Onion Over VPN is a special category of NordVPN servers that lets users access the Tor (The Onion Router) network with increased privacy and without the need for a separate Tor browser.
How Onion Over VPN works
When you connect to an Onion Over VPN server:
- Your traffic is encrypted by the NordVPN client.
- The encrypted traffic passes through a NordVPN server, which changes your IP address.
- Private and secure, your traffic now reaches the Tor network, which adds its own encryption layers.
- Your traffic is sent through three random Tor servers before it reaches its destination on the internet.
You can find more detailed information on our dedicated Onion Over VPN page.
The benefits of Onion Over VPN
- Additional privacy. Anyone can run Tor servers, which may lead to your data being exposed to snoops. Onion Over VPN solves this problem by first routing your traffic through a NordVPN server to hide your IP address.
- No need for a special browser. Typically, you need to download and install a Tor browser to use the Tor network. With NordVPN, you only need to connect to an Onion Over VPN server — you can then use any browser you like.
To better understand the privacy concerns of accessing the Tor network without a VPN (and the general differences between Tor and VPN), check out the video below.
How to use Onion Over VPN
- Open the NordVPN app.
- Find the "Specialty servers" category.
- Press on “Onion Over VPN.” Wait until you've successfully connected.
- Open your browser. You can now connect to Tor network websites.
If you are using Firefox, you'll need to follow a few more steps: Firefox does not open .onion websites.
If your browser doesn't open Onion websites after you connect to Onion Over VPN servers (or if you have any other issues related to Onion Over VPN servers), please reach out to our customer support for help (contact us).