Does a VPN hide my IP address?
Also asked as: Does a VPN change my IP? · Can websites see my real IP with a VPN?
Direct answer
Yes. With the tunnel up, every website and app sees the VPN server's IP address and country instead of yours; your real address is visible only to the VPN provider. The two ways it can still leak are a DNS or WebRTC request that bypasses the tunnel, and both are a thirty-second check with a leak test.
What the site sees
Every connection leaves the VPN server under the server's address, so the site logs that address, geolocates it to the server's city, and treats you as a visitor from there. Your own address never reaches the site. The provider can see it, because it has to know where to send the replies — which is the reason the provider's logging policy is the thing to read.
The three leaks to rule out
DNS: if your device sends name lookups to your ISP's resolver outside the tunnel, the ISP still sees every domain you visit even though the traffic itself is hidden. A correctly configured VPN sends DNS through the tunnel.
WebRTC: browsers can expose a local or public address through WebRTC even with a VPN up. It is a browser setting, not a VPN setting.
IPv6: a VPN that tunnels IPv4 but leaves IPv6 alone leaks your IPv6 address on networks that have one.
Check it yourself
The VPNmine tools show what a site actually sees: the IP checker reports your exit address and country, the DNS leak test shows which resolvers your lookups reach, and the WebRTC leak test shows what your browser exposes. All three run in the browser with nothing to install and store nothing.
Related questions
- Does a VPN make me anonymous?A VPN hides your address and your traffic from your network. It does not make you anonymous: accounts, cookies, fingerprinting and the provider still know.
- What is a DNS leak?A DNS leak sends your name lookups outside the VPN tunnel, so your ISP still sees every domain you visit. How it happens, how to test it, how to fix it.
- Does a VPN make internet browsing private?A VPN hides browsing from your network and ISP and hides your address from sites. It does not hide you from accounts, or from the VPN provider itself.
- How can I get a US IP address?Get a US IP address by connecting to a VPN server in the United States. VPNmine's New York server is free, no ads, no card. Steps and what changes.