Is detecting a VPN legal?

Yes. Checking the characteristics of an IP address you receive traffic from is standard practice for fraud prevention and licensing.

How do I detect VPNs automatically?

Use the VPN detection API: send GET /v1/vpn/{ip} from your backend and act on the verdict and score.

Does the free checker need an account?

No — the checker above is free to use. An account and API key are only needed to automate detection.

IPScanner

VPN Checker

How to Detect a VPN

Paste any IP address to check whether it is using a VPN, then learn the signals behind the verdict and how to automate detection at scale.

Overview

How can you tell if an IP is a VPN?

You can tell an IP is a VPN by checking it against known VPN provider ranges, looking at whether it lives in a datacenter or hosting ASN instead of a residential ISP, and weighing its reputation history. No single signal is conclusive on its own, which is why a good VPN check combines several. The checker above does this for you instantly; the sections below explain what it looks at.

Signals

The signals that reveal a VPN

Each one shifts the verdict — together they give a reliable answer.

Known provider ranges

The IP appears in published or harvested VPN server ranges.

Datacenter hosting

Consumer traffic from a hosting ASN is a classic VPN tell.

Geolocation mismatch

Stated location conflicts with other location signals.

Protocol fingerprints

Signatures linked to common VPN protocols.

Reputation history

Prior anonymising behaviour from the address.

Confidence scoring

A combined score expresses how certain the verdict is.

Next steps

From manual check to automation

One-off checks

Use the checker above for ad-hoc investigation of a single IP.

In your signup flow

Call the API to flag VPN signups before they become a problem.

In fraud rules

Feed the VPN score into your existing risk engine.

At login

Trigger step-up authentication on VPN logins.

More tools

Explore related detection tools

VPN Detection APIReal-time VPN detection API. Send any IP and get back whether it belongs to a commercial VPN, with a confidence score. Free tier, simple REST, fast global lookups.Proxy Detection APIDetect HTTP, SOCKS, residential and datacenter proxies plus Tor exit nodes from any IP with one REST call. Real-time proxy detection API with a free tier.Residential Proxy DetectionDetect residential proxies that disguise traffic as ordinary home connections. Real-time residential proxy detection by IP with confidence scoring and a free tier.Datacenter Proxy DetectionDetect datacenter and cloud-hosted proxies by IP in real time. Identify hosting ASNs used for proxying and scraping with confidence scoring and a free API tier.

Die Suite entdecken

Unsere anderen Tools ausprobieren

VPN-ErkennungErkennen Sie IPs, die über verschlüsselte VPN-Tunnel geleitet werden, um ihren echten Standort zu verschleiern.Proxy-ErkennungErkennen Sie HTTP-, SOCKS-, Residential- und Rechenzentrums-Proxys sowie Tor-Exit-Nodes.IP-GeolokalisierungOrdnen Sie jede IP einem Land, einer Region und einer Stadt zu – mit ISP- und Zeitzonendaten.ASN-DatenErmitteln Sie die Autonomous-System-Nummer und die Organisation, der ein IP-Bereich gehört.WHOIS-InfosRufen Sie Registrierungs- und Eigentümerdaten für Domains und IP-Bereiche ab.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

No detection is perfect, but combining provider ranges, hosting analysis and reputation catches the large majority of commercial VPNs and returns a confidence score for the rest.

Warum IPScanner

Tausende Unternehmen weltweit vertrauen uns für zuverlässige IP-Intelligence

Branchenführende Genauigkeit

Unsere KI-gestützte Erkennung erreicht eine Genauigkeit von 99,8 % und übertrifft damit herkömmliche Methoden deutlich.

Performance auf Enterprise-Niveau

Für Skalierbarkeit gebaut, mit hoher Zuverlässigkeit und einem Uptime-SLA von 99,99 % für geschäftskritische Anwendungen.

Umfassende Abdeckung

Wir pflegen die größte Datenbank an VPN-Diensten, Proxys und Anonymisierern mit täglichen Aktualisierungen.

Einfache Integration

Benutzerfreundliche REST-API für alle gängigen Programmiersprachen und Frameworks.

Transparente Kommunikation

Klare Dokumentation und regelmäßige Updates zu unseren Erkennungsfunktionen und Verbesserungen.

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