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Private Internet Access (PIA) are a well established, reputable Premium VPN provider that have been around for well over a decade. They offer a very thorough VPN service with lots of different locations and servers, but I couldn’t find a complete list on their website of all the server locations they have.
I thought I’d correct that by offering a complete, detailed guide for readers who might be thinking of trying them out, listing all the countries and cities in which they offer servers, plus the major countries where they currently don’t.
Here’s an overview of their servers in brief:
Private Internet Access now has around 10,000 servers in 84 countries worldwide, with the USA and Europe being especially well covered. Around 40 of these countries have geo-located servers, meaning the server is not present in that country, and traffic is routed through another country instead.
But we’ll go much more specific and break down all the servers offered with the PIA service, firstly providing a full list of all servers, and then separating them into the standard physically located VPN servers and co-called geo-located servers, fully differentiating between the two.
A Full List of All Private Internet Access Countries/Servers
Here’s a complete list of all countries where Private Internet Access does have servers, broken down into regions:
- USA – Most servers are here because it’s a USA based company – servers in New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Florida, Texas, Denver, California, Seattle, Las Vegas, Silicon Valley, Phoenix, Trenton, Birmingham, Louisville, Charlotte, Columbia SC, Nashville, Virginia Beach, Charleston, Little Rock, New Orleans, Wichita, Jackson, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Portland Maine, Boston, Concord, Bridgeport, Burlington, Providence, Philadelphia, Billings, Fargo, Portland Oregon, Boise, Indianapolis, Des Moines, Detroit, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Omaha, Milwaukee, Columbus, Sioux Falls, Anchorage, Cheyenne plus Baltimore*, Wilmington*, Salt Lake City* and Honolulu*
- UK – London, Southampton and Manchester (plus Isle of Man*)
- Canada – Ontario, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver
- Australia – Perth, Melbourne and Sydney
- New Zealand
- All major European countries (east and west) – Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal*, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus*, Andorra*, Malta*, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Lichtenstein*, Luxembourg, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Monaco*, Montenegro*, Serbia, Croatia*, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Greece, Macedonia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Moldova
- Scandinavia – Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Greenland*
- Africa – Nigeria*, Morocco*, Egypt*, Algeria*
- South Africa
- India
- China
- Middle East/Asia – UAE, Saudi Arabia*, Qatar*, Turkey*, Kazakhstan*, Mongolia*, Armenia*, Georgia*, Israel, Bangladesh*, Sri Lanka*
- Far East – Malaysia*, Singapore, Philippines*, Hong Kong*, Macao*, Vietnam*, Cambodia*, Japan, Indonesia*, Taiwan*
- Central/South America/Caribbean – Argentina*, Brazil*, Bahamas*, Chile*, Mexico*, Colombia*, Costa Rica*, Panama*, Venezuala*
* Indicates that the server/location is geo-located – more on this below. All non starred locations mean it’s a normal VPN server, where both the server and exit node are physically located in the country.
We’ll now break down Private Internet Access server into normal and geo-located VPN servers, so you can see more precisely what you’ll be getting depending on what servers/location’s you’d be planning to use.
A List of Standard VPN Servers That PIA Has Available
Let’s start off with the simple, run of the mill, normally set up VPN server – where both the server and exit node (the computer that acts as a shield, accessing the internet on your behalf) are physically based in the target country.
Here’s a list of just these PIA servers, plus city location where available:
- USA – Physically located servers in New York City, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Florida (Miami, Houston Texas, Denver, California (Los Angeles), California (Silicon Valley), Seattle, Las Vegas
- UK – London, Southampton and Manchester
- Canada – Ontario, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver
- Australia – Perth, Melbourne and Sydney
- New Zealand – Auckland
- Germany – Frankfurt and Berlin
- France – Paris
- Spain – Madrid
- Italy – Milan and Streaming Optimized server
- Netherlands – Amsterdam
- Austria – Vienna
- Bosnia – Novi Travnik
- Belgium – Brussels
- Albania – Tirana
- Bulgaria – Sofia
- Czech Republic – Prague
- Denmark – Copenhagen and Streaming Optimized
- Estonia – Tallinn
- Finland – Helsinki and Streaming Optimized
- Greece – Athens
- India – Delhi
- Ireland – Dublin
- Israel – Kfar Yona
- Japan – Tokyo and Streaming Optimized
- Hungary – Budapest
- Lithuania – Vilnius
- Latvia – Riga
- Macedonia – Edrjelija
- Moldova – Chisinau
- Norway – Oslo
- Luxembourg
- Poland – Warsaw
- Romania – Bucharest
- Serbia – Belgrade
- Singapore
- Slovakia – Bratislava
- Slovenia – Ljubljana
- South Africa – Johannesburg
- Sweden – Stockholm and Streaming Optimized
- Switzerland – Zurich
- United Arab Emirates – Dubai
- Ukraine – Kiev
Therefore, when using these VPN servers, whenever you do an IP lookup, everything should be located in the target country (IP address, ISP, location). All servers and nodes are physically located in that country, so it’s a more authentic VPN server.
Click here to check current pricing for Private Internet Access.
A List of Geo-Located Servers That PIA Has Available
Now let’s break down more specifically the geo-located servers that Private Internet Access offers. This means that the exit node is located in the target country, but the server through which data is routed is not. It’s usually located in a nearby country, for cost, logistical or regulatory reasons.
All the following PIA servers are geo-located, meaning traffic is routed through a server in a different country, but the exit node and IP address are based in the target country:
- Algeria (Algiers, routed through Amsterdam)
- Andorra (via Amsterdam)
- Armenia (Yerevan, via Amsterdam)
- Bahamas (Nassau, via Hong Kong)
- Bangladesh (Dhaka, via Hong Kong)
- Brazil, (São Paulo, via Miami)
- Cambodia (Phnom Penh, via Singapore)
- Chile (Santiago, via Miami)
- China (Shenzhen, via Hong Kong)
- Colombia (Bogota, via Miami)
- Costa Rica (San Jose, via Miami)
- Cyprus (Nicosia, via Romania)
- Egypt (Cairo, via Bucharest)
- Georgia (Tbilisi, via Amsterdam)
- Greenland (Nuuk, via Amsterdam)
- Indonesia (Jakarta, via Singapore)
- Isle of Man (Douglas, via Ireland or Amsterdam)
- Kazakhstan (Astana, via Amsterdam)
- Liechtenstein (Vaduz, via Amsterdam)
- Macau (via Hong Kong)
- Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, via Singapore)
- Malta (Valletta, via Amsterdam)
- Mexico (Mexico City, via Miami)
- Monaco (via Amsterdam)
- Mongolia (Ulaanbaatar, via Hong Kong)
- Montenegro (Podgorica, via Amsterdam)
- Morocco (Rabat, via Amsterdam)
- Nigeria (Lagos, via Amsterdam)
- Panama (Panama City, via Amsterdam)
- Philippines (Manila, via Singapore)
- Portugal (Lisbon, via Madrid, Spain)
- Qatar (Doha, via Amsterdam)
- Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, via Amsterdam)
- Sri Lanka (Colombo, via Amsterdam)
- Taiwan (Taipei, via Singapore)
- Turkey (Istanbul, via Romania)
- UAE ( Dubai, via Amsterdam)
- Venezuela (Caracas, via Amsterdam)
- Vietnam (Hanoi, via Singapore)
- USA – Baltimore (via New York)
- USA – Wilmington (via New York)
- USA – Honolulu, Hawaii (via Los Angeles)
- USA – Salt Lake City (via Los Angeles)
In the PIA interface, these are the ones that have the globe symbol next to them:
There’s also an option within the PIA settings to not display geo-located servers if you don’t wish to use them.
When using these servers, the location on some IP lookup tools may appear as the intermediary country, which may prevent access to certain streaming services that you might be hoping to access using the VPN server. Performance of these geo-located servers in terms of unlocking streaming services isn’t always reliable. For some websites, geo-located servers work fine and they think you are in the target country, with other websites that use more sophisticated methods, they can detect you are using a geo-located server and access will be restricted.
Where Does Private Internet Access Not Have Servers?
Here’s some notable countries where PIA does NOT currently have servers:
- Russia
- Belarus
- Most African countries (only servers in Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt)
- South America – Paraguay, Uruguay, Nicaragua, Peru
- Middle East – Jordan, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, Oman
- Far East – Thailand, Brunei
(I’ll try to keep this list updated and take countries off as and when servers are added)
If you live in one of these countries and want to use servers based there, then you might need to look for a more specialized Premium VPN option that has more country and server options. With some countries like Iran, Iraq and Syria, it’s hard to find any VPN that has servers there though.
Almost all users are going to be covered just fine though by PIA’s excellent choice of servers on all continents.
Do The Geo-Located Servers Work The Same As Normal Servers?
Now let’s tackle an interesting question on whether the geo-located servers work exactly the same as the normal VPN servers. This is important if you plan to use a country/location that’s only on the geo-located list of PIA servers.
Does using these servers give you exactly the same performance as a normal VPN server? Can you still access websites and streaming services in the target county, just the same as you can with a normal, physically located VPN server?
I tested this quite thoroughly, and the bottom line answer is it depends on what type of websites you are trying to access, how effective PIA’s geo-located servers are.
Here’s a bottom line answer on how effective their geo-located servers seemed to be overall:
Geo-located VPN servers can sometimes work in allowing access to certain websites in the target country, including betting/gambling websites and sports websites. However, geo-located VPN servers do not work so well for accessing streaming services like Netflix, HBO and Disney Plus.
Let me explain a bit more by breaking down what I found when testing different servers:
Betting/Gambling Sites – This is an excellent area to test in, because online gambling websites almost always have restricted territories, where users from certain countries are not allowed to access or register for their services. Testing this in multiple countries, I got 100% accuracy in terms of server use and service access. In other words, if the site was meant to be blocked based on the selected country, it was blocked, and if it was meant to be allowed, then it was allowed, even using geo-located servers that were routed through another country initially. So geo-located VPN servers can be great for accessing these kind of websites.
Streaming Services – More complex and mixed, but leans towards the negative side here. I tested major streaming services using geo-located VPN servers in multiple countries (especially in Europe), and more often than not, access was blocked, even though it was meant to be allowed based on the country server choice. This is especially so for the really big companies like HBO, Netflix and Disney Plus streaming services. I tried PIA’s Portugal geo-located server for example (routed through Spain), and it was ineffective for all three sites. The latter two redirected to the Spanish versions of their sites, indicating that they knew traffic was being routed though Spain, and treated that as the location instead. HBO PT was just blocked entirely. Moreover, it has to be said that with the PIA service in particular, even some of the normal VPN servers didn’t work for streaming services, so there might be a wider problem with their servers being blocked.
So here’s the bottom line answer on how effective geo-located servers seemed to be for accessing streaming services in particular:
As a general rule, geo-located VPN servers are not very reliable for accessing streaming services, even when the correct country is selected. Major streaming sites are now better able to detect when VPN’s are being used, and even more so when traffic is being routed through intermediary servers, such as with geo-located VPN servers.
Click here to check current pricing for Private Internet Access.