Check whether an IP address belongs to a VPN, proxy or datacenter network. Your own IP is loaded automatically, or enter any IPv4 or IPv6 address to check it.
Accepts IPv4 (198.51.100.24) and IPv6 (2001:db8::1). Leave the box empty and press Check to test the connection you are using now.
VPN check result
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What this tool checks: the network that owns the IP address, taken from public routing and IP registry data. A result of "Likely VPN, proxy or datacenter" means the IP belongs to a hosting or VPN provider's network. This tool does not scan for open proxy ports, does not query the Tor exit node list, and cannot see which VPN app, if any, you are running.
A VPN check tells you whether an IP belongs to a VPN, proxy or datacenter network rather than an ordinary home connection. Your own address is checked automatically; paste any other to test it. The tool names the exact term that triggered the flag — the AS number comes from the registry defined in RFC 1930, and websites judge you by the same signal.
Built and tested by Pavel Ahmed · Last updated September 5, 2026
What Is a VPN Checker and What Does It Do?
What does this tool do?
It takes an IP address, either yours or one you type in, and reports the network behind it: the provider name, the organization that holds the address block, the AS number and the approximate location. It then classifies that network as a likely VPN, proxy or datacenter, or as a normal consumer connection, and shows you which detail led to that classification so you can judge it yourself.
Why is this useful?
A VPN is supposed to replace your real IP address with the provider's. If the result still shows your home internet provider while your VPN app says it is connected, the tunnel is not carrying your traffic and your real address is exposed. The same check works in the other direction: if a bank, streaming service or game server keeps blocking you, seeing your IP flagged as a datacenter address explains why, and tells you the fix is to change exit server or switch the VPN off for that site.
Who uses this tool?
• VPN users: to confirm the tunnel is active and leaking nothing before doing anything sensitive on an untrusted network.
• Remote workers: to check that a work VPN is routing traffic through the company network and not straight out to the internet.
• Site owners and moderators: to see whether an address from their logs belongs to a hosting network, which is useful context when reviewing spam or abuse.
• Support and QA teams: to reproduce what a customer sees when their address is classified as a proxy.
• Anyone being blocked: to find out whether the block follows the IP address rather than the account.
How Do You Use the VPN Checker?
1. Open the page with your VPN off. The tool loads your current IP automatically. Note the provider name and location that appear, so you have a baseline to compare against.
2. Turn your VPN on and connect to the country or server you want to use.
3. Leave the box empty and press Check. The tool reads the address your connection is presenting to the internet right now.
4. Compare the two results. The IP address, provider and location should all have changed. If any of them still match your baseline, your VPN is not carrying that traffic.
5. To check someone else's address, type any IPv4 or IPv6 address into the box and press Check. Your own connection is not involved in that lookup.
Example
Open the page with your VPN off and it checks your own address. You should see your broadband or mobile provider's name, its AS number, your own region, and the status No VPN or proxy detected. That is your baseline.
Now paste a datacenter address, such as Google Cloud's 34.102.136.180. The status becomes Likely VPN, proxy or datacenter, and the line underneath names the term that matched and the field it matched in.
That second line is also where the tool admits its own weakness. Google Fiber is an ordinary home internet service, and its network name contains the same word a Google Cloud server does, so it would be flagged in exactly the same way. The matched term is printed so you can recognise a case like that instead of taking the verdict on trust.
How the check works
How Do You Read the Results?
The result list has six fields, plus one extra line whenever the status is anything other than a plain pass. Each one comes from public registry and routing data about the address, not from anything on your device.
Status
Three outcomes are possible. "Likely VPN, proxy or datacenter" means a hosting or VPN term was found, and the line underneath names both the term and the field it was found in: the network provider name, the organization name, or the AS name and network domain. That last field is scanned but is not printed as a row of its own, which is why the match is worth reading rather than assuming it came from the provider name. "No VPN or proxy detected" means none of those names matched. "Cannot be judged" means the lookup came back with no provider, organization or AS name at all, so there was nothing to scan; that is a gap in the registry data rather than a clean bill of health.
IP address
The address that was checked, and whether it is IPv4 or IPv6. With a VPN connected this should be the exit server's address, not yours. If you have both an IPv4 and an IPv6 connection, note that a VPN can cover one and leak the other, so it is worth checking again once you know which version you are being given.
Network provider
The internet service provider or hosting company that operates the network. This is the single most useful field: a familiar broadband or mobile brand means you are on a normal consumer line, while names containing hosting, cloud, server or datacenter mean the address sits in a server facility.
Organization
The entity that holds the address block in the registry records. It often matches the provider, and when the lookup returns only one of the two names this row repeats it deliberately rather than reading empty. On rented infrastructure it can name the VPN company while the provider names the datacenter that hosts it, which is a strong hint on its own.
AS number
The autonomous system number of the network announcing the address, a group of IP networks under one administrative authority as defined in RFC 1930. It is the most stable identifier here: provider names get rewritten, AS numbers rarely change, so this is what large sites use to build their own VPN and datacenter lists.
Location
The approximate city, region and country registered for the address. With a VPN active this should be the exit server's city, which is the quickest way to confirm the server you picked is the one you actually got. Treat city-level data as a rough indication only.
Not available
Any row can read "Not available". It means the registry holds no entry for that field on this address, not that the lookup failed. It is most common on mobile networks and on address blocks that changed hands recently. When the provider, organization and AS name are all missing, the status becomes "Cannot be judged" rather than a pass.
Important accuracy notes
• A flag is not proof of a VPN: the check identifies hosting and datacenter networks. Cloud servers, company networks, university networks, CDNs and web crawlers all live on the same kind of infrastructure and will be flagged too.
• A clean result is not proof of no VPN: providers that route traffic through residential or mobile addresses look exactly like ordinary connections in this data, and no public dataset reliably separates them.
• The match is on words, not on ownership: a name is compared against a list of hosting and VPN terms, so a consumer service whose name happens to contain one of them is flagged, and a hosting company whose name contains none of them is not. The matched term is printed for exactly this reason.
• Tor is not checked here: Tor exit nodes are published by the project itself in the Tor Metrics data, and this tool does not query that list. Many exits happen to be flagged anyway because they run in datacenters.
• No port scanning is performed: the tool does not connect back to the address to look for open proxy ports, so an open proxy on a residential line will not be detected. For that specific question use the Proxy Check tool.
When Would You Use This Tool?
Confirming a VPN is working
Compare the result before and after connecting. A changed IP, provider and city together are the practical proof that the tunnel is carrying your traffic.
Diagnosing a block
When a bank, shop or streaming service refuses to load, checking your address shows whether you are being treated as a datacenter visitor rather than a customer.
Reviewing suspicious traffic
Site owners can check addresses from their logs. Sign-ups arriving from hosting networks are worth a second look, though hosting alone is never proof of abuse.
Choosing a better exit server
If one VPN location is flagged and blocked everywhere, checking a few alternatives shows which ones sit on cleaner networks before you commit to using them.
Checking a work connection
On a corporate VPN the result should show your employer's network or its hosting provider. Seeing your home ISP instead means the split tunnel is sending this traffic outside the company.
Verifying public Wi-Fi safety steps
Before working on hotel or airport Wi-Fi, one check confirms the VPN reconnected after the captive portal, which is exactly where tunnels tend to drop silently.
How Do the Detection Methods Compare?
Detection methods differ in what they can see, and none of them observes the tunnel itself. The table below sets out the signal each method uses, what it is good at, and where it fails. This tool uses the first row only.
| Method | Signal used | Reliability | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS ownership | Which network announces the address, and who owns it | Good for datacenters | Cannot tell a VPN apart from any other server in the same facility |
| Commercial IP lists | Paid feeds of known VPN and proxy exit addresses | Higher, at a cost | Goes stale as providers rotate addresses; false positives persist |
| Port and protocol probing | Connecting back to the address to find open proxy services | Narrow but definite | Only finds misconfigured open proxies; firewalls hide the rest |
| Timing and latency analysis | Round-trip time that does not fit the claimed location | Circumstantial | Congestion and poor routing produce the same symptom |
| Tor exit node list | The public list published by Tor Metrics | Accurate for Tor only | Says nothing about VPNs, and bridges are deliberately unlisted |
About the data
Results come from public IP registry and routing data through our own lookup service. That data is maintained by network operators and third parties, so it can be incomplete or out of date, particularly for recently reassigned address blocks and for mobile networks. Nothing here should be used as the sole basis for blocking a user, refusing a transaction or any other consequential decision. Treat it as one signal among several.