The price on a VPN's homepage is almost never the price you end up paying.
Most providers advertise something between $2 and $4 per month. That figure is real, but it applies to an introductory term of two or three years paid upfront. When that term ends, the subscription renews at the provider's standard rate, which is typically two to three times higher. Nobody sends you a reminder about the difference.
This article gives you the actual numbers. Introductory prices, renewal prices, and what each of the main providers costs over one, three and five years, taken from their own checkout pages in September 2026.
The Short Answer
For the providers that raise their price at renewal, a consumer VPN subscription costs roughly $57 to $140 per year at the standard rate. Two of the seven here do not raise it at all, and one of those comes in far below the range. The introductory offer that got you in the door will have been somewhere between $24 and $42 per year.
Over five years, staying with one provider costs between $158 and $511. That is a spread of more than three times between the cheapest and most expensive, and the ranking is not the one you would guess from the advertised prices.
Why the Advertised Price Is Not the Real Price
Almost every provider in this market runs the same structure. A long introductory term at a steep discount, then renewal at a much higher standard rate.
The introductory term is also usually longer than it first appears. Providers advertise a "2-year plan" and then add free months, so the actual commitment is 27 or 28 months. That is good value while it lasts, but it also means the first renewal charge arrives partway through your third year, at a point when you have long stopped thinking about it.
Here is what each provider charges upfront for its best introductory deal, and what it charges when that deal expires.
One row deserves a second look. CyberGhost's two figures are both $56.94, but they cover different periods: the first buys 26 months, the renewal buys 12. That is why the increase reads as +117 percent, comparing the annualised intro rate of $26.28 with $56.94 a year. It is the clearest illustration on this page of why a headline monthly price tells you nothing.
A note on sourcing, because it matters here. NordVPN, ExpressVPN, CyberGhost and Private Internet Access publish their renewal prices in the fine print at checkout, so those figures come straight from the vendors. Surfshark's terms refer to an "applicable renewal price" without naming a number, and Proton VPN's pricing page renders its figures in a way that makes them hard to verify directly. Their renewal figures above come from independent price trackers and are marked as approximate.
What It Actually Costs Over Time
This is the table that matters. It assumes you take the best introductory multi-year deal, then let it renew at the standard rate, which is what most people do.
| Provider | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private Internet Access | $79.00 | $79.00 | $158.00 |
| CyberGhost | $56.94 | $113.88 | $227.76 |
| Surfshark | $67.23 | $146.23 | $304.23 |
| Proton VPN | $71.76 | $155.64 | $323.40 |
| Mullvad | about $69 | about $208 | about $347 |
| ExpressVPN | $97.72 | $197.67 | $397.57 |
| NordVPN | $94.23 | $233.31 | $511.47 |
Two things in that table are worth sitting with.
The ranking inverts. CyberGhost has the cheapest first-year outlay of any conventional provider. Over five years it costs more than Private Internet Access, which had a higher year-one number. Judging a VPN by its advertised monthly rate tells you almost nothing about what you will actually spend.
NordVPN's five-year cost is more than three times PIA's. Both are mainstream, well-known services with comparable feature sets. The difference is almost entirely renewal policy.
The Two Providers That Do Not Do This
It would be unfair to describe this as an industry-wide practice without naming the exceptions, because there are two clear ones.
Mullvad charges a flat €5 per month whether you pay for one month or ten years. Their pricing page puts it plainly: "It's one flat monthly rate for ultimate flexibility. Including VAT." And: "Our price hasn't changed since, well, ever!" There is no introductory rate, no renewal cliff, and no auto-renewing subscription at all, because it works as prepaid top-up. The trade-off is a 5-device limit, the lowest in this group, and a headline price that looks expensive next to a discounted competitor until you do the arithmetic.
Private Internet Access is the only conventional discount-model provider here that publishes a renewal price identical to its introductory price. Its checkout states the plan "autorenews at $79 every 3 years." That is why it wins the five-year comparison by a wide margin.
One caveat worth flagging: some price-tracking articles from late 2025 list PIA renewing at a higher rate than its intro price. PIA's live checkout page as of September 2026 says otherwise. Either the policy changed or the older figure referred to a different plan. Check the fine print at checkout yourself before committing.
What You Are Actually Paying For
A subscription buys you access to a network of servers in many countries, run and maintained by the provider. That has real value for one job in particular: appearing to be in a country where you have no connection of your own. If you want to watch a streaming library from a country you have never lived in, a subscription service is the only thing on this page that does it.
It also buys you convenience. No hardware, nothing to install at home, works from anywhere including places you are only passing through.
What it does not buy you is independence. Your traffic passes through infrastructure the provider owns, under a no-logs policy you have no way to verify. That is not an accusation against any specific company, most of which take the commitment seriously. It is a structural point: you are trusting a third party, and the price of that trust changes at their discretion.
The Hardware Alternative, Honestly Compared
If the reason you pay for a VPN is to protect yourself on public Wi-Fi and to reach your own home network, files and services while travelling, a hardware device does that job for a single payment.
vploq is $249 once. It plugs into your home router, pairs with an app, and routes your traffic through your own home connection instead of a provider's servers. There is no subscription and no renewal.
Against the five-year table above, $249 sits in the middle, not at the bottom. It costs more than Private Internet Access or CyberGhost over five years and less than Surfshark, Proton, Mullvad, ExpressVPN or NordVPN. Anyone telling you a hardware device is automatically the cheapest option has not checked PIA's pricing.
What it changes is the shape of the cost rather than only the size. You pay once, you own the device, and nobody can reprice you later. The trade-offs are real and worth stating: it handles up to 5 devices at a time, tops out at 300 Mbit/s, wants at least 50 Mbit/s upload at home, and gives you your home country's IP address rather than a choice of thirty countries. If you need to appear to be in Japan and you do not live there, it cannot help you, and a subscription can.
vploq currently ships to the United Kingdom only, and pre-orders ship from November 2026. Before buying any hardware, it is worth reading whether your home network needs a device at all, because for a lot of people free software covers it.
How to Pay Less, Whatever You Choose
Some practical points that apply regardless of which route you take.
- Find the renewal price before you buy, not after. It is usually in small text under the plan selector or in the terms. If a provider does not publish it anywhere, treat that as information in itself.
- Put a calendar reminder two weeks before your term ends. The introductory term is often 27 or 28 months rather than 24, so the date is probably not where you think it is.
- Cancelling and re-subscribing usually beats renewing. New-customer pricing is almost always better than renewal pricing, which is the entire reason renewal pricing exists.
- Check whether tax is included. Several providers quote prices before sales tax or VAT, which adds up to 20 percent depending on where you are.
- Match the tool to the job. If you only need public Wi-Fi protection and access to your own home network, you are probably overbuying with a full commercial VPN. If you need servers in other countries, no hardware device replaces one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a VPN subscription cost per year?
At the standard renewal rate, between about $57 and $139 per year depending on the provider. CyberGhost is at the low end at $56.94 per year, NordVPN at the high end at $139.08 per year. Introductory offers are considerably cheaper, typically $24 to $42 per year, but apply only to the first two or three years.
Why did my VPN subscription price go up?
Because the introductory term ended. Most providers advertise a heavily discounted rate for the first two or three years, then renew at their standard price, which is commonly two to three times higher. The renewal price is usually disclosed in small print at checkout rather than in the advertised headline figure.
Which VPN is cheapest over five years?
Based on published renewal prices in September 2026, Private Internet Access at about $158 over five years, followed by CyberGhost at about $228. Both are considerably cheaper than the providers with the lowest advertised monthly rates, because the introductory price is not what determines long-term cost.
Is a one-time purchase VPN device cheaper than a subscription?
It depends on which subscription. A $249 hardware device costs less over five years than ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Proton VPN, Surfshark or Mullvad, and more than Private Internet Access or CyberGhost. The stronger argument for hardware is not the total but the certainty: the price cannot change after you have paid it.
Can I avoid VPN renewal price increases?
Three ways. Choose a provider with a flat rate, such as Mullvad, or one that renews at the same price it sells at, such as Private Internet Access. Cancel before renewal and re-subscribe as a new customer, which usually restores the introductory rate. Or buy hardware once and remove the recurring charge entirely.
Do VPN prices include tax?
Not always. Several providers quote prices excluding sales tax or VAT and add it at checkout, which can raise the real cost by up to 20 percent depending on your country. Mullvad is a notable exception and states that VAT is included in its flat rate.
Is a free VPN a reasonable alternative?
For occasional light use some reputable providers offer limited free tiers, Proton VPN among them. Free services from unknown operators are a different matter: running VPN infrastructure costs money, and if you are not paying for it, the business model is worth understanding before you route your traffic through it.
What is the difference between a VPN subscription and a home VPN device?
A subscription routes your traffic through servers the provider owns, in whichever country you pick, for a recurring fee. A home VPN device routes your traffic through your own home internet connection, for a one-time hardware cost. The subscription is better if you need to appear to be in a country where you have no connection. The device is better if you want to reach your own home network and stop paying monthly.
