Access Google from anywhere

Google's block in China is the most well-known, but it's far from the only one. When a government blocks Google, it doesn't just block the search engine. It blocks the entire ecosystem that billions of people depend on daily.

Countries where Google services are blocked or heavily restricted:

• China (all Google services blocked since 2010, including Search, Gmail, Maps, Drive, YouTube, and the Play Store)
• Iran (Google services intermittently blocked, Gmail access restricted)
• North Korea (no public internet access)
• Turkmenistan (heavy internet restrictions, Google services frequently inaccessible)
• Russia (increasing restrictions on Google services, YouTube throttled or blocked)
• Syria, Cuba (partial or intermittent restrictions)

Google itself has reported that its products are blocked in 25 of the 100 countries where it offers services. In China alone, Google went from holding a third of the search market in 2009 to being completely inaccessible by 2014.

For travelers, expats, and students in these countries, losing Google means losing access to email, documents, navigation, and the search engine most of the world relies on.

Why blocking Google is different

Google isn't a single website. It's hundreds of services running across thousands of domains and IP addresses. Countries that block Google have to maintain extensive, constantly updated blocklists and use deep packet inspection to catch traffic to Google's infrastructure.

China's Great Firewall is the most advanced system for doing this. It identifies and blocks Google traffic at the protocol level, not just by domain name. This means simple workarounds like changing your DNS settings or using a basic proxy usually don't work, or stop working quickly.

This is also why many VPNs struggle in China specifically. The Great Firewall detects and blocks standard VPN protocols like OpenVPN and WireGuard. If your VPN only supports one or two protocols, it's likely already blocked.

Why Lantern works where other VPNs don't

Lantern runs more circumvention protocols than any other VPN, including Shadowsocks, VLESS, Hysteria 2, and WireGuard. When China blocks one protocol, Lantern automatically switches to another. No manual configuration, no troubleshooting.

Lantern also uses Smart Routing, which only routes your Google traffic through the VPN. Local sites and apps keep working at full speed because they're not being sent through a remote server.

Access all of Google, not just Search

When Lantern connects you, every Google service works:

• Google Search for finding what you need
• Gmail for email
• Google Maps for navigation
• Google Drive for documents and files
• Google Scholar for academic research
• Google Play for Android apps
• YouTube for video (also has its own unblock page)

If you depend on Google's ecosystem for work, school, or daily life, Lantern keeps it all accessible.

Built for exactly this

Lantern is a nonprofit VPN, built by a 501(c)(3) and trusted by over 250 million people worldwide. It was originally created to help people in censored countries access the open internet, and helping people reach Google in China has been core to its mission since 2013.

It's open source, independently audited, and maintains a strict no-logs policy.

Every Pro subscription helps fund free access for people in the most restricted regions.