An IP address is a string of numbers and decimals that identifies your device and location. If you’re connected to the internet, then you have an IP address.

Your public IP address is unique and visible to everyone on the internet, so it can be used to track you and wall you off from region-locked content.

Because I like privacy and dislike censorship, I prefer to hide my IP address from internet providers, hackers, governments, advertisers and others. In this article, I’ll explain a few free and paid methods you can use to hide your IP address, as well as a few ways to change your IP address.

What’s my IP address?

In order to hide your IP address, you first have to know what it is. This is easy; just go to Google and enter “what’s my IP address?”

You’ll see something like this:

Specifically, that’s an IPv4 address. Some of you might have IPv6 connectivity, although it hasn’t been adopted everywhere yet. If your internet provider offers IPv6 on its network, you can look up your IPv6 address as well.

It’ll look something more like this:

For the most part, these two addresses serve the same purpose. If you want to hide your IPv4 address, then you’ll probably want to hide your IPv6 address as well, if you have one.

You can learn more about the differences between IPv4 and IPv6 here, but I won’t get too deep into that in this article.

Your IP address probably changes once in a while due to how the internet works, but you are the only one with your current IP address on the entire internet. Similar to physical addresses, IP addresses allow computers on the internet to find each other and communicate. IP addresses are an integral part of the IP protocol, the foundation on which the internet is built. Again, I’ll sidestep the nitty gritty details on how the IP protocol works.

8 ways to hide your IP address

#1. Use a VPN to hide your IP address

A VPN, or Virtual Private Network is a software service that encrypts all of the data sent to and from the internet and routes it through a VPN server in another location. The VPN server acts as a middleman between your device and the internet, so websites and online apps only see the server’s IP address and not your own.

Most VPNs are subscription services that cost a few dollars per month for access to hundreds or even thousands of servers around the world. You just need to sign up and download the apps for your devices. After that, hiding your IP address (and therefore your internet traffic) just takes a couple of clicks. It’s really easy.

If NordVPN. isn’t quite what you’re looking for, you might want to try another VPN service like Surfshark or ExpressVPN. These services have plenty to offer, and come with significant discounts for long-term subscriptions.

There are no hidden terms, either—just let support staff know within 30 days if you decide NordVPN isn’t right for you to claim a full refund. Start your NordVPN trial here.

Here’s how to hide your IP address:

  • First off, check your current IP address by Googling, “what’s my IP?”
  • Sign up for a VPN. We recommend NordVPN.
  • Download the VPN app onto your device. Windows and Mac users usually get their app from the provider’s website. iOS and Android users get their app from the App Store and Google Play, respectively.
  • Install the VPN app and run it.
  • Sign in using the account credentials you created in step two.
  • Select a server or server location. Your new IP address will be that of this server.
  • Click the Connect button or double-tap the server to initiate a connection. You are now connected through a private network.
  • Once the connection has been established, you will have a new IP address. To confirm, Google “what’s my IP?” Your new IP address should be different than in step one.

Here’s a video of how to hide your IP address with a VPN

Most commercial VPN providers, including NordVPN, use shared IP addresses, meaning that all VPN users connected to the same server are hidden behind the same IP address–that of the VPN server.

A VPN that uses shared IP addresses not only hides your real IP address, it makes you indistinguishable from all the other users. Your online activity cannot be traced back to a single user, adding a significant layer of anonymity.

If you’re serious about hiding your IP address, it’s vital to get a VPN with these features:

  • Private DNS servers – DNS works like a phone book for the internet by translating domain names like “comparitech.com” into IP addresses that your device can use to communicate. By default, you probably use DNS servers operated by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or Google, which can see your IP address when you request a website, even when connected to a VPN. For this reason, it’s important to use a VPN that operates its own DNS servers so you never expose your IP address to a third party.
  • Leak protection – VPNs are meant to protect all the internet data traveling to and from your device, but sometimes they leak. When they leak, they expose your IP address. Get yourself a VPN that has DNS, IPv6, and WebRTC leak prevention.
  • Kill switch – A kill switch or network lock cuts off your entire device from the internet if the VPN connection drops for some reason, preventing anything from being sent from your real IP address without the VPN’s protection.
  • No-logs policy – The VPN provider should not record or store logs of your internet activity or any connection details that could be used to identify you. Always read the fine print as not every VPN is completely logless.

2. Use a proxy to hide your IP address

Like a VPN, a proxy acts as a middleman between your device and the internet. Websites and apps see the IP address of the proxy server and not your real IP address.

In fact, a VPN is technically a type of proxy. But when I say “proxy,” I’m usually referring to either an SSL, SSH, or SOCKS proxy. These types of proxies typically lack the encryption and other security features offered by VPNs, but they do hide your IP address from websites. They can be configured in existing apps like your browser or, like a VPN, use a third-party app.

Proxies usually don’t usually include DNS traffic, so your website requests still go to a third-party DNS server that can see your real IP address. VPNs with leak protection don’t have this problem. Furthermore, your real IP could be exposed if the proxy connection drops for some reason.

Because proxies lack the authentication of VPNs, they are also more susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks, in which an attacker can pose as the proxy server to steal your data.

Some VPNs offer HTTPS (SSL) proxies as browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. These do a decent job of protecting your browser, but other apps and DNS requests can still expose your IP address.

3. Use Tor to hide your IP address for free

Tor, short for The Onion Router, is a decentralized worldwide anonymity network operated by thousands of volunteers. When you connect to Tor, your internet traffic is encrypted and routed through a random sequence of these volunteer “nodes,” which are sort of like proxy servers. Websites can only see the IP address of the last server in the sequence, called the exit node.

Each time you visit a website, the sequence of nodes changes. This makes it practically impossible to trace activity back to the original IP address.

The easiest way to use Tor is to download and install the Tor Browser. It works just like a barebones version of any other browser like Chrome and Firefox, and it’s completely free.

There are drawbacks, however. Tor is slow and not suitable for torrenting or streaming–stick to web browsing. Furthermore, Tor is often associated with criminal activity because it can be used to access the darknet and illicit websites. Some websites block connections from known Tor nodes, and your ISP might frown upon its use.

See also: How to set up a hidden Tor service

4. Connect to a different network to change your IP address

Whenever you change networks, your IP address changes as well. So if you think the IP address you’ve been using has been compromised, blocked, or tracked, then you can change networks to get a new one.

You can connect to a public or private wifi network, or use your smartphone’s mobile data connection. Note that public wifi hotspots and open networks can be hunting grounds for hackers that can take advantage of the lack of encryption and authentication. Opt for networks that require a password, if possible.

5. Ask your ISP to change your IP address

Your ISP is the entity that decides who gets what IP address. So if you want to change your IP address for some reason, try giving them a call. You’ll need your account information on hand, as well as your current IP address.

It shouldn’t be too hard to get a different IP address, but don’t expect it to stay the same forever. Because IP addresses are constantly being recycled in order to preserve the limited number of available IP addresses, your IP address will probably change once in a while. These are called dynamic IP addresses.

You could request a static IP address that never changes, but there might be an application process and an extra fee.

6. Unplug your modem to change your IP address

This isn’t guaranteed to work, but you can often get a new IP address by unplugging your internet modem and plugging it back in again. When you lose the connection to your ISP, your old IP address will get recycled. When you re-establish a connection, you’ll be assigned a new IP address.

The longer you leave the modem unplugged, the more likely this tactic will work. Try leaving it unplugged overnight if you have to.

Your ISP must use dynamic IP addresses for this to work. Most do.

7. Use a NAT Firewall to hide your private IP address

If you use a wireless router to connect to the internet, it’s likely that you’re behind a NAT firewall. In simplest terms, a NAT firewall allows multiple devices on the same network to use the same public IP address but unique private IP addresses. Network Address Translation (NAT) forwards requests and data from the private IP addresses of individual devices to their online destination under the router’s public IP address. This conserves address space (the number of available IP addresses) and prevents unsolicited inbound communication with potentially dangerous computers on the internet.

A NAT firewall doesn’t hide your public IP address, but your private IP address. All devices connected to a NAT-enabled router will share a public IP address. The NAT firewall will prevent any online communication that isn’t in response to a request you sent from a private IP address. All other requests and data packets are discarded because they don’t have a private IP address to which they can be forwarded.

8. Renew your IP address to change your private IP address

As mentioned above, if you’re connected to an internet router by wifi or ethernet cable, then you’ve probably got a private, or local, IP address as well. It’s not as important to keep this IP address a secret while online, but there might be instances in which you need to change it.

You can do this by entering a few simple commands into your Windows Command Prompt or Mac Terminal.

How to renew your IP address on Windows:

  • Search for the Command Prompt and right click it to Run as administrator
  • Enter ipconfig /release
  • Enter ipconfig /renew

You should now see a new local IP address.

How to renew your IP on MacOS:

  • Click the Apple menu and open System Preferences
  • Select Network
  • Highlight the network that you’re connected to in the left pane
  • Click Advanced…
  • Select the TCP/IP tab
  • Click Renew DHCP Lease

Your Mac will now have a different private IP address.

You can never hide your IP address from your ISP

It’s not possible to hide your IP address from your ISP. It makes sense: my ISP provides me with internet service and therefore an IP address. Without an IP address, I can’t connect to the internet.

VPNs and proxies don’t literally replace your existing IP address. They just mask your IP address with one of their own so that other computers and servers on the internet can’t see yours. But your real IP address is still there, communicating through the proxy or VPN server as an intermediary.

Even though you can never hide your real IP address from your ISP, you can hide the content and destination of your internet activity with a VPN. The encryption prevents your ISP from seeing what information you send and receive, and the ISP can only see that you’re connected to a VPN server—not the websites or apps you use. Conversely, the VPN hides your real IP address from websites and apps, but they still see the contents and destination of your internet communications.

The only parties that can see all three—your real IP address, the websites you visit, and what data is transmitted between the two—are you and your VPN provider. For this reason, I only recommend VPNs that don’t store any logs of your online activity.

Your IP address also allows the site to detect which country you are in, which allows it to enforce geo-restrictions. This may cause you to be locked out of its service when you go on vacation, or cause you to be served differing content in different regions (as is the case on Netflix, for example).

Finally, if you engage in any Peer to Peer activities such as torrenting, it is essential to conceal your IP address. When you connect directly to other internet users P2P it is possible for them to see your home IP. If you torrent without a VPN, for example, you could expose yourself to hackers who are also on the swarm, and those nefarious individuals could probe your IP for vulnerabilities such as open ports.

By using a VPN, you conceal your IP address from other internet users, which removes the potential of them attacking you either by exploiting vulnerabilities or by engaging in DDoS attacks (something that can happen if you play competitive games).

Another way is to use an ad blocker, which will block all advertisements from websites. This will also prevent advertising networks from tracking your activity on the web. However, ad blockers can be annoying to use and may not work on all websites.

If you’re curious to see this information for yourself, take a look at our IP address Check tool.