- Mullvad is set to retire the Leta search proxy on November 27, 2025
- The move marks a shift in Mullvad’s privacy offering
- Leta users are advised to pair Mullvad VPN with a privacy-centric browser
Mullvad’s Leta search proxy will be retired later this month, according to an announcement from the Sweden-based VPN provider.
Leta acted as a privacy-preserving intermediary between Mullvad VPN users and major search engines, letting them query Google and Brave without revealing IP addresses, cookies or browser fingerprints.
The shutdown is set to take place on November 27, 2025, and comes as search engines become increasingly hostile to proxy-based access, with Mullvad being the company behind one of the best VPN services available right now, admitting that Leta is likely to become “less useful over time” as a result.
Why the shutdown and what else is changing at Mullvad
Mullvad cites “major changes” in the search industry as the primary reason for Leta’s impending departure.
Between tightening anti-bot measures, expansion CAPTCHAs and relying on real-time behavioral signals, modern search engines make it increasingly difficult for Mullvad to maintain an effective shared proxy.
On November 27, 2025, we will shut down our search proxy, Leta. Read more here: https://t.co/4Bbni75TsdNovember 6, 2025
Maintaining a reliable and truly private search gateway under current conditions would require a continuous engineering effort as well as frequent updates. Resources Mullvad would apparently rather allocate elsewhere, as evidenced by recent additions which include QUIC obfuscation for WireGuard.
Earlier this year, Mullvad also announced its intention to remove support for OpenVPN from January 16, 2026 in favor of the newer, lighter WireGuard protocol. This signals a strategic shift in Mullvad’s core VPN and privacy offering.
The company explains that consolidating on the open source WireGuard protocol lets the team “focus our resources where they can make a difference.” In retiring Leta, Mullvad plans to “continue to advance the development of advanced VPNs and browser protection”.
Alternatives for Mullvad users looking for private browsing
For users who depended on Leta, the immediate concern is finding a suitable replacement for private search. Fortunately, Mullvad still offers a suite of privacy-focused tools – Mullvad Browser included – all of which can help maintain the privacy standards Mullvad is known for.
Mullvad recommends the use of a virtual private network combined with a privacy-centric browser. The most obvious option for existing subscribers is Mullvad Browser, a Tor Browser-derived client that provides the same fingerprint uniformity, tracker blocking, and anti-fingerprint protection while routing traffic through a VPN instead of the Tor network.
The Mullvad browser can be paired with any VPN, but Mullvad recommends using it with their own service for optimal protection. Because it doesn’t rely on Tor’s onion routing, Mullvad Browser delivers faster page loads while still maintaining strong privacy guarantees.
Alternatives to Mullvad Browser include Brave or Firefox with hardened settings. Combining one of these browsers with a quality VPN masks your IP address from search providers, encrypts DNS queries, and blocks third-party trackers, achieving a level of anonymity on par with Leta.
