How to Know if Your VPN is Actually Working (or Silently Failing You)
Millions of people use VPNs believing they are fully protected. Here is how to verify yours is actually doing its job and what to do if it is not.
Find out instantly if your VPN is protecting you — or silently leaking your real identity. No signup required.
Analysing your IP address and VPN status
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Three critical VPN health indicators tested automatically every time you load this page.
We detect your real public IP address and check whether your VPN is masking it or exposing your true location to every website you visit.
Even when your IP is hidden, DNS leaks can still expose your browsing activity to your ISP. We check your DNS servers to make sure nothing is slipping through.
We identify whether your connection is routing through a known VPN server and which provider is protecting you, giving you confidence your VPN is active.
Millions of people use VPNs every day believing they are fully protected. The reality is more complicated. VPN leaks are far more common than most people realise — and they can happen silently without any warning from your VPN app. A VPN can display "connected" in green while simultaneously exposing your real IP address through WebRTC leaks built into your browser, DNS requests that travel outside the encrypted tunnel, or IPv6 traffic that your VPN simply does not cover.
A DNS leak is one of the most overlooked vulnerabilities in VPN security. DNS (Domain Name System) acts as the internet's address book, converting domain names like google.com into IP addresses. When you use a VPN, these DNS lookups should happen inside the encrypted tunnel. But when a DNS leak occurs, those requests bypass the tunnel and go directly to your Internet Service Provider's servers — meaning your ISP can still see every website you visit, even though your IP address appears to be hidden.
This tool runs multiple checks simultaneously to give you a complete picture of your VPN's actual performance, not just whether the app says it is connected. Within seconds, you get a plain-English result that tells you exactly what is happening with your connection — no technical knowledge required.
If your VPN test failed, here are the providers we recommend based on security audits and independent testing.
Affiliate Disclosure: We may earn a commission if you purchase through our links. This helps keep our tool free. We only recommend VPNs we have evaluated for security and privacy.
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Three steps, fully automatic, no technical knowledge required.
When you load this page, your browser automatically makes a request to our IP detection service. No data is stored — we only read what your connection reveals publicly to every website on the internet.
We check your IP address against a database of known VPN server ranges, examine your DNS resolver, and run a WebRTC leak detection check simultaneously — all within seconds.
Within seconds you see a clear, plain-English result telling you exactly whether your VPN is working, leaking, or not active at all — no technical knowledge required.
A VPN leak means your VPN app appears connected but your real IP address, location, or DNS requests are still visible to websites and your ISP. This usually happens due to WebRTC leaks (built into browsers), DNS leaks (when DNS requests travel outside the VPN tunnel), or IPv6 leaks (when your device uses IPv6 while the VPN only covers IPv4). A leaking VPN provides a false sense of security — you think you are protected but your real identity is exposed.
VPN apps show "connected" based on whether the VPN tunnel is established — but this does not mean every type of traffic is protected. WebRTC is a browser feature that can bypass the VPN tunnel entirely. DNS requests sometimes fall back to your ISP's servers when the VPN has a brief disconnection. Your VPN may only protect IPv4 traffic while your device also communicates via IPv6. This is exactly why running an independent test like this one is so important.
Our test checks the most common and important indicators of VPN health — your public IP address, your DNS resolver, and WebRTC behaviour. It is highly reliable for most use cases. However, no single browser-based test can guarantee 100% certainty. For critical privacy needs, we recommend also testing with a dedicated tool like ipleak.net and using a reputable paid VPN service with a verified no-logs policy.
No. We do not log, store, or sell your IP address or any other data from this check. The test runs entirely in your browser using publicly available APIs. We have no database of user checks. Please read our full Privacy Policy for complete details.
If your VPN is working correctly, that is exactly what should happen. The location shown is where your VPN server is located — not your real physical location. This is your VPN doing its job: replacing your real IP address and location with one from a server in another country. If you see a foreign city you don't recognise, your VPN is working.
DNS (Domain Name System) is the internet's address book — it converts website names like google.com into IP addresses. When you use a VPN, your DNS requests should travel through the encrypted tunnel. A DNS leak occurs when those requests instead go to your ISP's DNS servers outside the tunnel. The result: your ISP can see every website you visit even though your IP address appears hidden. DNS leaks are the most common and overlooked form of VPN failure.
First, identify the type of leak using our tool. For DNS leaks: enable the "DNS leak protection" setting in your VPN app (most reputable VPNs have this option). For WebRTC leaks: install a browser extension like uBlock Origin and enable WebRTC blocking, or disable WebRTC in your browser's advanced settings. For persistent leaks despite these fixes: consider switching to a VPN provider with a stronger track record. See our recommended providers above.
Yes. Our tool works on all modern browsers on iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and any other device with a web browser. The VPN check runs automatically when you load the page. If you have a VPN app installed on your phone, enable it first and then reload this page to test whether it is working correctly on your mobile device.
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