Is a VPN recommended on my iPad Air with iPadOS 18.3.2?

Only you can decide if a VPN is worthwhile. With the benefit of a little knowledge and objective guidance, you will be better equipped to determine the relative risk and benefit.

To be clear, there is no binary answer to the question of whether or not you should you should or should not use a VPN connection. Are you running your own VPN Gateway? Perhaps you are instead contemplating ising a Commercial VPN Service? Something else? Arguably, if the benefits and limitations are not properly understood, using a VPN is perhaps best avoided.

VPNs do have their place in the overall security jigsaw when used within their limitations. However, unless you understand what they can and can't protect - and in what circumstances - a VPN alone should not be considered to offer a universal privacy/security solution.

Much, but not all, of your internet traffic is already encrypted by TLS/SSL. A VPN can provide additional protection for your unencrypted network traffic. I'll cover this in a little more detail shortly.

When using a VPN Service, all your traffic is routed via the VPN tunnel - and is protected from interception and monitoring as it traverses the VPN connection from your protected device to the VPN Gateway provided by the VPN Service Operator. At the VPN Gateway, all your traffic is delivered to and traverses the internet as normal; while your TLS/SSL traffic remains encrypted, the unencrypted protocol traffic is again exposed between the Gateway and its ultimate destination - just as it would otherwise have been without benefit of the VPN wrapper.

Insofar as public WiFi hotspots or networks are concerned, where your internet traffic can be both monitored and potentially manipulated by bad/malicious actors, use of a properly configured reputable VPN Service is recommended by knowledgable Infosec Professionals.

Public networks have a considerably higher risk profile than private networks - the latter, by design, being considerably more secure. Unknown to many, while much of your internet traffic is end-to-encrypted, some protocols (e.g., DNS) is natively transmitted “in-clear”. Unencrypted protocols can leak considerable information about your device and your activities; not only can this traffic be intercepted and analysed by anyone that shares the same network, this traffic can be manipulated and altered. 

In addition to bad actors who offer greatest threat, the WiFi Network Operator is also in a privileged position to monitor all unencrypted network traffic that traverses their network.

In such circumstances, employing a correctly configured VPN ensures that all your traffic that is transmitted on the “untrusted” public network cannot be monitored or manipulated. While a VPN is not a panacea - and will not provide end-to-end encryption services - it will provide additional security over the least-trusted (public) network connection.

Some Contributors will advocate that VPNs offer little or no protection - as the VPN Gateway operator has access to data that terminates at the VPN Gateway prior to delivery to the internet. However, the VPN Gateway operator can only see your unencrypted protocol traffic - and can see no more than your ISP.

In summary, a VPN connection via a VPN Service can provide additional protection for the least-trusted network element - but does not provide full end-to-end security. Choose your VPN Service Operator with care, as some are far less trustworthy than others.

As a rule of thumb, avoid all free VPN Services. VPNs cost money to run; if you are not paying money for service, it is monetised by the Service Operator by other means that are not in your interests. By contrast, a reputable VPN Service Operator receives sufficient income from service subscriptions - and therefore has no interest in your traffic. Clearly, this is an exercise in trust - but remember that you are using the VPN to protect vulnerable traffic from interception and manipulation by other malicious actors, not the VPN Service Operator.

Be aware that Apple has introduced additional protection for its most recent versions of iOS/iPadOS - at least for those that subscribe to iCloud+ - by way of its Private Relay service. This service uses ODoH (a variation of DoH - DNS over https) that can provide additional security for DNS traffic. As already mentioned, this facility is only available - when enabled - to iCloud+ subscribers. This said, many public WiFi network and WiFi hotspot networks block DoH and DoT traffic - and may require this protection to be disabled prior to allowing access to the network.

It might be necessary in specific cases to get inside a network belonging to your employer or your school, but they would inform you of that fact.

Another special case that could make a VPN appropriate is accessing computers inside your home network from a remote location. That would be something you had set up for yourself (or perhaps paid somebody to set up for you).

No

I concur with Johnathan Burger.

See also:

Don't Use VPN Services