VPN & Proxy IP Detection Tool
The VPN & Proxy IP Detection Tool by APIFreaks is a security-focused IP analysis tool for developers and security teams who need fast answers about suspicious traffic. It takes an IPv4 or IPv6 address and returns a clear security profile, including anonymizer detection, abuse signals, hosting indicators, network, and location context.
About the VPN & Proxy IP Detection Tool
VPN and Proxy IP Detection Tool uses IP Security API by APIFreaks to identify whether an IP address is using a VPN, proxy (including residential proxies), relay, or Tor exit node. It provides a Threat Score from 0 to 100 and security signals such as is_proxy, proxy_type, proxy_provider, is_anonymous, is_known_attacker, is_bot, is_spam, and is_cloud_provider (with cloud provider name when available). This helps teams apply practical controls like blocking, step-up verification, or rate limiting based on IP risk and privacy signals.
Submit an IPv4 or IPv6 address in the tool and identify whether the IP is masking its identity or is ever linked to spam or abuse activity. Here is an explanation of IP signals from our IP Security API:
1. VPN, Proxy, and Tor Detection
Identify if an IP address is anonymized behind a VPN service, proxy (including residential proxies), or Tor networks. Live VPN detection in our IP Security API can even help you identify public and private VPNs.
2. Proxy Type, and Provider
Analyze proxy type along with the provider's name if the connection is anonymized. You can identify whether the traffic from a source is coming from a VPN, relay, proxy or a typical user.
3. Bot, Spam, and Known Attacker Signals
Our tool flags the IP addresses that have been reported to be in use by a bot, spam, or attacking activity.
4. Cloud Provider Detection
Our tool flags the IP addresses that belong to a cloud provider and also returns the provider name (if available). This is especially useful for identifying automation, hosted bot traffic, and high‑velocity abuse from data center ranges.
5. Threat Score (0-100): How Risk Is Summarized
The most important signal to look for is the Threat Score (0-100). This score is calculated using the following core security signals:
is_vpnis_proxyis_toris_botis_spamis_known_attackeris_cloud_provider
The idea behind threat score is simple: instead of manually checking each flag, you can drive rules like allow, CAPTCHA or solve a challenge, rate-limit, or block requests using a single numeric value.
Practical Threat Score Ranges
- From 0 to 20
- Risk Level: Low
- Suggested Actions: Usually safe to allow
- From 21 to 50:
- Risk Level: Medium
- Suggested Actions: Monitor or add little friction like rate limit, or ask to solve a CAPTCHA or a challenge
- From 51 to 80:
- Risk Level: High
- Suggested Actions: Stricter throttling, require solving challenge flows, or step-up user authentication
- From 81 to 100:
- Risk Level: Critical
- Suggested Actions: Likely anonymized and abusive patterns, consider blocking
Here are some practical thresholds on threat score value that are commonly useful for building policies in fraud prevention, WAFs, and login protection:
6. Location, ASN & Network Information for the IP Address
Along with the security signals, the tool provides location, ASN and network details for both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses that will help you quickly get:
- Continent, country, state or region, district, city, ZIP code and coordinates in the location context
- AS number, organization and country in AS context
- ISP name in the network information context
How to Use the VPN & Proxy IP Detection Tool
- Write or paste an IPv4 or IPv6 address into the input field.
- Click the Detect Proxy button.
- Review following information in the Result:
- Threat score, from 0 to 100
- VPN, proxy, and Tor signals
- Proxy type, and proxy providers (if available)
- Spam, anonymous, and known attacker signals
- Cloud provider signal, and cloud provider name (if available)
- Location, AS network, and ISP details
- View IP address location on Google Maps
- As the tool is based on IP Security API by APIFreaks, you can view the response from API in JSON format as well.
Developer Notes: API Ready
If you want to automate checks in your applications for security cases like login risk, fraud scoring, SOC enrichment, or batch IP addresses investigations, use the IP Security API by APIFreaks directly.
APIFreaks exposes endpoints for IP security checks, including single & bulk operations
Available Endpoints for Single & Bulk IP Search
APIFreaks provides:
- For single IP address lookups, use the single endpointGEThttps://api.apifreaks.com/v1.0/ip/securityTest
- To lookup IP addresses in bulk, use the bulk endpointPOSThttps://api.apifreaks.com/v1.0/ip/securityTest
Authentication (API key)
All APIFreaks API endpoints require an API key, and supports passing it either:
- as a header:
X-apiKey: YOUR_KEY, or - as a query parameter:
apiKey=YOUR_KEY
Response Format
IP Security API by APIFreaks supports content negotiation; responses are returned as JSON by default and optionally XML (via format query param or Accept HTTP header).
Example
Here is an example cURL request to search IP to security, location & network information:
curl -X GET https://api.apifreaks.com/v1.0/ip/security?apiKey=YOUR_API_KEY&ip=79.127.145.88&include=location,networkFor more details about integrating IP Security API into your products, refer to Swagger Docs.
Known Use Cases
Prevent Fraud and Control Abuse
You can use the Threat Score along with anonymizer flags to reduce:
- fake or high risk sign ups
- coupon/promo abuse
- suspicious or fraud payment attempts
- credentials stuffing
Step up Authentication
You can step up user's verification during login when:
- threat score exceeds a basic threshold that you've set
is_proxy,is_tor,is_anonymousflags appear unexpectedly- cloud hosted IP addresses show up
Stop Automation
Cloud hosted and anonymized traffic often correlates with scrapping and brute force activity. Detect masked IP addresses and trigger user's authentication.
SOC Enrichment
You can add IP data (location, security, ASN and network information) into tickets that can help you identify ownership and infrastructure faster to speed up investigations.
Bulk IP Analysis
If you need to analyze IP addresses at scale, use the bulk endpoints designed for batch processing.
FAQs
Sign up with APIFreaks, get your API key and integrate with IP Security API by APIFreaks in your applications.
In your websites and online applications, IP Security API provides live VPN and proxy detection (currently in beta) in your online visitors to help you identify VPN and proxy IP addresses in real time. Plus, our crawlers are constantly running and searching for public and private proxies, and reported abusive IP addresses and listing them in our database.
Our IP Security API is based on our own IP to location and IP to security databases and can help you quickly identify if an IP address is part of a VPN, proxy, relay, Tor exit node, or hosting provider (data centers). It can also mark an IP address abusive if it is reported as an attacker, spam or bot.
Here are the most common uses for a VPN connection:
- Secure browsing on public Wi-Fi: Protects your data on cafes, airports, and hotel networks by encrypting your connection.
- Online privacy & IP masking: Helps reduce tracking by hiding your real IP address and location from websites and third parties.
- Remote work & business access: Lets employees working remotely to securely access company resources such as systems, files, and internal apps from anywhere.
- Access to geo-restricted content: Allows users to reach region-limited websites or services while traveling (where permitted by the service) and use the web more freely by providing a secure connection.
- Bypass network restrictions: Can help access blocked websites on certain networks (e.g., school/office Wi-Fi), depending on local rules.
- Safer online transactions: Adds an extra security layer when banking, shopping, or handling sensitive data online.
- Reduce exposure to cyber threats: Encryption can help lower risks like session hijacking and snooping on unsecured networks.
- Avoiding ISP bandwidth throttling: Prevents intentional slow down of certain activities by ISPs such as streaming or online gaming by masking your traffic.
Short answer: No—using a VPN is not inherently bad. A VPN is a legal privacy and security technology that encrypts traffic and can mask an IP address.
From a fraud prevention and threat intelligence perspective, VPN usage can be associated with IP obfuscation, which may:
- Hide real location and network identity
- Enable IP rotation to evade rate limits, bans and reputation scoring
- Increase likelihood of account takeover attempts, multi-accounting, bonus abuse or credential stuffing
- Reduce effectiveness of IP-based controls.
Even legitimate VPN usage has tradeoffs:
- Trust & logging risk: VPNs encrypt your traffic, but the VPN provider may still see metadata; provider quality matters.
- Performance impact: Added routing/encryption can increase latency and reduce speed.
- Compatibility issues: Some services block VPN IP ranges or require additional verification.
- False sense of security: A VPN doesn't stop phishing, malware, or poor password hygiene—it mainly protects traffic in transit and masks IP.
Get Started with IP Security API
If you are looking to build security workflow in your applications, WAF rules, prevent fraud, or enrich your SOC operations, use IP Security API by APIFreaks.
Look into the API Docs and Swagger for more information about integrating IP Security API into your applications and trying before testing.