How to Hide Your IP Address: 6 Methods Compared

Every website you visit can see your IP address. It’s how a site guesses your city before you type anything, and it’s one of the signals advertisers use to recognize you from one visit to the next.

If you’re wondering how to hide your IP address, the answer is to route your traffic through another server, so websites see that server’s address instead of yours. For everyday use, a VPN is the most practical way to do it because it also encrypts your traffic; Tor Browser and proxy servers are the main alternatives.

Below, we compare six common methods, show you how to check your IP before and after, and explain the leaks and tracking techniques that can still give you away.

What is an IP address, and what does it reveal?

An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a number assigned to your internet connection so data can find its way back to you. The older IPv4 format looks like 203.0.113.42, while the newer IPv6 format is longer, like 2001:db8::1.

At home, your internet service provider (ISP) assigns a public IP address to your router, and the devices on your network typically share that one IPv4 address. On mobile data, your carrier assigns the address, and it’s often shared with many other customers.

On its own, your public IP address reveals:

• Your ISP or mobile carrier.
• An approximate location, usually a city or region, and sometimes not even that accurately.
• A rough link between your visits, as long as your address stays the same.

It doesn’t reveal your name or street address by itself. Your ISP does know which customer was using an address at a given time, though, and that record can be obtained through legal processes such as a court order.

Why hide your IP address?

There are plenty of everyday, legitimate reasons:

• Location privacy: keep websites and apps from logging roughly where you are.
• Less tracking: make it harder for advertisers and data brokers to tie your activity together across sites.
• Protection from attacks: gamers and streamers sometimes hide their IP so people they meet online can’t flood their home connection with junk traffic, known as a denial-of-service attack.
• Privacy on shared networks: some methods, notably VPNs, also encrypt your traffic so the network owner can’t see what you’re doing.

How to hide your IP address: 6 methods

Each of these methods masks your IP address in a different way, and they’re not equally private. Here’s how each one works and where it falls short.

1. Use a VPN

A VPN (virtual private network) app creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and a VPN server. Websites see the server’s IP address instead of yours, and your Wi-Fi owner and ISP see only encrypted traffic heading to the VPN.

• Pros: covers every app on your device, encrypts your traffic and usually takes one tap once installed.
• Cons: you’re shifting trust to the VPN provider, which can see your real IP address, and some websites block or challenge VPN addresses. Quality varies a lot, so learn how to spot a trustworthy free VPN before you pick one.

2. Use Tor Browser

Tor Browser sends your traffic through three relays run by volunteers, wrapping it in layers of encryption. No single relay knows both who you are and what you’re visiting, and websites see only the last relay’s IP address. Download it only from the Tor Project’s website.

• Pros: free, with a strong privacy design that doesn’t depend on trusting one company.
• Cons: noticeably slower than a VPN, and some sites block Tor or add extra CAPTCHAs. It only covers traffic inside Tor Browser, and the last relay can see unencrypted traffic, so stick to HTTPS sites.

3. Use a proxy server

A proxy is a middleman server that forwards requests from a single app, usually your browser. The website sees the proxy’s IP address instead of yours.

• Pros: quick to set up for one browser or app, and fine for low-stakes tasks.
• Cons: many proxies don’t encrypt your traffic, and only apps configured to use the proxy are covered. Free web proxies may also log your activity or inject ads. Our VPN vs proxy comparison covers the differences in detail.

4. Switch to mobile data or a phone hotspot

Turn off Wi-Fi on your phone, or connect your laptop to your phone’s hotspot, and your traffic leaves through your mobile carrier’s network with a different IP address.

• Pros: instant, free if your plan includes data, and no setup.
• Cons: it changes your IP rather than hiding you. Your carrier knows exactly who you are, the new address still points to your general area, and hotspot use eats into your data allowance.

5. Use public Wi-Fi

On a cafe, library or hotel network, websites see the venue’s IP address instead of your home’s.

• Pros: your home IP address stays hidden from the sites you visit.
• Cons: the network owner can see which sites you connect to, and poorly secured or fake hotspots put your data at greater risk.

6. Restart your router

Many ISPs assign dynamic IP addresses that change from time to time. Turning your router off for a while and back on sometimes gets you a new one, which makes this the simplest answer to how to change your IP address.

• Pros: free and takes a few minutes.
• Cons: it often doesn’t work, because many ISPs hand back the same address. Even when it does, the new address still belongs to your ISP and your area, so it hides nothing.

Which way to hide your IP address is best?

For most people, a VPN strikes the best balance: it hides your IP address from every app on your device and encrypts your traffic with almost no effort. Tor Browser is the stronger choice when privacy matters more than speed.

How to check your IP address before and after

Testing takes less than a minute:

1. With your chosen method turned off, search “what is my IP address”. Some search engines show your public IP right at the top; otherwise, open one of the IP lookup sites in the results.
2. Note the address and the approximate location it shows.
3. Turn on your VPN (or open Tor Browser, or enable your proxy) and check again in the same browser or app.
4. If the address and location have changed, websites now see the new address instead of yours.

Leaks that can expose your real IP address anyway

Even with a VPN or proxy switched on, three common leaks can reveal your real IP address or your browsing:

• WebRTC leaks. WebRTC is the browser technology behind in-browser voice and video calls. To connect people directly, it can discover your device’s IP addresses, and in some setups, especially with browser-based proxies or extensions, a website can read your real one.
• DNS leaks. DNS is the internet’s address book: before loading a site, your device looks up its numeric address. If those lookups bypass the tunnel and go to your ISP’s DNS servers, your ISP sees every site you look up, along with your real IP address. Here’s how to test for a DNS leak and fix it.
• IPv6 leaks. If your network supports IPv6 but your VPN only tunnels IPv4, IPv6 traffic can travel outside the tunnel and reveal your real IPv6 address.

You can catch all three with free online tests in about ten minutes. Our step-by-step guide on how to check if your VPN is working walks through each one.

What hiding your IP address doesn’t do

A hidden IP address is one layer of privacy, not complete protection. Websites still have other ways to recognize you:

• Cookies let sites remember your browser between visits.
• Logins identify you directly: once you sign in to an account, the site knows it’s you, whatever your IP address says.
• Browser fingerprinting combines details like your screen size, installed fonts, browser version and settings into a profile that can be surprisingly unique.

Hiding your IP address also won’t protect you from phishing, malware or weak passwords, and it doesn’t make you anonymous. Private browsing doesn’t help here either: as our comparison of incognito mode vs a VPN explains, incognito windows don’t change your IP address at all.

The bottom line

The most reliable way to hide your IP address is to route your traffic through a server you choose: a VPN for everyday use, or Tor Browser when privacy matters more than speed. Switching networks or restarting your router only changes your IP, and public Wi-Fi adds more risk than it removes. Whichever method you use, check your IP before and after, and test for leaks.

If you want a free, simple option, OqusFreeVPN routes your traffic through an encrypted tunnel so websites see the VPN location’s IP address instead of yours, with no account and no ads. Apps for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and Linux are rolling out in Early Access; see the download page for the latest.