How to Disable a VPN on a Mac in Less Than a Minute

When you need to quickly turn your VPN off.
Michael Michael (175)
1 minute

Once you've set up a VPN on your Mac, we would almost never recommend you disable it. However, when you need some speed for streaming video, playing online games, or other large projects, disabling your VPN on your Mac will likely increase your speed.

Some may also need to disable their VPNs if they connect remotely to their employer's workspace. Oftentimes, those VPN connections are slow and unwieldy, which will slow down your Mac when you use it for personal reasons. Turning off your VPN on your iPhone will also give you a temporary speed boost.

A speedy VPN

We recommend you try NordVPN for a speedy VPN that you rarely need to disable for reasons of speed or website blockages. Check out our NordVPN review to learn why we love it!

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VPN icon on Mac

In macOS, your VPN icon will appear in the upper menu bar on your Mac. It will look different depending on what VPN you are using.

(My icon is from NordVPN.)

Disconnect VPN macOS
  • Click on the VPN icon.
  • Choose Disconnect.

You're VPN will be disconnected until you decide to turn it back on. If you use something like auto-connect, then your VPN will still auto-connect if you log out and log back into your Mac. Turn that feature off in your VPN setting if you don't want to use that auto-connect feature in macOS.

Need to turn off your VPN on your iPhone?

Check out our guide that makes it easy to turn off a VPN on your iPhone!

Because you've been getting too many Captcha stops?
Michael Michael (175)
1 minute

Using a VPN on an iPhone can cause you to get constant Captcha stops when trying to browse on your mobile browser. Or maybe you're experiencing the slow down that some VPNs can cause.