Will Russia charge for VPN traffic over 15 GB: what is known

In spring Russian media reported that mobile users would have to pay extra for foreign traffic above 15 GB a month, and later that the plan had been put off. Here is what is known, with dates and sources.

What was proposed: 15 GB a month and a charge above it

None of what follows is a document. It is what the press reported, mostly from unnamed sources. In date order:

• 30 March, Forbes Russia, citing sources: at a meeting on 28 March the head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Maksut Shadaev, asked the large carriers to charge for using more than 15 GB of international traffic a month on mobile networks. According to one of the paper’s sources, it was meant to start before 1 May.
• 22 April, Vedomosti: the carriers asked the ministry for a delay. Forbes later gave the reason as technical: carriers were not ready and had to reconfigure their billing systems.
• 28 April, Kommersant: in a reply to the Association of Communication Companies, the ministry again confirmed it was working on extra billing for mobile subscribers; fixed home internet was not part of it. The association’s executive director, Yaroslav Dubovikov, told the paper the expected price was 150 roubles per 1 GB over a cap that, in his words, the ministry had discussed with carriers “behind closed doors”.

Note the wording. The reports were about international, or foreign, traffic on mobile networks, with VPNs given as the reason for the measure. How foreign traffic would be told apart from Russian traffic was called an open question in the same reports: many Russian services, Kommersant wrote, run on foreign addresses.

What happened next: a delay and the ministry’s words

• 21 May, Forbes, RBC and Kommersant, each citing their own sources, reported that the launch had been put off. The dates differed. A Forbes source close to one of the carriers said “probably until the end of the year”. Of RBC’s three sources, two said “closer to autumn” and the third “after the State Duma election” (18⁠–⁠20 September). Another Forbes source said it was unclear whether the delay had to do with the election or with the technical side.
• At the same time RBC pointed out that by law a carrier has to warn subscribers about billing changes 10 days ahead, and that the largest carriers had published no such notices by 21 May. According to Forbes, they declined to comment.
• 7 July, Interfax: Deputy Minister of Digital Development Ivan Lebedev, answering a deputy’s question at a session of the State Duma, said: “A fee for foreign traffic is not being considered.” Kommersant and Forbes reported the same that day.

This is the latest official statement on the subject that we found. We found no reports that the fee had come back as of publication.

What it means now

• There is no separate fee for foreign traffic now. We found no law, no regulation and no new tariff.
• 15 GB and 150 roubles are not a published tariff. They are what sources and market participants named in spring.
• If a fee is introduced after all, your carrier will say so first. A change in billing has to be announced in advance — RBC wrote about 10 days. Trust the notice in your carrier’s app or account, not a retelling in a chat.

Is 15 GB a lot or a little

It depends on what you do. We have not measured video, calls or games, so we will not turn 15 GB into hours of watching. For the tunnel itself we do have a measurement of our own — how much data a VPN uses:

• Idle. A tunnel that is on but doing nothing uses about 3 MB a day, that is 80–90 MB a month. That is less than one per cent of 15 GB.
• Overhead. In our test the tunnel added about 10 % to what you download through it: the wrapping travels over the network too.

If you carry our percentage over to a month — an assumption, not a measurement — then of 15 GB that went through the tunnel, about 1.4 GB would be wrapping. We measured on servers and on one large download; with small packets the share of wrapping is higher.

The most accurate answer about your 15 GB is your own counter for last month.

How to check your usage for the month

1. Find the counter. On Android it is in Settings, in the section about data usage. Its name and place differ between manufacturers, so the quickest way is to search the settings for “data usage”.
2. Look at mobile data, not Wi-Fi. In spring the talk was only about mobile networks. If your phone lets you pick a period, take last month.
3. See who used the most. There is usually a list of apps in the same place. How exactly the phone splits traffic between apps while the tunnel is on, we have not checked.
4. Compare with your carrier. Its app or online account has its own counter, and that is the one you pay by. The phone counts at a different point, so the numbers may not match.

What changes if you send Russian apps past the tunnel

Mayak has an app set called “RU Apps”: the apps in it work outside the tunnel. It exists for banks, government services and other Russian services that often refuse connections from foreign addresses — how to turn it on and check it.

What happens to the traffic, we know for certain, because that is how the app is built. Traffic from an app sent past the tunnel goes from the phone straight to that app’s server — through your carrier, as it would without Mayak, not through the tunnel or our servers. There is no tunnel overhead on it: there is nothing to wrap it in.

If you are in Russia, the set may already be on. On first launch the app checks which country you go online from, and if it is Russia and you have not touched the switch, it turns the set on itself and tells you so.

⚠️ What this does not mean. How a carrier would count such traffic if a fee were introduced, we do not know: nobody has published counting rules. So we do not promise that this switch would affect a fee that does not exist now. Turn it on for what it was made for.

What we checked

• The reports. On 20 September 2026 we opened and read the articles we cite: Forbes Russia of 30 March, 21 May and 7 July, Kommersant of 28 April and 7 July, CNews of 22 May retelling RBC, and Interfax of 7 July. For Vedomosti of 22 April only the headline is available, and RBC’s own site would not open for us — we quote its reports as retold by Forbes and CNews. Dates and quotes in the text come from them; the translations are ours.
• Recent news. We looked for reports on a fee for foreign traffic after 7 July and after 18 September and found none. “Found none” does not mean “there are none”: a news search does not see everything.
• The “RU Apps” set. We checked how it works against the code of the app version currently published on Google Play and on our site.
• Usage numbers. Our measurement of 16 September 2026 on two lines, on servers rather than a phone: how we measured.

What we do not know

We try to make sure nothing more can be read out of our text than is in it.

• Whether a fee will be introduced, and when. In spring 1 May was named, then 1 June, the autumn, the period after the election and the end of the year; in July the ministry said the fee is not being considered. We make no forecasts.
• How foreign traffic would be told apart from Russian traffic. The reports called it an unresolved question. We have not checked it and will not guess — neither about foreign traffic nor about VPNs.
• How traffic from apps sent past the tunnel would be counted. There are no counting rules, and some Russian services are reported to run on foreign addresses.
• Whether home internet would be affected. In spring, according to Kommersant, the talk was only about mobile networks. What happens next is unknown.
• How much your month weighs. We have not measured video, calls or games; our numbers are about the tunnel itself, on a server, on two lines.
• The legal side. We retell published reports; this is not a legal opinion.

Short answers

Will Russia charge for VPN traffic? It does not now, and we found no decision to do so. In spring press sources said it would; in July a deputy minister of digital development said such a fee is not being considered. What happens after the election is unknown.

From what date is the VPN traffic fee charged? There is no date in force. In spring 1 May and then 1 June were named; both dates passed without a fee.

Is the VPN fee fake news? It was not invented: it was discussed, several outlets reported on it, and in April, according to Kommersant, the ministry confirmed it was working on it. But it is not a rule in force either: in July the ministry said it is not being considered.

How much would a gigabyte over 15 GB cost? 150 roubles was named — by a representative of the Association of Communication Companies, speaking to Kommersant in April. That is a market expectation, not a tariff.

How many gigabytes does a VPN use a month? On its own, almost none: about 3 MB a day while idle, 80–90 MB a month. In our test it added about 10 % to what you download.

Is 15 GB a lot? It depends on what you do; we have not measured video or calls. Check your usage for last month — here is how.

Would it affect home internet? In spring, according to Kommersant, the talk was only about mobile networks. What happens next, we do not know.

Will MTS or MegaFon charge for VPN traffic? We found no reports about any single carrier: in spring the talk was about the large mobile carriers in general, and in May the largest of them declined to comment. If a fee is introduced, your carrier has to warn you in advance.

Would Mayak change anything if a fee were introduced? We will not promise that: nobody has published how a carrier would count traffic, and we do not know. What we do know about our own traffic is above.