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Calcimator

VPN Throughput Calculator

Calculate effective VPN bandwidth with encryption overhead by protocol. Compare IPsec, WireGuard, and OpenVPN performance.

Inputs

Mbps
bytes
Mbps

Results

Effective VPN Throughput

951.3 Mbps

Per-Tunnel Bandwidth

19.03 Mbps

Link-Limited Throughput951.3 Mbps
CPU-Limited Throughput1,400 Mbps
Effective MTU1,427 bytes
Encryption Overhead4.9 %
Packets per Second79,278
CPU Bottleneck (1=Yes)0
How to Use This Calculator
  1. Enter Link Bandwidth, VPN Protocol, and Interface MTU.
  2. Set Concurrent VPN Tunnels and Firewall VPN Rating.
  3. Review Effective VPN Throughput (Mbps) and Per-Tunnel Bandwidth (Mbps).
  4. Use Link-Limited Throughput (Mbps) and CPU-Limited Throughput (Mbps) to inform your decision.
  5. Use the chart to visualize the results and explore different scenarios by adjusting inputs.

What each input means

Link Bandwidth
Underlying link bandwidth in Mbps
VPN Protocol
1=IPsec AES-256, 2=IPsec AES-128, 3=WireGuard, 4=OpenVPN, 5=SSL/TLS
Interface MTU
Maximum transmission unit of the underlying interface
Concurrent VPN Tunnels
Number of concurrent VPN tunnels/connections
Firewall VPN Rating
Firewall/VPN gateway rated VPN throughput from spec sheet

How this is calculated

Formula

Effective BW = min(Link × Payload/MTU, Firewall × CPU Factor)

Worked example, using the default values

  1. Identify Input Parameters
    4 parameters
    Link Bandwidth = 1000, VPN Protocol = 1, Interface MTU = 1500, Concurrent VPN Tunnels = 50 = 5 input(s) provided
  2. Calculate Effective VPN Throughput
    Effective VPN Throughput
    951.3 = 951.3
  3. Calculate Per-Tunnel Bandwidth
    Per-Tunnel Bandwidth
    19.03 = 19.03
  4. Calculate Link-Limited Throughput
    Link-Limited Throughput
    951.3 = 951.3
  5. Calculate CPU-Limited Throughput
    CPU-Limited Throughput
    1400 = 1400

Engine last updated . Checked against 1 independently-derived test — how we verify calculators.

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