If you’re streaming with a VPN, you’re probably trying to do one of three things, you’re trying to access a streaming service that you already pay for while overseas, you’re trying to protect your anonymity and privacy while online, or you’re trying to access a streaming service that isn’t available in your location.
Whether or not streaming with a VPN is legal depends on the country you’re based in. There’s a handful of countries where simply using a VPN is illegal. If you’re in one of these countries (see below), then using a VPN in general, not just streaming, is illegal.
The good news is that if you aren’t in one of these countries, you can legally stream using a VPN. But it’s important to know that using a VPN to watch a streaming service may breach that streaming service’s terms of use which could result in your account being banned.
This article will explain whether or not streaming with a VPN is legal so you know the risks and rewards of doing so.
See also:
Where is streaming with a VPN illegal?
For most of the world, streaming with a VPN is legal. The only places where it’s illegal to stream using a VPN are in countries that heavily restrict VPN usage.
Fortunately, there’s only a handful of countries where using a VPN is illegal:
- China
- Russia
- Iran
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
- North Korea
- Iraq
- Belarus
- Turkmenistan
- Egypt
- Eritrea
- Seychelles
- Suriname
- Namibia
- Slovenia
- Nicaragua
- Tajikistan
In these countries, either VPN activity is heavily restricted (China, Russia, the UAE), or VPNs are outright banned (North Korea, Oman, and Belarus).
If a country heavily restricts VPNs, the VPN provider must meet government approval to be available. This is counterintuitive because instead of providing privacy and anonymity, these VPNs work with the government, reinforcing censorship and online restrictions.
The good news is that if you aren’t based in one of these countries, a VPN is completely legal.
Is it legal to watch geo-blocked content with a VPN?
A lot of streaming services are only available in certain locations. For example, Hulu, MAX, ESPN+ and Fubo are only available in the US. BBC iPlayer, ITVX, and All 4 are only available in the UK, Optus Sport, BINGE, and 7Plus are only available in Australia and so on.
Some streaming services like Netflix are available worldwide but have different content libraries depending on the location.
The best VPNs will allow you to get around these geo-blocks. You’ll be able to watch streaming services outside of the countries they’re exclusive to, and you’ll be able to access different libraries on streaming services like Netflix.
This is all perfectly legal; however, it may go against the streaming services’ terms of use.
When you sign up for a streaming service, you agree to its terms of use. For paid streaming services, this is a contractual agreement that sometimes includes rules and regulations that forbid using a VPN to get around these geo-blocks. If you’re using a VPN and the streaming service’s terms of use clearly define that that is not allowed, the streaming service may block or even ban your account.
With that said, the best VPNs use military-grade encryption, so streaming services can’t trace where you’re physically accessing its content from. This will ensure that your online activity stays anonymous and will make the streaming services struggle to realise you’re even using a VPN.
Do streaming services block VPNs?
Even though – in most countries – using a VPN for streaming is legal, streaming services often try and block them from accessing their platforms.
It costs a lot for streaming services to purchase broadcasting rights in certain locations, and maintaining licensing agreements is expensive as well. Streaming services like MAX, Hulu, and Netflix don’t always have the rights to broadcast their content internationally.
If they made their content available in locations where they don’t have the rights to broadcast that content, they would potentially breach an already existing copyright agreement that another streaming service already owns in that location.
These sorts of breaches can often be met with financial punishments, and someone using a VPN to access that content could be seen as the streaming service making its content available in a location where it doesn’t have the rights to do so.
To protect themselves and prevent that from happening, streaming services try to block customers using VPNs from accessing their content.
Will I get in trouble for streaming using a VPN?
If you’re streaming with a VPN and the service you’re trying to access figures out you’re using a VPN, you may run into errors when trying to access the content.
For example, when Netflix figures out customers are using a VPN, they run into an error saying, “You seem to be using a VPN or proxy”, and content cannot be played.
From here, it’s highly unlikely that anything more will happen. Although Netflix’s terms of use state that it may terminate your account for using a VPN, this has never happened. As of the time of writing, no one has been banned by Netflix for using a VPN.
The same can be said for most streaming services. Given the widespread use of VPNs, plus the many legitimate and legal use cases for VPNs, it’s fair to suggest that banning customers from using a VPN would be a heavy-handed and financially costly policy for streaming services to enforce.
Is streaming with a VPN legal?
If you aren’t in one of the countries listed above, then streaming with a VPN is perfectly legal.
The only potential consequences of streaming with a VPN is you’ll either run into an error when trying to access the service or the service will ban your account. Remember that no one has ever been banned for streaming with a VPN.
To ensure you don’t run into errors when trying to access your favourite streaming services abroad, ensure you’re using a VPN that can get around the streaming services VPN blocks.
We’ve tried and tested a number of VPNs and have listed the best ones below:
1. ExpressVPN 🥇
Why You Should Use ExpressVPN? It’s the fastest and MOST reliable VPN of 2023
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 10-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- ❌ Expensive
Special Offer for you!
Get 3 extra months free when you sign up for a 12-month ExpressVPN plan. That’s 15 months in total for the price of 12.
Number of servers: 3,000+ | Speed: >80% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 160 in 94 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $6.66/month for 15 months
- $9.99/month for 6 months
- $12.95/month for 1 month
ExpressVPN ($6.66/month) is still the best VPN. And importantly, it ALWAYS has servers that are open with major streaming sites such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, etc.
ExpressVPN is usually very good at playing Cat and Mouse with online streaming sites. Meaning, whenever one of its servers is blacklisted it creates a new one – giving its users a constant stream of servers that aren’t blocked. Needless to say, this is a valuable attribute if you’re looking for a VPN to unblock streaming sites.
Its app is easy-to-use and free to download on pretty much any device you can think of. Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, FireStick, Android TV, Roku, PS4, Xbox, Linux, even Apple TV (with a workaround). It’s got it all covered.
The app is another main reason this VPN is so good at unblocking TV streaming sites (that claim they block VPNs) is that its software takes a pragmatic approach to user management. While other VPNs tempt customers by promising them access to hundreds/thousands of servers in multiple countries, ExpressVPN does things differently.
With ExpressVPN you only have a handful of server locations to choose from. Once you select your location the app takes care of the rest. Assigning you to the fastest available server that’s not oversubscribed. This simple technique is so important, as it keeps ExpressVPN’s servers operating at lightning-fast speeds and prevents its IPs from getting blacklisted for “abnormal” usage in the first place.
Check out our full ExpressVPN review.
Special Offer for you
(30-day money-back guarantee)
2. Private Internet Access 🥈
The BEST low-cost VPN for streaming!
Pros
- ✅ Fast and reliable servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 10-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- ❌ Only 48 server locations
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for a 3-year plan with Private Internet Access and save 83% + 3 months free. That works out at $2.03/month.
Number of servers: 25,000+ | Speed: >75% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 70 in 74 countries | Devices supported: 10 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $2.03/month for 3 years
- $7.50/month for 6 months
- $11.99/month for 1 month
Private Internet Access is one of the leading no-log VPN services with over 1-million paying customers.
This VPN is one of the best in the industry at beating streaming sites’ VPN bans. It provides reliable connections with US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+ Amazon Prime Video, etc. It also allows 10 simultaneous devices to be connected to its servers at the same time, so you can share the account with your close friends.
If – for whatever reason – you’re not happy with Private Internet Access, there’s a 24/7 live chat support available to assist you with your problem. PIA also offers the industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee.
From my tests (from New Zealand) I was able to get download speeds of 70 Mbps while connected to a UK server using the Private Internet Access VPN (my non-VPN speed is 100 Mbps).
Special Offer – Save 83%
(30-day money-back guarantee)
3. NordVPN 🥉
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ No logs
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 6-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
Cons
- ❌ No refunds for purchases from iTunes/App store
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for a 3-year plan with Private Internet Access and save 83% + 3 months free. That works out at $2.03/month.
Number of servers: 5,000+ | Speeds: >80% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 62 countries | Devices supported: 6 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $3.49/month for 2 years
- $6.99/month for 1 year
- $11.95/month for 1 month
NordVPN is the most widely-used VPN in the world. And it’s easy to see why. It’s a polished app that delivers fast connections (more on this later) to a massive network of VPN servers.
It’s the most reliable at unblocking popular streaming services too – US Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, etc. This is because NordVPN hired a full-time technical team (that’s responsible for monitoring its servers’ connections with popular TV streaming services) and has been aggressively investing in its network of IP addresses in key locations.
Another interesting thing to note is that NordVPN is an industry leader in its development of Nordlynx technology. Nordlynx is built using the WireGuard, a new VPN tunneling protocol designed to outperform current standards (OpenVPN and IPSec). The benefits, according to NordVPN, are dramatically faster transfer speeds while connected to a VPN. My tests – New Zealand to London – confirm that Nordlynx is currently the fastest VPN on the market. However, the difference isn’t dramatic, a few Mbps is all.
SPECIAL OFFER – SAVE 70%!
(30-day money-back guarantee)
4. Ivacy
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ Dedicated streaming servers
- ✅ 5-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
Cons
- ❌ Only 5 devices
- ❌ Sometimes runs slow
- ❌ Occasionally block by streaming sites for several days
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for Ivacy and enjoy a 7-day trial with no strings attached
Number of servers: 1,000+ | Speed: >65% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 275 in 100 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $1.16/month for 5 years
- $3.50/month for 1 year
- $9.99/month for 1 month
If you’re looking for an excellent VPN, with an even better price tag, Ivacy ($1.16/month) is a great option.
This VPN has all the features you need to stream BBC iPlayer, in HD, from any country in the world. I’ve been testing the app recently on Mac, PC, Android, iOS and FireStick and the results have been impressive – unlocking BBC iPlayer, US Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, etc. with ease.
The Ivacy app is a little different in regards to its UX (user experience). Instead of just selecting a UK server, you need to select the specific BBC iPlayer server. Don’t worry, this isn’t a bad thing – by connecting to a dedicated BBC iPlayer server, it simply means that you’re connecting to an IP address that Ivacy knows works with BBC iPlayer.
For an extra $1.99/month (£1.74) you can add-on a dedicated IP. This will buy you sole access to an IP address in a country of your choice, meaning you won’t have to share your IP (and speeds) with any other use. I don’t recommend this though, using the regular Ivacy servers is enough 95 per cent of the time.
Special Offer – 7-day FREE trial!
(30-day money-back guarantee)
5. CyberGhost
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ 1-day free trial
- ✅ Reliable servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 7-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
Cons
- ❌ Expensive
- ❌ Average speed scores
SPECIAL OFFER – 1-DAY FREE TRIAL
Take advantage of CyberGhost’s 1-day FREE TRIAL!
Number of servers: 1,000+ | Speed: >65% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 275 in 100 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $2.75/month for 3 years
- $3.69/month for 2 years
- $5.99/month for 1 year
- $12.99/month for 1 month
CyberGhost is one of the more established VPNs on the market. It has a well-established, and well-tested global network of servers that perform well.
From my tests over the past several months, CyberGhost has no trouble at unblocking major streaming services – US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max etc. This VPN performed well at maintaining download speeds, well above 65 per cent of my regular (non VPN) ISP speed.
That said, there’s nothing really unique about the service. Which forces you to look at its price-point. And there’s nothing special here. Its short-term $12.99/month price tag puts is well above the industry average of $10.10/month. Similarly, its long-term $2.75/month for 3 years deal isn’t much of a “deal” either.
Oddly, CyberGhost’s most unique feature is its a 1-day, no obligations, free trial. This is an appealing offer to customers who are new to VPNs. However, it’s important to remember that most reputable VPNs will offer customers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so try not to be too seduced by the offer.
SPECIAL OFFER – 1-DAY FREE TRIAL
(30-day money-back guarantee)
