Turkmenistan
VPN that works in Turkmenistan.
Yes. In our tests AkcaVPN connects from Turkmenistan on home Wi-Fi. Blocks there change often, so we cannot promise it works on every network every day. This page also covers how to install it when app stores are blocked, and what to send someone who lives there.
What is blocked, and why most VPNs stop working
Most apps people use to talk to each other are blocked, including WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook. In 2023 even IMO, the last messenger that still worked, stopped working. All internet there runs through state-owned networks: Turkmentelecom, the mobile operator TMCELL and the Ashgabat city telephone network.
A big reason VPNs stop working there is simpler than detection: their servers sit in blocked address ranges. In 2023 a local news site reported that more than three billion of the world's four billion IPv4 addresses were blocked. Cloudflare later saw in its own traffic data that over three billion of them became reachable again in mid 2024, and in 2025 whole blocks were cut off again. A VPN server in one of those ranges cannot be reached at all.
Using a VPN there carries a risk you should know about. People applying for home internet have been told to swear on the Koran not to use one, and in 2023 local media reported fines of 1,500 manats for VPN use in the Mary region.
Sources: RFE/RL, August 2023. RIPE NCC. turkmen.news, August 2023. Cloudflare, November 2025. Times of Central Asia, July 2025. RFE/RL, August 2021.
How to install AkcaVPN if app stores are blocked
Start with our download page. Phones install from Google Play or the App Store. Windows and Mac get an installer file.
Here is what we know. In June 2025 a handful of tests by OONI, an open project that measures internet blocking, could open Google Play and the App Store from Turkmenistan. That does not prove downloads work, and it can change from month to month. Whether this site opens there depends on whether our hosting addresses are blocked at the time.
For Windows and Mac, the installer is a single file. Someone abroad can download it from our download page and send it to you.
Source: OONI Explorer, Turkmenistan.
If you are helping someone there
You can set everything up from abroad. AkcaVPN needs no email and no account. A 16-digit key is all it takes.
- Get a key for them at dash.akca.network/subscribe and pay from where you live. Or skip this step and let them use the free plan.
- Send them the key and the link to our download page, however you usually reach them. For Windows or Mac you can send the installer file itself.
- Once they are connected, ask them to open Is my VPN working?. It checks in a few seconds that nothing leaks around the VPN.
What it costs
Everyone gets 777 MB a day for free, with no card. Paid plans are $5.99 a month, $14.99 for 3 months or $39.99 a year. Nothing renews by itself.
The 3 free months for people in Turkmenistan that we wrote about in February are not open yet. Until they are, the free plan above costs nothing and needs no card.
Check your connection
Connected already? The DNS leak test shows whether your lookups still go to Turkmentelecom, and the WebRTC leak test shows whether your browser gives away your real address.