Firefox's Free Built-In VPN: First Impressions, Live Tests, and What You're Actually Getting

This one I didn't see coming...Mozilla just shipped a free VPN built directly into Firefox. No app, no subscription, just 50 gigabytes a month of IP protection baked into the browser right out of the box.

The setup is straightforward. It requires a Mozilla account, which I assume is required to prevent abuse. Once you're signed in, there's a toggle right in the toolbar. Flip it on and Firefox routes your traffic through a secure proxy, masking your IP address. I tested it live on IPLeak.net and confirmed the IP does change. I also ran a Mullvad check since a lot of people, myself included, were wondering whether this was just running on Mullvad's infrastructure behind the scenes like the paid Mozilla VPN does. It's not. So I can confirm it's completely different infrastructure.

One thing I like is the per-site exception feature. If your bank blocks VPN traffic or another site is giving you problems, you can just add that site to an exceptions list and toggle it off for that domain only. That's a big benefit of having VPN inside your browser versus system-wide.

It's not perfect. Obviously bandwidth is limited. But what I don't love is the lack of server transparency. There's very little visibility into what server you're connected to, no ability to switch locations, and I shouldn't have to pull up IPLeak.net to find out I'm on a California-based IP. I think that should be built in. But it is in beta so maybe that's something they're working on!

My overall take: I think what Firefox is trying to do here is important. They're trying to bump the baseline level of protection for a standard user who might just install Firefox, doesn't know anything about privacy, and is going to be a bit better protected in the process. This is something already embraced by Brave, Safari, Vivaldi, and Opera—so it keeps Firefox competitive. If you're a Firefox user and you're not running a VPN at all, turning this on is genuinely an improvement with absolutely no downgrade. But if you're already using a system-wide VPN, I don't see many reasons to swap. Firefox VPN isn't meant to replace a proper VPN, and I don't think Firefox themselves would even say it is. It's a starting point, and for that, it's a pretty good one.

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