VPNs are great at safeguarding your privacy, but one downside is that the encryption slows your internet connection down. But there is a solution: activate your VPN’s split tunneling feature.

Why I Use VPN Split Tunneling

When I’m connected to a VPN, all of my traffic passes through its servers. But most of the time, I only need it for a specific purpose—such as reading a region-locked news story—not for all of my internet activities.

So, I don’t want a VPN to slow down other things, like gaming. After all, it’s embarrassing to drop a juggle combo in Tekken because the lag messed with my timing.

nordvpn enable split tunneling option

That’s whereVPN split tunnelingcomes in clutch. Split tunneling lets you specify which apps you want the VPN active for and which apps don’t need. Iuse VPN split tunneling over full tunnelingto have the full protection of a VPN for some activities while letting other apps get full connection speeds.

For instance, I configure split tunneling so that the VPN is on for:

nordvpn add running apps to split tunneling

However, I use split tunneling to bypass the VPN for:

You see, split tunneling really is one of the most underused VPN features.

How to Enable VPN Split Tunneling on NordVPN

Setting up split tunneling is not highly technical—it simply involves enabling a menu option in your VPN app. But before I walk you through a step-by-step example, you should know a few things.

Requirements for VPN Split Tunneling

First, you must use a VPN provider that offers split tunneling. Most of thebest VPN servicesoffer this, but you’ll need to double-check.

Second, even if your VPN provider has split tunneling, it’s unlikely to be supported on every operating system. Most providers support it on Windows and Android, whereas fewer providers support it for Linux, routers, or browser extensions. At the time of writing, no provider supports true split tunneling on Mac or iOS (althoughIPVanishhas a form of it); however, heavy competition is underway on this front. Check beforehand if split tunneling is supported on the platform you need it for.

nordvpn split tunnel list of apps

Third, there are different ways to implement split tunneling. For instance, you can include or exclude specific apps, domains, or IP addresses. To keep things easy to understand for our example that follows, I will have VPN protection enabled for all connections by default and only disable it for specific apps.

Enabling VPN Split Tunneling With NordVPN

Here’s how to set up split tunneling withNordVPNon Windows.

If you’re having problems with split tunneling on NordVPN or another service, it could be due to a bug that causes connection failures in certain Windows apps marked for split tunneling.

You can often fix things by enabling custom DNS settings and inputting a public resolver like Cloudflare DNS (1.1.1.1). Thislittle-known VPN setting can make a surprising differencewhen you’re having connection issues with split tunneling.

setting a custom DNS on the NordVPN app on Windows

Speed Results Compared With VPN Split Tunneling

Now that you know how to enable split tunneling, let’s examine its effects on connection speeds. We’ll useFAST, a speed tester owned by Netflix, to gauge streaming capability. (The tests below were conducted with an Ethernet cable to remove any discrepancies caused by Wi-Fi.)

Here’s my speed when the VPN is enabled for all connections:

netflix speedtest vpn on

Here’s my speed when I have split tunneling enabled for my browser to grant full speed to Netflix:

I think the difference is pretty clear.

That’s all there is to it. When you want the benefits of a VPN without affecting everything you do, enable split tunneling for specific apps to use your full connection speed.