Best VPNs for CS:GO

Unfortunately, not everyone can enjoy CS the same way. While it runs smoothly in the U.S. and most European countries, gamers on other continents may never experience the sheer fun of just shooting a few rounds.

Even if the game is available, it may be exposed to server restrictions and game-breaking issues like heavy lags. Having said that, a VPN can easily solve this problem without asking gamers to be IT specialists.

Best VPN services for CS:GO in 2025

Surfshark

The software also offers an exciting feature called Multihop, which is a double VPN. This not only means extra privacy, but also provides additional protection, as your connection is encrypted twice.

Finally, no matter if you play CS:GO on a PC, Mac, or any of the supported gaming consoles, Surfshark protects it all. All this for modest prices and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Other security measures include a kill switch and military-grade encryption. Moreover, Private Internet Access supports streamers with an ad blocker, which is useful when you want to show something on YouTube to your audience and don’t want to wait those seconds to skip the annoying ads.

Private Internet Access has servers in 84 countries, covering practically the entire world. Furthermore, the software’s up to 10 Gb/s server speeds and unlimited bandwidth ensure lag-free gaming.

What’s best is that this comes at reasonable prices. Even then, the company’s 30-day refund policy ensures a risk-free trial period.

While this alone already makes browsing the web more private, CactusVPN has several weapons in its arsenal to improve security. The software offers end-to-end encryption and seven VPN protocols to choose from, including the fast and reliable WireGuard and IKEv2.

CactusVPN’s network includes 36 servers spread across 22 countries. Admittedly, this isn’t the most a VPN can offer, but even the farthest servers provide lightning-fast speeds, which is essential when playing CS:GO.

But the icing on the cake is that the VPN works on an unlimited number of devices. Besides desktop and mobile, CactusVPN also covers Xbox and PlayStation through the software’s Smart DNS. If you don’t know how to do this, don’t worry – CactusVPN is happy to guide you through the full process. All this comes at reasonable prices, and CactusVPN can be used for free for three days.

Using a VPN while planting or defusing a few bombs has many benefits. For example, by encrypting your internet connection, a VPN makes you invisible. This protects you from sore losers who may resort to cheating upon being defeated. For example, they may overload your server with denial of service (DoS) attacks to slow your network speed.

Even worse, they can reveal your actual location and publish your personal information. This is known as doxing and can result in some scary consequences. Some cheaters may even send real commandos on you by faking a 911 call and reporting criminal activity in your home.

It’s also beneficial that a VPN connects you to a foreign server. This way, CS:GO players can compete with people from other countries while still retaining reduced ping. Alternatively, connecting to a home server is possible when you’re away from your home country.

VPNs also protect you from ISP throttling, making sure your ping stays low even when your internet provider tries to restrict you network speed. Since ping can be a matter of victory or defeat in CS, it’s essential that your ISP doesn’t get in the way.

Still, remember that your ping may increase if the server is far away from the game server you’re using and that the connection might be unstable if you’re using weaker software.

VPNs are among the most user-friendly services on the market. Setting up a VPN connection is easy: simply choose a server and connect to it. That said, changing advanced settings requires finesse, as you need to know what you’re looking for. But when you do, the process is a breeze. The steps are the following:

Since Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is part of Valve’s arsenal, and you’ll play through Steam when on PC, the company’s general rules apply for this game as well. For example, if you regularly switch servers, Valve may mistake it for cheating and ban you. The most helpful solution is straightforward: don’t jump between servers too often.

It’s also vital that you close your VPN connection after each CS:GO session to make sure you don’t accidentally buy another game from Steam while connected to another country, which may result in dire consequences.

Your Trust Factor is fundamental when playing CS. As the name suggests, it means how trustworthy a player you are; that is, how many times you’ve been reported cheating or kicked off a server. If the latter happens too often, it can result in a ‘competitive cooldown,’ which prevents you from reconnecting to the same server for a while. Unfortunately, your account can also be in competitive cooldown when you’re disconnected too many times.

When a VPN connection drops and its kill switch blocks access to the internet, the chance of such a penalty is increased. However, connecting to a fast server and playing with a stable internet connection minimizes this danger.