Free VPN for Saudi Arabia: What Works in 2026

No trustworthy free VPN has a server in Saudi Arabia, and none of the free tiers we tested lists a location in the Gulf. Proton VPN comes closest: its paid VPN Plus plan includes Riyadh servers, and the account drops to a free plan with no data cap afterward. NordVPN has no free plan or Saudi servers, but a paid month comes with its 30-day money-back guarantee. Shahid was our one failure, detecting the VPN on Proton VPN’s Riyadh server.

Data Limits and Saudi Servers Compared

Best Free VPNs for Saudi Arabia

1. NordVPN: Best Risk-Free VPN for Saudi Arabia

NordVPN’s obfuscated servers recorded 167.79 Mbps on a UK server, disguising VPN traffic for networks that filter it. We ran the November tests on a Windows 11 PC in Europe with a 190.36 Mbps connection. In its strictest mode, the kill switch kept the internet connection closed from shutdown until the VPN reconnected after a restart. The closest location to Saudi Arabia we tested was Istanbul, where its server measured 176.72 Mbps, and WhatsApp calls aren’t restricted in Turkey.

NordVPN’s Windows app wouldn’t connect on some days, and the cause was a second, idle VPN. For expats, NordVPN’s Meshnet links a phone in Saudi Arabia to a computer at home, so banking and streaming sites see the home IP address. NordVPN’s Basic plan drops below $3.50 a month on a 27-month subscription. One month alone is about $15, and the 30-day refund applies to either.

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2. Proton VPN: Best Free Plan After a Paid Trial

Proton VPN’s paid Riyadh server recorded 163.96 Mbps, a 13.9% drop from our baseline, with 119 ms ping from Europe. To cancel VPN Plus within 30 days, the account is first downgraded to the free plan, and Proton VPN refunds the unused portion of the subscription. Paid two years ahead, a VPN Plus subscription is under $3 a month, and a single month for the Riyadh servers costs about $10.

The free plan has no data cap and includes the Stealth protocol, which disguises VPN traffic on filtered networks and cost 1.9% of speed in our paid-plan test. Free accounts are assigned one of ten countries at random, none in the Gulf, and cover one device. Netflix US failed on the free plan in our latest test, and the free tier includes the Linux app with a graphical interface.

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3. PrivadoVPN: Best Free VPN for Speed

PrivadoVPN’s free tier lost 9.5% of our download speed across its UK and US servers (180.04 and 164.55 Mbps), the smallest drop of any free tier we tested. Its 10 GB allowance has to be renewed by hand every month, which we found tedious, and past that limit the connection moves to 1 Mbps servers instead of ending. Scramble obfuscation is free, the kill switch passed our failure tests, and it unblocked Netflix US on its US server. PrivadoVPN is based in Iceland and offers ten free countries across 13 locations.

4. Windscribe: Best for Unlimited Free Connections

Windscribe’s free UK server recorded 182.21 Mbps and its US server 160.59 Mbps, a 10.0% drop. It was the only free tier that unblocked Netflix in the US, Canada, and Japan, and it kept five of our devices connected at once. Stealth, WStunnel, and AmneziaWG disguise VPN traffic on the free tier. The 10 GB monthly allowance ends the connection once it’s used, and the interface is cluttered, with some settings hard to locate.

5. Hide.me: Best Free VPN With No Data Cap

Hide.me’s free tier measured 152.31 Mbps on its UK server and 112.48 Mbps on its US server, a 30.5% drop. The free tier blocks P2P traffic, and it failed on every streaming service we tried. Sign-up requires only an email address. The free tier supports SoftEther for filtered networks, and Hide.me operates from Malaysia. Hide.me is one of the Proton VPN alternatives we recommend.

Can You Get a Saudi IP Address for Free?

Only from free VPNs we don’t recommend. Saudi Arabia is missing from the free server lists of Proton VPN, PrivadoVPN, Windscribe, and Hide.me. Hola and Urban VPN offer free Saudi locations, but they pass traffic through other users’ devices. Hola sold its users’ idle bandwidth through its Luminati business, and in December 2025 security firm Koi found Urban VPN’s browser extension collecting users’ AI chatbot conversations for its data-broker parent company.

We tested Proton VPN’s VPN Plus plan instead. In the app, the Riyadh server is marked Smart routing, meaning the Saudi IP address comes from servers outside the kingdom, and Speedtest still matched it to Zain KSA in Riyadh. Shahid plays from Europe with no VPN, yet it detected Proton VPN’s Saudi server and showed its VPN error. A Saudi IP address from a VPN doesn’t guarantee access to Saudi streaming. CyberGhost also has Saudi servers and refunds long-term plans within 45 days.

Our guide to getting a Saudi Arabian IP address covers the setup.

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Free VPNs We Left Off the List

Hotspot Shield’s free tier offers only a US server, where it lost 25.0% of our speed and unblocked only Netflix US. It also logs some connection data, and it lost to NordVPN in our Hotspot Shield vs NordVPN comparison. TunnelBear’s free tier allows 2 GB of data a month and lost 31.2% of our speed across UK and US servers, the biggest loss in our free-tier tests.

Are VPNs Legal in Saudi Arabia?

Yes, Saudi Arabia permits VPNs for lawful purposes such as privacy and remote work, though many VPN websites are blocked in the kingdom. There’s no published list of approved VPNs for personal use. The content accessed through a VPN still falls under the Anti-Cyber Crime Law: under its Article 6, material that harms public order, religious values, public morals, or privacy can lead to five years in prison and a fine of up to SAR 3 million.

Adult sites and gambling are blocked in Saudi Arabia. We’re not lawyers, and this isn’t legal advice. Paid VPNs appear in our main guide to VPNs for Saudi Arabia.

Free VPNs and WhatsApp Calls in Saudi Arabia

Connect to a server outside the Gulf, such as the Netherlands or Turkey, and WhatsApp calls work on networks that restrict them. Saudi Arabia lifted its ban on approved calling apps in September 2017, but WhatsApp calls stayed restricted for years. The regulator denied reports of a change in March 2024, and users reported calls working in February 2025 without official confirmation, so results differ by network.

Proton VPN’s free plan assigns its server at random, so the country can’t be chosen. PrivadoVPN and Windscribe let free users pick one, within their 10 GB monthly allowances. Our guide to WhatsApp calls in Saudi Arabia covers the setup in more detail.

Conclusion

For daily use without paying, we recommend Proton VPN‘s free plan. PrivadoVPN and Windscribe were quicker in our tests, but their 10 GB allowances won’t last a month of daily browsing. Hide.me recorded the slowest free speeds in our tests. Saudi servers come only with paid plans.

Proton VPN’s Riyadh servers are available during a paid month before the account moves to the free plan, although Shahid detected them. NordVPN has no Saudi servers, but its obfuscated servers and full 30-day refund make it the lowest-risk paid VPN for use in the kingdom. It also tops our best VPN rankings, and our NordVPN review covers its features in depth.

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