When we are using a free, paid VPN service or a VPN server set up by ourselves, all the traffic we generate passes through a remote server which gives us access to the Internet to mask our initial public IP address, this makes This VPN server has to manage a large amount of bandwidth, not only ours but also all the users who are currently connected to the server, and therefore, this generates a cost in server resources. Today in this article we are going to talk about what the monthly limit of a VPN is, and what happens if we exceed it.
What is the monthly limit for a VPN?
We can use a VPN service to connect to the Internet anonymously, enter download websites that are blocked in the country of origin, skip geoblocks and many other interesting uses. Depending on the use we give it (P2P downloads, 4K video streaming, only web browsing) we will be consuming more or less bandwidth on the VPN server, which translates into an associated expense because we will be using many or few resources from said server.
If we use a VPN service (either free or paid) sporadically, we will surely consume few GB of data that goes through the VPN service. However, if we are continuously connected or performing bandwidth-consuming tasks such as P2P downloads or 4K video streaming, then we could get several TB of data in a single day, depending on the speed of the VPN service and the speed of your Internet connection.
The monthly limit of a VPN refers to the amount of GB or TB of data that we can use in the VPN service each month . Let’s imagine that a VPN service has a monthly limit of 1TB of data, in a given month we can only transfer a total of 1TB of data, regardless of whether it is download traffic or upload traffic.
Why do providers implement this monthly limit?
VPN service providers implement a monthly limit on their server traffic to prevent abuse . This type of limitation prevents a “power user” from downloading via P2P 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, consuming bandwidth that other users could be using for web browsing, anonymous instant messaging and other uses that consume less traffic.
These kinds of monthly VPN limits are typically on free VPN services which are much more limited than paid services like Surfshark, NordVPN or PureVPN among other widely known and used services. However, we could also find this type of monthly data limit in the cheapest plans of some paid VPN services, this allows the company to size its servers depending on the demand and will avoid certain abuses in the exchanged network traffic. The monthly limit is a very common feature of paid VPNs that also have a “free” version as a trial, in this way, the VPN provider can put a free version of their service, but we can only consume 100GB of data per month or whatever amount, in this way, it would act as a “hook” to attract premium users to the service.
Therefore, it is very common to implement the monthly traffic limit to avoid abuse, both in free VPNs, which are the most limited in resources, and also in paid VPNs that have a free trial version.
What happens if I exceed the monthly limit of the VPN?
On some occasions it is very likely that we can exceed the monthly limit of a VPN in days and even hours, depending on the use you give to the VPN service and also depending on the monthly limit of said VPN service. In the case of exceeding the monthly limit of a VPN service, different behaviors may occur to your VPN service.
Speed limitation
If we exceed the monthly limit of the VPN, it is very likely that the VPN service will apply a QoS to you and limit the speed of the connection. In this way, if you use the VPN service you could see your speed limited to 1Mbps or 5Mbps speed, with the aim that you do not download content so fast and occupy all the bandwidth, however, with this speed you can still continue browsing Internet without many problems, and you could even watch streaming videos with a low bitrate, probably in 720p resolution instead of 1080p or higher than you had before.
Time limitation
Another very common option in VPN services when the monthly limit of a service is exceeded, is that it will limit us by time. This means that you will only be able to use the VPN for a certain amount of time each day, in order not to consume too much bandwidth. This limit could also be related to the previous one, the speed limitation, in this way, you will be limiting both in time and in the speed you can achieve.
Service lock until next month
The VPN service could also implement a block by IP or user, with the objective that it cannot connect to the VPN service until the next calendar month, when the monthly limit of the VPN is renewed. This feature is quite common in paid VPNs that have limited free versions, although it is not normal, this policy could also be used in order to avoid abuse.
As you have seen, the monthly limit for VPN use is quite common to find in free and paid VPN services (which have a free version), in order to avoid possible abuse of the service. For example, with the popular VPN WARP from Cloudflare we have a traffic limitation at premium speed, once we have spent those GB of data at high speed, the free version that clearly has less speed will automatically start working.
