Pick a server. Any server. For the first time. Firefox fixed a blind spot in their free VPN service. Previously it just guessed. Now it lets you choose.
The update comes with Firefox 151. That is version number one hundred and fifty one since 2004. You can now pick specific locations from Mozilla’s network. The options are limited but real. United States. UK. Canada. France. Germany.
If you don’t care where you land, keep the default setting. The browser will automatically snap to the server nearest to your physical location. Lazy. Convenient.
Other VPN giants have way more options. Proton has 145 countries. NordVPN covers 135. ExpressVPN sits at 105. Even Surfshark offers 100. Firefox promised more countries are coming. They just haven’t arrived yet.
Why bother picking a location at all?
Geo-blocking. Simple as that. You live in the US but connect to a server in Germany. Suddenly your IP address lies for you. You appear German to websites.
A German stream might be free there. Expensive here. By masking your true location you slip past those paywalls. Media providers get tricked. You get content. It is not illegal to be sneaky about bandwidth, but it does blur lines.
Over a million people have signed up for the free tier since it launched in March. Mozilla sees this as a win.
Customers want VPN protections that are built in and easy to use.
A single click turns on IP protection inside the browser. No ads injected. No data selling. Just privacy.
The catch is the data cap
CNET still only recommends Proton VPN’s free tier among major options. Proton doesn’t cap monthly usage or sell data. Firefox does cap it. Hard cap.
You get 50GB a month. That sounds like a lot until you think about streaming. One hour of HD video burns through 3GB. Four movies and you are done. Even music adds up depending on quality. 1000MB makes a GB. Math hurts here.
Half of all VPN users opt for free versions, says Surfshark. Risky business. Many free services log your activity or pack malware into the handshake. Firefox claims they don’t do this. Mozilla owns the browser and the service. The incentives align better than with shady third-party apps.
Getting it running requires effort though. Download Firefox on desktop or phone. Click the VPN icon in the top right. Sign up or log in to a Mozilla account. Click turn on protection.
It works on Windows. macOS. Linux. Android. iOS. Even iPadOS. Everywhere you likely are already using Firefox anyway.
Shake to Summarize arrives
Firefox 151 brings other gifts to mobile. Translation. Voice search. And that viral feature from September. Shake to Summarize.
Time magazine named it a special mention in 2025 inventions. You literally shake your phone. The page condenses. A summary appears. Magic or gimmick? Depending on how tired you are.
It launched on iOS first. Now Android users get it too. English is the only option for Android currently. iOS users can use it in seven languages including Japanese, Portuguese and French.
More countries for the VPN. More languages for the summarizer.
Mozilla is filling in the map one tile at a time. I wonder how many servers they can fit into a 50GB box.
