Is VPN legal in India
Yes, using a VPN is legal in India. What is regulated is the provider: since 2022 CERT-In requires VPN companies with servers in India to keep user records for five years. Here is what that means for you, which apps were removed in 2026, and where district orders apply.
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The short answer
There is no law in India that prohibits an individual from using a VPN. Millions of people use one for work every day. What the government regulates is the companies that provide VPN services and where they keep their servers. A VPN is not illegal; using one to do something illegal is still illegal, the same as without one.
The CERT-In directive of 2022
In April 2022 CERT-In, the national cyber security agency, directed VPN providers, data centres and cloud services to keep customer records for five years: names, addresses, IP addresses assigned, and usage periods. The rule applies to providers operating servers in India. Enforcement deadlines were extended, and in April 2026 a final deadline was set.
Most privacy-focused providers responded by removing their physical servers from India. NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark and others now offer virtual Indian IPs served from Singapore or London instead. We do the same: no servers inside India, so no records to keep and nothing to hand over.
What is legal and what is not
Apps removed in 2026
In 2026, on government request, Google and Apple removed fourteen VPN apps from the Indian versions of their stores. That is not a ban on VPN use; it is pressure on providers who had not complied with CERT-In. It is also the reason a key-based service exists: the client you paste a key into is a general purpose tool, not a VPN brand, and has not been the target of removals.
Jammu and Kashmir
Several districts in South Kashmir have issued temporary orders under Section 163 BNSS restricting VPN use during unrest, citing public order. These are local and time-limited. If you are in Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam or another district with an active order, the order governs; our Kashmir page explains how the networks behave there, not whether you should break a notice.
What this means when choosing a provider
- Ask where the servers are. Physical servers in India mean five years of records about you.
- Ask what happens when the app is removed. A key survives; an app does not.
- Ask what they log. We keep a key id and its expiry date, nothing about what you open.
- Ask how you pay. UPI without KYC keeps your payment out of a VPN account profile.
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What we know about you: almost nothing
There is no account here. You never give us an email, a phone number or a name, so there is no profile to leak, sell or hand over. We know that a key exists and when it expires. We do not know what you open with it. Our servers are outside India, which puts us out of scope of the CERT-In directive requiring providers to store user records for five years. Providers who kept servers inside the country had to choose between complying and leaving, and most of them left. We are telling you where we stand instead of implying we are beyond every jurisdiction, which no one is.
- No registration, no email, no phone number
- No browsing history and no connection logs
- Servers outside India, so CERT-In retention does not apply
- Payment by UPI or crypto, no card details stored
- Nothing renews automatically and nothing is charged silently
FAQ
Questions people ask before the first key
Is using a VPN illegal in India?
No. There is no law against individuals using a VPN. Regulation targets providers with servers in India.
Is VPN banned in India in 2026?
No. Fourteen apps were removed from Indian app stores in 2026, and some J&K districts have temporary orders, but VPN use nationally is legal.
What does CERT-In require?
Providers operating servers in India must keep customer records for five years. Providers without Indian servers are outside its scope.
Can I be punished for using a VPN?
Not for using one. You can be punished for what you do with it, as without it, and for ignoring a district restriction order where one is active.
Why did NordVPN and ExpressVPN leave India?
To avoid CERT-In log retention. They now serve virtual Indian IPs from abroad.
Does your service keep logs to comply?
No. We have no servers in India, so CERT-In retention does not apply, and we keep no browsing or connection logs.
Still unsure?
Support and your key both live in the Telegram bot. The setup page explains which client to install.
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