Google One VPN is dead. Google pulled the plug on June 20, 2024, less than a year after expanding it to every Google One tier, including the cheapest 100GB plan. If you’re reading a review of it in 2026, you’re not deciding whether to buy it — you can’t. You’re either a former user who got an email telling you the perk disappeared, or you’re comparing “what Google offered” against what’s actually on the market now. This review answers both questions honestly: what it actually was, why it got cut, and what to use instead.
What Google One VPN Actually Was
Launched in 2020 as a Google One Premium-tier perk, the VPN expanded to all paid Google One plans in 2023 — including the $1.99/month 100GB tier, which made it briefly one of the cheapest bundled VPNs on the market. It shipped native apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac, routed traffic through Google’s own infrastructure, and used a WireGuard-based protocol. There was no server-selection map, no split tunneling controls, and no published no-logs audit from a third-party firm — it was positioned as a convenience add-on to cloud storage, not a privacy product in its own right.
Why It Got Shut Down
Google’s stated reason, in its own April 2024 announcement, was blunt: people weren’t using it. The company said it was deprecating the feature to refocus engineering time on parts of Google One with higher demand. There was no security incident, no lawsuit, no regulatory order behind the shutdown — just low adoption relative to the engineering cost of maintaining a VPN client across four platforms. The service formally stopped working on June 20, 2024, and Google One subscriptions dropped in price slightly to reflect the removed perk.
The One Exception: Pixel Devices
Google didn’t kill VPN access everywhere. Pixel 8 and newer phones kept a device-level VPN feature built into Android settings, independent of a Google One subscription. If you’re on a recent Pixel, that toggle still exists; it’s a narrower, phone-only version of what Google One used to offer across all your devices.
What Actually Changes for a Privacy-Conscious Reader
The honest audit angle here isn’t “was Google One VPN good” — by trust-and-transparency standards it was thin even while it existed. Google never published a third-party no-logs audit specifically for the VPN product, and Google as a company sits squarely under US jurisdiction, meaning it’s subject to US court orders and national security letters like any other US-headquartered provider. A dedicated VPN company audited by an independent firm and domiciled outside Five/Nine/Fourteen Eyes territory was always the stronger choice on paper — Google One VPN’s appeal was bundling and price, not audit rigor.
What to Use Instead
| Provider | Independent no-logs audit | Jurisdiction | Approx. price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proton VPN | Yes (Securitum, repeated) | Switzerland | Free tier; paid from ~$4.99/mo | Readers who want the free tier as a genuine daily driver, not just a trial |
| Mullvad | Yes (Cure53, Assured AB) | Sweden | Flat ~€5/mo (~$5.50) | No account, no email required — strongest anonymity-by-design model |
| NordVPN | Yes (Deloitte, recurring) | Panama | ~$3-12/mo depending on term | Largest server network, best for streaming + speed |
| ExpressVPN | Yes (PwC, recurring) | British Virgin Islands | ~$6.67-12.95/mo | Simplest apps, best for non-technical family members |
How to Migrate If You Relied on Google One VPN
- Confirm your Google One plan price actually dropped after the VPN removal — check your billing page, since some regions saw a small automatic price adjustment.
- Pick a replacement based on jurisdiction and audit history first, price second; a VPN’s entire value proposition rests on both of those, not app polish.
- Turn on the replacement’s kill switch explicitly — Google One VPN enabled this by default on most platforms, and not every competitor does.
- Re-check your device VPN toggle if you own a Pixel 8 or newer; you may already have a built-in option that doesn’t need a subscription at all.
FAQ
Can I still use Google One VPN if I never got the shutdown notice?
No. The service was fully retired for every region on June 20, 2024. Any app still showing the toggle is a stale UI element with no working backend behind it.
Did Google give refunds when the VPN was removed?
No direct refunds were issued; Google’s position was that the VPN was one perk among several bundled into the existing Google One price, and it adjusted some regional pricing modestly rather than refunding past subscription months.
Is the Pixel’s built-in VPN the same as Google One VPN was?
No. It’s a narrower, phone-only feature on Pixel 8 and newer, not a full cross-platform VPN client, and it doesn’t extend to your laptop or tablet.
Was Google One VPN ever independently audited?
Not that Google published. That’s precisely the gap a dedicated audited provider like Proton VPN or Mullvad closes.
Verdict
Google One VPN wasn’t shut down over a scandal — it was shut down because too few people used a convenience perk that never had the transparency track record a privacy-first reader should actually want. If you were using it, the upgrade path is straightforward: move to a provider with a published third-party no-logs audit and a jurisdiction outside the Five Eyes umbrella. Proton VPN or Mullvad are the direct replacements for the “trust matters more than brand” reader; NordVPN or ExpressVPN if ease-of-use and streaming speed matter more than jurisdiction purity.
