KotoVPN

Guide · Updated August 13, 2026

Why your VPN is slow, and what actually fixes it

Why is my internet slower with a VPN, and how do I speed it up?

Short answer

Three things cost you speed: distance to the server, the protocol, and server load — roughly in that order. Switching to a nearer server and to WireGuard fixes most of it. Encryption overhead, the thing people blame, is almost never the bottleneck on modern hardware.

Distance is the dominant factor

Every packet travels to the VPN server before going anywhere else. Connecting from Berlin to a server in Singapore adds the round trip to Singapore to everything you do, and no protocol choice recovers it.

If you do not need a specific country, pick the nearest server. If you do need a specific country, expect the cost and measure it: the difference between a nearby server and a distant one is routinely larger than the difference between any two providers.

Protocol is the second factor

WireGuard is faster than OpenVPN in most conditions and reconnects almost instantly, which matters more on mobile than any throughput figure. If your client defaults to OpenVPN or IKEv2, changing it is usually the single largest improvement available.

The exception is a restrictive network. OpenVPN over TCP port 443 looks like ordinary HTTPS and gets through places WireGuard does not. That is a reason to keep it available, not a reason to use it by default.

Server load, and why you cannot see it

A server carrying its capacity in users will be slow regardless of distance or protocol. Some clients show a load percentage; most do not, and the number is not independently verifiable where it exists.

The practical approach is to test three or four servers in the country you need and keep the fastest. Peak hours in the server’s local timezone are the worst case, so a server that is fast at 3am in its own timezone may not be at 9pm.

What does not fix it

Encryption overhead is real and small. Any processor made in the last decade handles AES in hardware, and WireGuard’s ChaCha20 is fast even without it. If your VPN is halving your speed, encryption is not why.

Avoid

  • Buying a "faster" provider before trying a nearer server and WireGuard
  • Multi-hop or Secure Core routing when you have not established you need it — expect to lose a large share of throughput
  • Trusting an advertised "fastest VPN" claim, which is unverifiable by construction
  • Testing over Wi-Fi, where variance is larger than the difference you are trying to measure

Questions

How much speed loss is normal?
On a nearby server with WireGuard, most of your line should survive. Large losses usually indicate distance, an old protocol, or a congested server rather than a defective provider. We publish retention against a measured baseline rather than absolute figures, because an absolute number describes the reviewer’s connection rather than yours.
Does a VPN make my connection faster?
Only in one narrow case: if your ISP is throttling a specific type of traffic and cannot identify it inside the tunnel. Otherwise a VPN adds a hop and can only cost you speed.
Is a paid VPN faster than a free one?
Usually, because free tiers are capacity-limited by design. But paid does not mean fast: a distant, loaded server on a premium provider is slower than a nearby one on a free tier.

Terms used here

WireGuard

A modern VPN protocol, around 4,000 lines of code, designed to be small enough to audit properly.

OpenVPN

The long-established open-source VPN protocol, slower than WireGuard but more configurable and more widely supported.

Throughput retention

The share of your unencrypted line speed that survives once the VPN is connected, expressed as a percentage.

Multi-hop

Routing traffic through two VPN servers in sequence, usually in different countries.

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