How to hide your IP address

Why hide it?

Your public IP reveals your internet provider and a rough (estimated) location to every site you visit, and it lets your ISP see which sites you connect to. Hiding it can mean more privacy on untrusted networks, keeping your browsing from your ISP, or appearing to be in a different region. It's worth being clear-eyed, though: hiding your IP is one layer of privacy, not a cloak of total anonymity.

The three main ways

1. A VPN (the common choice)

A VPN routes your traffic through an encrypted tunnel to the provider's server. Sites then see the server's IP instead of yours, and your ISP sees only encrypted traffic to the VPN — not where you're actually going.

• Best for: everyday privacy, public Wi-Fi, hiding browsing from your ISP, region flexibility.
• The honest caveat: you're shifting trust from your ISP to the VPN provider, who can see your traffic. The provider's logging policy is everything — look for independently audited, no-logs services. A VPN also slightly reduces speed and doesn't make you anonymous.

2. A proxy server

A proxy reroutes a single app's or browser's traffic through another server, masking your IP for that traffic.

• Best for: quick, app-specific IP masking.
• The caveat: most proxies don't encrypt your traffic the way a VPN does, so they offer less protection. Better for "change my apparent IP" than "protect my data."

3. Tor (the high-privacy option)

The Tor network bounces your traffic through several volunteer-run relays, making it very hard to trace back to you.

• Best for: maximum anonymity for sensitive browsing.
• The caveat: it's noticeably slower, which makes it impractical for streaming or everyday speed-sensitive use.

What hiding your IP does not do

This is where a lot of marketing overpromises, so here's the straight version:

• It doesn't make you anonymous. Logins, cookies, and browser fingerprinting can still identify you regardless of your IP.
• It doesn't stop malware or phishing. Those are separate problems that need separate tools and good habits.
• It doesn't speed you up — adding a hop almost always costs a little speed.
• It doesn't hide everything from everyone — whoever runs the server you route through (VPN provider, proxy host) can potentially see your traffic, so trust matters.

How to confirm it worked

1. Check your current IP, ISP, and location using the tool on this page.
2. Turn on your VPN, proxy, or Tor and connect.
3. Reload and check again — your IP and region should now show the server's, not yours. If your real IP still appears, your traffic isn't being routed correctly (a leak), and you'll want to troubleshoot before relying on it.

The bottom line

For most people, a reputable no-logs VPN is the practical balance of privacy and convenience. Match the tool to your actual goal — and verify it's working rather than assuming.

The VPN we recommend: NordVPN — fast, with an independently audited no-logs policy.