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DNS Leak Test

$ dnsleak

A free, in-browser DNS leak test that probes your live connection to find every resolver answering for your device. We compare the resolver IPs, ISPs, ASNs, and countries — if any sit outside your VPN's exit, your DNS path is leaking and your real ISP can still see the domains you visit.

~/dnsleakready

What is a DNS leak?

A DNS leak happens when your device sends DNS queries outside the VPN tunnel — usually to your ISP's default resolver — even though the rest of your traffic is routed through the VPN. The result: your VPN hides your IP from the websites you visit, but your ISP (and anyone else watching the network) still sees the full list of domains you request. A working VPN should send DNS queries through its own resolvers; a leak defeats one of the main reasons to run a VPN in the first place.

How this DNS leak checker works

When you press Run, this DNS leak checker fires six probes to uniquely-named subdomains and records the resolver IP that asks to look each one up. We enrich every resolver with its ISP, organisation, ASN, and geographic origin from a public IP intelligence database. Four checks run on the collected resolvers: single resolver path, ISP isolation, country consistency, and ASN consistency. Any divergence indicates that part of your DNS traffic is escaping the VPN tunnel.

How to test for DNS leaks

  1. Connect to your VPN — make sure the kill switch (sometimes called "Network Lock" or "Always-on") is on.
  2. Press Run DNS leak test above. The probes complete in a few seconds.
  3. Review the verdict. Privacy score 4/4 means every check passed. Anything lower means at least one resolver is answering from outside your VPN.
  4. If the test fails, enable your VPN's built-in DNS leak protection, block IPv6 at the OS level, or hard-code your VPN's DNS servers system-wide. Then re-run the test.

What this DNS leak tester checks for

  • Single resolver path — every probe should be answered by the same resolver. Multiple resolver IPs is the clearest signal of a leak.
  • ISP isolation — every resolver should belong to a single network operator. If your home ISP shows up alongside your VPN provider, queries are being answered outside the tunnel.
  • Country consistency— resolvers should all be located in your VPN's exit country. A mismatched country means a resolver request travelled across borders the VPN wasn't supposed to expose.
  • ASN consistency — every resolver should share an Autonomous System Number with your VPN provider. Mixed ASNs almost always indicate a partial leak.

Free DNS leak checker — no install, no account

This DNS leak tester runs entirely in your browser. There's no software to install, no sign-up, and we don't log the results. The probes use uniquely-named subdomains so caching never hides a leak; each test sees the live resolver path your device is using right now. Run the test once with your VPN off and once with it on — the difference will tell you whether DNS leak protection is working. For a complete privacy snapshot, pair this DNS leak checker with our browser fingerprint test and IP address checker.

DNS leak test — frequently asked questions

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