How Much Does Private Internet Access Cost?

If you’ve shopped around for the most affordable VPNs, you’ve likely come across Private Internet Access already. Private Internet Access, otherwise known as PIA, is a VPN company based in the United States with thousands of servers in almost 80 countries and counting. It’s also one of the most affordable VPNs, with subscription plans starting at just $2 per month. But is it worth it?

We’ve tested Private Internet Access ourselves, and in this article, we’ll tell you whether or not we recommend this VPN from a value standpoint. And we’ll discuss whether what it offers — from its features to its apps — matches the cost. Let’s get right into it.

Features

Subscription Pricing

Private Internet Access lets you choose the length of your subscription, from one month to three years. Of course, going with a longer subscription has an advantage, namely, that the average monthly cost is lower. That said, you’ll have to pay the entire subscription cost upfront. With a monthly plan, you’ll pay as you go, but the monthly rate is also significantly higher. Check out the prices below.

All these three plans include the same features. You’ll get access to PIA’s VPN apps, you’ll be able to choose from the VPN’s full suite of VPN protocols and encryption options, and you’ll be able to unblock Netflix libraries, among other things. For a more detailed look at what each subscription will actually get you, read our Private Internet Access review.

Who Owns Private Internet Access?

Private Internet Access started in 2010 under London Trust Media, Inc. In 2019, Kape Technologies bought Private Internet Access along with the CyberGhost VPN, which we reviewed, and Zenmate. PIA’s price tag was a cool $95.51 million.1 Not too shabby!

However, not everyone liked this acquisition; in fact, many people were concerned about Kape’s past history with the advertising industry, which was the company’s focus before switching to digital security.

Having said that, PIA maintains that nothing about its service has changed since the acquisition. Its privacy policy promised not to log when we used its service, for how long we used it, our IP addresses, or what websites we visited. Furthermore, PIA’s privacy policy says that it doesn’t share any personal information, like the user’s name or email that they used to sign up with, with third parties for direct marketing purposes, which was certainly a load off our backs.

If you want to learn more, email privacy@privateinternetaccess.com with your questions, but our professional opinion? PIA is solid when it comes to its privacy policy, despite its parent company Kape Technologies’s history with advertising. We’ve talked about our thoughts on PIA’s privacy policy in our Private Internet Access privacy report.

Accepted Payment Methods

PIA is pretty unique when it comes to the payment methods it accepts, which range from major credit cards to Bitcoin to gift cards from companies like Starbucks. Yes, you read that right.

• PayPal
• Visa
• MasterCard
• American Express
• Discover
• Amazon Payments
• Bitcoin
• Pay Guardian (see below for details)

Pay Anonymously With Gift Cards

If you want to pay without giving Private Internet Access any of your payment information like your credit card number, name, email or billing address, then you can pay anonymously with a gift card from over 100 brands, including:

• Target
• Starbucks ($25 is 95 days of Private Internet Access).
• Best Buy ($32 will get you 128 days of PIA access).
• The Home Depot
• Lowe’s
• Walmart (A $50 card will get you 366 days of service).

We don’t have all the exact translation rates, but for a total list of all the gift cards accepted, head over to PayGarden.2

Favorite Features

We think PIA is worth its prices, and our reasoning is as follows, after testing it extensively:

• 78 server locations and counting: PIA is one of the larger VPN companies that we’ve reviewed, meaning it has a high number of servers in many countries around the world.
• No logging of web traffic or IP addresses: PIA’s privacy policy impressed us by keeping our privacy intact and not logging or sharing our web traffic and IP addresses.
• Kill switch: Nothing works 100 percent of the time, which is why we were glad that when PIA disconnected accidentally, our web browsers shut down as well, hiding our traffic from our internet service provider (ISP).
• Solid encryption: AES-256 and OpenVPN? Don’t mind if we do! We loved that PIA is top-notch in terms of encrypting our data, using the current standards across the digital security industry.
• Torrenting: Netflix and Hulu don’t always cut it, so we torrented while connected to PIA in order to keep our entertainment for our eyes only.
• Dynamic IP addresses: Every time we connected to PIA, we got a new IP address, which the service assigned randomly, making us that much harder to track online.
• Fast on Macs: When we tested out PIA on our Macbook Air, we saw no change in latency versus when we turned off the VPN; its speed on Windows wasn’t bad, either, with only a five percent slowdown on upload speeds.

• Highly-rated apps: Whether we connected to PIA on our iPhones or Androids while on the go, the apps were clean, easy to use, and free of annoying bugs.
• Affordability: PIA is on the lower end when it comes to price, with subscriptions starting at $2.19 per month with the three-year plan.
• Free email breach monitor: Our VPN subscription came with an email breach monitor feature completely free of charge. PIA scanned our email addresses so that it could alert us of any security breaches. This feature helped protect us against identity theft.

Free Trial

As of now, PIA doesn’t offer a free trial, so you will have to put down a credit card (or another form of payment) to use its service. However, you have a 30-day window to cancel for a full refund, so mark down 30 days after the day you purchase PIA to be eligible.

Are any Discounts Available?

If you’re a student, you probably spend a ton of time on public networks, whether it’s for taking notes in class or cramming for that big math test in the library. If that’s the case, you can save 71 percent on PIA through Student Beans. Just log onto your Student Beans account and search for Private Internet Access to get a discount code that you’ll use at checkout. We’re too old to be students of anything besides the School of Hard Knocks, so we’ll live vicariously through you youngins.

You could also get discounts around special days. Look out for special deals around Black Friday, Christmas, New Year, 4th of July, and the likes to enjoy even lower prices from Private Internet Access.

Got Friends?

Want a month of PIA, completely free? If you refer a friend and they sign up, you’ll both get 30 days of free access.

Simply log into your PIA account and head over to the User Control Panel to send invitations to your friends and family’s email inboxes directly. As an alternative, you can share your referral link on social media. And that’s all it takes to get a month of PIA, completely free.

Cancelling PIA

If you want to cancel PIA for whatever reason, you can do so within the first 30 days of purchase; however, this only applies to subscriptions purchased from the company’s website directly with certain payment methods, so it won’t work if you paid from iTunes, PayGarden, or through a PIA gift card. Beyond that 30-day window, you can cancel, but you won’t receive a pro-rated refund. Instead, your subscription will remain active until the end of the term you’ve already paid for, so we recommend trying out PIA for a month before getting a long-term subscription. To request a refund, either submit a support ticket on the PIA website or email helpdesk@privateinternetaccess.com.

What Devices Can I Connect To PIA?

While PIA’s pricing and return policies are certainly fair, none of that matters if its service doesn’t work with your device. Check below if your devices work with PIA:

• Windows 8.1 or later
• macOS 10.13 or later
• Android 5.0 or later
• iOS 11 and later
• iPadOS 13 or later
• Linux
• Linux-based systems like Ubuntu, Mint, Arch, and Debian
• Chrome browsers
• Firefox browsers
• Opera browsers

Mobile Applications

In 2018, mobile search accounted for 58 percent of all website visits and 42 percent of total time spent online,3 so it’s important that PIA worked well on our iPhones and Androids.

On both the Apple and Google Play stores, the VPN by Private Internet Access apps have ratings of 4.7 and 4.4, respectively, which is pretty darn close to perfect. From over 40,000 reviews from Android users and over 77,000 reviews from iPhone users, it’s safe to say that PIA knows what it’s doing when it comes to apps.

Customer Support

Despite PIA’s easy-to-use apps, we still wanted to make sure that if we needed help with its service, it would be a relatively painless process with the support staff easily accessible. On its website, PIA has a support portal that includes tutorials, guides, and user forums, but if those aren’t helping, you can contact PIA either through live chat or through an online form.

Transparency Report

We wish the government was as transparent as PIA! The company’s 2020 transparency report confirms that it hasn’t received any court orders, subpoenas, or warrants to hand over customer data; remember, that’s important as the United States could force PIA to hand over customer data legally.

Fortunately, even if the government were to contact PIA, the VPN company wouldn’t have much information to hand over, as it doesn’t log users’ originating IP addresses, websites visited, or any web traffic. Overall, we’re glad PIA has a squeaky clean history when it comes to government requests for customer information and its privacy policy. To learn more, either read our full review or check out PIA’s privacy policy, which is actually pretty easy to understand, believe it or not.

Why is that the case? Let’s take a history lesson.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) stipulates that websites that serve citizens of the E.U must have clear and easy-to-understand privacy policies posted publicly. Although PIA is in the U.S, because it has customers in the E.U, it adheres to the GDPR with its privacy policy. This benefits Americans and Europeans alike, although we aren’t subject to the same data privacy rights as our friends across the pond.

Recap

Our conclusion? PIA is well worth its already low prices, and we love that it has discounts for students as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee. Given its fast speeds, kill switch, torrenting access, and 256-bit AES encryption, PIA is more than meeting industry standards when it comes to features.

Its only major shortcoming lies in its privacy jurisdiction. However, if you’re not in a high privacy-risk profession like journalism or activism, this may not matter to you. For the casual VPN user, PIA gives great value on the dollar.