- Mozilla is lifting the 50GB monthly data limit on Firefox’s free built-in VPN
- The offer includes 28 places to browse from, up from the standard set of five
- Everything will return to the usual data cap and five locations on September 1st
A free VPN built right into your browser is a rare thing, and for the next few months Firefox is making its version even more appealing. Mozilla has announced that it is temporarily removing the data cap on its free built-in VPN, giving eligible users unlimited bandwidth for the summer season.
Until now, Firefox’s free built-in VPN provided users with 50GB of free bandwidth every month. From now until August 31st, the limit will disappear completely, so there’s much more room to surf privately while you’re traveling, hopping on public Wi-Fi or connecting from a new location.
In addition to the unlimited bandwidth, Mozilla also blocks access to 28 countries to browse from during this period. A serious upgrade from its standard set of locations that cover just five countries.
That’s a generous move for something baked into a browser at no cost, and a reminder that you don’t always have to pay for one of the best VPN services to get a taste of private browsing.
What’s new this summer
The headline change in the Firefox blog post is simple: the 50GB monthly bandwidth cap is gone for the summer, replaced by unlimited usage in Firefox from now until August 31st.
During the promotion, Mozilla is also opening up its network for servers in 28 countries to connect from, giving you a much wider spread of places to browse from than usual (Canada, France, Germany, UK and US).
The additional countries available during the summer include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Norway and South Africa.
Firefox VPN is not available everywhere. The browser only offers the feature in the countries Mozilla lists on its support page.
What the built-in Firefox VPN is and how to use it
Mozilla launched the free built-in VPN with Firefox 149. It began as a beta version for Firefox desktop users in the US, UK, Germany and France, with more countries planned over the following releases. The browser later got location selection, so users could choose which country to search from.
Unlike a traditional virtual private network (VPN) app, this one only covers your browser. When turned on, Firefox routes your browsing traffic through its encrypted proxy network, which replaces your IP address before it reaches a website, so the websites you visit see the proxy’s IP instead of your own.
Firefox already encrypts your traffic with HTTPS, and masking your IP adds another layer of privacy, which is especially handy on public Wi-Fi like the network at your local coffee shop.
The feature lives behind a toggle and you can manage it at any time Settings > Privacy & Security > VPN. If a particular site misbehaves while the VPN is active, you can turn off the VPN for that site directly from the panel or add sites to a list in advanced settings so they never connect via VPN.
If you’ve been curious about trying out private browsing without committing to a subscription, this is a great window to do so.
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