How to change location and IP address with a VPN?

VPNs are popular and easy-to-use tools for many reasons. Other than ensuring your cybersecurity, it’s able to change your location and IP address to almost anywhere.

And since websites and online services can determine your location by your IP address, GPS location, ISP’s region, even cell phone tower pings, there are multiple ways to change your location.

Changing your location, also known as geo-spoofing, has loads of benefits, including helping you maintain your online anonymity, bypassing throttling, powering up your security and privacy, letting you access and stream region-restricted content, and helping you save money by bagging bargains reserved for other countries. We have prepared a comprehensive guide on how to unlock these superpowers. So let’s look into how to change your location and IP address with a VPN, and access the benefits of it.

How to change your location with a VPN

Follow our simple step-by-step guide to learn how to use VPN to change your IP address to another country:

1. Choose a reliable VPN if you don’t have one yet. NordVPN is a good choice.
2. Download your VPN and install it on your computer.
3. Open and log in to your VPN. If this is your first time logging into your VPN, you should be given a list of servers to connect to.
4. Select the country you want to connect to.
5. That’s it! Now your IP address and location are changed. It's really as simple as that.

Reasons to change your IP location with VPN

There are multiple reasons why you might want to use a VPN to change your location, such as:

1. Accessing region-restricted streaming services. Many streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime offer different content in different regions. By changing your location with a VPN you can bypass geo-restrictions and access content from all over the world, may it be a show or a sports event.
2. Getting a better price on products and digital services. A lot of online businesses might apply different rates in different regions. So if you have time to compare prices for products or services in different locations, you could end up saving quite a bit of money, particularly when booking travel or making expensive online purchases.
3. Powering up your safety and security. A VPN encrypts all your online traffic, which gives protection from online hackers and third-party snoops, as well as ensures your online privacy by keeping your activity free from prying eyes. This way you can remain safe at all times, even when using public Wi-Fi.
4. Bypassing a government’s internet censorship can be incredibly important if you live in a country that closely monitors its citizens' online activity, or if you’re a journalist, activist, or blogger. By getting a VPN, you can bypass censorship and mask your IP address. This will allow you to access and share content you want without the government finding you.
5. Bypassing restrictions at work or school is a popular use of VPNs as it’ll help you bypass the network firewall and let you access any sites on the blacklist set up by your school or workplace.
6. VoIP calls are a cheap but useful way to chat online. But without a VPN, these Voice over Internet Protocol communications can be acquired and analyzed. A VPN will encrypt these calls and make them much more difficult for a third party to decipher.

If you need more information on how to use a VPN, feel free to read our guide.

Try our top choice – NordVPN

How does a VPN change your IP address and location?

Your internet connection is encrypted by a VPN to protect the privacy of your online interactions, data, geolocation, and other online information. This is how it works:

1. In simple terms, a VPN allows you to connect to your chosen server almost anywhere in the world, wherever the VPN you’ve chosen has servers. Every VPN provider allows you to choose a location or has the option to assign it to you automatically.
2. Once you connect to a VPN server, the connection forms an encrypted VPN tunnel around all the traffic that is coming from your device. In addition, a VPN gives you a different IP address – the one of a server you are connected to, and your IP address is hidden from the world.
3. That’s it – now your data that goes through is sealed! Whenever you want to change your IP address or location to a new one, just get back to your VPN provider. We recommend using NordVPN.

Best VPNs to change your IP location and country

There are plenty of great VPNs out there, but the following 3 are particularly good for changing your geolocation:

1. NordVPN – best VPN to change your IP location overall
2. Surfshark – fast and reliable VPN for changing your location
3. IPVanish – feature-rich VPN to change your IP location and country

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1. NordVPN – best VPN to change your IP location

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NordVPN is the leading VPN service on the market, and there’s a reason for that. This VPN offers quite possibly the most comprehensive security-minded package, complete with strong tunneling protocols, a customizable kill switch, and a bunch of cool extras (like Onion over VPN, P2P optimized servers, Meshnet, threat protection, and more).

In terms of switching your location, NordVPN offers a network of 5500+ servers in 60 countries. The company assures you get the best servers and is capable of delivering some of the best connection speeds out there.

All this and more are available for a modest price of $3.49/month with the 2-year deal. And if you feel you don't like it, NordVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Read our NordVPN review.

2. Surfshark – fast and reliable VPN for changing your location

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Another big name, Surfshark, has a rare selling proposition – unlimited connections per account. In other words, you can share your account with your family and friends, as well as connect all your various devices.

But Surfshark isn't just about cost-efficiency. This VPN is one of the fastest around, delivering amazing speeds across its significant network of 3200+ servers in 100 countries. You'll be hard-pressed to find a location Surfshark doesn't have – perfect for those in need of a different IP location.

Surfshark is the only provider that offers a built-in fake GPS system. That means you can rely on Surfshark for spoofing your location and you don’t need any third-party apps for that. This feature is available for Android users.

In addition, Surfshark offers a handful of security features, such as kill switch, CleanWeb, IP rotator, even antivirus.

Surfshark is available from $2.30/month and, like NordVPN, has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Read our Surfshark review.

3. IPVanish – secure and feature-rich VPN to change your IP location and country

Visit IPVanish

One more great option for you is IPVanish. This VPN provider has a large server fleet of more than 2000 servers in 50 countries, so you’ll certainly find the needed location for yourself.

Also, IPVanish is one of the most secure VPNs on the market. There’s strong AES-256 encryption for your data, a reliable kill switch, and an audited no-logs policy. So with this VPN, your data will stay secure and anonymous.

Additionally, you get to enjoy SugarSync secure encrypted storage vault, auto-connect feature, split tunneling to pick and choose which apps require a VPN tunnel, and SOCKS5 proxy which is extremely useful while torrenting.

To sweeten the deal, IPVanish comes for as little as $3.99/month and covers unlimited simultaneous connections. And you can try it out risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Read our IPVanish review.

How to change location on your device

You can use a VPN to change your IP address and location on either a PC or a mobile device. Stay safe and keep up with your favorite shows, no matter where you are or what device you use. So here are a couple of quick guides on how to change your location on different devices:

How to change location on PC (Windows, macOS)

Using a VPN to change location on your desktop is very quick and simple. In just a few steps you'll be able to change location on your PC, access content worldwide, and keep your online activities safe and private from prying eyes.

1. Download, install, and set up your chosen VPN. Our top pick for changing location on a PC is NordVPN, now 63% OFF.
2. On the main panel pick a country you wish to change your location to.
3. To change your PC location to a different country, simply click on a server of your choice.

Change location on your PC

How to change location on mobile (Android, iOS)

If you prefer a mobile device over a PC, you're in luck. Setting up a VPN to change location on mobile is just as easy as doing it on the PC. Here's all you need to do:

1. Download and install your chosen VPN. We recommend NordVPN (now 63% OFF).
2. On the main panel scroll down and click on a server of your choice. It will connect automatically.
3. To change to a new location, just click on a different server location.

Change location on your mobile device

What to do if the VPN doesn't help with geo-blocking

There could be lots of reasons why your VPN doesn't work as advertised. Here's what you can try if that happens:

• Verify your IP address is not leaking. Sometimes, a VPN client will show that it's connected and you'll see the VPN address, but actually your real IP may be leaking. You can check this by looking up your IP online via sites like IPLocation.net – if you see your real IP address, that means the VPN is not working properly.
• Switch to another server. Even if your VPN has correctly allocated a new IP address for you, a website might recognize the use of a VPN address range and either limit your access or block it entirely. Switching to a different server could fix this issue for you.
• Check for a geolocation API. Websites and apps often use the HTML Geolocation API to find out where you are. And this can locate you even if you’re using a VPN, particularly if you’ve used that site or app before and given them permission to track your location. To fix this, check your browsers and apps for permissions you may have given and delete any you don't want.
• Check your cookies. Replacing your IP address might not be sufficient to trick a website into thinking you're in another location, especially if it’s a site you’ve visited before. To get around this, try removing any unnecessary browser information by deleting your cookies and browser history before you log in.
• Change DNS. DNS can sometimes fool websites into thinking that you are sending requests from different locations than you are actually in. Make sure to choose a reliable third-party DNS provider.
• Change browser. You can try switching browsers while trying to access geo-restricted content. It could fix the issue for you.
• Try disabling the location services. In terms of geolocation API, some apps will not work with location services disabled – might be worth mentioning.

Use NordVPN to bypass geo-restrictions

NordVPN will provide you with a new IP address based in your selected location – access the sites and services based in the region and safely encrypt your data.

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Best free VPNs to change your location

If you’d like to change your location and IP address for free, we have listed some VPN providers that offer both a free trial and a standard 30-day money-back guarantee:

1. NordVPN: Advanced features, big server fleet, and access to geo-restricted streaming content. The host has a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, with affordable prices starting at $3.49/month.
2. Surfshark: Unlimited simultaneous connections, broad server fleet, access to fast speeds, and unblock all major streaming sites. Prices begin at a $2.30/month and include a free 7-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
3. IPVanish: Enjoy industry-standard performance, rich features and proprietary VPN technology. Prices start at $3.99/month, and there’s a free 7-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

We also recommend ProtonVPN and Atlas VPN as free options. Both services are generally quite solid and have no data restrictions. Check out our article to learn about the best free VPN providers.

Conclusion

Whether you want to power up privacy or get around firewalls and access restricted content, the best way to do that is to change your IP address and location with the help of a VPN. Our article takes you through a short and easy guide to setting up a VPN and explains how it works with a detailed list of the best VPNs to do it with.

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