Does incognito mode hide your public IP?

Quick answer

Short answer: no. Incognito (or private) mode does several useful things — hiding your IP is not one of them. This is one of the most common misunderstandings about online privacy, so let’s be precise about what it actually does.

What incognito mode really does

Private browsing affects your local device only. It doesn’t save your browsing history, cookies, or form data after you close the window, and it starts the session without your existing cookies. That’s genuinely useful for shared computers or signing into a second account. But it’s all about what’s stored on your machine.

What it does NOT do

Incognito does nothing to your IP address. Every website you visit still sees your real public IP exactly as it would normally — you can confirm this by opening our homepage in an incognito window and seeing your usual IP. It also doesn’t hide activity from your ISP, your employer or school network, or the sites themselves.

Who can still see you in incognito

In a private window, your ISP can still see which sites you connect to, the websites still see your IP and can still fingerprint your device (see canvas fingerprinting), and a network administrator can still monitor traffic. Incognito hides your history from the next person at your keyboard, not from the network.

What actually hides your IP

To change the IP sites see, you need a tool that routes your traffic elsewhere: a VPN (substitutes the VPN server’s IP), Tor (routes through relays), or a proxy. Incognito plus a VPN is a reasonable combo — incognito handles local traces, the VPN handles the IP — but incognito alone leaves your address fully visible. See how to hide your IP address for the real options.