Free VPN for Android: How SingLinkVPN's Free Plan Works

What the Free Plan Actually Gives You on Android

SingLinkVPN's free allowance is tiered by device type rather than applied flat per account. Phones — iOS and Android — get 200 MB per device per day. Computers running Windows, macOS or Linux get 500 MB per day. Android sits in the phone tier, so 200 MB is the figure that applies.

The allowance is counted per device, which is worth stating clearly: data used on a phone is not deducted from a computer's allowance, and the reverse is equally true. Each device's daily quota is tracked on its own and resets at midnight. Anything left unused does not roll over to the next day.

One point matters enough to spell out. The allowance can reach up to 1 GB a day during campaigns, depending on the campaign; campaigns can apply to both mobile and desktop, but not every campaign offers it. So the "1 GB free every day" claim that circulates online simply does not describe Android — on an ordinary day the figure is 200 MB, and only a campaign that offers it can lift that day's allowance, to 1 GB at most.

• 200 MB per Android device per day, reset at midnight
• No credit card, and no ads to watch for the base allowance
• Up to 1 GB a day during campaigns, depending on the campaign — phones can qualify, but not every campaign offers it
• Phone and computer allowances are separate and do not draw from each other
• Free nodes carry a "Free" tag in the client's node list

Once the allowance is used up, that device has no free data left for the day and waits for the midnight reset. The exact in-client messaging and remaining-data display follow the installed client version.

What 200 MB Covers on Android, and What It Does Not

Translating 200 MB into real tasks is far more useful than staring at the number. The table below gives orders of magnitude, not guarantees — actual consumption depends on page weight, video codec, quality settings and how aggressively an app preloads. "An hour of video" can differ several-fold between services.

The short version: the free tier suits an open-when-needed, close-when-done pattern. Looking something up, signing in to a site that is only reachable from certain regions, checking email, sending a few messages, reading a handful of articles — a day of that will usually not exhaust 200 MB.

What it does not suit is equally clear. Leaving the client connected all day as a permanent system-wide tunnel, streaming episodes, downloading installers, running cloud backups — those workloads live in the hundreds-of-megabytes-to-gigabytes range and will drain 200 MB before you notice. Sustained streaming or bulk transfer is what the paid tiers exist for; there is no point pretending the free tier stretches that far.

This table exists to help judge whether the free tier fits a given use, not as a data guarantee. The client's live usage counter is the authoritative figure.

Two Ways to Install, and the APK's "Unknown Sources" Step

There are two ways to install the SingLinkVPN Android client: from Google Play, or from the APK on the official download page. The app is the same either way. What differs is how a subscription can be paid for — buy through Google Play and the purchase goes through Google Play billing only, whereas the APK route leaves subscriptions open to any of our supported payment methods. Going through Play also hands installation and updates to the store, which skips everything below.

If you take the APK route, you meet a step iOS users never encounter. Since Android 8.0, permission to install unknown apps is granted per source app — whichever browser or file manager you use to open the APK is the app that needs the permission.

The flow itself is short, but if you are not expecting it, the system's block screen reads like a problem with the file. It is not. What the system is blocking is the fact that the source app has not yet been authorized to install applications at all.

After installation, it is worth returning to the same settings screen and switching the permission back off. Because it is granted per app, revoking it has no effect on the client you just installed — it only affects the next APK that browser tries to install. Leaving it permanently on effectively green-lights every installer downloaded through that browser.

• Through Google Play: install from the store, which also handles updates — none of the steps below apply
• Through the APK: open the site's download page on the Android device and choose the Android build
• The browser may warn that this type of file can be harmful; confirm it came from the official site and continue
• Tap the downloaded APK to open it
• If the system says installs from this source are not allowed, tap Settings and enable "Allow from this source" for that browser or file manager
• Go back, finish the installation, and open the app when prompted
• Afterwards, switch the "install unknown apps" permission back off for that source

Take the installer only from the official download page, or install from Google Play instead. Files with the same name on third-party APK mirrors may have been repackaged; neither the signature nor the requested permissions can be trusted.

The Build Targets arm64-v8a: Which Devices Qualify

The Android installer published on the official site is built for arm64-v8a, the 64-bit ARM ABI. Virtually every Android phone and tablet shipped in recent years falls into that category, so most users can install it without thinking about architecture at all.

Two groups should check first. Older 32-bit devices on armeabi-v7a, and x86 or x86_64 environments such as desktop emulators and a handful of unusual devices, are outside this build's target. The symptom is either a failed install or an app that installs but does not start correctly.

To confirm a device's architecture, check the processor model under device information in system settings, or read the CPU ABI field in any system-information app. A rough but reliable shortcut: mid-range and flagship Android devices from the last several years are arm64-v8a.

Version numbers and file sizes are shown on the download page. This page deliberately does not hard-code figures that change with each release.

The First Connection Triggers Android's VpnService Prompt

Every VPN app on Android must establish its tunnel through the system VpnService interface, SingLinkVPN included. The first time you tap connect, Android itself raises a dialog stating that the app wants to set up a VPN connection and that a VPN can monitor network traffic. That dialog is not drawn by the client and is not a promotion — it is the operating system's standard consent flow, and only after you approve it does the system hand traffic to the app.

Once consent is granted, a key-shaped VPN icon appears in the status bar. That icon is the most reliable indicator that the tunnel is actually up, more so than any status text inside the app. If the dialog is dismissed or declined, the client cannot connect; tapping connect again brings the same dialog back.

Android settings also expose "Always-on VPN" and "Block connections without VPN". Those are operating-system features, and on the free tier they deserve a second thought: keeping the tunnel always on means background sync, app update checks and other traffic you never initiated all count against the day's 200 MB. On the Free Plan, connecting on demand and disconnecting afterwards is the better habit.

• The first-connection consent dialog comes from Android itself, not from the client
• A key-shaped VPN icon in the status bar confirms the tunnel is active
• Declining prevents connection; tapping connect again re-raises the dialog
• Always-on VPN lets background traffic consume the free allowance — connect on demand instead

The Free Plan Connects Through Beta Protocol Nodes Only

Every node available on the Free Plan is a Beta protocol node. That is consistent across all six platforms, and Android is no exception. Beta is one of SingLinkVPN's in-house protocols, designed with speed as the priority, and it suits browsing, social media and messaging — which is exactly the kind of traffic a 200 MB allowance is realistically for.

In the client's node list, free nodes carry a "Free" tag; selecting by that tag is all that is needed. Free nodes are a shared resource across all free users, so throughput varies at peak times. When a node will not connect or slows noticeably, switching to a different node that also carries the Free tag is usually more effective than retrying the same one.

Other protocols fall within paid-plan entitlements, and whether they appear in a given node list is determined by the client. For Beta's positioning, how its speed ceiling scales with plan tier, which workloads it fits, and full connection troubleshooting, the site has a dedicated protocol page at /fa/tech/protocols/beta/ — replace [locale] with the current language code, for example /en/tech/protocols/beta/.

• All Free Plan nodes are Beta protocol nodes; there is no other option at this tier
• Look for nodes tagged "Free" in the node list
• If one will not connect or slows down, switch to another node with the same tag
• Free nodes are shared, so speeds fluctuate during peak periods

How Android Differs From iOS and the Desktop Clients

One account can be used across several devices, and each device's daily allowance is counted separately. Android and iOS share the phone tier at 200 MB a day. The real gap is on computers, with a 500 MB daily base. During campaigns the allowance can reach up to 1 GB a day, depending on the campaign; campaigns can apply to both mobile and desktop, but not every campaign offers it.

That structure has a practical implication. If an Android phone and a computer are both within reach, the data-heavy work belongs on the computer, leaving the phone's 200 MB for quick lookups and messages. The two allowances are independent and never compete.

On installation, Android offers the most choice of the six platforms: it can go through an app store the way iOS does, via Google Play, or through an APK you download and install yourself, which keeps more payment methods open for a subscription. Only the APK route adds the "install unknown apps" system consent, and only Android requires any attention to the installer's CPU architecture.

Making 200 MB Count on Android

The most common way a free allowance disappears on Android is not something the user did — it is what the background did while they were not looking: app store auto-updates, photo backup, cloud drive sync, aggressive preloading. Any one of those can run tens to hundreds of megabytes at a time, and if the tunnel happens to be up, a day's 200 MB can vanish before anything useful happens.

So the habit worth building on the free tier is connecting on demand: open the tunnel when you need it, close it when the task is done. That single change outperforms every data-saving trick, and it matters more on Android than on iOS, because Android gives background tasks more scheduling freedom and lets apps do more while out of sight.

• Connect when needed and disconnect afterwards; avoid leaving the tunnel running in the background
• Set app store auto-updates to Wi-Fi only, or turn them off
• Disable automatic backup and sync in photo and cloud-drive apps
• Turn on Data Saver in system settings to restrict background data
• Lower video quality in streaming apps and switch off autoplay and preloading
• Check the client's usage counter rather than guessing how much is left

If the allowance still runs out daily after all of that, the workload has simply outgrown what the free tier was designed for, and a paid plan is less effort than constant rationing.

Getting Started on Android in Three Steps

Going from nothing to a working connection on an Android device takes three steps: create an account and sign in, install the client from either Google Play or the official download page, and connect to a node tagged Free. No credit card at any point.

1. 1

   Create a SingLinkVPN account and sign in

   Register with an email address and sign in. The Free Plan requires no credit card and no ad-watching for the base allowance. The same account works on both a phone and a computer, with each device's daily allowance counted separately.

2. 2

   Install the Android client, from Google Play or the official APK

   Either route works. Google Play is the least effort — the store installs and updates the app — but a subscription bought in the app then goes through Google Play billing only. To keep our other supported payment methods open, open the site's download page on the Android device and download the arm64-v8a APK instead; if the system reports that installs from this source are not allowed, tap Settings, enable "Allow from this source" for that browser, then go back and finish installing, and switching the permission back off afterwards is recommended.

3. 3

   Connect to a node tagged "Free"

   Sign in to the client, open the node list, pick a node carrying the "Free" tag and tap connect. On the first connection Android raises its VPN consent dialog — approve it. A key-shaped VPN icon in the status bar confirms the tunnel is up. Every node available on the Free Plan is a Beta protocol node.

Frequently asked questions