Brave ads rely mainly on the Brave user’s geographical location. Certain countries have a very high active ad campaign. Users from these countries will tend to earn more Basic Attention Token (BAT), considering all other factors like browser usage are constant.
Location is a significant factor in deciding the number of Brave ads.
A reliable VPN service can mask your actual location and allow you to connect from the country of your choice, making the Brave browser believe that you are from that country and, thus, deliver location-based Brave ads to you.
Many people ask whether using a VPN is allowed or disallowed and if it is working well.
Does using a VPN service negatively affect my BAT earnings?
No, it does not. Based on our testing, certain VPN services like ProtonVPN allow one to increase their Brave ads frequency and BAT earnings. Using a VPN will enable users to choose a highly active country like the USA, the UK, and Canada to receive more ads and earn more BATs.
Proof of BAT earnings using VPN
I have been using different types of VPN services for many years. This article will only show you the tested VPN services that work with the Brave web browser.
Here is the screenshot of my Brave browser earnings and ProtonVPN running in the background. I had always run VPN connections all the time, for all my online activities, except for banking services.
This is proof that running a (tested) VPN connection is not a problem when it comes to your Brave BAT earnings.
Here are the three (3) tested VPN services that I had used in my daily web surfing using the Brave browser and had proven to be working with Brave ads.
1. ProtonVPN
Proton Technologies AG is the Switzerland-based company that brought us the privacy-focused email service, ProtonMail, in 2014. The secure email service has become one of the most sought tools among journalists and the privacy-conscious community. As their head office, based in Geneva, Switzerland, the company created the ProtonVPN service in 2017.
The VPN product was a follow-up to their secure email service. Users can now securely and privately surf the web using ProtonVPN and communicate online using ProtonMail without fear of eavesdropping.
VPN Servers
- ProtonVPN currently supports 63 countries and 1,538 servers for users to choose from.
[Important] Connect yourself to a country with many active ads campaigns to get more Brave ads and earn more BATs. Brave provided a list of all the supported countries on their website.
Notable Features
- Strict No-logs policy
- DNS leak prevention
- WireGuard & OpenVPN protocol using cryptographically secure AES-256 or ChaCha20 encryption ciphers
- Tor over VPN technique by routing all your traffic through Tor anonymity network
- All apps are open source and audited
- Perfect Forward Secrecy – A new encryption key is generated with each connection, so a key is never used for more than one session.
Supported Platforms
ProtonVPN supports all major operating systems with Windows, macOS, Linux, Chromebook, Android, Android TV, and iOS/iPad.
Start Using ProtonVPN
All of the plans below, including the free version, adopt the strict no-logs policy and access blocked content, such as social media, Youtube, websites etc.
The various plans show that the number of VPN connections, servers & countries will increase as the paid plan increases.
| Plans | Features |
|---|---|
| Free Plan (USD 0) | * 1 VPN connection * 24 servers in 3 countries * Medium speed |
| Basic Plan (USD 4/month) | * 2 VPN connection * 350+ servers in 40+ countries * High speed * P2P/bitTorrent protocol support * Adblocker (NetShield) |
| Plus Plan (USD 8/month) | * 10 VPN connections * 1000+ servers in 63 countries * Highest speed (up to 10 Gbps) * P2P/bitTorrent protocol support * Adblocker (NetShield) * Streaming service support * Secure Core VPN * Tor over VPN |
| Visionary Plan (USD 24/month or USD 288/yearly) | * All features from the Plus plan * ProtonMail Visionary account |
2. NordVPN
Founded in 2012 under the company name Nord Security. NordVPN is a successful product offered by the company that is consistently conducting audits on itself and organising a public bug bounty program. In addition, NordVPN is one of the founding members of the VPN Trust Initiative (VTI).
VPN Servers
NordVPN currently supports 60 countries and 5297 VPN servers worldwide.
Notable Features
- Multiple devices support – One account connects you to up to 6 devices.
- Split tunnelling support
- Tor over VPN support
- Strict no-logs policy
- Dedicated IP
Supported Platforms
NordVPN supports a wide range of operating systems and devices. Some are Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Firestick, Kindle Fire, etc.
Start Using NordVPN
NordVPn pricing plans are based on the duration chosen. There is no difference between the different plans regarding features, capabilities and support.
| NordVPN Pricing Plans |
|---|
| 2-year plan (Billed USD 89 upfront – USD 3.71/month) |
| 1-year plan (Billed USD 59 upfront – USD 4.92/month) |
| 1-month plan (USD 11.95/month) |
3. ExpressvPN
Registered in the British Virgin Islands and founded in 2009, ExpressVPN is a top-rated and well-known VPN service. We tested it and found that its USA and UK servers work fine with Brave ads. The VPN service will have an estimated over 3 million users in 2021. Its interface is simple, and the VPN server’s connection speed is very reliable. We have been using ExpressVPN for years and have not encountered any lag or downtime.
VPN Servers
ExpressVPN supports most countries among the three (3) stated here. It supports 94 countries in 160 VPN server locations.
Notable Features
- VPN Split Tunneling
- Uses AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with 256-bit keys – AES-256
- TrustedServer innovation where user data is written to RAM, not hard disks.
- Private, encrypted DNS on every VPN server
- No activity and connections logs captured
Supported Platforms
ExpressVPN supports Smart home IoT devices, browser extensions, routers, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, etc.
Start Using ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN plans are based on the duration chosen. The longer the duration package, the more cost-savings it gets.
| ExpressVPN |
|---|
| 12 months Plan (Billed USD 99.95 upfront – USD 8.32/month) |
| 6 months Plan (Billed 59.95 upfront – USD 9.99/month) |
| 1 month Plan (USD 12.95/month |
Conclusion
This article shows that using a reliable VPN service works fine with the Brave web browser. Brave will believe that you are from a particular chosen country if you use a tested VPN like ProtonVPN, NordVPN or ExpressVPN.
ProtonVPN is the only one with a free version that you can use to test it out.
The price of VPNs differs only a few dollars at best; if you want a paid subscription, do not ponder over it too much on the pricing. There is not much of a significant difference between the competition. It would be best to look more at their features, such as tor over VPN, BitTorrent support, etc.
