Does a VPN slow your internet down?

Expect a 5–15% throughput cost from encryption on modern protocols like WireGuard, plus added latency proportional to the distance to your exit server.

Test with the VPN off, then on, using the same server distance and time window. Anything worse than ~30% loss usually points at server load or a bad route.

Split tunnelling keeps latency-sensitive traffic such as games off the tunnel while protecting the rest.