Why Did My VPN Renewal Price Go Up? (And How to Avoid It)
VPN pricing is built around introductory discounts — the price you pay in year one is rarely the price you're billed at renewal. It's not unique to VPNs, but the swings can be dramatic: in our own testing data, one provider's annual price rose over 100% between two data refreshes just a few months apart. Here's why this happens and how to avoid getting caught out.
Why VPN pricing works this way
Nearly every VPN uses the same subscription playbook: a steep discount to win a new customer on their first term, with the price reverting toward a higher list rate at renewal. It's a loss-leader model — the provider accepts a thin (or negative) margin upfront, betting that most customers won't cancel and re-shop when the renewal bill arrives.
- Monthly plans rarely discount — they're priced closest to the 'real' cost
- Annual and 2-year plans carry the deepest introductory discounts, and the biggest renewal jumps
- Renewal pricing is rarely advertised prominently at signup — you have to dig into the terms
Real price changes we've tracked
Between our April 2026 and August 2026 data refreshes, we recorded real annual-plan price movements across the 14 VPNs we test — in both directions.
See the full ownership, audit, and price-change table for all 14 VPNs on our Trust Center.
- Windscribe: annual plan rose from $2.70/mo to $5.75/mo — a 113% increase
- Astrill: annual plan rose from $10.83/mo to $15.00/mo — a 39% increase
- ExpressVPN: annual plan fell from $8.32/mo to $4.99/mo — a 40% decrease
- ProtonVPN and TunnelBear also saw meaningful annual-plan price drops in the same window
How to avoid renewal shock
- Set a calendar reminder a week before your renewal date — most providers bill automatically without a heads-up
- Before renewing, check whether signing up as a 'new' customer (sometimes with a different email) gets a better rate than your existing renewal price
- Read the specific renewal price before committing to a 2-year plan — the low headline rate applies only to the first term
- If a provider won't budge on price, most will let you downgrade to a shorter plan rather than losing you entirely — it doesn't hurt to ask
Is the multi-year plan a trap?
Not exactly, but it's not a permanently locked-in rate either. A 2-year plan gets you the lowest price for that first term — after it ends, it typically renews at the provider's then-current renewal rate, which can be meaningfully higher and may have changed since you signed up. The upfront savings are real; just don't assume the rate is fixed forever.
Frequently asked questions
Will cancelling and resubscribing get me a better price?
Often, yes — many VPNs price new-customer signups lower than existing-customer renewals. It usually requires using a different email address, and you lose any account history or saved settings, so weigh the savings against the hassle.
Do all VPNs increase price at renewal?
No. Some, like Private Internet Access and PureVPN in our own tracking, kept their price flat between our last two data refreshes. It varies by provider and even by plan type within the same provider.
Can I lock in my VPN price permanently?
Generally no — even multi-year plans renew at the provider's current rate once the term ends, not the original discounted rate. A few privacy-focused VPNs like Mullvad use flat, non-promotional pricing instead, which avoids this problem entirely.