Medium Not Working Without VPN in India What’s Really Going On?

🕓 It All Started Around Mid-October

It began around 17th October 2025. One random evening, I tried to open an article on Medium, and suddenly this message popped up:

❌ “This site can’t be reached medium.com took too long to respond.”

At first, I thought maybe my Wi-Fi was slow or my browser had issues. I tried everything — switching to mobile data 📱, clearing cache 🧹, restarting my router 🔄but nothing worked.

Still, no luck.

🌐 Then I Tried a VPN

Out of curiosity, I turned on my VPN and connected to a server outside India.
And guess what? Medium opened instantly. 🟢

That’s when I realized this isn’t a simple internet glitch. Something bigger is going on.

🔍 I Looked Around Online

After searching Reddit and a few tech forums, I found dozens of people across different cities and ISPs in India facing the exact same problem.

Everyone’s saying the same thing
➡️ Medium doesn’t load without VPN
➡️ Works perfectly when connected through VPN

Some people believe it’s an ISP-level block, others think it’s due to government filtering or DNS routing issues.
So far, there’s been no official statement not from Medium, not from any Indian ISP.

🧠 What Might Be Happening

There are a few possible reasons being discussed:

• ⚙️ ISP or regional filtering under the IT Act

• 🌍 Routing or DNS issues between Indian networks and Medium’s servers

• 🚫 Temporary block or misconfiguration on certain networks

Whatever the reason, it’s clearly affecting a large number of users, not just a few isolated ones.

💡 The Only Fix (For Now)

Right now, the only reliable way to access Medium from India is by using a VPN.
Once connected, everything works login, reading, writing, and publishing.

This shows Medium itself is perfectly fine it’s just not reachable from Indian IPs directly.

✍️ Why It Matters

Medium has always been a place where writers, developers, and readers share honest stories, tutorials, and ideas. 💬
If such platforms become inaccessible, it limits open sharing and learning for many.

Even if this is temporary, some clarity or communication from Medium would help a lot.

🙌 Final Thoughts

So for now, the best option is simple use a VPN if you want to access Medium.
Hopefully, this issue gets resolved soon and Indian users can use Medium freely again.

If you’re facing the same issue, try sharing:
📍 Your city
🌐 Your ISP
and whether it works for you with VPN or not maybe we can find a pattern together.

Until then, happy reading (with VPN 😉).

A Note From the Author

Thank you so much for taking the time to read the story. If you found my article helpful and interesting, please share your thoughts in the comment section, and don’t forget to share and clap 😊