A DNS leak happens when requests used to find websites travel outside your VPN connection. Your internet provider may then receive those requests even while the VPN is connected. You can check in a browser, but an unfamiliar server name in the results does not prove a leak.
What could be visible?
DNS is the internet's address book: it helps find a website's address from its name. When you enter a website name, your device asks a DNS server where to connect.
The server answering that request receives the website name. This is different from the contents of your messages or your password: HTTPS separately protects the connection to the website. See what a VPN protects for the wider picture.
Check DNS while your VPN is connected
- Connect the VPN and wait for the app to show “Connected”.
- In the browser you normally use, open
https://www.dnsleaktest.com. Select Standard test and wait for the server list. - Look at the organisation names in the ISP column. These are organisations operating the servers found by the test, not necessarily your home internet provider.
- Compare the result with your VPN service's help page: which DNS servers does it use? If the instructions do not say, ask support.
Keep the names for your own notes. Avoid posting screenshots containing IP addresses — addresses of internet connections. The test shows answers to requests from this browser; it does not check every app on your device.
Read the result
Your usual internet provider appears. Check the settings with your service and repeat the test after reconnecting the VPN. A name alone cannot tell you the exact route a request took.
Google, Cloudflare or another organisation appears. Your browser may use its own secure DNS, sending encrypted requests to a chosen service. In Firefox, for example, this choice can take priority over the VPN app's DNS setting. It can explain a different server, but does not by itself show whether the request travelled through the VPN.
The test did not finish. There is no result; that does not confirm a leak. Try again in a new private window or another browser.
What to do next
Open your VPN app's help page and find its DNS section. Follow the instructions for that particular service before changing anything. Keep browser protections enabled and avoid changing router settings at random.
If the result is still unclear, tell support your device, browser and the organisation names from the test. Our VPN connection check covers your public IP separately: a changed IP and a DNS result are different checks.
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