VPN Sponsorships on YouTube: Q3 2026 Report

Updated 15 October 2026 with YouTube videos published 1 July 2026 to 30 September 2026. This report is refreshed every quarter.

Key facts: VPN sponsorships on YouTube, Q3 2026 (July–September)

• NordVPN had the most sponsored YouTube mentions of the five VPN brands ChannelCrawler ranks in Q3 2026 (July–September): 1,844 mentions from 615 creators, 33.9% of the ranked brands' mentions, according to ChannelCrawler data.
• Together, the ranked VPN brands had 5,442 sponsored YouTube mentions from 1,413 creators in Q3 2026, on videos with 706.7M views.
• CyberGhost VPN's share of VPN sponsorship mentions on YouTube fell from 27.4% in Q2 2026 to 19.0% in Q3 2026, down 8.4 percentage points.
• Surfshark worked with the second-most YouTube creators of any ranked VPN brand in Q3 2026: 464.
• Proton VPN's sponsored YouTube videos had the highest median views of any ranked VPN brand in Q3 2026: 65.7K.

What stands out in VPN sponsorships on YouTube?

• GBNews (2.2M subscribers) posted 247 of PIA VPN's 1,096 sponsored videos in Q3 2026 (22.5%). No other channel had as large a share of a ranked VPN brand.
• PIA VPN kept working with the same creators: 80.0% of them posted more than one sponsored video in Q3 2026, against 36.1% for NordVPN.
• PIA VPN averaged 24.4 sponsored videos per creator in Q3 2026 and Surfshark 2.6, so more of PIA VPN's count comes from channels that post often.
• Channels with 100K–500K subscribers carried 40.9% of the ranked VPN brands' sponsored videos in Q3 2026, more than any other channel size.

Which VPN brands have the most YouTube sponsorships?

Rank	Brand	Sponsored mentions	Share of mentions	Creators	Share of views	Median views
1	NordVPN	1,844	33.9%	615	33.5%	21.6K
2	Surfshark	1,186	21.8%	464	23.6%	47.4K
3	PIA VPN	1,096	20.1%	45	24.3%	24.7K
4	CyberGhost VPN	1,034	19.0%	204	13.3%	18.6K
5	Proton VPN	282	5.2%	95	5.4%	65.7K

ChannelCrawler ranks VPN brands that had at least 100 sponsored mentions from at least 20 creators in the quarter, with no single creator accounting for more than 35% of them. Shares compare only the ranked brands. A sponsored mention is one video that counts as a declared or likely sponsorship of the brand. Views are each video's current recorded total.

Which VPN brands get the most views from YouTube sponsorships?

CyberGhost VPN had 19.0% of mentions but only 13.3% of views.

PIA VPN had 20.1% of mentions but 24.3% of views.

Proton VPN's median sponsored video had 65.7K views, the highest in the set; CyberGhost VPN's had 18.6K.

PIA VPN's top three creators generated 73.4% of its views, led by Linus Tech Tips with 95.6M views from 54 videos.

Surfshark's views were the most spread out: its top three creators generated 9.2%.

How did VPN sponsorships on YouTube change since Q2 2026?

CyberGhost VPN's share of mentions fell from 27.4% to 19.0%, down 8.4 percentage points, with 204 creators in Q3 2026 compared with 398 in Q2 2026.

PIA VPN's share of mentions rose from 15.5% to 20.1%, up 4.6 percentage points, with 45 creators in Q3 2026 compared with 79 in Q2 2026.

Surfshark's share of mentions rose from 20.2% to 21.8%, up 1.6 percentage points, with 464 creators in Q3 2026 compared with 522 in Q2 2026.

Across the ranked VPN brands, sponsored mentions went from 5,239 in Q2 2026 to 5,442 in Q3 2026, and the number of creators from 1,725 to 1,413.

ChannelCrawler adds newly tracked channels every month, so raw counts can grow with coverage alone. Shares of mentions compare the same brands in both quarters and are the better measure of change.

How do VPN brands work with YouTube creators?

A creator with 2+ sponsored videos posted more than one sponsored video for the brand in the quarter. More videos per creator means more of a brand's count comes from channels that post often.

Which YouTube channels do VPN brands sponsor?

Each brand's five sponsored channels with the most views in Q3 2026.

NordVPN

Surfshark

PIA VPN

CyberGhost VPN

Proton VPN

What size YouTube channels do VPN brands sponsor?

26.7% of PIA VPN's creators had fewer than 50K subscribers, compared with 14.2% of Surfshark's.

Views per sponsored video by channel size

A sponsored VPN video on a channel with over 1M subscribers averaged 437.4K views in Q3 2026, against 3K on a channel with under 10K.

Across all ranked brands. An average, so one very popular video can lift a size band; views are each video's total so far.

Where are the YouTube creators VPN brands sponsor?

29.9% of CyberGhost VPN's channels were in France, compared with 4.1% on average for the other brands.

16.8% of Proton VPN's channels were in Spain, compared with 3.6% on average for the other brands.

15.6% of PIA VPN's channels were in Canada, compared with 2.7% on average for the other brands.

22.2% of PIA VPN's channels were in the United Kingdom, compared with 9.9% on average for the other brands.

Which sponsored VPN videos got the most views?

Thank you and Goodbye. PewDiePie · 12.7M views · NordVPN	4Chan Troll vs The Taliban Pezle · 6.1M views · CyberGhost VPN
J’ai acheté tous les objets des pubs TikTok #7 Amixem · 6.1M views · NordVPN	Steam Frame Review - This Changes Everything Linus Tech Tips · 5.3M views · PIA VPN
My Son Needs a New Laptop Linus Tech Tips · 4.6M views · PIA VPN	2026再戰英國航空商務艙（還是很爛）【燒錢來吃#17】｜HOOK ft. Surfshark VPN HOOK · 4.6M views · Surfshark

Do YouTube creators work with more than one VPN brand?

10 creators had sponsored mentions for more than one of these brands.

• AlienTech42 (22K subscribers): CyberGhost VPN and PIA VPN, 26 mentions
• Mac Geek Gab (5.6K subscribers): PIA VPN and Proton VPN, 5 mentions
• Katie Roams (276K subscribers): CyberGhost VPN and Proton VPN, 4 mentions
• Malini Angelica (417K subscribers): PIA VPN and Surfshark, 4 mentions
• Yah Lah But Podcast (36.5K subscribers): NordVPN and Proton VPN, 4 mentions

How ChannelCrawler counts sponsorships

• Only videos whose description links to the brand are counted. A brand that is read out or shown in a video but not linked in its description is not counted, so every figure is a lower bound.
• A linked video is a sponsorship when its description also discloses the brand as a sponsor: wording such as "sponsored by" tied to the brand, a sponsor heading or a #brandpartner hashtag. For some brands that pay through tracked links, a reviewed exception also counts their coded links or creator links on videos YouTube labels as paid promotion. Any other link, discount codes included, is a mention, not a sponsorship.
• Videos are counted by publish date. Views are each video's total when last checked, not views gained during the period.
• Creator country is the channel's country, not its audience's. Shares compare only the brands in this article.

Data as of 14 October 2026, counted under ChannelCrawler's sponsorship methodology version 2. Earlier quarters are recounted under the same version, so figures can differ from previous editions of this page.

Download the full report

The full PDF adds monthly change, average and median views, repeat creators, creator size and country mix, creator overlap and the top videos for each brand.

Explore these VPN brands

See every creator, video and month of sponsorship history for NordVPN, Surfshark, PIA VPN, CyberGhost VPN and Proton VPN in ChannelCrawler Brands.