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Free or Paid China VPN?
Updated
Start with the arithmetic: the most expensive part of a China route is mainland exit bandwidth, which domestic cloud providers meter and do not sell cheaply. A free option cannot conjure it away; it picks one of three: pack many people onto one machine, cap traffic and time, or earn it back from your data and ads. That does not make free useless — an occasional lookup is fine. But for series, banking or the family TV, a paid route costs less per month than a coffee and saves far more time than that.
Three reasons free nodes keep dropping
- Crowding: hundreds or thousands share one machine and one cross-border link. Fine by day; at 8–11 pm Beijing time everyone buffers.
- Caps: traffic cap, time cap, speed held below 1080p, and a paywall pops up mid-episode — these are really trials of a paid product without saying so.
- Selling: ads injected, browsing history collected, or your device used as someone else’s exit node. Free “China” browser extensions are the usual offenders.
Two hidden traps in free options
First, the exit may not be in mainland China. Many free “China” nodes are Hong Kong, Taiwan or Japan addresses: Chinese pages open, but Tencent Video and iQIYI still show the region notice and banks still treat you as abroad. One IP-location lookup after connecting tells you.
Second, IPv6 and DNS are not handled. Free options almost never reject IPv6 inside the tunnel, so with IPv6 on your device the video site still sees an overseas address. This is the most common cause of “connected but still blocked”; see the streaming guide.
When free is enough, and when to pay
Enough: an occasional Chinese page for research or news, no demands on speed or stability, and no logging in to anything.
Pay: series and music, banking or Alipay logins, the family TV and grandparents, ticket sales at a fixed time — these need “works every time”, which free cannot deliver.
A simple test: if a drop would annoy you, it is time to pay.
What paid should cost
LeoTun has three tiers — Personal, Family and Enterprise at US$4, US$8 and US$16 a month — allowing 2, 4 and 8 devices online at once. All three include 24 regions, every connection method (AnyConnect, OpenVPN, Hiddify and the web proxy) and the router option. Longer purchases are discounted, down to 20% off.
Two ways to avoid a monthly purchase: claim the 24-hour free trial first (no credit card, once per account) and test it at evening peak; or pay per day — points cost US$8 for 25, and a Personal account uses 1 point a day, a Family account 2, so about 32 or 64 cents a day, ideal for a few days before a trip home.
Inviting a friend who registers and makes a first payment adds time at equal value by tier — 30 days on Personal, 15 on Family, 7.5 on Enterprise — with no limit on friends, a lasting source of free time.
How to test before paying
- Claim the trial, connect to the China route, and check that the IP location is mainland China.
- Open an IPv6 test page and confirm IPv6 is unavailable or also a mainland address.
- Play a 1080p episode after 8 pm Beijing time and watch for repeated buffering.
- Switch to another mainland exit and try again, to rule out luck.
- Check that it uses standard protocols (AnyConnect, OpenVPN, Hiddify): the clients come from the vendor or open source, and the configuration outlives any one provider. A proprietary app leaves nothing once it is pulled from the store.
FAQ
Is there any truly free and stable China VPN?
Not for the long term — the cost structure rules it out. Stable free service exists only as the trial of a paid product; using that to test is right, relying on it is not.
Can a free VPN steal my passwords?
It cannot read HTTPS content inside the tunnel, but it can see which domains you visit and inject content into plain-HTTP pages. Free browser-extension proxies have even wider access. Never log in to banking on a free route.
Pay per day or monthly?
Monthly wins at more than 12 days a month; per-day wins for a few days now and then. Points never expire, so one top-up lasts.
Does the trial need a credit card?
No. Claim it from the home page after registering: new accounts are on Personal and get 24 hours with full features (12 on Family, 6 on Enterprise), once per account.
What if a paid route still drops?
Change region first, then connection method (one account works with all three protocols); if it still fails, see the troubleshooting guide or contact support. Having someone responsible is part of what you pay for.
Related pages
- Pricing and free trial →
- How to choose a China VPN →
- Tencent Video or iQIYI blocked abroad? Fix it in 5 steps →
- China VPN for students abroad →
- Does Cisco AnyConnect Work in China? →
- Choosing a VPN Router →
- How to Import a Hiddify Subscription →
- What a Web Proxy Is and When to Use One →
- What the Private Network (Tailscale) Is →
- How to Use OpenVPN and When to Choose It →
- Flashing the Router Firmware: From Stock to Ours, Step by Step →
- What the Router Firmware Does →
- How to Reach Us and Never Lose Contact →
- Where We Beat Other VPNs →
- How to Recognise a Risky VPN App →
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- Which Region Is Fastest from Inside China →
- For the TV and the Grandparents at Home →
- Watching Home Cameras and a NAS in China from Abroad →
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- On a Company Laptop: No Admin Rights, Corporate VPN Already On →
- Many Devices, One Setup, No Redo on a New Phone →
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- Routing a Linux Server and Command-Line Tools →
- “Damaged” on a Mac, and how to verify the installer →
- Using RustDesk for remote help →
- What macOS's Network Extension Approval Is →
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- Not enough device slots? Temporary vs long-term fixes →
- Dropbox and other apps want an HTTP / SOCKS proxy — what to do →
- How to Get Good Answers from the AI Support →
- How to manually uninstall the Cisco client on a Mac →
- Cisco error “remote user is disabled” →