Android setup guide and what the Urban VPN 100MB daily limit is

I was getting coffee with my friend Jill a while ago and she was going away for a few days. Somewhere in the middle of talking about flights and whether she’d packed anything yet, she pulled out her phone because she’d downloaded Urban VPN for the trip.

She’d seen the 100MB daily limit on Android and thought it meant she was getting 100MB of mobile data with it.

I remember saying something like “I wish, but your phone company is still very much involved here”

Anyway she wasn’t being silly. If you don’t spend your day thinking about VPNs, it’s actually pretty easy to read it that way.

So if you’re setting up Urban VPN on Android, download the official app from Google Play, open it, pick the location you want and hit Connect.

Android will pop up asking if you want to allow a VPN connection. That’s normal. Accept it and once you’re connected you’ll usually see the little VPN/key icon at the top of the phone.

The free Android version currently has a 100MB daily VPN allowance.

That 100MB is how much data can go through Urban VPN on the free version that day. It isn’t extra internet from Urban VPN and it doesn’t replace the data you already have from your mobile provider.

Back to Jill because this was the part she was actually trying to figure out.

If she’s away and using 4G or 5G, and 60MB goes through Urban VPN, that counts toward the Urban VPN 100MB allowance. Her phone is still using the mobile network to get online though, so she’s using her normal mobile data as well.

If she gets back to the hotel and connects to Wi-Fi, she’s not using her mobile allowance anymore. Anything she does through Urban VPN still counts toward the 100MB VPN allowance.

The VPN basically sits on top of whatever internet connection the phone already has. It doesn’t become the internet connection itself.

And no, it can’t give you free mobile data or get around your carrier’s data cap.

100MB is okay for lighter stuff. Browsing a few pages, checking something quickly, using another location for a bit. I wouldn’t start watching videos and expect it to hang around very long.

One other Android thing because I’ve seen this confuse people too. That little key/VPN icon that appears at the top isn’t some new Urban VPN notification. Android shows it when there’s an active VPN connection. Disconnect and it should go away.

This is for the current free Android version and its 100MB daily allowance. If either changes, this post will be updated rather than leaving an old answer floating around.

If you’ve actually run the 100MB all the way down on Android, what did you get when you hit it? A message, disconnect, something else? Would be useful to have the exact behaviour in here too.