Best VPN Detection APIs in 2027

Ten options, ranked, with the plan and price each vendor lists on its own pricing page. Volume is counted per day by most vendors and per month by IPScanner and IPinfo, so compare the plan, not only the number.

1. IPScanner

See IPScanner IP Detection

Best for: sites that want every signup, login, checkout and visit checked, and a say in what happens to each.

IPScanner checks traffic for VPN, proxy, Tor, datacenter and bot origin and answers with a traffic class and a confidence score. Run it from your own code with the REST endpoint or one of six SDKs (Node.js, Python, Go, PHP, Ruby, Rust), or put it in front of the site with no code: a Cloudflare Worker, the WordPress plugin, or a Traefik, Caddy or nginx gate. A form gate covers signup and contact forms. You set allow, flag or block per class in one site policy, and the same policy drives every install.

• Price: Free is 30,000 requests a month, pooled across sites and the API, up to 1,000 a day. A checked site visitor uses two requests, a form-gate visit or a lookup one. Starter is $19 a month for 150,000, Pro $49 for 500,000, Business $129 for 2,000,000.
• Trial: Starter's features for 7 days from the first keyed call or site check. After that, a key on the Free plan gets 1,000 calls a month.
• Blocking and names: Free runs in monitor mode. Blocking and the VPN brand name start on Starter.
• More: the VPN detection and proxy detection pages show what a verdict contains.

Skip it if you only want raw lookups at the highest volume for the least money: ipapi.is, proxycheck.io and VPNAPI.io each give a key 1,000 free requests a day, against 1,000 a month here once the trial ends.

2. IPQualityScore

Best for: fraud teams that want a fraud score on payments and signups and are fine talking to sales.

• Detects: proxies, VPNs, Tor exit nodes, residential proxies and malicious bot IPs, with a fraud score, per its own pages.
• Price: 1,000 free lookups a month. Paid plans are not on its public plans page.
• Side by side: IPScanner vs IPQualityScore.

Skip it if you need a price before you talk to anyone.

3. MaxMind

Best for: teams already on GeoIP2 that want one vendor for location and anonymizer data.

• Detects: the GeoIP2 Anonymous IP database flags anonymizing VPNs, hosting providers, residential proxies, public proxies and Tor exit nodes, and is updated daily. It is quoted on request.
• Price: minFraud is pay as you go: Score $0.005, Insights $0.015, Factors $0.020 per query, no minimum, credit purchases from $20, and a trial of up to 1,000 queries.
• Side by side: IPScanner vs MaxMind.

Skip it if you want to try the VPN data without asking for a quote.

4. IPinfo

Best for: teams that want IPinfo's location and company data with VPN, proxy, Tor and relay flags.

• Price: Lite is free with unlimited country-level requests and no privacy detection. Core is $26 a month ($310 billed yearly) for 150,000 requests and adds VPN, Tor, proxy and relay detection, with $0.34 per extra 1,000. Max is $163 a month for 250,000 requests and adds residential proxy detection and service names.
• Side by side: IPScanner vs IPinfo.

Skip it if you need residential proxy detection on a small budget: it sits on Max.

5. ipgeolocation.io

Best for: location data and a security lookup on one $19 plan.

• Detects: a threat score from 0 to 100 plus flags for VPN, proxy, residential proxy, Tor, bots, known attackers and cloud providers.
• Price: Free is 1,000 credits a day without the security lookup. Starter is $19 a month for 150,000 credits and includes it. Plus $49 (500,000), Business $129 (2,000,000). A security lookup costs 2 credits per its pricing calculator, so 150,000 credits buy fewer VPN checks than lookups.

Skip it if you want to test VPN detection for free: the security lookup is paid only.

6. ipapi.is

Best for: cheap raw volume with a real free tier.

• Price: Free is 1,000 requests a day with an API key, full response, commercial use allowed. Basic is $20 a month for 20,000 a day, Medium $50 for 100,000 a day, Large $100 for 500,000 a day. Credit packs run 30,000 requests per dollar.
• Detects: VPN exit nodes with the provider named, hosting ranges and abusive IPs, per its pricing page.

Skip it if you want the blocking built for you: it returns data and the policy is yours to write.

7. proxycheck.io

Best for: the lowest entry price.

• Price: Free is 1,000 queries a day, with 3 custom rules and 3 custom lists. Paid starts at $4.99 a month for 10,000 a day, $19.99 for 160,000 a day, $49.99 for 640,000 a day.
• Calls itself a proxy and VPN detection API. The pricing page does not list what else is detected, so read its docs before you rely on Tor or residential proxy coverage.

Skip it if you need a documented class list on the plan page.

8. VPNAPI.io

Best for: simple VPN, proxy, Tor and Private Relay checks.

• Price: Free is 1,000 requests a day. Basic $19 a month for 10,000 a day, Premium $29 for 50,000 a day, Pro $99 for 200,000 a day.
• Detects: whether an IP is a VPN, proxy, Tor exit node or Private Relay. Its homepage lists no score.

Skip it if you want a risk score or a policy layer on top.

9. Focsec

Best for: a focused VPN, proxy, Tor and bot API with a trial.

• Price: 14-day trial with all features and 100 requests a day, no card. Lite is $29 a month for 3,000 checks a day, Basic $49 for 10,000, Plus $89 for 25,000.
• Says it tracks 300+ VPN providers and 500,000+ proxies, its own figures. API use only on its homepage.

Skip it if you need a free plan after the trial.

10. IP2Location.io

Best for: teams already on IP2Location databases.

• Price: Free is 50,000 requests a month and Starter is $49 for 150,000, and both cover open proxies only. VPN and Tor detection start on Plus at $249 a month for 300,000 requests, Security is $499. There is a 7-day trial of the Security plan.
• Side by side: IPScanner vs IP2Location.

Skip it if you want VPN detection at a small-plan price.

Which one to pick

• Checks running on your signups, logins and visits, with a say per class: IPScanner.
• Most free requests, you write the policy: ipapi.is, proxycheck.io or VPNAPI.io.
• Fraud scoring, sales conversation welcome: IPQualityScore or MaxMind.
• Location data and VPN flags together: IPinfo or ipgeolocation.io.
• Already on IP2Location data: IP2Location.io, on Plus or above.

Choosing for a team? How to choose a VPN detection API has the checklist. To act on the verdicts, see how to block VPN users on your website.