UK VPN: Get a British IP Address from Australia
Australia is home to more than a million people born in the UK, and a fair few of them would like to watch the telly they grew up with. A UK VPN gives you a British IP address from Australia. Here is who offers one, what it costs, and what happened when we tried British television through each of them.
VPNs with servers in the United Kingdom
| VPN | Servers in United Kingdom | Lowest price | Our speed test from Melbourne |
|---|---|---|---|
 CyberGhost | Listed | A$3.27 a month Visit CyberGhost → | 73.02 Mbps (August 2021) |
 IPVanish | Listed: 5 cities | US$2.39 (about A$3.43) a month Visit IPVanish → | 30.89 Mbps (August 2021) |
 Surfshark | Listed | A$3.49 a month Visit Surfshark → | 86.6 Mbps (August 2021) |
 ExpressVPN | Listed | US$2.99 (about A$4.29) a month Visit ExpressVPN → | 43.1 Mbps (August 2021) |
 NordVPN | Listed: 4 cities | A$4.79 a month Visit NordVPN → | 80.2 Mbps (August 2021) |
 Proton VPN | Listed: 6 cities, 849 servers | US$3.49 (about A$5.00) a month Visit Proton VPN → | 89.51 Mbps (March 2022) |
 Astrill VPN | Listed | US$12.50 (about A$17.92) a month Visit Astrill VPN → | 87.93 Mbps (March 2022) |
 PrivateVPN | Listed | – Visit PrivateVPN → | 37.17 Mbps (August 2021) |
Server locations read from each provider's own server page on 13 Oct 2026; "listed" means the provider names United Kingdom as a location, which can be a physical or a virtual server. Speeds are our own download results to a server in United Kingdom on a Melbourne connection of about 100 Mbps, on the date shown. Ordered by lowest monthly price in Australian dollars.
How fast is a UK VPN from Australia?
London is about as far from Sydney as a server can be, so expect to give up some speed. In our tests from Melbourne in 2021 and 2022, on a line of about 100 Mbps, download speeds to a UK server ranged from 27 Mbps to about 90. Proton VPN, Astrill, Surfshark and NordVPN all stayed above 80. Each figure is in the table above with the month we measured it, and it was the same test for all of them.
Even the slowest of those is enough for HD video, which needs about 5 to 10 Mbps.
BBC iPlayer and British TV: what we found
BBC iPlayer is the reason most Australians want a British address, and it is one of the harder services for a VPN to reach. When we tested, we watched iPlayer from Melbourne through NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, PrivateVPN, Private Internet Access, Astrill and Proton VPN. IPVanish could not get in at all.
Three things to keep in mind:
- Streaming services block VPN addresses as they find them, so the list may be different today.
- iPlayer’s terms say it is for people in the UK, and it asks whether you have a TV licence. Using a VPN is legal in Australia, but it is likely to be against those terms.
- A fair amount of BBC and ITV programming is licensed to Australian services. Search for the show by name before assuming you need a VPN.
The dated screenshots from those tests are in each review.
Other reasons for a British IP address
- UK banking and government sites that are cautious about overseas logins.
- Sport. Rights are split differently in the UK, so some events are on different services there.
- Travelling in the UK. For Australian services while you are over there, you need the reverse: a VPN with Australian servers.
FAQ
Is using a UK VPN legal in Australia?
Yes. See are VPNs legal in Australia?
Is there a free UK VPN?
Free plans rarely include streaming support, which is what most people want a UK server for. See best free VPN in Australia.
Which UK city should I choose?
Any of them gives you a British address. London usually has the most servers.