Google One VPN Review: Yes, It Is as Bad as You Think It Is!

A decade or so ago, VPNs were quite an exotic niche of applications. Not many people knew what it is and how it functions, only for this trend to change rapidly in the past few years. Pretty much any tech giant offers or is planning to offer a VPN service.

However, many people aren’t aware that these exact VPNs are the ones that are failing miserably. Sure, we have providers like NordVPN or Private Internet Access that spent quite a lot of time on the market perfecting their formulas. But then, there’s a ridiculous provider like Google.

Could you imagine a Virtual Private Network hosted and operated by Google itself? Well, it was a pretty tough pill to swallow even by us, so when I first saw this service emerging from Google’s woodwork, I was staggered. After testing this provider for a while, I came up with the idea to write this Google One VPN review.

Despite its limited features and everything else, I still conducted my usual testing where it’s possible and checked the most important part of this service – the one that has to do with privacy. Besides, Google is a company with one of the largest databases of user data, so it’s not exactly privacy’s best friend.

If you’re looking for a new provider to safeguard your privacy and encrypt your connection, yet, you’re thinking about this one, this is a review for you. Our Google One VPN test will tell you everything you need to know about it so that you can make a rational decision on whether or not to buy it.

I’ll give you a small spoiler alert: you shouldn’t! But please keep reading and you’ll see just how ridiculously bad this provider is.

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The 3 best alternatives to Google One VPN:

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Google One VPN User Experience & Device Support

Let me start this Google One VPN review by addressing the elephant in the room. Some users reported that they couldn’t find this VPN anywhere, with seemingly no way of buying it. Well, that’s because, as we speak, this service is available only in 20+ countries.

This makes it very difficult to get to it, let alone experience its features. However, there isn’t much to experience, as the provider works only on iOS and Android. You have no option of using this VPN on Windows, macOS, or Linux, which is very disappointing.

Since in this part of the Google One VPN review, I mentioned device support, I should also mention that the provider allows for up to 6 simultaneous connections. But then, when you think about it, it makes no sense because not many of us have 6 iOS/Android phones.

That is, of course, if you don’t plan on sharing your subscription with family members, friends, or whomever. At least 6 is more than 5, which is considered an industry standard.

How to Set Up Google One VPN?

Now, it’s time to talk about the user experience in this Google One VPN review. As said, people find it extremely difficult to get this service but that applies even to those living in a country where it’s available. To find it, you’ll have to dig deeper and get the app called Google One.

It’s available on both Apple Store and Google Play, and it’s a free application. So, you just visit your respective store, search for Google One, and download it – a piece of cake. Although the app is free, the Google One VPN functionality isn’t.

In fact, it’s buried deep inside the 2 TB storage subscription plan, so it’s not a standalone app but rather a feature. Something like this is seen in my Opera VPN review which functions pretty much the same. Nevertheless, you’ll have to buy a 2 TB plan to be able to use this service.

We’ll talk more about its pricing later on.

How Does It Feel to Use Google One VPN?

I must admit that Google did a pretty good job at making this service as intuitive and straightforward as possible. However, I can say that’s kind of expected having in mind how simplistic the application looks. Or should I say – a part of the Google One app where the VPN functionality resides?

To open the service, tap on “Online protection with a VPN” and just toggle a button that says Enable VPN. That’s it! Your connection is now encrypted and you can seemingly enjoy all the security and privacy of this service.

You can also open the settings menu, which wasn’t there the last time we used it. Now, the provider offers three basic settings that I’ll talk about later, so you have something to work with. Aside from that, the service is basic, to say the least, and is great only for those who know nothing about Virtual Private Networks.

If you’ve used NordVPN or ExpressVPN before, chances are that you’ll find it extremely lacking. And as someone who uses NordVPN daily, I can tell you one thing in this Google One VPN review – this provider is not good in terms of features.

Is Google One VPN Safe & Secure? All Security Features Examined!

Speaking of features, this is the most important part of my Google One VPN review and test. Here, I talk about its security features, DNS/IP leak tests, and privacy policy, to see if this provider respects your privacy and security at least a bit.

As said, the provider offers very few features, so you shouldn’t expect advanced protocols, MultiHop, Shadowsocks/SOCKS5 proxies, and other fancy functionalities. Overall, I can mention a few features that include:

Split Tunneling

Split tunneling is a very useful feature that many people actually don’t use because they don’t know what it is. Simply put, it’s a feature that allows you to exclude certain apps and domains from using a VPN tunnel, and they’ll instead use your native IP address.

Google One VPN lets you exclude only applications, however, and it’s easy to do that by tapping on the “plus” sign next to each app entry on the list. Once you do that, the app will be excluded, so when you connect to a VPN, it’ll still use your original IP without going through the encrypted tunnel.

I found this feature handy for my PayPal, bank account, and online shopping apps where I don’t need to change my location.

Kill Switch

When this service first arrived, it had practically no features and the kill switch didn’t see the light of day. Now, in my Google One VPN test, I found that the kill switch is indeed there and that option is called “Block internet if VPN disconnects.”

It’s also easy to turn on, as you need to tap on the button next to it to enable it, which will make it blue. From there, the provider will react if you experience a connection problem by disabling your internet connection to prevent potential IP and DNS leaks.

I had a few issues here and there, and to be honest, the kill switch worked surprisingly well. Upon restoring my VPN connection, I could access the internet again, so it does work properly after all.

Snooze

Google One VPN has one strange feature called Snooze. It’s like snoozing your alarm in the morning when it wakes you up and makes you smash your phone off the wall. This time, however, we’re talking about snoozing a VPN for some reason.

If you want to stop your connection for 5 minutes, you can use a Snooze button, and each press on the “Add 5 min” button adds 5 minutes of snooze. You can also tap on “End Snooze” to turn the VPN back on. I don’t know in which instances this feature is useful, except if you don’t want to use split tunneling.

But even in this case, it’s better to use split tunneling to make sure the entire connection is secured, except for the part of the connection you want to bypass the encrypted tunnel.

Google’s VPN Protocol

Finally, we must talk about something controversial in this Google One VPN test – a proprietary VPN protocol. If you didn’t know, Google has its own protocol which is somewhat confidential, as the company doesn’t want to disclose any information related to it.

You’ve noticed that I haven’t mentioned the type of encryption we get here – and for a good reason. Google doesn’t talk about it anywhere and instead, just says that the proprietary protocol is in place, which is used to secure your traffic.

After excessive digging around, I managed to find zero information about this protocol. I don’t know what is it, on which protocol it is based, or anything. I think this is a really bad move if you want to make your customers trust you because the transparency level is pretty low.

For example, when I tested CyberGhost, I found its transparency reports awesome, as they made the provider much more trustworthy and satisfying to use. Google One VPN, on the other hand, keeps things under wraps, although it’s speculated that it’ll add a selection of protocols down the line.

Actually, the company announced its IPsec protocol, which, I think, is a bad choice either, as IKEv2 and OpenVPN are miles ahead. Interestingly, its proprietary protocol is allegedly open-source and it awaits third-party audits in the future. We’ll see about that…

Google One VPN IP and DNS Leak Test: No IP/DNS Leaks Found

To make sure Google One VPN is completely secure, I decided to do a few IP and DNS leak tests. As always, I’m using two websites to check for leaks, including ipleak.net and browserleaks.com.

Much to my surprise, Google One VPN shows no leaks, keeping my IP and DNS addresses away from the prying eyes of my Internet Service Provider and hackers. Might I say – pretty good job!

Does It Have a No-Logging Policy?

This review of Google One VPN wouldn’t be complete without me rambling about its logging practices. We all know Google as a privacy-friendly company that stores no logs and takes care of your privacy better than yourself… in an alternate universe.

In reality, the company is notorious for storing user information left and right, with little care for your privacy and online security. Google is based in the United States, to make things worse, and the US is a founding member of the 5 Eyes alliance.

For those uninformed, this is a group of English-speaking countries known for surveillance and data collection, but also distribution between each other. And let’s be honest – do you trust Google to take care of your personal data, to not store, or sell it to third parties?

I’ll leave the answer to you. Think about it.

Which Information Isn’t Stored?

Let’s first check which information Google claims not to store. When visiting its privacy policy, I was appalled by its claims that it stores no logs of your browsing activity, which is something I expected to see, at least in the “sugarcoated” and “diplomatic” forms, if you know what I mean.

However, from what I gathered, the provider does NOT log information like:

• Your IP address
• Browsing history and DNS queries
• Connection timestamps
• The duration of your connection
• Consumed bandwidth

This surely looks promising because the information you see above can’t help the company compromise your privacy while using this VPN.

Which Information Is Stored?

Of course, for the service to work properly, each VPN must store some bits of information. Google One is no different and it logs the following data:

• The number of times you have accessed the service in the last 28 days
• Aggregate data, which the company uses for troubleshooting purposes, including VPN tunnel uptime, packet loss rate, service/server CPU and memory load, throughput, VPN tunnel setup latency, total bandwidth rate, VPN tunnel failure rates, VPN tunnel retries, and VPN tunnel setup error rates
• The number of attempts to connect to a server – necessary because of the limit on simultaneous connections

The information that the provider logs in my Google One VPN review isn’t concerning as it’s mostly in the aggregated form and cannot be used to trace your activities. However, I see a BIG problem in the fact that the service is a part of the Google One app.

As such, buying a VPN cannot be anonymous because it’s an in-app purchase that requires your Google Pay, credit card, or PayPal information that the company can connect with your account. And to use the provider at all, you need a Gmail account.

Gmail is among the worst email services for privacy, although the majority of people still use it. But the point still remains. Despite the service not storing compromising logs, the surrounding conditions needed to use it are not ideal.

For example, if you want to get a VPN for privacy, you can buy NordVPN or ExpressVPN using crypto, whereas, this one doesn’t support this payment method.

Independent Audit from NCC Group

One interesting thing about this service is that it received a third-party audit in 2021. The company called NCC Group based in the UK conducted research to probe the VPN for possible issues and make sure it sticks to its claims.

Much to people’s surprise, NCC Group concluded that the provider indeed offers substantial security and privacy, but it wasn’t shy of reporting a few issues. Namely, NCC Group highlighted the possibility of Google violating its privacy policy as such violations already happened a few times before.

Also, NCC Group stated that, due to the VPN’s connection to other services of this company, Google can connect a particular VPN tunnel with an account used with other services. My two cents are that this company isn’t trustworthy, despite this valuable third-party audit.

Above all, this isn’t a very functional provider, as you’ll see, so even if those facts are true, you’ll be disappointed with other features.

Google One VPN for Streaming: Netflix & Other Platforms TESTED

If you need a VPN to stream on Netflix, Hulu, or any other geo-restricted platform, this Google One VPN review and test will tell you how useful this provider is. Let me tell you right away that the provider offers no specific servers, so it’s a red flag already.

This means you can’t unblock different Netflix libraries or streaming platforms because you can’t select the VPN location. In any case, the provider has one connection button, and using it always connects you to a server in your country.

At the time of testing it, my location was the US, so I always get connected to a server in the United States.

With that in mind, I wanted to see if I could unblock Netflix US while using it. And after searching for Grey’s Anatomy which is a US Netflix show, it didn’t appear in the search results.

This means Google One VPN failed to unblock this library, preventing my access to the show. The same can be said about other, more demanding streaming platforms.

Of course, with no server connections outside of your country, you also can’t unblock and watch BBC iPlayer outside of the UK, for example.

Speed Tests: Here’s How Fast Google One VPN Really Is

Since we’re talking about a VPN for iOS and Android, the speed requirements are a bit lower compared to desktop services. Still, I’ve used a lot of slow services even on my phone, especially free services like Betternet or Hotspot Shield.

Google One VPN’s proprietary protocol is surely an interesting feature to test out performance-wise, so let’s do a speed test. The parameters I often use include testing several locations but since this provider doesn’t let you choose the location, the testing parameters must be altered.

For this Google One VPN review, I still tested it 3 days in a row, 3 times a day simply by establishing a connection to the VPN. Then, I chose the best result which is shown below. However, let me first show you my native internet speeds on my iPhone:

And now, here’s the best speed test result I achieved while using this provider:

As you can see, it’s not going to blow you away and it did reduce my connection speed, all while increasing the ping. I can’t say it’s slow, however, because the speed reduction isn’t very big and it showed relatively decent performance on my iPhone.

Is it among the fastest VPNs, though? Well, surely not. Is it good enough? Absolutely.

Is Google One VPN Good for Gaming?

Mobile gaming saw a massive surge in popularity with releases like Call of Duty Mobile, Apex Legends Mobile, and other awesome titles. Many people, therefore, use a VPN to avoid bandwidth throttling, change their location, and play on more distant servers.

Google One VPN is a relatively fast provider, so it’s a decent solution for mobile gaming. I tested it out in multiple fast-paced games, only to experience some great shootouts in Call of Duty and Apex Legends, which were a ton of fun.

Remember that the speed reduction isn’t very noticeable here, so it’s somewhat logical that this provider will perform well in this sense. However, you can try NordVPN or ExpressVPN (much faster VPNs) as they both offer iOS/Android apps in addition to PS/Xbox apps that can also be used for gaming.

Can I Use Google One VPN for P2P and Torrenting?

Torrenting is another factor I’m going to talk about in this Google One VPN review and analysis. However, torrent clients aren’t available on iOS, so you can use this service for this purpose only if you have an Android device.

In this case, P2P traffic will be allowed and you’ll be able to torrent with no problems. Should you do it? Well, I’m afraid I must say NO given Google’s security and privacy issues that I mentioned. Sure, it offers a somewhat genuine no-logging policy, but are we really going to trust this company?

No one can guarantee that it won’t violate its privacy policy at one point and give out your IP address and browsing activities to the authorities in the US or any other country. While it CAN download torrents, we do NOT recommend doing that with this provider.

You can instead go for NordVPN and use it with uTorrent, BitTorrent, or any other torrent client.

Is It Working in China & Other Censored Countries?

People living in China have a hard time increasing their online freedom. With constant censorship and surveillance, people in this country have very limited freedom when it comes to browsing the web. Unfortunately, many VPNs are blocked in this country, making the situation more serious.

The question is – is Google One VPN going to work in China? The answer is pretty simple – NO. Do you know why? Because the service isn’t available in this country! As said, Google One VPN is available in about 20 countries, and at the time of writing this review, China isn’t on the list.

Knowing how “good” the relationship between China and Google is, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to install and use this service in that country. If you live in Taiwan, for example, you’ll be able to use it, but then again, Taiwan is under the direct influence of the US, so it’s nothing surprising.

Servers and Server Locations: Here’s How Big Google One VPN Is

During this Google One VPN review, I mentioned that you can’t choose the server location in the app. Unfortunately, that is entirely true, as the company didn’t make a single improvement regarding its server list.

There’s only one button to connect and once you tap on it, the service connects you to a server of its choice. I’ve connected at least a hundred times and I always got a US IP address, albeit, in a few different cities, which confirms that it does connect you to a server in your country.

Some of our acquaintances from Germany and France also got connected to servers in their respective countries.

As you can anticipate, Google is secretive about its servers, server count, or anything related to that. Thus, we don’t know about the number of server locations or if we’re talking about 1 or 10 Gbps servers. Although judging by their performance, I’d say we definitely have outdated 1 Gbps servers.

Customer Support: How to Contact Google One VPN for Help?

Customer support in this Google One VPN test wasn’t the best out there. Besides, Google is one of the largest companies on the planet and it serves millions if not billions of people. When talking about companies like this, it’s very unlikely that they have decent customer support.

It’s very hard to keep up with all the questions and problems that users may face, which is why these companies often employ email support or some sort of ticketing system. Here, the main option is to visit the community where you can get answers to many important questions.

You can also contact Google using email where you can request help regarding any of the services that the company offers. I found that the support team isn’t dependable and it takes a while before you get a response – usually between 24 and 48 hours.

The support team isn’t particularly helpful either, and you’ll have to exchange a few messages back and forth even for some basic requests. Exchanging messages is, as said, slow, so before you can fix the issue, you’ll pretty much waste a few days chatting with the support team member.

Google One VPN Pricing: Is It Affordable?

So far, you’ve learned that Google One VPN isn’t a provider we’d gladly recommend. With so many downsides and so little to offer, you’d think it’s a free VPN. But the worst thing is that it’s not. It’s a paid VPN that comes as a part of one of Google’s subscription plans.

As said at the start of the Google One VPN review, you’ll need a Google One app installed on your phone to be able to get it. Then, you need to select a Google Cloud Storage subscription plan, but not just any plan – the one with 2 TB of space is required.

This plan will cost you $9.99 a month or nearly $100 a year. In this plan, you’ll get 2 TB of cloud storage and other benefits that include this VPN. If you need a cloud storage service, for this price and lower, you can get some of the best cloud storage services that offer more features and better privacy.

But if you’re not into cloud storage and you’re looking to buy just this VPN, at $9.99 a month, you’re looking at a VERY expensive price for what you get.

It’s better to buy NordVPN, for example, which costs under $3.5 a month and comes with a 65-plus percent discount and usually a few free months for the 24-month plan + a 30-day money-back guarantee

Or you can also check out CyberGhost at under $2.5 a month and a 45-day money-back guarantee for long-term plans. Both of these providers are way better and offer faster speeds, more servers, streaming capabilities, desktop apps, and so much more.

Available Payment Methods

If you’re still looking to try out this provider even after this Google One VPN review, you can pay for a subscription using only two payment methods – PayPal and credit cards. Google doesn’t support Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, so don’t count on anonymous payments.

Beware that you’ll get charged based on your local currency, so if you live in the UK, you’ll pay in GBP, and so forth. The prices, therefore, might slightly vary depending on your country, but that difference is negligible, generally speaking.

How to Get a Refund from Google One VPN?

The refund policies for Google products are very complicated and analyzing them would take a bit more than you’re willing to spend time on. In general, the company doesn’t offer refunds for the majority of products, and when it does, you’ll have to request it within less than 48 hours of the purchase.

This request is then forwarded to the support team which can take from 1 to 4 business days to decide on whether or not to give you a reimbursement. Either way, if you get this VPN and you don’t like it, yet, you can’t get a refund, it’s better to just cancel your subscription.

That way, it won’t charge you again and you’ll avoid losing money each month. Bonus tip: buy the monthly plan if you’re willing to test this provider. The annual plan is paid upfront, and if you don’t get a refund, you’ll lose ten times more money if you don’t like it!

What We Don’t Like About Google One VPN?

If I had to talk about what I don’t like in this Google One VPN test, I’d be very brief and say that I don’t like the entire product. I appreciate Google’s efforts in coming up with a VPN service, but come on – it has a few features and isn’t useful for streaming or torrenting.

The major thing I don’t like about it is the fact that it’s a Google product, which makes the situation even more ridiculous. Yes, it might have a no-logs policy but knowing how this malicious company operates, you should trust it too much.

We don’t like that you have to pay for a plan to use it, and we don’t like having almost any option to get a refund. Not to mention that there’s no choice of server locations or protocols, which makes this provider unworthy of the “Virtual Private Network” name.

The final nail in the coffin is its mobile-only support, which, I think shouldn’t happen. Users are still browsing the web mainly through their Mac and Windows computers, and not including apps for these platforms is a heresy, so I hope to see improvements in this regard.

Conclusion: Disappointment At Its Finest…

After my extensive Google One VPN test and review, I have nothing positive to say about it. Sure, it’s easy to use but that’s because it has almost no features, so it’s impossible to be confusing with menus and sub-menus.

Yes, it’s also secure and has a no-logging policy but that’s questionable due to Google’s presence and its malicious logging incidents in the past. Everything good I said about it has “but” afterward, which implies that the service is riddled with problems and compromises that you’ll have to face daily.

Needless to say, I’m very disappointed with this provider and I simply can’t bring myself to recommend it because it’s unsatisfactory, incomplete, and shallow as a puddle. If it was a free VPN, maybe I could consider recommending it, but even then, I think Atlas VPN is a far better choice.

Since this is a paid provider, I can recommend the aforementioned paid alternatives like NordVPN and ExpressVPN. We’re talking about cheaper providers with so much more to offer, making Google One VPN obsolete and useless in comparison.

Thus, if you’re scraping the market for a new Virtual Private Network service, simply skip this one. Instead, get NordVPN or ExpressVPN and I guarantee you that you’ll be more than satisfied. No need to thank me – just show this review to friends and tell them to not spend money on this unfinished product.

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Google One VPN Review: FAQ

It’s clear as day that Google One VPN isn’t the best option you can get. Still, if you wish to find out more about it, let us address a few questions related to this service.

Is Google One VPN legit?

If you’re thinking about the legitimacy of the company, sure. Google is indeed a legit company but not as great as you think it is. It’s known for various privacy concerns and extreme logging that all of its products are subject to. For example, its Gmail client is very dangerous to your privacy.

Through it, Google can access and read your emails, which not many people know. For this reason, many also avoid using Google Drive, despite its relevant cloud storage capabilities. It’s pretty absurd that a company like Google offers a VPN.

Yet, here we are – with a bare-bones provider that’s almost as bad as Urban VPN or Hola VPN – if not worse.

Can I use Google VPN to unblock geo-restricted content?

No, you can’t. If you scroll through its VPN page, you’ll see at the very bottom this message:

“You won’t be able to change your IP location to view content that is not available in your region.”

We think this is a clear message. Is it? This explains why, in our Google One VPN test, we couldn’t access Netflix and other streaming services. It’s not made for it, which is why we recommend NordVPN and ExpressVPN instead.

How to change my country on Google One VPN?

At the time of writing this review, the provider doesn’t allow you to do this. There’s no option to select the server, so you’re left with a random location. In our experience, that was the United States but in your case, you might be assigned a different country – who knows?!