Introducing Firefox’s Built-in VPN: IP protection, now in the browser

[MShahabuddin]

Hello everyone,

Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of Firefox’s free built-in VPN Beta, a new privacy feature that hides your IP address while browsing in Firefox.

When you browse the web, your IP address is typically visible to the websites you visit and to your internet service provider. IP addresses can be used to approximate your location or link activity over time - for example, when browsing on public Wi-Fi or visiting sites you’d prefer not to be linked together. Built-in VPN reduces that exposure by masking your IP address while you browse in Firefox.

Our goal is straightforward: make IP protection accessible directly in Firefox.

The built-in VPN is available for up to 50 GB of browsing per month. It is currently rolling out to users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, and we are planning expansion to more regions soon.

We’ve also heard concerns about so-called “free VPNs,” which often rely on advertising or selling user data to generate revenue. Built-in VPN is designed differently. It does not sell your browsing data and does not inject advertising into your traffic.

Instead, we offer a limited amount of browser-level protection for free, alongside Mozilla VPN, our paid, full-device VPN service. This allows us to make IP protection more accessible while continuing to invest in more comprehensive privacy tools.

How it works

Instead of connecting directly to a website, Firefox routes your browsing traffic through servers run by our service partner Fastly.

In practice:

• Firefox creates an encrypted TLS connection to the proxy.
• DNS lookups are sent through that encrypted connection.
• The proxy connects to the website on your behalf.
• Website content remains end-to-end encrypted using standard HTTPS encryption.

What each party can see:

• Your ISP or local network sees that you connected to the proxy, but not which websites you visited.
• The proxy provider can see the destination hostname, connection timing, and data volume, because it must know where to connect. It cannot read passwords, form entries, messages, or page content.
• The website sees the proxy’s IP address, not your real one.

Mozilla receives aggregate data usage from the proxy provider so Firefox can display your monthly usage. This information is separate from your browsing activity and does not include the websites you visit.

For more details about how Built-in VPN works, including data limits, account requirements, and privacy protections, see our support article.

How to use it

To get started:

1. Update to Firefox 149 or later
2. When the feature is available, click the VPN button in the toolbar
3. Sign in to or create a Mozilla account (used to track your usage against the 50 GB limit)
4. Turn on protection in the panel

The VPN indicator will turn green when it is active.

You can manage the feature anytime in Settings > Privacy & Security > VPN. If you prefer not to use it, you can remove the toolbar button. If you experience issues with a specific site, you can exclude it from the proxy directly in the panel.

We’d like your feedback

Built-in VPN is launching in Beta, and your feedback will directly inform how it evolves. We’ll continue expanding availability and refining the feature as we learn how people use it.

If you try it, we’d like to know:

• Does it work as you expect?
• Have you noticed any sites behaving differently?
• Have you encountered any performance or connection issues?
• What use cases are important to you, and what would you like to see this feature do?

Share your thoughts in the comments below. Your input helps us improve reliability, clarity, and overall experience.

- The Firefox Team

[ajp1228]

I saw a message about the VPN when my browser reopened after a recent update, but I did not have time to figure it out at the time and I remember closing a box or perhaps clicking a "no" button.  Now I'm trying to figure it out but can't find the VPN button, and it's not showing when I go to "customize toolbar."  So if I am not part of the rollout, would I have still seen the message when the browser updated?  I want to know if I have lost the button or what happened to my VPN feature.

Thank you.

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

Is it about the post-update page "What's New" https://www.firefox.com/whatsnew/150

These similar discussions https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1579042

[emicattt]

 How do I see where my VPN is pretending I am?

[RRS]

Very convenient. Thanks Firefox!

[4lun]

Will we have the ability to get more than 50GB of data a month? Would also love it if some of the Mozilla VPN features (e.g. select a location, even if only a small subset of the options) could somehow be brought to the browser version.

I would pay for this as I don't want a system wide VPN (I already use Tailscale and a work related VPN), I just want a VPN localised to the browser. Currently I use Opera for it's built in VPN (no limit as far as I'm aware) but would be happy to switch to Firefox instead if a few more features were available.

[Blitz_zz]

I think a whitelist feature to only use the vpn on a select few websites, and a location choosing feature would be nice, as certain websites block content based on the location you are browsing from.

[Agentvirtuel]

Bonjour

Je vis en France.
Ci-dessous, Firefox 151 bêta, un test effectué.

Firefox vpn - Firefox vpn localisation Canada

[junk]

First I want to say I'm a big fan of this feature. Thank you.

Several times over the last few days I have come back to my computer and had a modal dialog pop up saying that the VPN was unreachable. I was given two options: one to close my tabs, and one to continue browsing without the VPN. There should be a third option - try to reconnect to the VPN. It would also be nice if it periodically checked if the VPN was back and reconnected and closed the modal dialog on its own. But it makes no sense that I have to continue browsing unprotected, just so I can click the VPN button in the bar to re-enable it. I don't want to lose my tabs or my protection, and I shouldn't have to unless it is a last resort.

My other suggestions would be to allow inverting the blacklist to a whitelist, permitting wildcards or regex in that list, and changing the color of the VPN status indicator so a user knows when they're approaching the 50GB limit. Choosing the region (country, state, province, etc.) of the exit node would be swell too but maybe there are policy reasons to disallow that.

[myspace]

not sure if this has been suggested but it would be nice to be able to easily enable vpn on a single tab  

[GGebhard]

I Have Firefox 150 and use it on a windows 11 PC.  When I activate the VPN I got a problem:
When I listen to www.SWR1.de  (radio), the transfer stops after few minutes and I have to activate the radio again. Without VPN  the radio session is ok.
Please check this. I am aware, that this is probably a prelimary version, therefore I report this effect.

kind regards Gerhard Gebhard

[OrangeHedghog]

Hi,

I tried the Firefox VPN the day I was notified it was available to me (09 Apr 2026).  It didn't work then, and it is still not functioning. By which I mean, I tested it on several URLs (listed below) all of which really should work.

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/
• https://www.facebook.com/
• https://support.microsoft.com/
• https://support.mozilla.org/
• https://www.cnn.com/

For each and every URL tested, Firefox reports, "Unable to find the proxy server"

System:

• 150.0.1 (64-bit)150.0 (64-bit)
• Windows 10 Pro (22H2) (Up to date)

[Raziel]

Hi. Is that related to this issue ?

[nw]

@MShahabuddin Thank you to the team for making this. I subscribed to the paid version today and so far it seems to work well on Linux Mint and Android, though time will tell. The one thing noticeable right away is the increased memory load, though not unduly burdensome so far. A partial process report on a desktop install of Linux Mint 21.3 with a version 5.15.0-177-generic x86_64 kernel and an i3-2100 CPU, after about a half hour's light usage shows: 

Memory   149.3 MiB
Virtual Memory = 1.6 GiB
Resident Memory 149.3 MiB
Writable Memory N/A
Shared Memory   110.0 MiB
Disk Read Total   1.1 MB
Disk Write Total   966.7 kB

[Carevrrga]

I'm in Australia. Can I assume we're not getting the built-in VPN feature yet? If so, why did I get a prompt to install it when I opened Firefox today? 

[MarcoT]

Thank you so much for integrating a built-in VPN into Firefox ❤️ This is a fantastic feature that adds an extra layer of privacy and security directly in the browser.

Here are a few enhancements that would make Firefox’s built-in VPN even more powerful and valuable for users:

Suggested Features for Firefox Built-in VPN

• Automatic VPN on Browser Launch

Allow users to choose whether the VPN should automatically turn on every time Firefox opens, or remain off by default.

• Per-Website Automatic Activation (Smart Rules)

Let users create rules so the VPN turns on automatically when visiting specific websites, such as Proton Mail, banking sites, healthcare portals, or any custom domain.

• Trusted Website Exclusions (Split Tunneling)

Give users the option to exclude selected websites from the VPN while keeping it active for all others. This is useful for local services, streaming platforms, or websites that block VPN traffic.

• Automatic VPN on Public Wi-Fi

Detect when users connect to public networks (cafés, airports, hotels, libraries) and enable the VPN automatically to protect their data.

• Quick Server Selection by Purpose

Offer one-click profiles such as:

- Fastest Server

- Best for Privacy

- Best for Streaming

- Best for Torrenting

- Country-Specific Access

• Temporary VPN Pause

Add options to pause the VPN for 5 minutes, 30 minutes, or until the browser is restarted, with automatic reactivation afterward.

Why These Features Matter

These additions would make Firefox’s built-in VPN smarter, more convenient, and highly customizable. They would give users stronger privacy protection while reducing the need to manually toggle the VPN on and off.

Firefox continues to lead in user privacy, and these enhancements would make the built-in VPN one of the most useful and user-friendly privacy tools available in any browser.

Thank you to the entire team at Mozilla for your ongoing commitment to building a more private and secure web for everyone.

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

---

@MarcoT wrote:

• Automatic VPN on Browser Launch

Allow users to choose whether the VPN should automatically turn on every time Firefox opens, or remain off by default.

---

For information, if you wish to test

1 - Go to configuration editor https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
2 - Enter a search term browser.ipProtection.autoStartEnabled
You can double-click on the preference to set the value to true
3 - Enter a search term browser.ipProtection.features.autoStart
You can double-click on the preference to set the value to true

Restart Firefox

---

- Country-Specific Access

---

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/introducing-firefox-s-built-in-vpn-ip-protection-now-in-t...
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/introducing-firefox-s-built-in-vpn-ip-protection-now-in-t...

[Bobster72]

Hi, I am in the UK, I have Firefox 151 and Windows 11 pro.  I have the VPN switched on, but when I go to www.iplocation.net  it says  "IP Location: London, England (GB)". See attached pictures!  Thanks. 

[Kwan]

Kind of useless only having a blacklist for the VPN - give me a whitelist so that I can use it on specific sites (which is also good for Mozilla as it means less data will be used by users that way afaik).

[MixFixer]

Is Mozilla deliberately using bait and switch marketing? 
(I'm going to go out on a limb and say, " 'doubt it"".

So... that means.... what am I missing here? 

So, to preface, I just upgraded Firefox to ver. 151.0, and then restarted.
I was greeted by the new Mozilla home page and there, front and center, was advertisement for the new VPN functionality - for FREE.   

Specifically, upon viewing the homepage for the first time, you see a button titled:  "Try Free VPN", along with a description which says:  "Our Free built-In VPN now lets you set your browsing location, giving you more privacy.... etc."

But then only a couple of mouse clicks later, and you are moved to another page, where the word "Free" is nowhere to be found, yet has been replaced by the word "Subscription".   The page is titled "One subscription for all your devices".  And you are then asked to choose between two choices, two offered subscriptions, neither of which is "Free".

#1, An Annual subscription for $4.99 month + tax,
or
#2, A monthly subscription for $9.99/month + tax.

I don't get it.  What's the deal with that?  Is it FREE or not?

Thanks
Christopher Bentley

[a_b_c]

It's a bit confusing but fortunately no bait and switch marketing.

Mozilla VPN and Firefox's built-in VPN are two different things. The built-in feature is gradually rolling out right now and only lets you use a VPN within Firefox. Mozilla VPN has existed for a while, is paid and lets you use a VPN for any internet access you use on your computer e.g if you want to use a VPN while using a Netflix app you need Mozilla VPN (or any other VPN subscription). The built-in VPN in Firefox is solely active in Firefox and can not be used in apps outside of Firefox.

[MixFixer]

Thank you.  That was very straightforward and helpful (and should be explained in the homepage announcement).

[EricG6]

It would be nice to only advertise the new feature when your own Firefox installation has it available! I run on V151.0, have the IP protection and VPN enabled config settings both on true, nothing VPN-related there. The only thing that can cause it I'm located in the Netherlands, which has not yet rolled out apparently. I think it can't be that hard to suppress this advertisement in that case 🙄

[Raziel]

Stop complaining for nothing kids

[Wakazu]

.

[Raziel]

Happy to see exit node selection being released.

I'm located in France and every exit nodes are working except U.S. one which is exiting in France.

[webair]

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2030039

Firefox VPN: Add wildcard/regex domain exclusions with exceptions

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open Firefox
2. Enable Firefox VPN
3. Go to VPN settings
4. Try to add a domain to the exclusion list
5. Attempt to use a wildcard (e.g., *.ru) or a regex pattern

Actual results:

It should be possible to:

• Use wildcard patterns (e.g., *.ru) or regular expressions to exclude groups of domains
• Define more specific rules that override general patterns (e.g., exclude *.ru but allow a specific domain within that zone)

This would provide more flexible and practical control over VPN routing.

The VPN only accepts exact domain names. Wildcards and regular expressions are not supported.

Expected results:

It should be possible to:

• Use wildcard patterns (e.g., *.ru) or regular expressions to exclude groups of domains
• Define more specific rules that override general patterns (e.g., exclude *.ru but allow a specific domain within that zone)

This would provide more flexible and practical control over VPN routing.

[daveabrooks]

Button was initially missing, customized toolbar to restore it, logged-in to my account and now VPN "Turn on" button is not clickable. It is present, but is dead.

edit: I have restarted Firefox twice and that has not worked in case someone were to suggest such a thing.

[Kingold]

there should be a way to configure it to automatically turn on when starting the browser

[IllianTear]

The VPN button is there, but whenever I try to use it I get stuck in an endless loop of logging into my Mozilla account.