-first VPN, with open-source apps, regular transparency reports and a no-logs policy that held up in two US court cases.
We didn’t run our own hands-on tests. This review is built on PIA’s official documents and independent testing by TechRadar, Tom’s Guide and Security.org, and every key fact links to its source. Our PIA links are affiliate links: if you buy through them, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
01The verdict at a glance
| Area | Rating | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Very low | $2.19 a month for the first 26 months through our offer, then a yearly renewal. |
| Devices | Unlimited | One subscription covers the whole household. |
| Privacy | Very good | Three Deloitte assessments, two court cases in which PIA couldn’t identify a user, RAM-only servers, open-source apps. |
| Speed | Below average | 419 Mbps with WireGuard, 24th of 25 results in TechRadar’s table. |
| Streaming | Mixed | Netflix worked in tests; Prime Video, YouTube and Disney+ in Canada were weak. |
| Server network | Broad, with caveats | 104 countries, but 52 of them are virtual locations only. |
| Apps | Strong on desktop | Split tunneling and port forwarding on Windows, macOS and Linux; the iPhone app is basic. |
Pros
- Unlimited simultaneous devices on one subscription.
- A low price in the first term and after renewal.
- A no-logs policy assessed three times by Deloitte and backed by two US court cases in which PIA couldn’t identify a user.
- Full-featured apps for Windows, macOS and Linux, including split tunneling and port forwarding.
- Open-source apps and quarterly reports on government requests.
Cons
- One of the slowest VPNs in TechRadar’s speed tests.
- About half of its 104 countries are virtual locations.
- No split tunneling, port forwarding or Multi-Hop on iPhone.
- US-based; EU customers contract with a Cyprus entity under English law.
- Weak at unblocking Prime Video and YouTube abroad.
02Who is behind PIA
Entrepreneur Andrew Lee founded the service in 2010 under the company London Trust Media (Wikipedia). In November 2019 the London-based Kape Technologies agreed to buy it for $95.5 million (City AM) and closed the deal that December (Kape). Kape also owns ExpressVPN and CyberGhost.
The takeover worried some users, because Kape previously operated as Crossrider and developed browser toolbars bundled with potentially unwanted programs (Wikipedia). TechRadar still calls it the only black mark against PIA (TechRadar). That’s why independent assessments and court cases carry extra weight here; we cover both below.
The company is based in Denver, Colorado, and falls under US law (PIA). Its standard terms choose Colorado law and binding arbitration (terms). EU customers who pay VAT contract instead with Private Internet Access (CY) Ltd in Cyprus, under English law (EU terms).
03How much PIA costs
Our partner offer shows three plans. In US dollars the longest one costs $56.94 for 26 months, which works out to $2.19 a month (PIA). From a Czech IP address the same offer is priced in euros, and unlike CyberGhost or Surfshark, PIA includes VAT in that price: for the Czech Republic, its checkout splits €51.74 into €42.76 plus €8.98 VAT and adds nothing on top.
| Plan | Price (EU, VAT included) | Per month | Renews at |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 month | €10.69 | €10.69 | Same price monthly |
| 6 months | €40.74 | €6.79 | €40.74 every 6 months |
| 2 years + 2 months | €51.74 | €1.99 | €51.74 every year |
| 3 years + 3 months (regular pricing) | €70 ($79) | €1.79 | €70 ($79) every 3 years |
Watch the renewal. After the first 26 months, the plan renews every year at €51.74, so the effective monthly cost more than doubles, from €1.99 to about €4.31. If you plan to stay with PIA for a long time, the 3-year plan on the regular pricing page renews at €70 ($79) for another three years.
- PIA (3 years + 3 months)$2.03
- PIA (our offer, 26 months)$2.19
- CyberGhost (26 months)$2.19
- Surfshark Starter (27 months)$2.49
- ExpressVPN Basic (28 months)$2.99
Total price divided by the number of months, from official pricing pages on October 1, 2026. See also our CyberGhost vs Surfshark comparison.
Buy on the website rather than in the app. PIA’s money-back guarantee doesn’t cover purchases through the App Store, Google Play, gift cards or third-party deal sites (help center). On the web you can pay by card, PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay, depending on your country (help center).
Optional extras include a dedicated IP address for €60 for two years or €5 a month, and Windows antivirus for €34.80 for two years (PIA). Identity Guard, which monitors your email addresses for data breaches, is included (help center).
04Servers: 104 countries, half of them virtual
PIA lists servers in 104 countries (PIA). You’ll still see the older figure of 91 on our partner landing page and in many reviews. According to the official server list the apps use, though, 52 of those 104 countries have virtual locations only: you get an IP address from that country while the server sits elsewhere. “China” and Hong Kong, for example, run in Singapore (help center). PIA doesn’t publish how many servers it runs.
- At least one physical location52
- Virtual locations only52
Calculated from PIA’s official server list (205 regions in 104 countries), October 1, 2026. Countries with at least one physical region count as physical.
All 50 US states are covered, and 35 regions are labeled “Streaming Optimized” (help center). Port forwarding is available in most locations but not on any US server (help center).
Dedicated IP addresses are available in 10 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Japan. You activate it with a token that isn’t tied to your account; PIA doesn’t store the token and can’t recover it if you lose it (help center).
05Apps and features
PIA has apps for Windows, macOS, Linux (with a full desktop interface), Android, iOS, Android TV and Fire TV, plus Chrome and Firefox extensions that work only as browser proxies. Routers support OpenVPN only (help center). The apps offer WireGuard and OpenVPN; IKEv2 isn’t available in them (iOS help).
| Feature | Windows | macOS | Linux | Android | iOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WireGuard and OpenVPN | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Kill switch | Yes | Yes | Yes | Via system setting | Yes |
| Split tunneling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Per app | No |
| MACE ad blocking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Safari only |
| Port forwarding | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Multi-Hop | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Antivirus (paid) | Yes | No | No | No | No |
On desktop, PIA is well equipped, and TechRadar rates its apps 9 out of 10 (TechRadar). Split tunneling can exclude both apps and IP addresses, Linux included (help center), and port forwarding is handy for P2P users.
Two features come with caveats. Multi-Hop isn’t a classic double VPN; it routes traffic through a proxy before the VPN server, and PIA itself says it’s not suited to gaming or video calls (help center). MACE relies on a single public blocklist (help center) and caught only 2 of 100 phishing links in TechRadar’s test (TechRadar).
PIA confirms unlimited simultaneous devices in its help center (help center), though it reserves the right to limit usage if it suspects abuse, such as reselling accounts (terms). Its separate terms for EU customers still mention an outdated 10-connection limit (EU terms).
06Speed and independent tests
Speed is PIA’s weak spot. In TechRadar’s fastest VPN table, which tests every service the same way on a 10 Gbps connection, PIA reached 419 Mbps with WireGuard on the nearest server and 256 Mbps between the US and the UK in May 2026, placing it 24th of the 25 results in the table, behind even several rivals’ OpenVPN speeds (TechRadar).
- CyberGhost1,480
- NordVPN1,249
- ExpressVPN1,177
- Surfshark1,021
- PIA419
Nearest server, measured March to May 2026; ExpressVPN with Lightway Turbo. Source: TechRadar, fastest VPN, table updated August 6, 2026.
In Security.org’s December 2025 test, downloads slowed by only 4.84%, though uploads dropped by up to 85% (Security.org). You’ll notice the gap mainly on gigabit connections and with big downloads. With OpenVPN, PIA is slower still, at 129 Mbps in TechRadar’s test (TechRadar).
Overall, TechRadar gave PIA 74 out of 100 in July 2026 (TechRadar), Tom’s Guide 80.5 out of 100 in August (Tom’s Guide) and Security.org 9.4 out of 10 in December 2025 (Security.org). Note that TechRadar’s and Tom’s Guide’s speed figures come from the same measurement, since both sites share a publisher. Security.org found no IPv6, DNS or WebRTC leaks.
07Streaming and censorship
PIA handles Netflix well. TechRadar unblocked every Netflix region it tried in July 2026, and Tom’s Guide got Netflix working in the UK, US, Canada, Japan and Australia in August (TechRadar, Tom’s Guide). Other services were weaker in TechRadar’s test: Prime Video only worked in the UK and Australia and YouTube only in the UK. Both sites saw Disney+ fail in Canada. BBC iPlayer worked for Tom’s Guide.
PIA’s own help center advises connecting to a server in the country you’re in and calls getting around content providers’ geographic restrictions a breach of its terms (help center). If you live in the EU, paid subscriptions should keep working while you travel within the EU, no VPN needed (Your Europe).
Don’t count on PIA in China. Its “China” location is virtual and routed through Singapore, and Tom’s Guide describes connections from inside China as unreliable, based on user reports (Tom’s Guide).
08Privacy, audits and court cases
Deloitte’s Romanian practice has assessed PIA’s no-logs policy three times, in June 2022, in 2024 and most recently in 2025, under the ISAE 3000 standard (PIA, PIA 2024). The full reports are only available to customers after logging in, and some PIA pages still mention just two audits.
The court record is stronger evidence. In a 2016 FBI case over hoax bomb threats, PIA could only say that the IP addresses belonged to a cluster on the US east coast (TorrentFreak). In another case, with an indictment filed in 2017, the company’s general counsel testified in 2018 that it had nothing useful to hand over (TechNadu).
The quarterly transparency reports point the same way: in Q2 2026 PIA received 19 requests from authorities, courts and other parties and handed over no logs (PIA). All servers run from RAM only, and the apps have been open source since 2018.
- Q3 202519
- Q4 202530
- Q1 202619
- Q2 202619
According to PIA, no logs were handed over in any case. Sources: PIA Q4 2025, Q1 2026, Q2 2026.
The best-documented security flaw is a 2019 vulnerability in the Windows app that let an attacker with local access gain elevated privileges (NVD); PIA also reports fixing one valid bug submitted through its bug bounty program in Q4 2025 (PIA). In 2016 PIA pulled out of Russia after authorities seized its servers there (TorrentFreak). We found no verifiable report of a user data breach.
09PIA vs. the competition
| VPN | Monthly price, longest plan | Devices | Money-back guarantee | Speed (TechRadar) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PIA | $2.03 to $2.19 | Unlimited | 30 days | 419 Mbps |
| CyberGhost | $2.19 | 7 | 45 days | 1,480 Mbps |
| Surfshark Starter | $2.49 | Unlimited | 30 days | 1,021 Mbps |
| ExpressVPN Basic | $2.99 | 10 | 30 days | 1,177 Mbps (Lightway Turbo) |
PIA is among the cheapest in this group and, like Surfshark, has no device limit. What you give up is speed and some streaming reliability. CyberGhost is faster and better for streaming, while Surfshark scores higher with reviewers and has more features on mobile.
We’ve also covered both of PIA’s sister services from the Kape group: read our CyberGhost review and ExpressVPN review. For 14 services side by side, see our best VPN 2026 comparison, and if you want to try something free first, check out the best free VPNs.
10Who PIA is for, and who should skip it
PIA suits people who want a cheap VPN for lots of devices, care most about privacy and do most of their work on a computer, for example on Linux or with torrents. It’s a weaker fit if you want top speeds on a gigabit line, stream Prime Video or YouTube from other countries, or mainly use an iPhone.
11Buying, refunds and cancellation
PIA offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for new customers who buy on the website (PIA). You request a refund through a support ticket or by email, and the money goes back to your original payment method (help center). If you sign up again within three months of getting a refund, you won’t qualify for another one (help center).
- Order through the PIA website, not the App Store or Google Play, or you lose the 30-day guarantee.
- Pay by card, PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay. If you see euro prices, VAT is already included.
- Install the app, sign in and switch the protocol to WireGuard.
- If you don’t want auto-renewal, turn it off under Subscriptions in your account. Your service keeps running until the paid period ends.
12Frequently asked questions
How much does PIA cost?
Through our partner offer, $56.94 for 26 months ($2.19 a month), or €51.74 with VAT included in the EU. After that it renews every year. The regular 3-year plan costs $79 (PIA, pricing).
How many devices can I use with PIA?
An unlimited number at the same time (help center).
Is PIA safe even though it’s based in the US?
Its no-logs policy has been assessed three times by Deloitte and backed by two court cases in which PIA had no data that could identify a user. According to PIA, US law doesn’t require it to log user activity (PIA).
Does PIA work with Netflix?
Yes, in 2026 tests by TechRadar and Tom’s Guide it unblocked every Netflix region they tried. Prime Video and YouTube only worked in some countries (TechRadar).
Is PIA fast?
Not compared with rivals. It reached 419 Mbps in TechRadar’s table, 24th of 25 results. Security.org measured only a 4.84% drop in download speed but up to 85% on uploads (TechRadar, Security.org).
How do I get a refund?
Contact support by ticket or email within 30 days of buying on the website. The guarantee doesn’t apply to purchases through the App Store, Google Play, gift cards or deal sites (help center).
13Conclusion
Private Internet Access is a good pick if you want an affordable VPN for the whole household and care about privacy. Unlimited devices, a price of around $2 a month and a no-logs policy backed by audits and court cases are strong arguments.
Expect slower speeds, weaker unblocking for Prime Video and YouTube, and a basic iPhone app. If speed matters most, look at CyberGhost or Surfshark; for streaming, CyberGhost did better than PIA in independent tests. Everyone else can try PIA and use the 30-day money-back guarantee to decide.
Security matters for business websites and apps too. If you’re planning a project that handles customer data, see how we build custom websites and how we work.
14Sources
- PIA: partner offer
- PIA: pricing
- PIA: money-back guarantee
- PIA: terms of service
- PIA: terms for EU customers
- PIA: about us
- PIA: no-logs policy
- PIA: servers
- PIA: transparency report
- PIA: transparency report Q4 2025
- PIA: transparency report Q1 2026
- PIA: 2025 audit
- PIA: 2024 audit
- PIA help center: devices
- PIA help center: refund eligibility
- PIA help center: requesting a refund
- PIA help center: payment methods
- PIA help center: WireGuard
- PIA help center: split tunneling
- PIA help center: MACE
- PIA help center: Multi-Hop
- PIA help center: Windows app
- PIA help center: dedicated IP
- PIA help center: streaming
- PIA help center: virtual locations
- PIA help center: server locations
- PIA help center: Identity Guard
- PIA help center: desktop settings
- PIA help center: Android settings
- PIA help center: iOS settings
- TechRadar: PIA review
- TechRadar: fastest VPN
- Tom’s Guide: PIA review
- Security.org: PIA review
- TorrentFreak: 2016 FBI case
- TechNadu: 2018 court case
- TorrentFreak: exit from Russia, 2016
- City AM: Kape acquires PIA
- Kape Technologies: history
- Wikipedia: Private Internet Access
- NVD: CVE-2019-12572
- Your Europe: accessing online content abroad
Prices, features and figures are current as of October 1, 2026.