The Tor Project, the nonprofit organization behind one of the world’s most widely used anonymity networks, continued to receive financial backing from the US government during the 2023–2024 fiscal year. Newly released financial records show that federal agencies contributed more than $2.5 million to Tor over the period, a figure that remains significant but reflects a steady decline in the organization’s reliance on government funding.
According to the disclosures, US government contributions accounted for roughly 35 percent of Tor’s total revenue of $7.28 million. That share marks a clear reduction from earlier years, when government grants made up the majority of the organization’s budget. The shift underscores Tor’s long-running effort to reduce dependence on any single funding source while sustaining its global mission of providing private and uncensored internet access.
State Department Drives Majority of Federal Contributions
The bulk of US government funding flowed through the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), which provided $2.12 million during the fiscal year. The bureau has historically supported projects aimed at promoting internet freedom and secure communications in regions where online access is tightly controlled.
Funding from DRL supported a range of Tor initiatives focused on users living under heavy censorship. These included work to expand access to the Tor network in China, Hong Kong, and Tibet, areas where internet restrictions and surveillance are particularly aggressive. Resources were also allocated to the development of a Tor-based VPN application for Android, a move intended to make Tor’s tools more accessible to mobile users facing network blocks or monitoring.
Other projects supported through this funding addressed threats to the Tor network itself. Efforts to detect and counter malicious Tor relays were prioritized, alongside continued development of Arti, a Rust-based reimplementation of Tor’s core software. Arti is designed to strengthen security, improve long-term maintainability, and modernize the network’s underlying infrastructure.
Open Technology Fund and Research-Oriented Grants
In addition to State Department funding, the Tor Project received $340,681 through the Open Technology Fund (OTF). These grants supported targeted initiatives, including the setup and maintenance of onion services for media organizations affiliated with the US Agency for Global Media. Funding also helped provide assistance to Tor users in Turkmenistan, a country with some of the world’s most restrictive internet controls.
OTF funding also contributed to ongoing maintenance of the Tails operating system, a privacy-focused Linux distribution that routes internet traffic through Tor by default and is widely used by journalists, activists, and security researchers.
Smaller grants rounded out the organization’s funding mix. The International Republican Institute contributed $80,029, while a collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation and Georgetown University provided $14,715. That funding supported simulation research using the Shadow Simulator, a tool that allows researchers to analyze how changes to network design might affect performance and security.
Government Funding Declines as Share of Total Revenue
While federal support remains an important component of Tor’s budget, the organization emphasized that its overall reliance on government funding has fallen sharply. In the 2021–2022 fiscal period, government sources accounted for more than 53 percent of total revenue. By 2023–2024, that figure had dropped to just over one-third.
This reduction reflects a deliberate strategy to diversify Tor’s income streams amid ongoing scrutiny of its historical ties to US government funding. Given Tor’s role as a privacy and anonymity tool used worldwide—including in countries critical of US foreign policy—the source of its funding has long been a subject of debate.
Private and Individual Support Continues to Grow
As government funding declined proportionally, support from private organizations and individuals increased. Corporate and nonprofit contributions now make up more than 21 percent of Tor’s total revenue. Key supporters during the period included OpenSats, Mullvad, and Proton, organizations closely aligned with privacy and open-source principles.
Individual donations also played a growing role, totaling more than $1.1 million during the fiscal year. These contributions represented roughly 15.6 percent of total revenue, highlighting continued grassroots backing from Tor users and privacy advocates around the world.
Tor also received non-US government funding, primarily from Sweden’s Sida development agency, further reducing the organization’s dependence on US-based sources.
Mission, Origins, and Independent Operations
The Tor Project was founded in 2006 as a nonprofit organization and is responsible for maintaining the Tor anonymity network and related tools such as the Tor Browser and Onion Services. Its stated mission is to enable private, censorship-resistant internet access, particularly for users facing repression, surveillance, or restricted connectivity.
Although Tor’s early development originated from research conducted at the US Naval Research Laboratory, the organization now operates independently. Its software is developed openly, governed by a social contract, and made available under open-source licenses that allow anyone to inspect or contribute to the code.
Community Support Extends Beyond Cash
Beyond formal funding, Tor relies heavily on community contributions. During the 2023–2024 fiscal year, in-kind donations were valued at more than $768,000. These included volunteer development work, donated server infrastructure, and translation efforts that help make Tor’s tools accessible in multiple languages.
The organization noted that this figure likely understates the true value of community support, as the time and operational costs contributed by Tor relay operators—who provide bandwidth and infrastructure essential to the network—are not fully captured in financial reports.
