Introduction
The ad blocker, part of Scam, phishing, and malware protection, cleans up your browsing by removing distracting ads and pop-ups. It creates a faster, safer online experience by blocking advertisements that can be annoying or even lead to malware and scams.
How does the ad blocker work?
- Interrupt-free browsing – Removes distracting pop-ups, banners, and auto-playing video ads, allowing you to work, browse, or learn online with fewer interruptions.
- Enhanced privacy – Blocks third-party trackers often embedded in ads, preventing companies from collecting data about your online habits.
- Malvertising protection – Improves your security by blocking malicious ads that are specifically designed to infect your device with malware or redirect you to dangerous websites.
- Per-domain control – Lets you block or unblock ads on individual domains from your protection history, so you can support your favorite creators or access content that depends on ads to load correctly.
Requirements
Make sure that you have an active NordVPN Plus or Ultimate subscription and that the NordVPN application is installed on your Windows device.
Here's what to do
- Open the NordVPN app.
- Click the shield icon on the left side of the NordVPN application to open the Scam, phishing, and malware protection tab.
- Click the Protection preferences card to open Advanced settings, then scroll to the Ad and tracker blocker section.
- Enable the Ad blocker by clicking the toggle:
Manage ads on specific websites
Once the ad blocker is active, every ad it has handled is listed in your protection history. From there, you can change how the ad blocker treats any individual domain. Each entry shows a status badge that reflects the current setting for that domain:
- BLOCKED – Ads served from this domain are being filtered by the ad blocker.
- UNBLOCKED – The ad blocker is disabled for this domain, and ads will load normally.
To change a domain's status:
- In the NordVPN app, open the Scam, phishing, and malware protection tab and click the Protection activity card to open Protection history.
- Select the Ads and trackers chip at the top of the view.
- Locate the domain you want to manage in the list, then click the ellipsis (…) icon on the right side of the row and choose Manage threat.
- In the management modal that opens, select one of the following actions:
- Block ads – Re-enables ad blocking for the domain. The status updates to BLOCKED.
- Unblock ads – Allows ads to load on the domain. The status updates to UNBLOCKED.
Changes take effect immediately. You can repeat these steps at any time to switch a domain back to the opposite status.
Additional tips
- For maximum privacy, periodically clear your browser's cookies to remove trackers stored before the ad blocker was active.
- If a trusted website does not load or display correctly with the ad blocker enabled, set its status to UNBLOCKED rather than turning off the ad blocker entirely.
