September 2026 price watch
September VPN prices: sales that came and went.
Of 78 USD plans we could compare from the start to the end of September, 73 had the same upfront price. Four cost more and one cost less. CyberGhost, PIA and ExpressVPN offered lower prices during the month, then returned to their opening amounts.
VPN sale pages make the discount hard to miss. The upfront payment is usually there too, though the renewal bill can take more reading. What the page rarely gives you is a history: was the offer cheaper last week, and has that supposed sale price stayed the same for months?
The DoVPN price explorer covers USD and native EUR plans from all 29 tracked providers, with each currency clearly labelled. You can pick a provider, compare its plans and check the lowest and highest prices we've recorded.
The one lower closing price
IPVanish Essential's 24-month offer opened at $59.76 and closed at $57.36. The $2.40 reduction was 4.02%, comparing the same plan and pricing source. It was the only lower closing amount among the 78 comparable plans.
Amnezia Premium's six-month offer rose from $28 to $30, and its annual offer from $48 to $50. TunnelBear's annual offer went from $59.88 to $69.99; its monthly price went from $9.99 to $10.99. Those are four plans from two providers, so counting them as four separate companies would overstate the spread of the increases.
Amnezia’s two-year option first appears in the September 2 price record at $80 upfront, or $3.33 per month. That monthly rate is 20% below the annual plan’s $4.17 equivalent, in exchange for a longer commitment and a larger upfront payment. It arrived alongside the shorter-plan increases; the prices alone do not explain the reason for those increases.
Surfshark One's long-term offer cost more at the start of September than at the end of August, then stayed at that price through September. A monthly comparison and a longer price history can tell different stories.
The remaining 73 comparable USD plans finished at their opening prices.
The discounts a monthly snapshot would miss
CyberGhost's 26-month offer dropped from $56.94 to $51.74, then went back to $56.94. Anyone checking only the first and last price would see no change. A buyer who caught the lower offer would have paid $5.20 less upfront.
A discount that came and went
CyberGhost · 26 months · upfront total in USD
PIA's 39-month offer followed a similar path: $79, then $69.81, then $79 again. ExpressVPN's Advanced and Pro long-term tiers also fell before returning to their opening amounts. Across the tracked offers, we recorded 14 price movements during September, including reversals.
Daily graphs show the final capture each day. The range table and downloads also keep intraday offers, so you can find a recorded low even when it was gone by the day’s final check.
Proton's $12 difference came from another offer page
The September record shows two Proton VPN Plus offers: $83.76 for 24 months on the standard pricing page and $71.76 on its public partner-offer page. The $12 difference comes from a different sales channel.
The source-change ledger identifies the two offer pages. The explorer gives each one its own statistics, and excludes this $12 difference from the price-cut count. They are two different offers.
Checking the price behind a discount badge
A "70% off" badge may compare a long-term subscription with a monthly tariff or a listed reference total. The price history answers a different question: what did the same offer cost last week or last month? September’s mostly unchanged closing prices show why a large discount badge can coexist with little movement in the amount a buyer pays.
Our record starts in August 2026. Within that window, you can check whether a sale price stayed flat, fell briefly or rose. The headline discount alone cannot establish a previous selling price or deliberate deception. Start with the payment amount and duration, then compare the offer’s own history.
Renewal can cost more over a shorter period
The initial "per month" amount often divides one upfront payment by the whole service period, including bonus months. Renewal can bill for fewer months at a higher total. Comparing just the two invoice amounts misses the difference in duration.
The monthly equivalent changes at renewal
IPVanish Essential · recorded September 2026 closing terms · USD
$57.36 upfront for 24
months.
This is the initial payment spread across the service period.
$99.99 per 12
months.
The billing period is shorter than the initial subscription.
Switch the explorer to renewal monthly cost to compare those billing periods. Each figure links to its pricing source; undisclosed terms stay blank.
For a purchase decision, write down the upfront payment, total service months, next billing amount and next billing period. Check the taxes and cancellation terms too. A headline discount won't do that work for you.
Check a plan, or use the data in your reporting
Choose a provider in the price explorer to see all its plans. Separate charts make the tiers easier to read; the overlay puts them on a common scale. Change the date range to see each offer's recorded low, high, latest price and daily median. The range table also shows how far the latest price sits above its low and how many price movements we observed.
The September dataset contains the full price history in CSV and JSON. Each month has its own report and downloads, while the main explorer shows the latest completed month.
Continue with October's price tracking for the next month's reductions, temporary sales and changes to offer terms.
For a citation, use Steve Price, the monthly release ID, coverage dates and currency. The methodology explains how prices and offers are compared. For reporting questions or corrections, contact steve@dovpn.com or the public repository.
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