VPN always adds some overhead, but if speed feels much worse than your normal connection, a few things usually fix it.
Try a closer server
Latency increases with distance. A server in your region will usually feel faster than one across the world.
In the app: open the server list and pick a country closer to you. Or tap Smart Connect — it picks the server with the best combination of latency and load.
Try Smart Connect
Smart Connect (the Best Server action) automatically scores servers by latency and current load and connects to the best one. Use it when:
- You're not sure which server to pick
- The server you usually use feels slow today
It also avoids servers that recently failed for you for up to 6 hours.
Switch protocol or transport
Different protocols and transports behave differently on different networks. If one feels slow, try another:
- VLESS / Trojan — general-purpose, work in most networks
- Hysteria2 — UDP-based, often faster on lossy networks (mobile data, Wi-Fi with interference)
- Within VLESS / Trojan you can also switch transport: TCP, gRPC, or xHTTP (xHTTP not on iOS)
Switch in: Settings → Protocol. If the picked combination isn't available on the chosen server, the app silently falls back to the default and shows a banner.
Check what else is using the connection
- Pause large background uploads or sync (cloud backup, photo upload)
- On mobile, check signal strength — switching from Wi-Fi to mobile data (or vice versa) can help
Test without the VPN
Run a speed test (e.g., fast.com) without the VPN, then again with the VPN. Some baseline overhead is normal — typically 10-30%. If your no-VPN speed is also low, the issue is your underlying network, not the VPN.
ISP throttling
Some ISPs throttle specific protocols (gaming, video, P2P). If a service is slow without the VPN but fast with it — your ISP is the bottleneck.
If the VPN connection is consistently slow on every server and every protocol, contact support with: country, ISP, server tried, protocol tried, and a speed-test result with and without the VPN.