Private Internet Access review for crypto users

Last reviewed 2026-08-26

Ownership disclosure

Private Internet Access shares an owner, Kape Technologies, with CyberGhost and ExpressVPN, also reviewed here. Choosing between commonly owned services diversifies nothing; factor the shared owner into any review you read, including this one.

Twice, United States federal proceedings have asked Private Internet Access to hand over records identifying a user, and twice it had nothing to give. That is the strongest form of evidence available in this market, and it is why a US company sits on this page at all.

The first was a 2016 FBI subpoena in a bomb-threat investigation; the second a 2018 federal hacking trial in San Jose, where PIA testified it could not link an IP address to any individual. Deloitte Audit Romania has since examined the server estate three times, the first as of 30 June 2022 and twice more in the years after, each engagement run under ISAE 3000 (Revised) against RAM-only infrastructure. The apps are entirely open source, which is rare here and lets anyone check the client side rather than taking the server-side audits on trust.

Jurisdiction is the trade. PIA is headquartered in Denver and the United States is a Five Eyes member, which no amount of audit evidence changes. The company's answer is that American law cannot compel it to start retaining data it never collected, and the court record supports that answer better than any privacy policy could.

Bitcoin runs through BitPay and refunds are honoured, but read the clause carefully: the terms assess a crypto refund at the exchange rate on the day the refund is paid, not the day you bought. If bitcoin falls between those dates, you absorb the difference. An email address is required to register regardless.

Visit Private Internet Access

Owned by: Kape Technologies
Jurisdiction: United States
Eyes alliance: Five Eyes member
Price: About $11.95 per month billed monthly, falling to roughly $2.03 per month on the three-year term, which is among the cheapest long-term prices reviewed here.
Money-back: 30 days (App Store purchases fall outside it and must be refunded by Apple instead.)
Free tier: None
Protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN
Servers: Vendor states RAM-only servers across 91 countries, including all 50 US states
Pay with crypto: bitcoin

The evidence for the no-logs claim

A no-logs policy is a sentence on a website until someone checks. This is what has actually been checked for Private Internet Access, dated, with the primary source for each item.

Independent audits

2022
Deloitte Audit Romania: no-logs policy and server configuration as of 30 June 2022, under ISAE 3000 (Revised). source
2024
Deloitte Audit Romania: second no-logs assurance engagement on the server network. source
2025
Deloitte Audit Romania: third no-logs assurance engagement. source

Tested in the real world

2016
An FBI subpoena in a bomb-threat investigation demanded usage logs identifying a Private Internet Access user. PIA reported it held no identifying usage logs and could say only that the traffic came from a server cluster. source
2018
A federal hacking trial in San Jose examined PIA IP addresses used to reach Embarcadero Media email accounts. PIA testified in open court that it keeps no logs of customer activity and could not tie any IP address to a person. source

Paying with bitcoin

Coins accepted

bitcoin

Processor

BitPay

Anonymous signup

An email address is required to register, and a wallet address must be supplied before any crypto refund can be paid.

The refund sentence that governs a crypto purchase, from Private Internet Access's own policy:

“The Parties agree that any refunds for transactions using a specific cryptocurrency will be assessed on the cryptocurrency's exchange rate to USD at the time of the refund disbursement, and not at the time of the original transaction or refund request.” refund policy

Markets it has left

2022
India: CERT-In's data retention directive prompted PIA to pull its Mumbai servers and serve Indian IP addresses from outside the country instead. source

What it does for a bitcoin user

Two US federal proceedings found no logs to produce, in 2016 and 2018
Three Deloitte Audit Romania engagements on the RAM-only server estate
Applications are fully open source, so the client side can be inspected
Headquartered in Denver, inside the Five Eyes alliance

What it will not do: bypass KYC, hide on-chain activity, or make a geo-blocked exchange usable. Presenting a false location to an exchange breaches its terms of service and is how accounts get frozen with the balance inside. Details in the VPN guide.

Pros and cons

What works

The only service reviewed here with a courtroom record rather than only audits
Repeated independent audits of the no-logs claim on top of that record
Open-source apps let anyone verify the client rather than trusting a policy
Among the cheapest long-term prices on this page

What to watch

United States jurisdiction places it inside the Five Eyes alliance
Crypto refunds are valued at the exchange rate on the refund date, so a falling price costs you
Owned by Kape Technologies alongside ExpressVPN and CyberGhost, both reviewed here
An email address is required to register even when paying in bitcoin

Private Internet Access compared

Fact by fact against each VPN we review, with a verdict where the audit record decides it.

Frequently asked questions

Has PIA's no-logs claim been tested in court?

Yes, twice: a 2016 FBI subpoena in a bomb-threat case and a 2018 federal hacking trial in San Jose. On both occasions PIA reported it had no identifying logs to hand over.

Does a US base undermine the no-logs claim?

It is a real risk, and the reason the court record matters: American law can compel a company to hand over what it holds, but the two proceedings above found PIA holding nothing that identified a user.

Can I get a refund if I paid with bitcoin?

Yes, within 30 days, but the terms value the refund at the exchange rate on the day it is paid rather than the day you bought, so a fall in the bitcoin price reduces what you receive.

Who owns Private Internet Access?

Kape Technologies, which bought its parent London Trust Media in 2019 and also owns ExpressVPN and CyberGhost, both reviewed here.

Sources

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