How we test

We test each VPN every 2 hours with its official app from one China Mobile home broadband line in Zhejiang, China. A test passes only if Google, which is blocked in China, opens through the VPN.

Method v1, updated 2026-10-01

What we test

We test free plans first: Cloudflare WARP, Proton VPN, Tor, Tor (Snowflake), Windscribe, hide.me. Paid VPNs are not tested yet: Astrill, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark.

Test line

Location: Zhejiang province, mainland China
Network: China Mobile home broadband: a residential fixed line, not a data centre
Setup: A home computer runs each VPN’s official app (Android or Linux) in a clean virtual machine, one VPN at a time

Schedule

Connection test: Each VPN every 2 hours, around the clock
Speed test: Twice a day, 14:00–17:00 and 21:00–22:00 CST
30-minute session: Not running yet
Fresh sign-in: Once a day per VPN, at a random time
Website and download: Not running yet

What counts as a working connection

The app connects with the protocol recommended for China within 90 seconds.
www.google.com/generate_204 returns 204 through the tunnel. Google is blocked in China, so this only passes when the VPN really carries traffic.
We also record the exit country reported by Cloudflare, but it does not decide the result: some VPNs, such as Cloudflare WARP, keep a Chinese location, so region-locked services may still refuse them.
If the app shows “Connected” but either check fails, the test counts as failed.
Before each round, a direct request to Google must fail. If it does not, the line itself is proxied and the round is discarded.

Status rules

Working: 80% or more of connection tests in the last 6 hours passed, and median speed is 5 Mbps or more.
Unstable: 30–79% of connection tests in the last 6 hours passed, or the 30-minute session dropped 2 or more times.
Down: Under 30% of connection tests in the last 6 hours passed.
No data: The test computer is offline, or there are too few tests.

Thresholds are version 1 and will be calibrated after two weeks of data.

Ranking rule

Rankings order VPNs by a score out of 100 from the last 24 hours. Home and VPN pages lead with the status instead, because “Working” is easier to read than a score.

Connection success: 40 points: 24 h success rate × 40. Example: 92% gives 36.8 points.
Evening speed: 25 points: full points at 50 Mbps or more, in proportion below that.
Latency and jitter: 20 points: 10 for latency (full at 100 ms or less, none at 400 ms or more) and 10 for jitter (full at 10 ms or less, none at 100 ms or more).
Services that open: 15 points: share of 7 services that open through the VPN (Google, Gmail, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, ChatGPT, Netflix); one that opens only sometimes counts half.
Not ranked: VPNs that are Down or have No data are listed under the ranking without a position.

Figures

24 h success: Passed connection tests divided by all connection tests in the last 24 hours. Example: 11 of 12 is 92%.
Evening speed: Single-connection download through the tunnel during the evening test; the figure is the median of the last 7 days.
Latency: Round trip through the tunnel, median of the successful tests in the last 24 hours.
Jitter: Not measured yet.
Time to connect: From pressing connect to the first successful request through the tunnel.

Limits

One line, one province, one network. Results can differ in other cities, on mobile data and on hotel Wi-Fi.

Open data

Status and daily results are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Credit “Tested in China (testedinchina.com)”.

Current status: /data/status.json (JSON)
Daily results: /data/daily.csv (CSV)
Licence: CC BY 4.0
Updated: Every 2 hours
Citation: Tested in China, “VPN connection tests from China”, testedinchina.com, accessed 2026-10-01.

About and disclosure

Tested in China is an independent project. Tests run automatically and figures are published as measured.

Some “Get” buttons are affiliate links: we earn a commission when you buy, at no extra cost to you. Commission and sponsorship never change a status, a figure or the order of a list or ranking.