- Mullvad to retire Leta search proxy on November 27, 2025
- The move marks a change in Mullvad’s privacy offerings
- Leta users are recommended to pair Mullvad VPN with a privacy-focused browser
Mullvad’s Leta search proxy will be retired later this month, according to an announcement from the Sweden-based VPN provider.
Leta acted as a privacy-preserving intermediary between Mullvad VPN users and major search engines, allowing them to query Google and Brave without exposing IP addresses, cookies, or browser fingerprints.
The closure will take place on November 27, 2025 and comes as search engines become increasingly hostile to proxy-based access, with Mullvad, which is the company behind one of the The best VPN services available right now, admitting that Leta is likely to become “less useful over time” as a result.
Why the closure and what else is changing in Mullvad
Mullvad cites “big changes” in the search industry as the main reason for Leta’s impending departure.
Between the tightening of anti-bot measures and the expansion CAPTCHA and based on real-time behavioral signals, modern search engines make it increasingly difficult for Mullvad to maintain an effective shared proxy.
On November 27, 2025, we will shut down our search proxy, Leta. Read more here: https://t.co/4Bbni75TsdNovember 6, 2025
Maintaining a reliable and truly private search portal under current conditions would require ongoing engineering efforts as well as frequent updates. Resources Mullvad would apparently prefer to allocate elsewhere, as evidenced by recent additions including QUIC obfuscation for WireGuard.
Earlier this year, Mullvad also announced its intention to drop support for OpenVPN starting January 16, 2026, in favor of the newer, lighter WireGuard protocol. This signals a strategic shift in Mullvad’s core VPN and privacy offerings.
The company explains that the consolidation on the open source WireGuard protocol allows the team to “focus our resources where they can make a difference.” By retiring Leta, Mullvad plans to “continue to advance the development of next-generation VPN and browser privacy.”
Alternatives for Mullvad users looking for private browsing
For users who relied on Leta, the immediate concern is finding a suitable replacement for private search. Fortunately, Mullvad still offers a suite of privacy-focused tools. The Mullvad browser is included, all of which can help maintain the privacy standards Mullvad is known for.
Mullvad recommends using a virtual private network along with a privacy-focused browser. The most obvious choice for existing subscribers is Mullvad Browser, a client derived from the Tor browser that provides the same fingerprint consistency, tracker blocking, and anti-fingerprinting safeguards, while routing traffic through a VPN instead of the Tor network.
Mullvad Browser can be paired with any VPN, but Mullvad recommends using it with its own service for optimal protection. Because it doesn’t rely on Tor onion routing, Mullvad Browser offers faster page loads while still retaining strong privacy guarantees.
Alternatives to Mullvad Browser include Brave or Firefox with beefed-up settings. Pairing any of these browsers with a quality VPN masks your IP address from search providers, encrypts DNS queries, and blocks third-party trackers, achieving a level of anonymity on par with Leta.
