Hide IP Address on iPhone: What Each Privacy Setting Does

Quick answer: to hide your IP address on iPhone, turn on Limit IP Address Tracking for each network and Hide IP Address in Safari’s settings. Those keep it from known trackers. iCloud Private Relay, part of iCloud+, also hides it from websites, but only in Safari. To change your IP or cover every app, switch networks or use a VPN. Private Wi-Fi Address hides a different identifier.

Below, each setting gets its own section: where to find it, what it hides, and what it leaves alone. After that come a comparison table and the honest answer on changing your IP.

Two addresses, four settings

Your iPhone has two kinds of network address, and the settings don’t all touch the same one.

• Your IP address is what websites and apps see. Your public IP comes from the network you’re on: your home internet provider, your cellular carrier, or the cafe’s Wi-Fi. It reveals roughly where you are and can link your visits together.
• Your Wi-Fi hardware address, called a MAC address, is only seen by the Wi-Fi network you join. Websites never see it.

Of Apple’s four built-in settings, three deal with your IP address and one deals with the hardware address. Keeping that straight explains most of the confusion about what each one does.

Private Wi-Fi Address

This setting gives your iPhone a different hardware address on each Wi-Fi network, so the people running networks can’t easily recognize your phone as you move between them. Apple’s guide to private Wi-Fi addresses has the full details.

1. Open Settings and tap Wi-Fi.
2. Tap the More Info button next to the network. If you’re not connected to it, tap Edit first.
3. Tap Private Wi-Fi Address and choose Off, Fixed, or Rotating. Before iOS 18, it’s a simple on-off switch.

In iOS 18 and later, Fixed keeps the same private address for that network, and Rotating changes it about every two weeks. Your iPhone picks Fixed for secured networks and Rotating for open or weakly secured ones by default.

What it hides: your real hardware address, from Wi-Fi operators and anyone watching the local network.

What it doesn’t hide: your IP address. Websites see exactly the same thing whether this is on or off. Leave it on unless a network needs your real address, for example a home router with parental controls that identifies devices.

Limit IP Address Tracking

This one is about your IP address. Apple’s Wi-Fi settings guide describes it simply: it hides your IP address from known trackers.

• For Wi-Fi: go to Settings > Wi-Fi, tap the More Info button next to the network, and turn on Limit IP Address Tracking.
• For cellular: go to Settings > Cellular, tap Cellular Data Options (or choose your line under SIMs if you have more than one), and turn on Limit IP Address Tracking.

It does two other jobs worth knowing about. Mail Privacy Protection, which stops senders from seeing your IP address and whether you opened their email, needs it switched on. And it’s the per-network on-off switch for iCloud Private Relay: turn it off for a Wi-Fi network and Private Relay goes off for that network on every device signed in to your Apple Account.

What it hides: your IP address from known trackers.

What it doesn’t hide: your IP address from the websites you actually visit, unless Private Relay is also on, or from the servers your other apps talk to.

Safari’s Hide IP Address

Safari has its own version of the setting.

1. Open Settings, tap Apps, then Safari.
2. Turn on Hide IP Address.

In older iOS versions, Safari’s settings sit directly under Settings > Safari.

According to Apple’s guide to browsing privately in Safari, Safari protects your IP address from known trackers by default. If you subscribe to iCloud+, it’s protected from trackers and websites. Turn the setting off and your address isn’t hidden at all.

What it hides: your IP address from trackers in Safari, and from websites too if you have iCloud+.

What it doesn’t hide: anything outside Safari. Chrome, Firefox, and every other app work as if the setting didn’t exist.

iCloud Private Relay

Private Relay is the strongest of the built-in options and the narrowest in scope. It’s part of iCloud+, and it sends your Safari browsing, DNS lookups, and unencrypted app traffic through two separate relays. Websites see a temporary address in your region instead of your real one, and your network provider can’t see which sites you visit in Safari.

Turn it on under Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Private Relay. It won’t place you in another country, isn’t offered everywhere, and some work and school networks block it. Our full comparison of iCloud Private Relay vs a VPN covers when it’s enough and when it isn’t.

What each setting hides

Setting	Where to find it	Hides	Doesn’t hide	Needs iCloud+?
Private Wi-Fi Address	Settings > Wi-Fi > More Info	Your hardware address, from Wi-Fi operators	Your IP address, from anyone	No
Limit IP Address Tracking	Settings > Wi-Fi or Cellular	Your IP, from known trackers	Your IP, from sites you visit and other apps	No
Safari Hide IP Address	Settings > Apps > Safari	Your IP, from trackers (and sites with iCloud+)	Anything outside Safari	For websites
iCloud Private Relay	Settings > [your name] > iCloud	Your IP from sites, your Safari browsing from your network	Most traffic from other apps; can’t choose a country	Yes
VPN	A VPN app	Your IP and activity, across the apps it covers	Who you are once you sign in	No

All four built-in settings are worth leaving on. They cost nothing beyond iCloud+ for Private Relay, and they rarely break anything. A VPN sits on top when you need more.

How to change your IP address on iPhone

Because your public IP comes from the network, changing it means changing what your traffic goes out through.

1. Switch networks. Turn off Wi-Fi and you’ll use your carrier’s address. Join a different Wi-Fi network and you’ll get that network’s address. It’s the simplest change, and it costs nothing.
2. Restart your router at home. Some internet providers hand out a new address when the router reconnects. Many keep the same one for weeks, so this works only sometimes.
3. Use Private Relay to swap the address websites see in Safari for a relay address in your own region.
4. Use a VPN to send all your traffic through a server somewhere else. Sites and apps see the server’s address, and if you choose a server in another region, they see that region.

One trap to avoid: changing the IP settings on a Wi-Fi network, or renewing its address, only affects the local address your router gives your iPhone. Websites still see the same public address as before.

What a VPN adds, honestly

The built-in settings are mostly about trackers and Safari. A VPN fills the gaps they leave:

• It covers your other apps, not only Safari.
• It hides your activity from the local network, which matters most on public Wi-Fi, where you didn’t set up the router. The public Wi-Fi checklist covers the rest of that routine.
• It lets you appear in another region, which none of Apple’s settings do.

BlueHammer VPN encrypts your connection, hides your IP address, and protects you on public Wi-Fi, with iOS, Android, and macOS covered by one purchase. If it ever gives you trouble on your phone, the guide to a VPN not working on iPhone walks through the fixes.

Honest limits

Hiding your IP address is one piece of privacy, not the whole of it. When you sign in to an account, that service knows it’s you, whatever address it sees. Cookies and browser fingerprinting can follow you without your IP at all. And a VPN doesn’t remove visibility so much as move it: your internet provider sees less, and the VPN provider sees what they used to see.

So set the built-in options once, and leave them on. Turn on a VPN for the moments when the network is the risk or the region matters. For a plain account of where that line sits, read what a VPN actually hides, and for the everyday moments worth switching it on, see when to use a VPN on Mac.