Data · Privacy detection

VPN, proxy, Tor, datacenter — free on every plan.

Every IP-Atlas response includes is_datacenter and is_vpn booleans. The same signals ipinfo places behind its $49/mo Core plan, ipstack behind its $99.99/mo Professional Plus tier, and MaxMind sells as a separate GeoIP2 Anonymous IP add-on on top of its Web Service.

Competitor tier data verified from each vendor's public pricing page (ipinfo, ipstack, MaxMind) as of 2026-04-22.

What we flag

Flag	Meaning	Common sources
`is_datacenter`	IP belongs to a known cloud, VPS, or colocation provider.	AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Cloudflare, DigitalOcean, OVH, Hetzner, Vultr, Linode/Akamai, ~50 others.
`is_vpn`	IP is associated with a commercial VPN service.	NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Mullvad, ProtonVPN, and the ASNs they operate from.

Example

curl https://api.ip-atlas.io/json/8.8.8.8
{
  "ip": "8.8.8.8",
  "asn": 15169,
  "org": "GOOGLE",
  "is_datacenter": true,    // Google cloud range
  "is_vpn": false
}

Why this matters

Signup fraud. 70%+ of trial abuse originates from residential proxies and datacenter IPs. One boolean stops a lot of it.
Scraping defence. Most scrapers rent VPS time — the ASN alone is a tell. Combine with per-IP rate limiting for hardened rate controls.
Compliance. Some regulators (e.g. gambling commissions) require you to block VPN traffic from specific jurisdictions.
Honest UX. A user on a VPN shouldn't be told "we detected unusual activity" with no way to verify themselves.

How it's built

Our datacenter list is a curated union of:

Official IP ranges published by each cloud provider (AWS ip-ranges.json, Google Cloud _cloud-netblocks.googleusercontent.com, Azure service tags, Cloudflare, etc.);
ASN-level matching for hosting networks that don't publish ranges (Hetzner, OVH, Vultr);
Trellis-maintained edge cases for providers that move ranges frequently.

The VPN list combines the datacenter list with published VPN provider ASNs. We don't attempt to detect self-hosted VPNs or residential-proxy botnets in v1 — those need traffic analysis, not static ranges, and we're honest about saying so.

Not a silver bullet. IP-level privacy detection is one signal. Combine with device fingerprinting, email-domain checks, and payment-method geography for production fraud decisions.

ipinfo comparison

Data point	IP-Atlas Free	IP-Atlas $19	IPinfo Lite (free)	IPinfo Core $49
is_vpn	yes	yes	—	paid
is_datacenter	yes	yes	—	paid
Tor flag	via is_vpn (Tor exit nodes)	same	—	paid
Hosted domain count	— (roadmap)	— (roadmap)	—	paid

Our Free tier is 2,000 req/day with a card on file. IPinfo Lite is unlimited requests but returns only country, continent, ASN, and AS name — no city, privacy signals, or hosting flags.

ipinfo tier names and field lists verified from ipinfo.io/pricing and ipinfo.io/lite as of 2026-04-22.