VPN Test

This page runs an honest, heuristic VPN check: it compares your device's timezone with the timezone of your IP address and looks at who operates your network. It reports signals — it cannot prove or disprove that you are using a VPN.

How this VPN check works

• Timezone comparison: your operating system knows your local timezone; your IP address maps to a timezone too. When they disagree, your traffic may be exiting in a different region than where you are sitting — a common VPN sign. It also happens when you simply travel, so it is a hint, not proof.
• Network organization: home connections belong to consumer ISPs, while most VPN exits run in datacenters. We read the organization and ASN behind your connection from Cloudflare's edge — no third-party lookup and your IP is never sent anywhere — and flag names typical of hosting or VPN providers.

What this test cannot do

No website can definitively detect a VPN. A quality VPN exit in your own city on an unremarkable network will pass every heuristic; conversely, a mislabeled ISP or a trip abroad can trigger false signals. Treat the verdict as a starting point, not a fact.

How to check whether your VPN is actually working

"Connected" in a VPN app only means the tunnel handshake succeeded. It does not prove that all your traffic is going through it. Run this four-step check to confirm:

1. Compare your IP before and after. Disconnect the VPN and note the address on the homepage. Reconnect and reload. If the address is unchanged, the tunnel is not carrying your web traffic at all — the single clearest failure.
2. Check the exit location. Run an IP lookup on the new address. It should resolve to the country you selected in the app. A mismatch usually means the provider's geolocation data is stale rather than that the VPN failed, but it matters if you chose the server for a specific region.
3. Test for WebRTC leaks. Browsers can expose your real address through WebRTC even while a VPN is connected, completely bypassing the tunnel. The WebRTC leak test is the only one of these checks that inspects the browser rather than the network.
4. Test for IPv6 leaks. Many VPNs tunnel only IPv4. If your connection has IPv6 and the VPN does not carry it, IPv6 requests leave outside the tunnel with your real address. Run the IPv6 test with the VPN connected — a well-behaved client either tunnels IPv6 or disables it entirely, so seeing your own ISP's IPv6 address here is a genuine leak.

What a working VPN looks like

Common reasons a VPN silently fails

• Split tunnelling is on. Some apps route only selected applications through the VPN by default. Your browser may not be one of them.
• The tunnel dropped without a kill switch. If the connection breaks, traffic falls back to your normal connection instantly and silently. A kill switch blocks all traffic instead — turn it on if the app offers it.
• IPv6 was left enabled but untunnelled. The classic leak described above.
• The browser is using a different network path. A proxy extension, a corporate profile, or a secure-DNS setting can steer some traffic around the tunnel.
• You are on a captive portal. Hotel and airport networks often need to be cleared before the tunnel establishes, and some apps report "connected" prematurely.

Why sites can still tell you are using a VPN

Detection does not depend on breaking the encryption. Services compare your address against published ranges of known hosting and VPN providers, look at whether the ASN belongs to a datacenter rather than a consumer ISP, and watch for many accounts arriving from one address. This is also why streaming platforms block some VPN exits: they are matching address lists, not analysing your traffic. Encryption protects the content of your connection; it does not hide the fact that you connected from a datacenter address.

Complementary checks

If you use a VPN, also run the WebRTC leak test (WebRTC can bypass VPN tunnels) and the IPv6 test (many VPNs tunnel only IPv4, letting IPv6 traffic escape). To verify your exit location, use the IP lookup, and see how to hide your IP for how VPNs compare with proxies and Tor.