nordvpn CLI: Quick Start

Quick start

The NordVPN CLI is a lightweight way to manage VPN connections from the terminal. If you’re new, start by authenticating and then try a simple connect.

nordvpn login

If you already have a session, you can skip login and go straight to status.

nordvpn status

Connect to a server

The simplest way is to connect to the nearest NordVPN server. This uses automatic server selection.

nordvpn connect

If you want to specify a country, you can pass the country code or name. For example, to connect to Germany:

nordvpn connect Germany

To connect to a specific city within a country, provide both country and city:

nordvpn connect Germany Berlin

List options

See what countries are available before connecting.

nordvpn countries

Autoconnect

If you want NordVPN to connect automatically on startup or when the interface comes up, enable autoconnect.

nordvpn set autoconnect on

Common pitfalls

  • You must be logged in to connect to VPN servers. If you see authentication errors, run nordvpn login again.
  • Country or city names are not case-sensitive, but spelling must match the available options shown by nordvpn countries.
  • When using connect with both country and city, ensure both exist in the list; otherwise the command will fail.
  • If a command seems stuck or unresponsive, try running with —help to show available options, or check your network reachability.

Quick reference cheatsheet

  • Interactive login: nordvpn login
  • Show status: nordvpn status
  • Connect to nearest server: nordvpn connect
  • Connect to a country: nordvpn connect Germany
  • Connect to a city: nordvpn connect Germany Berlin
  • Turn on autoconnect: nordvpn set autoconnect on

What to do next

Explore more flags and options with:

nordvpn --help

Or consult the official Linux download page for additional setup steps and platform notes: https://nordvpn.com/download/linux/

See Also