What is a Tor exit node?

Tor sends a user's traffic through three volunteer-run relays before it reaches a website: a guard, a middle relay and an exit. The exit node is the last one, and its IP address is the one the website sees, not the user's. That's why sites, forums and payment providers often check whether a visitor comes from a Tor exit node, and why server admins look up unexpected addresses in their logs.

Exit nodes come and go all the time, so the Tor Project publishes a live list of the addresses traffic currently leaves from.

Tool description

Enter an IP address and press Check IP. The tool tells you whether that address is a Tor exit node right now, with Is Tor exit node set to Yes or No.

The check runs on our server, which asks the Tor Project's exit list service (TorDNSEL at dnsel.torproject.org) over DNS. The address itself is never contacted. Only IPv4 addresses can be checked, since the service covers IPv4 only.

AI assistants connected to the Rapid Tool Set MCP server can run the same check as tor_exit_node_checker.

Good to know

  • No only means the address isn't an exit node now. An address that was one last month can show No today.
  • Guard and middle relays answer No too: they only pass traffic on inside the Tor network, so their address never shows up as the source of Tor traffic.
  • A hosting provider can give a former exit node's address to a new customer, so an old log entry and today's answer can differ.

Features

  • Live answer from the Tor Project's own exit list
  • Accepts a bare IPv4 address or a link whose host is one
  • The checked address is never contacted