How to hide your IP address

Every website you visit can see your public IP address. That is not a flaw or a leak: it is simply how the internet works. A server needs to know where to send the page you asked for, the same way a mail carrier needs a return address. But your IP also reveals a rough idea of where you are and which internet provider you use, and it acts as a semi-stable identifier that sites and advertisers can log. For those reasons, plenty of people have perfectly ordinary motives for hiding it.

This guide walks through the realistic options, what each one actually protects, and, just as important, what none of them protect. There is a lot of overheated marketing in this space, so the goal here is a sober comparison rather than a sales pitch.

Why people hide their IP address

• Privacy from websites and advertisers. Your IP is one of several signals used to build a profile of you across sites. Hiding it removes one piece of that puzzle (though not the whole puzzle, as we will see below).
• Getting around geo-blocks. Streaming services, news sites, and online shops often show different content, or refuse access entirely, based on the country your IP maps to. Routing your traffic through another country changes what they see.
• Untrusted networks. On public Wi-Fi in an airport or cafe, the network operator can observe which sites you connect to. An encrypted tunnel hides that from the local network.
• Sensitive research. Journalists, researchers, and people in restrictive environments may not want their identity or location associated with what they read.

Notice what is not on that list: hiding your IP is rarely about stopping hackers. As we explain in what can someone do with your IP, an IP address alone gives an attacker very little to work with.

Method 1: VPN (virtual private network)

A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and a server run by the VPN operator. All your internet traffic travels through that tunnel, and websites see the VPN server's IP address instead of yours. Your internet provider can see that you are connected to a VPN, but not which sites you visit through it.

That is genuinely useful, but understand the trade: you are not removing trust, you are moving it. Your internet provider can no longer see your browsing, but the VPN operator now can. A VPN company sits in exactly the position your ISP used to occupy. Claims like "no logs" are marketing statements that you mostly have to take on faith, though some providers have had those claims tested by independent audits or court cases. When choosing one, look at jurisdiction, audit history, and business model rather than advertising. Be especially wary of free VPNs: running servers costs money, and if you are not paying, your browsing data may be the product.

Speed impact is usually modest with a nearby server. A VPN does not make you anonymous in any strong sense: you typically pay with a card or account tied to your identity.

Method 2: Proxy server

A proxy also forwards your traffic so sites see the proxy's IP instead of yours. The key difference from a VPN: a typical proxy is configured per application (usually just your browser) and usually adds no encryption of its own. Your ISP, and anyone running a free proxy, can still read unencrypted traffic passing through. HTTPS traffic stays encrypted end to end either way, but the proxy still sees which sites you visit.

Proxies are fine for quick, low-stakes tasks like checking how a page looks from another country. Free public proxies are best avoided for anything involving logins, since you have no idea who operates them.

Method 3: Tor

Tor (The Onion Router) bounces your traffic through three volunteer-run relays, each of which only knows the previous and next hop. No single relay sees both who you are and what you are visiting. Of all mainstream options, Tor offers the strongest anonymity, and it is free.

The trade-offs are real. Tor is noticeably slow because of the multi-hop routing. Many sites block or challenge Tor users with endless CAPTCHAs. And the final relay, called the exit node, can see your traffic if it is not HTTPS-encrypted, so never log in to sensitive accounts over plain HTTP through Tor. Use the official Tor Browser rather than trying to route other apps through it: the browser is hardened against the fingerprinting tricks that would otherwise unmask you.

Method 4: Just get a new IP from your ISP

If your goal is simply to have a different IP, not a hidden one, you may not need any tools at all. Most home connections use a dynamic IP address that your ISP assigns from a pool. Turning your router off for a few minutes (sometimes longer, depending on the ISP's lease times) often gets you a fresh address when it reconnects. Some ISPs hand back the same address for weeks, so this is not guaranteed, but it costs nothing to try.

Similarly, switching your phone from Wi-Fi to mobile data instantly puts you on a completely different IP from your carrier's pool. Neither trick hides anything, but both are handy if a game server or forum has temporarily blocked your current address.

Comparison at a glance

What hiding your IP does not do

This is the part most guides skip. Your IP address is only one of many ways you are tracked online, and often not even the most important one:

• Cookies still identify you. If you log in to a site, or it stored a cookie last week, it knows exactly who you are regardless of which IP you arrive from.
• Browser fingerprinting still works. Your combination of screen size, installed fonts, time zone, language, and dozens of other attributes can be distinctive enough to recognize you without any cookie or IP. You can see some of what your browser broadcasts on our browser info tool.
• Your accounts still tie activity together. Browsing while signed in to a search or social account links everything to that account, VPN or not.
• It does not protect you from malware or phishing. A malicious download or a fake login page works exactly the same behind a VPN.

A realistic mental model: hiding your IP changes where you appear to connect from. It does not, by itself, change who the internet thinks you are.

How to check that it worked

Verifying is simple. Note your current public IP, enable your VPN, proxy, or Tor, and then check again on our homepage. If the address (and usually the listed country and provider) has changed, the basic setup works. For a deeper look at what any given address reveals, run it through the IP lookup tool.

Two extra checks are worth doing if privacy matters to you. First, confirm your DNS requests go through the tunnel too; a misconfigured VPN can leak them to your ISP. Most reputable VPN apps handle this automatically, but it is the most common leak. Second, check WebRTC: some browsers can expose your real address through it, and most VPN apps or browser settings let you disable or mask it.

The bottom line

Hiding your IP is easy, useful, and widely misunderstood. A VPN is the practical everyday choice if you accept shifting trust to its operator. Tor is the serious option when anonymity genuinely matters and speed does not. A proxy suits quick one-off jobs, and a router reboot is all you need when you just want a different address. None of them make you invisible, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Pair whichever method you choose with good habits, such as HTTPS everywhere, sensible cookie settings, and a little skepticism, and you will get most of the privacy benefit available.