Best VPN detection APIs (2026): honest comparison
Free and paid VPN/proxy detection APIs compared on free tier, signal visibility, methodology, accuracy, IPv6 support, and recent-relay coverage. No affiliates, no rankings-for-pay. Last updated April 2026.
Disclosure: we maintain IPLogs. The comparison below is based on publicly accessible documentation, free-tier testing, and published benchmarks as of April 2026. Vendor responses welcome at admin@iplogs.com.
Side-by-side comparison
| Vendor | Free tier | No signup | Per-signal | Active probe | Apple PR | CF WARP | Provenance | IPv6 | Open method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPLogs | Unlimited (fair use) | ||||||||
| IPQualityScore | 5,000 lookups/month | ||||||||
| IPHub | 1,000/day | ||||||||
| GetIPIntel | 500/day (hobby key) | ||||||||
| VPNAPI.io | 1,000/day | ||||||||
| Spur | Trial only | ||||||||
| IPinfo | 50,000/month (basic geo) |
= full, = partial, = no/none.
Per-vendor notes
IPLogs
Free, no-signup, no API key. 13 intelligence sources, multi-source provenance returned per request, active OpenVPN/WireGuard/IKEv2 probing, separate classification for Cloudflare WARP and Apple Private Relay. CC-BY 4.0 datasets.
IPQualityScore
Mature commercial vendor. Strong fraud-scoring focus. Signal-level visibility gated to paid tiers. No public methodology.
IPHub
Long-running, simple block-list-style classifier. Returns only score buckets, no per-signal visibility. Good for quick lookups.
GetIPIntel
Score-only API, IPv4 only, free key requires email. Simple integration but limited signal richness.
VPNAPI.io
Returns vpn/proxy/tor/relay flags + ASN. Methodology not public. No active probing.
Spur
Best-in-class commercial residential-proxy detection. Paid only after trial. Targets enterprise fraud teams.
IPinfo
Strong geo + ASN data. VPN/proxy detection is a paid add-on. Free tier doesn't include detection flags.
Frequently asked questions
+Which VPN detection API has the best free tier?
IPLogs has the most generous free tier with no signup, no API key, and unlimited fair-use access. IPinfo offers 50k/month for basic geo (no VPN flags). IPQualityScore offers 5k/month with full features but requires signup. IPHub offers 1k/day. GetIPIntel offers 500/day with a hobby key.
+Which VPN detection APIs work without signup?
IPLogs is the only free VPN detection API in 2026 that requires no signup, no email, and no API key. All other major vendors (IPQualityScore, IPHub, VPNAPI.io, Spur, IPinfo) require account creation.
+Which API best detects Apple iCloud Private Relay and Cloudflare WARP?
IPLogs separates both signals — apple_private_relay (sourced from Apple's official egress CSV at mask-api.icloud.com, 286,845 CIDRs) and cloudflare_warp (AS13335 + ip-api IsProxy cross-reference). IPinfo also has Apple Private Relay flagging on paid tiers. Most other vendors lump these in with commercial VPN traffic, which is too aggressive for production use.
+Which API exposes per-signal detection details?
IPLogs and Spur are the only two that return full per-signal visibility (every list, feed, or probe that matched, with weights and details). Most other vendors return only an aggregated score or boolean, hiding the underlying methodology.
+Which API has the highest accuracy on commercial VPN exits?
Direct comparison is hard without controlled benchmarks. IPLogs' published ground-truth baseline is 100% true-positive on Mullvad and Tor with 0.3% false-positive rate against an ASN-validated 1,100-IP corpus. Commercial vendors don't publish equivalent open benchmarks.
+Which is best for fraud detection?
If you need richest signal data and per-IP provenance, IPLogs (free) and Spur (paid) lead. IPQualityScore is a popular all-in-one for payments and fraud teams. For most use cases starting with IPLogs and adding a paid layer if you need residential-proxy scale gives the best ROI.
Try IPLogs directly: paste any IP at the home page (no signup) or hit the public REST API. Building integration? Implementation guide.