I've been in the VPN industry for close to three years now, and I've read thousands of user feedback messages.
One trend has been getting more and more obvious since the second half of 2025, and by 2026 it's become the dominant theme — the reason for using a VPN has shifted from "I want to watch YouTube" to "I need to use ChatGPT."
This isn't just my gut feeling. Colleagues in the VPN space, online communities, even domestic tech media reports — they all point in the same direction: AI is redefining VPN demand.
Today's article isn't a how-to guide (we've written plenty of those). Instead, I want to seriously discuss: Why is this happening? What does this trend mean? And where is it heading?
Three Structural Shifts in VPN Demand
Let's zoom out and look at how VPN demand has evolved over the past decade-plus.
Phase 1: Social-Driven (2009-2018)
Facebook and Twitter were blocked in 2009. Google left China in 2010. YouTube became completely inaccessible in 2012. People who used VPNs during that era were primarily after social connection and information freedom: seeing what the outside world was discussing, using Google Search, chatting with foreign friends on Facebook.
The main VPN users were college students, media professionals, and foreign trade workers.
As the SaaS era arrived, more and more productivity tools got blocked. Google Docs, Notion, Slack, Figma, GitHub (intermittently disrupted) — office workers realized that using a VPN was no longer about "wanting to see something" but about "being able to do their job."
VPN usage started shifting from a hobby to a necessity.
Phase 3: AI-Driven (2024-Now)
ChatGPT exploded in late 2022, swept China in 2023, then was quickly blocked. In 2024, OpenAI blocked Chinese API access, Anthropic blocked Chinese IPs globally, and Google Gemini didn't open to the China region.
By 2026, the picture is clear: the world's most powerful AI tools are completely inaccessible to Chinese users.
And these tools are no longer "fun chatbots." They're coding assistants, research aides, paper-writing partners, and business efficiency powerhouses.
VPN usage went from hobby to necessity, and is now becoming the gateway to core productivity.
Let the Data Speak: How Big Is AI Really?
Let's skip the feelings and look at numbers.
ChatGPT: 300M+ Monthly Active Users
In late 2025, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT's weekly active users exceeded 400 million. A conservative monthly active user estimate puts it over 300 million. To put that in perspective, that's higher than Twitter/X's monthly active users.
How many of those are Chinese users accessing it via VPN? OpenAI hasn't disclosed this, but open any Chinese AI discussion forum and "how to use ChatGPT from mainland China" is permanently the pinned question.
Claude: Exploding Among Developers
Anthropic's Claude has been rapidly rising in developer circles since 2024. After Claude Opus 4.7 launched in 2026 (we have a detailed review), many developers now consider Claude's coding capabilities superior to ChatGPT's.
GitHub Copilot integrated Claude as a model option in 2025, letting users choose Claude for code completion and chat. This directly means: if mainland Chinese developers want to use the best AI coding tools, they need a VPN.
Gemini, Perplexity, Midjourney...
It's not just ChatGPT and Claude. Google Gemini keeps evolving. Perplexity AI has changed how people research information. Midjourney and DALL-E are designers' new weapons. All of these tools are closed to China.
The global AI industry's pie keeps growing, and the entry ticket for Chinese users is called — a VPN.
Double Lockout: It's Not Just About the GFW
Here's something many people haven't fully grasped: Chinese users being locked out of AI isn't only because of the Great Firewall.
Wall #1: The GFW
The GFW blocks the websites and APIs of ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Everyone knows this. The 2026 Q2 GFW update raised the difficulty another notch — traditional VPN protocols are now almost entirely dead.
Wall #2: U.S. Export Controls
This wall gets overlooked, but it's equally lethal.
In January 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued new export control rules targeting AI models (the AI Diffusion Rule), restricting advanced AI technology from flowing to China. This isn't just about chips — AI services themselves fall within the controlled scope.
Anthropic conducted mass account bans of China-originating users in March 2025, including developer accounts registered through shell companies. OpenAI did the same even earlier.
So even if you get past the GFW and connect to Claude with a U.S. IP — if Anthropic detects that your payment information or usage patterns point to China, your account can still be suspended.
Chinese users face two walls: one that won't let you out, and another that won't let you in.
This kind of double lockout never existed in the social media era. YouTube won't ban your account for using a Chinese credit card — but AI companies will.
Can Domestic Alternatives Compete?
Whenever this topic comes up, someone inevitably says: "Don't we have DeepSeek, Kimi, and Ernie Bot? Why bother with a VPN?"
That question deserves a serious answer.
DeepSeek: A Beacon of Open Source, But With a Ceiling
DeepSeek was China's biggest AI surprise of 2024-2025. Open-source, decent performance, active community. DeepSeek-V3 and the R1 reasoning model, in particular, approach or even surpass GPT-4 levels on certain benchmarks.
But there are critical shortcomings:
- Short context window: the gap compared to Claude's 200K tokens (roughly 150,000 words) is significant. Processing long documents or large codebases reveals the difference immediately
- Thin tool ecosystem: ChatGPT has Plugins, GPTs, Canvas; Claude has Artifacts, Computer Use, MCP. DeepSeek's tool ecosystem is still in its early days
- Censorship restrictions: responses on political, historical, and social topics are forcibly guardrailed. Ask about June 4th or Xinjiang — immediate refusal. This is a dealbreaker for academic researchers
Kimi: Strong at Long-Text Processing, But Weak at Creativity and Reasoning
Moonshot AI's Kimi performs well with long Chinese texts, but in code generation, creative writing, and complex reasoning, there's a clear gap compared to Claude and GPT-4o.
The Overall Reality
To be fair, China's domestic AI has made remarkable progress over the past year. But the current landscape looks like this:
- Everyday chat: domestic AI is adequate, the gap is small
- Professional scenarios (coding, academic work, complex reasoning): a clear gap from top-tier models remains
- Tool ecosystem: the gap is enormous — not even in the same league
For casual "just asking questions" light users, domestic alternatives are perfectly fine. But for people whose livelihoods depend on AI — developers, researchers, content creators — accessing ChatGPT/Claude via VPN isn't a preference, it's a productivity issue.
For a deeper dive into each AI's access restrictions and alternatives in mainland China, see our Guide to Using AI Tools from Mainland China.
The Developer's Pain: Coding Already Can't Live Without AI
I'm a developer myself, so this part is from personal experience.
GitHub Copilot + Claude = The Ultimate Combo
In 2025, GitHub Copilot introduced Claude as an optional model, on top of ChatGPT which was already integrated. This means the world's largest code hosting platform's best AI tools are all closed to China.
What can mainland developers use? Tongyi Lingma (Alibaba), CodeGeeX (Zhipu), Wenxin Quick Code (Baidu). They work, but honestly, compared to the Copilot + Claude combination, it's like racing a moped against a sports car.
Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code
AI code editors exploded in 2025-2026. Cursor has practically become standard issue in developer circles. Windsurf (formerly Codeium) offers free AI completion. Claude Code runs right in the terminal. All of these tools rely on OpenAI or Anthropic APIs.
In mainland China, if you can't get past the firewall, you can't use any of these. And if you can't use these tools, your development productivity gets cut in half — and I'm not exaggerating.
Reality Check: VPNs Are Already Developer "Infrastructure"
I've talked with several developer friends working in Shenzhen and Hangzhou. Their companies tacitly assume every developer has a VPN. It's not that the boss encourages VPN use — it's that you literally can't work without one.
The Student's Pain: AI Is the New Library
Another major group is students, especially graduate students.
Writing Papers: Claude / ChatGPT vs Domestic AI
Anyone who's used Claude to organize references or revise a paper knows that the quality compared to domestic AI is worlds apart. It's not that domestic AI can't do it, but rather:
- Claude precisely understands academic context — its revision suggestions don't just swap words, they restructure logic
- ChatGPT's plugin ecosystem can connect to Zotero and Google Scholar for a one-stop workflow
- Domestic AI is noticeably weaker at English academic writing
For master's and PhD students, paper quality directly determines whether you graduate. Using better tools isn't a luxury — it's a survival issue.
Study Abroad Preparation
Students preparing to study overseas use ChatGPT to polish personal statements, Claude for literature reviews, Perplexity for school research — all of which require a VPN. And this group has extremely strong motivation to use VPNs: their future literally lies on the other side of the wall.
Why AI-Driven VPN Use Is More "Essential" Than Social-Driven VPN Use
This is the core argument of the entire article.
Before, not watching YouTube through a VPN wouldn't hurt you. Can't get Netflix? There's always iQiyi. Can't access Instagram? Weibo lets you post photos too.
Social VPN use is a "want." AI VPN use is a "need."
Three reasons:
YouTube is entertainment. ChatGPT is a tool. Skip YouTube and you lose some weekend fun. Skip ChatGPT and you lose efficiency across 8 working hours every day.
Weibo vs. Twitter — functionally similar. Bilibili vs. YouTube — in some ways Bilibili is even better. But DeepSeek vs. Claude? In professional scenarios, anyone who's used both knows the difference.
3. The AI Gap Will Only Widen
Social media features are converging — everyone has short videos, live streaming, and algorithmic feeds. But the AI gap is constrained by compute, talent, data, and regulations. It won't shrink in the short term, and may actually keep expanding due to export controls.
My Predictions: AI VPN Use Will Become "The Most Essential of Essential Needs"
Based on everything above, here's my read on the 2026-2027 trajectory:
1. AI will overtake social media as the #1 reason for VPN use. It may already have — there just isn't authoritative data to confirm it.
2. The VPN user demographic will shift. Previously, the main VPN users were young people, students, and foreign trade workers. Going forward, you'll see more and more people who never thought they'd need a VPN — middle-aged office workers, freelancers, small business owners — picking one up because of AI.
3. VPN quality requirements will rise. Using AI is different from streaming YouTube. AI needs a stable, low-latency connection, reliable API access, and can't tolerate frequent disconnections. The "if it connects at all, good enough" free VPNs simply don't cut it for AI workloads.
4. The double lockout will persist or intensify. The GFW will continue to upgrade. U.S. export controls won't ease up. Chinese users who want to use the world's best AI will need to break through both walls simultaneously.
(Quick plug time)
After all this trend analysis, let me shamelessly mention our own product.
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The free tier works. The paid tier is more stable.
iOS download: App Store
Alright, plug over.
Conclusion: A Wall Can't Block Demand
The Great Firewall can block websites. It can't block demand.
A decade ago, people used VPNs for information freedom. Now, they use VPNs for productivity. The reason has changed, but the conclusion — "VPNs aren't going anywhere" — hasn't.
AI is reshaping how the entire world works. When developers everywhere are using AI to write code, researchers are using AI for analysis, and creators are using AI to boost efficiency, a wall won't stop China's talent — they'll find a way over it.
Because this is no longer about wanting to. It's about having to.
Kai, tech veteran. A VPN industry worker who uses AI to write code every day. Questions welcome at [email protected].
Further Reading: