What Mullvad Browser actually does
Mullvad Browser was released in April 2023 as a technical collaboration between the Tor Project, a US-based nonprofit, and Mullvad, the Swedish VPN provider. It's been described by its own makers as "a Tor Browser without the Tor Network."
The core product
The Tor Project's engineers did the development work, applying Tor Browser's anti-fingerprinting techniques, including uniform window sizing, known as letterboxing, so that Mullvad Browser users are hard to distinguish from one another, without routing traffic through the Tor network itself. It ships with uBlock Origin built in, isolates third-party cookies per site, and collects no telemetry. The browser is published and distributed by Mullvad VPN AB, whose parent company, Amagicom AB, is 100% owned by its two Swedish founders; there is no equity or ownership stake held by the Tor Project in Mullvad or the browser, despite doing the underlying engineering work.
What's new or notable
What's notable here is less a new feature than the ownership and business-model clarity: Mullvad Browser is free to download and use whether or not you ever pay for Mullvad's VPN service, and Mullvad states plainly that it doesn't earn money from the browser itself, its income comes from the separate VPN product. That's a meaningfully different arrangement from browsers whose free tier is subsidized by data collection or a search-partnership deal; here the browser is closer to a public-interest release sitting alongside a genuinely separate paid product.
Who should use Mullvad Browser
Great fit if…
- Browser fingerprinting is a real concern for you — it uses the same anti-fingerprinting approach as Tor Browser, so many users present near-identical fingerprints to trackers.
- You want strong defaults without configuring anything — uBlock Origin is built in, third-party cookies are isolated per site by default, and there's no telemetry collection to opt out of.
- You already use, or plan to pair it with, a trustworthy VPN — combined with a VPN, it covers both fingerprinting and IP exposure; Mullvad's own VPN is one option but not a requirement.
- You want a desktop browser and don't need it on mobile — it's built for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Skip it if…
- You need your IP address hidden and won't pair it with a VPN — the browser itself doesn't route traffic through Tor or a VPN, so without one your IP is still visible to every site and to your ISP.
- You need it on a phone — there's no official Android or iOS version.
- You're not willing to troubleshoot occasional site breakage — the strict fingerprinting protections, like fixed window sizes and disabled or limited APIs, can break video playback and layouts on some sites until adjusted.
Pricing in detail
Mullvad Browser itself carries no price or paid tier of any kind, independent of Mullvad's separate VPN subscription.
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Mullvad Browser | €0 | Full browser with Tor-derived anti-fingerprinting, built-in uBlock Origin, per-site third-party cookie isolation, and no telemetry; usable with or without Mullvad's paid VPN |
Where it falls short
- No IP-level protection on its own — it doesn't route traffic through Tor or a VPN itself, so without pairing it with a separate VPN, your IP address is still visible to every site you visit and to your ISP.
- No mobile version — there's no official Android or iOS build.
- Fingerprinting defenses can break sites — the strict protections, such as fixed window sizes and disabled or limited APIs, can break video playback and layouts on some sites until adjusted.
Privacy & data
Mullvad Browser's privacy design borrows directly from Tor Browser's hardening work: fingerprint randomization and letterboxed window sizes are meant to make individual users blend into a common crowd rather than stand out through a unique browser fingerprint, which is a different kind of protection from encryption or IP-hiding. It collects no telemetry by design, isolates third-party cookies per site, and ships uBlock Origin built in rather than leaving tracker-blocking to an optional extension. It's also open source, so its behavior can be independently inspected rather than taken purely on trust. The one point worth being precise about is jurisdiction and ownership: the browser is published by Mullvad VPN AB in Sweden, with no ownership stake held by the Tor Project despite its engineers building the underlying hardening techniques, worth knowing if you were assuming the two organizations share the same corporate structure. And because the browser has no network-layer anonymization of its own, its privacy story is specifically about fingerprinting and tracker resistance, not about hiding your IP address or location, which still requires a separate VPN.
How we checked this
This entry is based on Mullvad's own browser page (mullvad.net/en/browser), checked on 2026-09-05, together with the verified verdict, feature list, and known limitations compiled for this entry, including the ownership structure clarified by both Mullvad and the Tor Project. We did not run our own fingerprinting tests or site-compatibility audits; claims about anti-fingerprinting behavior and site breakage reflect what Mullvad documents about its own browser rather than a testing session we performed.
What you get, what you give up
What you get
- Uses the same anti-fingerprinting approach as Tor Browser, so many users present near-identical fingerprints to trackers.
- No telemetry collection, built-in uBlock Origin, and per-site third-party cookie isolation by default.
- Free and open source regardless of whether you use Mullvad's paid VPN — there's no upsell inside the browser itself.
What you give up
- It doesn't route traffic through Tor or a VPN itself — without pairing it with a separate VPN, your IP address is still visible to every site you visit and to your ISP.
- No official mobile version exists for Android or iOS.
- The strict fingerprinting protections (fixed window sizes, disabled or limited APIs) can break video playback and layouts on some sites until adjusted.