

Other reasons include the fact that VPNs use extremely robust encryption standards (most providers these days use AES-256, which the US government and military use to secure classified data) which, because of the simple fact encryption takes time, is another reason you might experience a slight loss of speed. The extra steps in between your device and the internet mean it's inevitably going to take more time These extra steps mean it's inevitable it takes more time. This is plain to see when you connect to a server in a completely different part of the world – even though most things are instantaneous nowadays, it's still a much, much longer distance. But in order to provide these, the one downside of a virtual private network is that they send the data and requests from your device on a longer physical route before it gets to the internet.

The path your traffic takes is shown in the diagram below: In order to do this, VPN providers funnel all user traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a private server before it reaches the internet. VPNs are used to create more private browsing experiences via the masking of IP addresses. To understand why VPNs slow down your internet, we first need to get to grips with what happens when you connect to a VPN.
