# Free and paid VPN trade-offs — classification

Observed / calculated: 2026-09-12, Australia/Sydney  
Method: original calculation over stored `limits.free_tier` rows.  
Not: a product ranking, a numeric privacy score, a live-app test, a guarantee of anonymity, or a compliance certificate.

## Classes

1. Free: `available = yes`.
2. No free: `available = no`. A trial, coupon or money-back window in that row is still no-free.
3. Unknown: the `limits.free_tier` key is missing. Unknown is not unsupported.

## Hand arithmetic

- Personal: `5+7=12`. Five documented free plans; seven no-free.
- Business: `3+1=4`. Tailscale Personal / Twingate Starter / Cloudflare One Free; NordLayer none. Not a consumer public-internet exit.
- Windscribe: `2+8=10` GB with a confirmed email.
- hide.me: `7≠8` API Free hosts versus pricing Locations. Dual public data cap (unlimited vs 10 GB/month) is unresolved.

## AU-on-Free filter

`personal_vpn` AND `available == yes` AND a documented Australian free-server exit. Unknown cannot satisfy. Dual public is not a resolved AU exit. Country selection that is Paid-only is not an AU free exit. Result on the stored dataset: 0 pass.

A trial is not a free tier. Same class is not a ranking. Caps are integers, not billed totals.

See `/guides/free-vs-paid-vpn-australia`.