AdGuard VPN Review Australia

The price box and plan table on this page are kept current automatically. The written review below was last edited 24 Oct 2026; details in the text may have changed since.

Reviewed by Laurence Deer, founder and reviewer in Melbourne, testing VPNs since 2019

AdGuard VPN

Price checked 24 OctTested 24 OctNumber 6 of 18 in our calculated order

Good for watching BBC iPlayer, Channel 4 and ITVX from Australia

AdGuard VPN suits Australians who want British TV and protection without fiddling. On 24 October 2026 BBC iPlayer, Channel 4 and ITVX all played on its London server, and its Sydney server kept close to full speed. The catch is Netflix, which blocked us in the US, the UK and Japan. And despite the AdGuard name, the app did not block ads on its default settings.

From A$4.25 a month

AdGuard VPN plan, paying for 2 years, A$102.08 upfront. Renewal price not shown on its pricing page. Lowest plan of each VPN we track: A$2.79 to A$17.80.

Price and plan details read from adguard-vpn.com.

AdGuard VPN: key facts

Money-back

30 daysVPNs we track: 7 to 45 days

Free trial

Not checkedCompare VPN free trials

Devices at once

10VPNs we track: 2 to unlimited

Server countries

Not publishedAdGuard VPN does not publish this; we checked 24 Oct 2026

Australian cities

Not checked

AdGuard VPN: our tests

Speed, Australian server

95% keptOf our download speed with the VPN off. Tested 24 Oct 2026

DNS leaks

None foundTested 24 Oct 2026

Streaming

9 of 15 playedSBS On Demand✓ played9Now✓ playedABC iview✓ playedPluto TV✓ playedTubi✓ playedPrime Video US✓ playedBBC iPlayer✓ playedChannel 4✓ playedITVX✓ playedPrime Video✕ blockedNetflix US✕ blockedNetflix UK✕ blockedPrime Video UK✕ blockedNetflix Japan✕ blockedABEMA✕ blocked3 more opened but we did not play them. Tested 24 Oct 2026

Speed kept by the VPNs we have tested (2021 to 2026 rounds): 44% to 100% or more.

Tested on an account AdGuard VPN gave us free of charge (24 Oct 2026).

See our results in full

AdGuard VPN: what has changed

• 24 Oct 2026 Our latest test round: local speed, overseas speed, streaming, leaks, kill switch settings (drop test not run) and torrenting
• 24 Oct 2026 Review text last edited

No price or plan changes seen between 13 Oct 2026 and 24 Oct 2026.

We check AdGuard VPN's prices by hand every week (last checked 24 Oct 2026) and record every change we see.

The short version

AdGuard VPN is for Australians who want British TV and a VPN that protects them without any setting up. I tested it on the evening of 24 October 2026 from our Melbourne NBN line. BBC iPlayer, Channel 4 and ITVX all played on the London server, and the Sydney server kept close to full speed.

The catch is Netflix. It blocked us in the US, the UK and Japan, and Prime Video blocked us on the Sydney and London servers. There is no Melbourne server, and overseas speeds were uneven. Despite the AdGuard name, the app did not block ads on its default settings, so do not buy it as an ad blocker.

Who should buy AdGuard VPN?

Buy it if British free-to-air TV is why you want a VPN. BBC iPlayer, Channel 4 and ITVX all played on 24 October 2026; only Intego VPN has also played all three in our October 2026 tests. It also suits you if you want a VPN that stays out of the way at home: the Sydney server barely slowed our line, and the kill switch is on from the start.

Skip it if Netflix from another country is the point. All three libraries we tried blocked us. Skip it too if you want Prime Video Australia or UK, a Melbourne server, or a real Indian address. The VPNs under alternatives cover those in our own October 2026 tests.

Our October 2026 tests from Melbourne

The headline is British TV. At about 8 pm on 24 October 2026, on AdGuard’s London server, BBC iPlayer played BBC One live, Channel 4 played its live channel and ITVX played The Party after a run of UK adverts. Netflix UK and Prime Video UK refused on the same server, minutes apart.

I ran every test on the test Mac mini at home in Melbourne between 7.26 pm and 8.20 pm, on AdGuard VPN 2.10.1 for macOS. The app does not show which protocol it uses, so I left it on its default. I measured the line with the VPN off first, so each result is against the same line that evening. A morning sitting is still to come.

Leaks and server switching: nothing showed

AdGuard kept our real address hidden in every check on 24 October 2026, and its kill switch is on before you touch a setting.

• Switching servers: at 7.52 pm I switched from Los Angeles to London on default settings, while a script on the test Mac checked my public IP address every second or two. My Melbourne address never appeared. One check found no connection at all, then London took over. Nothing you had open could see your home address during the switch.
• DNS: no leak on Sydney, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Mumbai (Virtual), São Paulo or Johannesburg. Lookups went to AdGuard’s own DNS servers, not our internet provider’s, so the provider could not see which sites I looked up.
• WebRTC: BrowserLeaks’ WebRTC test reported no leak on the Sydney server. It showed only the VPN’s addresses. WebRTC is the browser feature behind video calls, and a leak there can reveal your address even with the VPN on.
• IPv6: our line has no IPv6, so I could not test for an IPv6 leak. If your NBN connection uses IPv6, we cannot yet tell you whether AdGuard covers it.

The kill switch blocks all internet access if the VPN drops, and the app turns it on by default. Many VPNs ship with it off. I have not yet forced the connection to drop, which is the kill switch’s real job, so we cannot yet say how it handles one.

Speed: near full speed in Sydney, uneven overseas

On the Sydney server on 24 October 2026, AdGuard kept 95% of my download speed, leaving 44.5 Mbps. That is close to having the VPN off, and on a typical NBN plan you would not notice it for streaming, video calls or big downloads.

Speed kept

Melbourne home connection · October 2026

Australian server	95%
Japan	58%
United States	51%
United Kingdom	39%
India virtual location, server in Singapore	34%
Brazil	34%
South Africa	30%

Download, upload and ping in Mbps, and how we measured

From our test bench Melbourne, October 2026

Australian server, tested from Melbourne, October 2026

Connection	Download	Upload	Ping
No VPN	46.8 Mbps	18.1 Mbps	21.2 ms
AdGuard VPN, Australian server	44.5 Mbps −4.8%	17.5 Mbps −2.8%	30.3 ms

Overseas servers, tested from Melbourne, October 2026

Server in	Download	Upload
United States	23.9 Mbps −49.0%	3.10 Mbps −82.8%
United Kingdom	18.3 Mbps −61.0%	6.30 Mbps −65.4%
Japan	27 Mbps −42.2%	14.2 Mbps −21.3%
India virtual location, server in Singapore	16 Mbps −65.8%	8.10 Mbps −55.4%
Brazil	15.9 Mbps −66.0%	4.90 Mbps −72.9%
South Africa	14 Mbps −70.1%	4.40 Mbps −75.9%

A virtual location is a server the app lists under one country that actually sits in another; its speed is the speed to that other place.

Our own measurements on a Melbourne home connection of about 47 Mbps at the time, October 2026. Changes are against the speed of the same line with the VPN off, measured the same day.

Share of our download speed kept with AdGuard VPN on, against the same line with the VPN off, measured the same day.

Overseas was a different story. Los Angeles kept 51%, London 39% and Tokyo 58%, and each swung between runs. The ping to Los Angeles jumped about from one sample to the next, which you would feel as a stuttering video call. One Tokyo run stalled after a single download and the connection dropped out briefly before a second run went through.

Apart from the stalled Tokyo run, every run left enough for HD video by Netflix’s own guidance, which is what you pick these servers for. I ran each server once, in one evening, so treat these figures as a single sample. The morning sitting will show whether the swings are a pattern.

Locations: Sydney only, and India is virtual

Australia means Sydney on AdGuard: it is the only Australian location in the app. Oddly, the Sydney server geolocates to Victoria. 9Now asked “Not in VIC?” and served the Melbourne feed, so a Melburnian away from home gets the usual local channel.

India is not in India. The app lists it as “Mumbai (Virtual)”, and our IP checks placed the server in Singapore. Your traffic leaves from Singapore, so do not count on it for Indian services that check where you really are. It kept 34%.

Brazil and South Africa are real local servers: São Paulo and Johannesburg. Brazil kept 34% and South Africa 30%. Every run on both left enough for HD video by Netflix’s own guidance, so Brazilian or South African streaming sites would have room to play.

Australian TV, banking and games

SBS On Demand, ABC iview and 9Now all played on the Sydney server on 24 October 2026. Prime Video did not: it named the VPN on the title page and would not play. Stan’s site loaded, but I have no Stan account to press play.

Everyday use in Australia

Melbourne home connection · dated per row

ABC iview	✓ Played24 Oct 2026
SBS On Demand	✓ Played24 Oct 2026
9Now	✓ PlayedIt served the VIC feed: 9Now placed the server in VIC.24 Oct 2026
Prime Video	✕ Blocked24 Oct 2026
Stan	Site opened, not playedNo account, so we could not press play.24 Oct 2026
Banking and myGov	✓ Opened normallyCommBank NetBank, NAB Internet Banking, myGov: log-on pages only; we did not sign in24 Oct 2026
Connection to Sydney (games)	49 ms with the VPN, 28 ms withouttime to connect to an AWS Sydney server, one evening; not an in-game ping24 Oct 2026

"Site opened, not played" means the service's site loaded through the VPN but we had no account to play anything.

That matters most if you are travelling: an Australian server that plays SBS, iview and 9Now gets you the news and shows you would watch at home. For Prime Video, you would need to switch the VPN off.

CommBank NetBank, NAB Internet Banking and myGov all opened their log-on pages normally with the VPN on, with no block or extra check. NAB’s form was slow to appear. I did not sign in, so I cannot tell you whether a bank asks for more after that.

For games, the Sydney connection time is the figure to watch. Through AdGuard, reaching Amazon’s Sydney data centre took 49 ms, against 28 ms with the VPN off. That is slower than without the VPN, but still a short delay for a game hosted in Sydney.

Overseas streaming: British TV played; Netflix did not

What played

Melbourne · our own tries, dated per service

Netflix US	✕ Blocked24 Oct 2026
Netflix UK	✕ Blocked24 Oct 2026
Netflix Japan	✕ Blocked24 Oct 2026
BBC iPlayer	✓ Played24 Oct 2026
Channel 4	✓ Played24 Oct 2026
ITVX	✓ Played24 Oct 2026
Prime Video	✕ Blocked24 Oct 2026
Pluto TV	✓ Played24 Oct 2026
Tubi	✓ Played24 Oct 2026
ABEMA	✕ Blocked24 Oct 2026

"Site opened, not played" means the service's site loaded through the VPN but we did not play anything.

• United Kingdom (London): BBC iPlayer played BBC One live (BBC Breakfast), Channel 4 played its live channel, and ITVX played The Party after UK adverts. Netflix UK said “You seem to be using a VPN or proxy”, and Prime Video UK named the VPN too.
• United States (Los Angeles): Netflix showed the same VPN message. Pluto TV played a live channel, Tubi played The Social Network, and Prime Video played The Terminal List on our Australian account. I did not check which country’s Prime catalogue it showed.
• Japan (Tokyo): Netflix blocked us with the VPN message, and ABEMA said it is not available in your region. TVer showed no region block, but pressing play opened its required viewer survey, which I did not fill in, so I have no TVer playback result.

So if the BBC, Channel 4 or ITV is why you want a VPN, AdGuard delivered on 24 October 2026. If Netflix is why, it did not, in any of the three countries. Streaming services keep closing the doors VPNs open, so treat each result as true on the evening I tested it.

Torrenting: allowed, at about half speed

Torrenting worked on the Sydney server at 7.31 pm on 24 October 2026, at about half the speed of the same download with the VPN off a few minutes earlier. I used the official Debian DVD torrent, downloaded for 2 minutes with aria2c, capped uploads, did not seed, and deleted the partial file.

VPN	Our torrent speed	P2P policy	Kill switch	Port forwarding	Audited by
AdGuard VPN	2.48 MiB/s tested October 2026	Allowed in our test tested October 2026	Not checked	Not checked	–

Torrent speed is the average download rate we measured on an Australian server, with its date. Features and auditors are as each provider lists them; "Not checked" means we have not recorded it yet.

The people sharing a file set much of the pace, so one run is a rough guide. For a big download it means a longer wait, not a failed one.

Still to test

I have tested AdGuard only in the evening; a morning sitting is next. I have not yet forced a connection drop with the kill switch on, tried the phone apps, or played 7plus, which shows an HDCP error on our test Mac with or without a VPN. We will add each result here, dated, when we have it.

What AdGuard VPN costs

AdGuard shows its prices in Australian dollars, but before GST: checkout adds 10% GST on top. The table shows the prices our checker read on AdGuard’s licence page, with the date of that check.

Plus 10% GST at checkout.

Checked 24 Oct 2026 Price and plan details read from adguard-vpn.com.

The lowest price is A$4.25 a month, before GST, when you pay for 2 years upfront. AdGuard VPN's pricing page does not show what the plan renews at.

Check the refund rules before you choose a term. The one- and two-year plans give you 30 days to ask for your money back; the monthly plan has no refund. Every plan covers up to 10 devices at once. AdGuard says it has “over 75 locations” but does not publish how many countries that covers.

Is AdGuard VPN safe? Privacy and audits

We have not yet read AdGuard’s privacy policy, logging promises or audits, and we will not describe a privacy policy we have not read. Until we have, judge AdGuard VPN on the test results above: no leaks, a kill switch on by default, and the app’s data-sharing option switched off from the start.

Apps and features

I have tested only the Mac app so far. On 24 October 2026 it had these settings and extras:

• Kill switch: on by default (see the leak tests above).
• Ad blocking: none by default. An ad test page loaded its ads normally with the VPN connected, so do not expect AdGuard’s ad blocking from the VPN app alone.
• Exclusions: a tab for split tunnelling, which lets you choose sites that skip the VPN. I have not tested it, so I cannot say whether it gets Prime Video playing with the VPN on.
• Data sharing: the “Help improve AdGuard VPN” option is off by default.
• Updates and start-up: auto-update is on; auto-connect when the app opens is off, and launching at login is an option.
• Virtual locations: labelled in the location list, as with “Mumbai (Virtual)”.

AdGuard’s own DNS servers handled lookups while I was connected, which is why the DNS checks above show AdGuard rather than our internet provider.

Using AdGuard VPN in Australia

• Australian servers: see AdGuard VPN's server list for current Australian locations.
• Billing: priced in Australian dollars.
• Refund period: 30 days.

Australian law requires internet providers to keep customers' metadata for two years. A VPN encrypts the connection between your device and the VPN server, so your internet provider can see that you are using a VPN but not which sites you visit. It does not make you anonymous to the VPN provider itself, which is why the provider's logging policy and audits matter.

Alternatives to AdGuard VPN

If Netflix is why you want a VPN, Proton VPN played Netflix US and Netflix UK in our 21 October 2026 test, and Mysterium VPN played Netflix UK and Netflix Japan on 24 October 2026. To compare results from our own October 2026 tests in Melbourne, see NordVPN, Surfshark and Intego VPN. The list below is picked by a fact in our data.

Private Internet Access

Lowest advertised price we track: A$2.79 a month

Visit Private Internet Access

NordVPN

Servers in 150 countries, the most we track

Visit NordVPN

hide.me

Has a free plan

Visit hide.me

AdGuard VPN FAQ

How we keep this review current

Our test results carry the date they were measured, and each retest is added here with its own date. Every 2026 figure comes from our test log. Our price checker reads AdGuard’s licence page, and the price table shows the date of the last check.

Sources

Our own results are from the evening of 24 October 2026, 7.26 pm to 8.20 pm (AdGuard VPN 2.10.1 for macOS, Melbourne). The location list, settings and defaults are from the app as it appeared that evening. Prices, plans, device limits, the location count and the refund rules are from AdGuard’s licence page, read by our price checker on 24 October 2026.