Onion Over VPN with NordVPN

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

On Windows and macOS devices:

Open the NordVPN app.
On the home page of the application, find the "All locations" category.
On the top server type menu, locate “Onion Over VPN.” Wait until you've successfully connected.
Open your browser. You can now connect to Tor network websites.

Mobile devices

Open the NordVPN app main page.
Find the "All locations" button under the menu.
In the top server type menu, select “Onion Over VPN” and click on a location to connect to.
Wait until you've successfully connected.
Open your browser. You can now connect to Tor network websites.

Linux

Open the NordVPN application and, on the main page, click on "Specialty servers".
Select “Onion Over VPN” and click on a location to connect to.
Wait until you've successfully connected.
Open your browser. You can now connect to Tor network websites.

Android TV

Open the NordVPN app and make sure you have the OpenVPN UDP or OpenVPN TCP protocols selected.
Scroll down until you see "Specialty servers."
Select "Onion over VPN" and connect.

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).

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