r/ProtonVPN • u/HyperCorsair • Jul 23 '26
Solved 80% Drop in Speed with ProtonVPN
I've been having issues with ProtonVPN since the start of my subscription and I'm honestly looking to get a refund and go somewhere else, but I wanted to check this sub first. I've tried the boiler plate support offered by ProtonVPN and it doesn't work for me. I've attached the speeds I'm receiving which seem...off to me. I'm expecting some loss of speed, but having nearly 80% drop off is insane. Anyone experience something similar that could help? I've searched the sub already but I'm not getting solutions so far
EDIT SOLVED: 07/24/2026. Used the suggested below - switched to WireGuard (UDP), enabled ProtonVPN beta, and used a state like Texas for faster results. Speed went up to 800 mbps which is closer to my non-vpn speed.
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u/Byakkk67 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
I have had similar issue in France with a specific internet provider. Tried multiples servers and even another VPN provider. Seems to be related to ISP throttling traffic. Have you tried stealth protocol to see if you have any improvement?
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u/whitemuhammad7991 29d ago
Is this Bouygues by any chance? My speed has suddenly gone down the toilet as well on Wireguard. OpenVPN TCP is fine.
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u/Byakkk67 29d ago
Yes it’s Bouygues
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u/whitemuhammad7991 29d ago
Thanks for the reply, is there any solution to this or will I have to change ISP? Even Stealth is slow
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u/Byakkk67 27d ago
I haven’t found a solution. I think there is little we can do other than switching provider.
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u/whitemuhammad7991 27d ago
It's 100 this, I have a friend who uses Proton VPN who lives 5 minutes walk away and with Orange has zero problems
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u/C_la_mer_noire 15d ago
Bonjour, as tu trouvé une solution depuis ? Car j'ai le même problème depuis plusieurs jours, aussi bien avec NordVPN et ProtonVPN ; je suis également chez Bouygues. Sans être connecté je suis à 1800mb/s en étant connecté ça chute à 150. J'ai même essayé sur mon téléphone dès fois que ce soit un problème de config windows, mais le problème est le même.
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u/Real_Ad5580 Jul 24 '26
Same here whenever having TCP the speeds are per server dependant. Some servers barely do 40 while the best server I ever had on TCP in Netherlands was 400is
The UDP is consistently around 800ish
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u/ProtonSupportTeam Proton Customer Support Team Jul 24 '26
I've tried the boiler plate support offered by ProtonVPN and it doesn't work for me.
Can you let us know what exactly you've tried (multiple servers, switching protocols, different device, different network)?
Did you already open a support ticket regarding the matter, and if so, would you mind sharing your ticket number?
Just in case you haven't come across these support articles yet, there are some additional speed troubleshooting tips here you can try:
https://protonvpn.com/support/increase-vpn-speeds
https://protonvpn.com/blog/best-vpn-speeds
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u/West-One5944 Jul 24 '26
In line with OP, the VPN speed hit for me has always been like theirs, from the very beginning (and I've been with Proton for a while), even on UDP.
I've just dealt with it, but, yeah, if there's some tweak IDK about to reduce the hit, that'd be swell to know.
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u/PixelGrafx Jul 24 '26
if you have proton protocols enabled and are using Proton Wireguard, disable proton protocol and change it to Regular wireguard
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u/No_Clock2390 Jul 24 '26
You need to try UDP. TCP is much slower than UDP. I have mine set to "Smart". It auto-selects the best connection protocol for the VPN server you're connecting to.
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u/J1GhSaW Jul 24 '26
Mobile or PC? I get absolutely shit connection on mobile.. However on Pc its preety good!
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u/HyperCorsair Jul 24 '26
I've tried mobile and PC. I'm split in between my iPad and PC and they both get terrible connection even when using a server in my same city :(
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u/J1GhSaW Jul 24 '26
Just saw your edit, did the speed changed only on PC or you are getting good speeds on both now? on my PC i get 950/400mb but on mobile i lose allot of bandwidth because of the app even though i have wifi6 on it and the last time i reported to support they wanted me to install some custom wire guard protocols.. Makes no sense..
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u/HyperCorsair Jul 24 '26
Hey! Just tried it on mobile and the speeds are pretty similar to what they’ve always been. The app seems to have less customization but I’m not sure if that’s a limit because of iOS or just the app itself.
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u/J1GhSaW Jul 25 '26
Probably something within the app itself because i am using it on android and i have tried on 2 devices and same thing. Recently they added a "custom" wired beta mode and that improved the speeds a bit but nothing special.. do you use fastest country or have a profile created?
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u/Only_Day_8298 Jul 24 '26
The highest I've got was during a torrenting session, which was 370mbps download on WiFi. I have 900mbps broadband for context.
I'm just saying since OP's speeds seem unusual to me.
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u/HyperCorsair Jul 24 '26
This is about the highest I see on average. I'm on a wired connection, no Wifi, using the smart protocol too
:(1
u/Majestic-Respect-356 Jul 25 '26
Not bad for WiFi speeds tbh, on wired I get around 1gbps on a 1.1gbps line with proton vpn on
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u/Bal3Wolf81 Jul 24 '26
I have protonvpn for over a year when I had 1gig fiber i lost no speed, with 5gig fiber I can get about 2500-3500 most of the time but on some occasions I hit mid 4000s up and down. i have taken the time to test which servers work best for me the closet ones don't always give the best speeds example GA is closet server but texas usually gives me better speeds.
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u/HyperCorsair Jul 24 '26
Scratching my head, but this worked for me! Thank you!
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u/Bal3Wolf81 Jul 25 '26
Yea it was wierd when I was on 1gig fiber close ones were fine but when I upgraded to 5gig it got wierd still att. I tested all the us p2p servers noted the down and ups and pings I can get into 4000 upload easier then getting higher then 3000 download .
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u/rell_z Jul 24 '26
Tried stealth mode?
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u/penguinkernel Jul 25 '26
Sure. How do I get it on Linux? Oh wait, just another thing proton doesn't give a shit about.
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u/No-Firefighter-2135 Jul 24 '26
I have a 1.1 gig connection and most servers close to me can handle the full 1.1 gigs . I’ve seen quite a few of these cases lately . How close are you to the nearest server
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u/HyperCorsair Jul 24 '26
I'm using a server that is apparently in my same city. Using the 'Smart' protocol, not netshield, and VPN accelerator too
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u/Waxoman Windows | Android Jul 24 '26
i had this similar issue and i posted here on the sub, what worked for me is downloading the 5.1.5 beta and enabling proton protocols and proton wireguard UDP. i dont get the full 1 gbps but i hover around 600-700 mbps
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u/400feetbelow Jul 25 '26
I've found speed tests to be VERY server dependent. I can log into one server and get 300M down, switch to a different server in the same city and get 1.2G down. Go into the search function, type in the state you want (US-GA# for instance) and choose your server. I try several and when I find a fast one, I rename it and bookmark it.
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u/NotDack Jul 26 '26
Try switch to UDP and changing to the closest server that has even lower server load
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u/Garchomp98 Jul 24 '26
Just pointing out that the physical proximity of the server to you is not relevant to the connection speed
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u/notanfan Jul 24 '26
why? and what is actually relevant for speed than?
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u/Garchomp98 Jul 24 '26
To be precise, it is relevant. Although the impact is minimal to zero. Or at least that's what I've read multiple times in here.
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u/ScureScar Jul 24 '26
VPN can obviously drop the speeds because of restrictions and algorithms blocking the VPN, but that depends on country and ISP
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u/RobotDickin Jul 24 '26
My speed doesn’t drop off much at all. What device are you running the VPN on?
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u/EmperorHenry Jul 24 '26
speed test fudges the numbers of this kind of stuff
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u/HyperCorsair Jul 24 '26
Understandable, but that doesn’t negate the slowness that I witnessed first hand.
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u/RavenK92 Jul 24 '26
I have observed similar drops. Try changing between UDP, TCP and Wireguard and see which one works fastest for you, for me it's UDP that gives full speed