How to Use Proton VPN: The Five-Minute Setup

This page is part of the Proton VPN FAQ Hub.

How do you get Proton VPN running from scratch?

The honest answer to how to use Proton VPN is that there is very little to it. You create a Proton account, install the app, sign in and press Connect. The app builds an encrypted tunnel to a Proton server, and your traffic starts leaving from that server’s IP address instead of the one your ISP handed you. Nothing else on the machine needs configuring, and if you already have a Proton Mail account you can skip the sign-up entirely.

Proton VPN Plus on the two-year plan covers 10 devices at once, so one account handles a laptop, a phone, a tablet and a TV box without any juggling. There are apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and Android TV, plus browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. Router setups are possible but fiddly, and unless you have a specific reason such as protecting a games console, the normal apps are the sane choice.

• Create a Proton account, or sign in with an existing Proton Mail login.
• Download the app for your platform from the Proton VPN downloads page.
• Sign in and accept the VPN configuration permission your operating system asks for.
• Press Quick Connect for a fast nearby server, or pick a country from the list.
• Check your IP address on any address-checking site if you want proof it worked.

How do you choose which country to connect to?

Two rules cover almost every case. If you want speed and want your ISP kept out of your browsing, connect to the nearest country with a lightly loaded server, because distance costs latency and no software removes geography. If you want a service to believe you are somewhere else, connect to that country and accept the slower connection that comes with the extra distance.

The server list shows a load percentage next to each machine, along with labels for servers built for particular jobs such as P2P or streaming. A server sitting at 90 per cent load on a Sunday evening will feel worse than a quieter one two countries away, so the flag is not the only thing worth reading. Secure Core servers route you through a second country before exiting, which is a deliberate trade of speed for a specific kind of protection rather than something to leave on by default.

What does the kill switch actually do?

The kill switch blocks all internet traffic if the tunnel drops, so nothing leaks over your ordinary connection whilst the app reconnects. Without it, a dropped tunnel means your device quietly carries on unprotected and you may not notice for hours. Proton’s kill switch guide covers the differences between platforms, including the permanent version that keeps the block in place even when the app is not running.

The trade-off is real and worth knowing before it bites. A permanent kill switch will stop hotel and airport captive portals from loading their sign-in page, which looks exactly like broken Wi-Fi until you remember why. Turn it on if you handle anything sensitive, and remember where the off switch lives.

When is split tunnelling worth setting up?

Split tunnelling sends some apps through the VPN and leaves the rest on your normal connection. The usual reasons are a banking app that panics at a foreign IP address, a printer or smart speaker that lives on your local network, or a work tool that refuses to load from a datacentre address. You choose which apps or IP addresses sit outside the tunnel, and the app handles the rest.

Anything you exclude is unprotected, which is the entire point and also the risk. Support varies by platform, with Windows, Android and Linux the best served, so check before you build a workflow around it. For most people, the answer to how to use Proton VPN around one awkward app is to switch it off for two minutes, one of several times when a VPN is best left off, rather than maintain a list of exceptions you will forget about in a month.

How to use Proton VPN on public Wi-Fi without thinking about it

This is the second of the two settings worth changing on day one. Auto-connect on untrusted networks means your phone protects itself the second it joins a cafe, hotel or airport network, without you remembering to open anything. Your home and office networks can be marked as trusted so the app leaves them alone.

The caveat is captive portals again. Plenty of public networks want you to accept terms in a browser before they hand over real internet, and an instant VPN connection gets in the way of that page loading. The apps handle this better than they used to, but if a network looks dead, disconnect, sign in, then reconnect and carry on.

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