Always-On VPN for Android Guide
Want your Android phone or tablet to stay protected all the time — on Wi-Fi and mobile data — without constantly checking whether the VPN is connected?
Editor's choice • Reliable always-on protection
Auto-connect • Unlimited devices
Privacy‑first • Advanced routing control
On Android, an always-on VPN is a mode where your phone or tablet tries to keep a VPN connection active all the time. Instead of opening your VPN app, tapping connect and hoping you remember to do it next time, Android can treat the VPN as the default network path for your apps.
When always-on is enabled, Android monitors the tunnel in the background. If the connection drops, the system automatically attempts to reconnect. Combined with the option to block traffic outside the VPN, this gives you a more predictable baseline: either the VPN is up, or apps are temporarily blocked until it comes back.
The exact menus vary slightly between phone brands, but the underlying idea is the same: connect your VPN once, mark it as always-on, and let Android handle the routine reconnects for you.
Recent versions of Android include system-level controls for VPN behaviour. In the Settings > Network & Internet > VPN area you normally see a list of installed VPN apps. Tapping the gear icon next to a VPN entry reveals two important toggles.
The first is Always-on VPN. When enabled, Android will try to keep that VPN connected whenever the device is online. The second is often labelled Block connections without VPN or similar. Turning this on tells Android to drop traffic if the VPN tunnel is not established.
Many VPN apps add their own auto-connect rules on top of this — for example, connect automatically on untrusted Wi-Fi but not on mobile data. Together, Android's system controls and the provider's in-app options determine how automatic your protection feels in daily use.
The exact labels differ slightly between Samsung, Google Pixel and other brands, but a typical always-on setup looks like this:
From this point on, Android should reconnect the VPN automatically after reboots, network changes and short signal drops. You can revisit the same menu at any time to disable always-on for troubleshooting or travel.
Not every VPN app behaves the same way when you turn on always-on mode. Some handle background reconnects cleanly; others struggle when the device sleeps or switches between Wi-Fi and mobile data. When looking at providers for this guide, the focus was on how they behave on real Android phones and tablets.
In practice, you want a provider that:
Besides the three services highlighted at the top of this page — NordVPN, Surfshark and Mullvad — two other popular options that work well for always-on Android setups are:
The details differ, but the underlying test is simple: install the app, enable always-on in Android settings, carry your phone through a normal day and see whether the VPN quietly does its job without demanding attention.
Once always-on is running, you can adjust how strict it should be. Most Android VPN apps expose a mix of split tunneling, excluded apps and kill switch options.
Split tunneling or "bypass VPN for selected apps" lets you route only certain traffic through the tunnel. For example, you might keep your browser and chat apps under the VPN while allowing local streaming or banking apps to connect directly if they misbehave over VPN links.
The kill switch has two layers: Android's own "block connections without VPN" toggle, and any in-app kill switch your provider offers. Combining them means that if the VPN process crashes or the server becomes unreachable, Android will not silently send data outside the tunnel.
As with any security feature, it is worth testing your configuration briefly: disconnect the VPN on purpose, toggle airplane mode and re-enable it, and watch how quickly and reliably your chosen app reconnects.
An always-on VPN for Android does add a small amount of overhead: the app needs to encrypt and decrypt traffic and maintain a connection even when the screen is off. On modern hardware this is usually modest, but there are a few quick checks worth doing if things feel slow or your battery drains faster than expected:
If problems persist even with conservative settings, it is worth trying another provider's Android app to see whether your experience improves. Behaviour under always-on mode is one of the easiest real-world tests of how much care has gone into a VPN client.
In many cases, yes. It reduces the chance that you forget to connect before doing something sensitive on a new Wi-Fi or mobile network. However, it does not replace basics such as keeping your device updated or choosing a reputable VPN provider in the first place.
Any VPN uses some additional power, especially when there is constant traffic. With efficient protocols and nearby servers, most modern phones handle always-on VPN without dramatic battery impact, but it is normal to see a small reduction in battery life compared with running no VPN at all.
Probably not. Many people enable always-on only on devices that leave the house or handle sensitive logins, such as a primary phone or work tablet. On other devices, connecting manually when needed can be perfectly reasonable.
Often yes, but it depends on how those tools are implemented. Some ad blockers also use the VPN interface, in which case they may conflict with a regular VPN app. Other solutions, such as system-wide private DNS or browser-based blockers, usually work fine alongside an always-on VPN.