Does Mullvad Work in China?

Does Mullvad still work in China?

Usually, going by the October 2026 reports we found: most users in mainland China who wrote about Mullvad on Reddit said it connects, some only after switching on QUIC or Shadowsocks. Several said it was slow for video or dropped at times, and a few said it didn’t work for them.

• What Mullvad says. Its guide for restrictive locations, dated April 22, 2026, says none of its servers in Asia get through China’s firewall, and tells users there to try US cities with its obfuscation methods.
• Reviews. The Food Ranger, a blog that earns commissions on other VPNs, wrote on October 2 that Mullvad “generally bypassed restrictions very well” during some of its author’s stays in China, with occasional slowdowns. Unusual Nomad (affiliate links) says it hasn’t tested Mullvad in China recently and calls it a low-cost fallback for travelers comfortable changing settings. At its last check, on August 11, VPN Passport rated it partly working. Gizmodo’s October 18 guide, which also earns commissions on other VPNs, says Mullvad doesn’t work reliably in China and takes more effort than NordVPN or ExpressVPN, citing Mullvad’s own guide.
• No affiliate money. Mullvad says it has no affiliates and never pays for reviews, so none of these sites earns a commission when you choose it.

These are accounts from individual users on their own networks, not tests. The threads are listed further down.

Mullvad settings for China

Mullvad tells users in China to pick a server in a US city and try its anti-censorship methods one at a time. Its guide for restrictive locations names five. In the app they’re under VPN settings, then Anti-censorship, or under WireGuard obfuscation on iPhone.

Other points from Mullvad’s own pages:

• The app tries some of this by itself. On default settings, it switches to LWO or QUIC after a few failed attempts, according to Mullvad’s LWO and QUIC announcements. Choosing a method yourself can cut the time it takes to connect, Mullvad wrote when it removed OpenVPN.
• No more OpenVPN. Mullvad dropped OpenVPN from its desktop app in December 2025 and said its last OpenVPN servers would close by January 15, 2026. It says WireGuard with these methods now gives the same level of obfuscation. In place of the old options it suggests UDP-over-TCP on port 443, or Shadowsocks.
• Multihop. If you can’t connect directly to the location you want, Mullvad suggests entering through a server that does connect and exiting wherever you like.
• Obfuscation needs Mullvad’s app. The methods aren’t available if you load Mullvad’s WireGuard files into another WireGuard app.

Mullvad not working in China

When Mullvad won’t connect in China, Mullvad’s own fixes are a US server, its anti-censorship methods and, if the app can’t even log in, its API access settings. Those steps are under “If it stops working”; here is what else the sources say.

• Login trouble means the API is blocked. The app needs Mullvad’s API to log in, add time, check your device and fetch servers, and Mullvad says internet providers in some restrictive locations block it. Its API access guide for the desktop and iPhone apps, updated September 18, 2026, also explains how to add your own Shadowsocks or SOCKS5 server to reach it.
• Drops. A traveler who visits China several times a year wrote on October 12 that Mullvad disconnected “quite a bit” but usually repaired itself within a minute or so. On October 15 they added that on hotel Wi-Fi it could take many retries to get a stable connection, and that it sometimes dropped about every twenty minutes.
• The network. In September, two users found that Mullvad worked over mobile data or a phone hotspot when it failed on Wi-Fi. On October 6, another wrote that setting the lowest MTU size had made it work much better, though they noted the sensitive political period had just ended.

Mullvad slow in China

Mullvad often works in China but slowly, especially for video, according to users who wrote about it in September and October 2026.

• Video. A user in an r/shanghai thread wrote on October 5 that Mullvad is reliable but its streaming performance is often bad. In the October megathread on r/chinalife, a user who arrived at the end of September said its speed was enough for Instagram but not always for continuous video. On October 20, another found it too slow even for a short YouTube clip, on Hong Kong servers.
• Evenings. Users wrote on October 11 and October 15 that it gets slower at night.
• Bad weeks. In September, two users called it “ultra slow” and “painfully slow” over the previous week.

The sources give two reasons:

• Distance. Mullvad’s China advice means using servers in the US. Gizmodo’s guide notes that US servers are far from China, which “instantly means higher ping and slower browsing” than a nearby location would. The Food Ranger’s author puts their slowdowns down to not being able to use nearby servers.
• Obfuscation. Mullvad says UDP-over-TCP, Shadowsocks and QUIC can hurt performance and use more of your device’s resources, and that no anti-censorship method adds privacy. It describes LWO as lightweight, with better throughput and lower power use than methods such as Shadowsocks.

Mullvad in China: Reddit reports

Reddit threads show Mullvad struggling in September 2026 and mostly connecting again in October. These are the threads with first-hand reports.

• Down in China. (r/mullvadvpn, started September 11): a Shanghai user said Mullvad hadn’t worked for a couple of days, while a user in Guangzhou said it was fine for them.
• Does Mullvad VPN still work in China? (september 2026) (r/mullvadvpn, started September 18): some users said it works, while others called it spotty in Guangdong and unstable in Chengdu.
• Is it over for China? (r/mullvadvpn, started September 20): a user who had lived in China for two years said connections had lasted only 5 to 30 minutes for two weeks. One reply said QUIC worked “on and off”.
• Servers down in China (r/mullvadvpn, started September 29): the poster in Shanghai could reach just one server, in Los Angeles, while another Shanghai user said almost every server connected quickly. Replies blamed the run-up to the National Day holiday.
• VPN and ESIM Megathread – October 2026 (r/chinalife, started October 1): users there call it usually fine. One traveler wrote on October 15 that on a five-week trip, four weeks of it in northeast China, Mullvad “worked very well” on Wi-Fi, mostly on US servers, and there was never a day they couldn’t connect.
• VPNs in China - what worked for me (2 weeks travel) (r/chinatravel, started October 1): someone who visits China several times a year wrote on October 7 that Mullvad has been the most reliable VPN for them there, even during big events, paired with an eSIM.
• Has anyone found a VPN that works in China in 2026 (r/shanghai, started October 3): most users who mention Mullvad say it works for them, one only with QUIC. A Shanghai user said it worked great but was sometimes very hard to connect, and another said only LetsVPN worked for them after trying Mullvad and Proton.
• tips & tricks for the China trip please (r/chinatravel, started October 8): a user who has lived in China for close to seven years wrote on October 9 that Mullvad can be slow but that they never had connection problems. A traveler back from China the week before said Mullvad, Proton and ExpressVPN worked only intermittently or very slowly.
• What VPNs work in Mainland China now - October-November (r/chinatravel, started October 8): reports range from “worked fine”, with drops that fixed themselves (October 12), to working only now and then and never at a decent speed (October 9). On October 15, a user asked which servers still worked because connecting had become hard.
• ExpressVPN does not work in China (r/chinalife, started October 11): several users say Mullvad works where ExpressVPN didn’t, one of them for “the last couple years without any issues”.
• Traveling to Beijing on Friday for 30 days, am I prepared enough? (r/chinatravel, started October 13): a reply on October 14 calls Mullvad “useless in China”, without details.
• Who’s is China RN and has a fully working functioning VPN? (r/chinatravel, started October 14): a user wrote on October 15 that Mullvad was working for them.
• Travelling to China for 2 weeks, which VPN + ESIM to use? (r/chinatravel, started October 15): a traveler back from China wrote on October 20 that Mullvad “worked perfectly”. The hotel Wi-Fi retries described above come from the frequent visitor’s reply here.
• Just tried connecting from China (r/mullvadvpn, started October 16): it connected once the poster switched to QUIC, on servers in several countries. A visitor who had been in China a week wrote on October 19 that it still worked, a bit slowly.

Can you download Mullvad in China?

Not from Mullvad’s own site, which is blocked there, so install the app and add time before your trip.

• The website is blocked. GreatFire Analyzer’s checks from mainland China find mullvad.net and its download links blocked, the latest on October 18, 2026.
• No China App Store listing. Apple returns no Mullvad app for the China store, while the US store has it.
• Other downloads. Mullvad’s guide lists GitHub for its Windows, Mac, Linux and Android apps, plus Google Play and F-Droid for Android. An Android copy from GitHub won’t tell you about updates, Mullvad notes.
• Account and payment. Mullvad doesn’t ask for an email; it generates an account number when you sign up. You can do that on its website, in the app or at its onion address in Tor Browser, and add time on the website or with an in-app purchase on iPhone or Android. The onion site takes only crypto and cash, and no source we found says whether it loads from inside China.

For other ways to get the app onto each device, see how to get a VPN for China. Our guide to VPN laws in China sums up what the rules say.

Related guides

• Which VPNs users say work in China now
• VPN not working in China: causes and fixes
• Best VPN protocol for China
• Shadowsocks in China
• WireGuard in China
• eSIM or VPN for China