How to stop ISP internet throttling with a VPN

Is your favorite Netflix show painfully slow? Or the game you want to play can't stop buffering? In that case, your ISP might be throttling your bandwidth. While most internet service providers strive to deliver a fast service, sometimes you may find your internet connection has become a lot slower than usual.

How can you stop bandwidth throttling? How can you tell if it’s happening to you? And how can you improve the performance of your internet?

To stop ISP throttling, use a VPN. By encrypting your internet traffic, a VPN hides your online activities from your ISP, putting an end to throttling. Get faster speeds and unrestricted browsing with this easy solution.

How to stop ISP bandwidth throttling with a VPN

1. Download a reputable VPN from your device’s app store or from the VPN’s website. We recommend NordVPN - get 74% OFF!
2. Create an account with the VPN.
3. Sign in and connect to your desired server location.
4. Enjoy your fast internet!

What is bandwidth throttling?

Bandwidth throttling occurs when your ISP deliberately slows your internet. While this might be because you have reached your data cap for the month, or you haven’t paid for your super-fast broadband, more often than not, your ISP will slow your internet speeds regardless of your contract status.

If you imagine the traffic passing through an ISP’s server to be like the traffic passing along a freeway, it makes sense that the more traffic there is, the slower it moves.

Streaming Netflix or using gaming in high definition uses up a lot of bandwidth. To keep things moving, ISPs may throttle, or slow internet service in order to allow users to at least keep accessing the sites they need to, even if the experience is slower.

Why do ISPs really throttle connections?

An ISP would tell you that users experience throttling because you may have gone over your data cap or not paid your internet bill for the month. They often throttle bandwidth during peak hours to prevent network congestion, ensuring everyone gets a fair share of the available bandwidth. However, some providers have plans with no data limits. If your plan has a limit, a VPN might not help slow down your connection.

But what’s the real reason for all this throttling? Even when ISPs promise unlimited super-fast broadband, the reality is that if everyone is streaming or gaming in 4k, it simply costs too much to supply everyone with the high-speed connectivity they need.

So ISPs react by limiting the bandwidth of everyone using the server, under the guise of preventing total crashes. The reality is that it is just cheaper to set all users to the same speed.

However, you might find that certain types of internet usage lead to more throttling than others. ISPs that have a ‘fast lane’ deal with Netflix for example, might throttle the streaming of content on a competitor like Disney Plus or Amazon Prime, in order to manipulate the behavior of its users.

Some services pay for faster internet speeds, known as 'fast lanes,' available to subscribers who pay for premium subscriptions. This benefits both the service providers and ISPs but disadvantages regular users. But all this depends on an ISP being able to see what content you are using. After all, your ISP can’t slow your Netflix connection if it can’t see that you’re using Netflix.

Is ISP throttling illegal?

In 2015, the FCC established Net Neutrality rules prohibiting internet providers from throttling content. However, in 2017, these rules were repealed, granting ISPs freedom to block or throttle content. Efforts to reinstate net neutrality, such as the Save the Internet Act in 2019, have been unsuccessful. Recently, the FCC announced plans to reintroduce Net Neutrality rules.

Net neutrality ensures ISPs treat all internet data equally. Proving violations like intentional throttling is challenging because it doesn't always appear in speed tests. So, even if it's against the law, it's hard to prove.

How to tell if your ISP is throttling you

Slow internet during busy times, like evenings, or when downloading and streaming lag, might mean your ISP is throttling you. You can use an Internet Health Test to check for poor performance across different connections. Also, try comparing speeds with and without a VPN; if the speed increases significantly with a VPN, your ISP could be throttling you.

How does a VPN solve throttling issues?

As we have already mentioned, ISPs don’t usually reduce the bandwidth of all their users completely equally. In fact, a lot of ISPs have a monetary incentive to throttle specific types of content. And that means that an ISP needs to know what content you are looking at in order to throttle it.

While a VPN can help bypass some forms of ISP throttling, it may not be effective in all scenarios. For instance, the VPN might not provide significant relief during network congestion or if your internet plan has a data cap.

When using a VPN, the ISP can’t distinguish between HD streaming and simple web browsing. That means you won’t experience throttling, and you can enjoy good performance on any site, including BitTorrent, YouTube, Twitch and Usenet.

If you mask your online activity from your ISP, that means your ISP cannot move to throttle any of your activity. In such cases, they might even inadvertently throttle traffic to one of their ‘fast lane’ customers.

Best VPN against throttling

1. NordVPN – overall best VPN against throttling
2. PureVPN – secure VPN to improve the performance of internet
3. Surfshark – reliable VPN to stop throttling

There are a huge number of VPNs out there and knowing the one to choose is vitally important. One tip we would give is that it’s always worth spending some money on a VPN. A free VPN can be tempting, but the technology is complex and takes a lot of expertise to maintain and run properly.

Here are some of our recommendations:

NordVPN

Visit NordVPN

NordVPN is one of the most reputable VPNs on the market, and has a strict no-logs policy that means none of your activity is logged anywhere at all. PwC initially audited NordVPN in 2018 and 2020, and provider privacy claims were validated both times. In 2022 and 2023, Deloitte also confirmed NordVPN's no-logs policy.

Additionally, NordVPN is based in Panama, a privacy-friendly country without data retention laws. Their policy ensures that user internet activity is not monitored, recorded, or stored.

NordVPN offers one of the greatest feature suites among other VPNs. It blocks ads and malware with its Threat Protection ad blocker, offers obfuscated servers, and includes a SOCKS5 proxy for torrenting.

With a NordVPN subscription, you can also get a password manager, data breach scanner, and secure cloud storage. Everything is easy to access, making it beginner-friendly.

During in-house tests, NordVPN retained 90% of initial speeds, making the provider one of the fastest on the market. Additionally, it’s budget-friendly. NordVPN pricing starts from $2.99/month for 10 simultaneous connections.

PureVPN

Visit PureVPN

PureVPN is a super-secure VPN provider, offering great speeds, and all the main VPN functionality – it's a solid all-rounder, that's going to be great for pretty much everyone.

The headquarters of PureVPN are based in the British Virgin Islands. The VPN itself operates under a strict no-logs policy, which means it doesn’t collect IP addresses, browsing activity, or DNS requests. You can enjoy complete privacy as this VPN supports an always-on audit.

Apart from great speed and security, PureVPN offers its users other useful benefits. It has an in-built kill switch, which prevents your real IP address from being exposed. Also, this VPN supports port forwarding, and offers split tunneling on its Android app.

PureVPN is one of the cheapest VPNs on the market. With a long-term subscription plan as low as $2.14/month. There’s also a 31-day money-back guarantee that lets you change your mind in case you're not satisfied with the service.

Surfshark

Visit Surfshark

For those still not keen on splashing out too much on a VPN, Surfshark offers some of the best prices available, while still protecting your data and browsing information from your ISP. Surfshark like NordVPN has a strict no-logs policy, works on RAM-only servers, and is based in the Netherlands. The provider's privacy policy was independently audited by the Deloitte firm.

Surfshark has a unique Search feature, which stands as an ad-free search engine. It offers a true incognito mode and ensures no logging. Surfshark also offers dedicated IP addresses from 7 countries and Alternative ID for creating fake online identities.

The Surfshark subscription prices start from only $1.99/month, which makes it one of the cheapest providers in the market. What is more, you can stream, game, or video chat simultaneously on all your household devices without lags or buffering, as Surfshark retains 86% of its initial speed. Provider offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if you still feel that it doesn’t meet your expectations.

Stop ISP throttling video review

To sum up

Like any private enterprise, your ISP is always on the lookout for new ways to make money, and throttling traffic to certain online services for a price is an easy and hard-to-track way of bringing in paying clients who want their sites to run smoothly.

If you care about guaranteeing good quality internet, then a VPN is a really good option for avoiding ISP throttling.

It’s not just a matter of guaranteeing fast internet. Downloading and using a VPN can stop your internet behavior from being manipulated by your ISP as you browse. This means you won’t get a different quality of service no matter what content you’re accessing.

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