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How to Change Your Location with a VPN

Updated Oct 28, 2026

Simon Migliano

Simon Migliano is a recognized world expert in VPNs. He's tested hundreds of apps and his research has been featured on the BBC, The New York Times, and more. Read full bio

Fact-checked by JP Jones

Guide Summary

Changing your online location with a VPN is easy, as long as you use an intuitive and reliable service. My favorite right now is ExpressVPN: its apps are the easiest to use thanks to a great UI and almost-instant connections to 13,360 servers covering 113 countries.

Here’s a quick guide on how to change location with a VPN:

Sign up for a reliable VPN like ExpressVPN or NordVPN.
Download and install the app from your device’s app store or the VPN’s official website.
Sign in using your account details and check in the app’s settings that the kill switch is on.
Open the server location list. You can usually reach it from the app’s home screen.
Select and connect to a server in the country you want. Your IP address and online location will change within seconds. To switch again, pick a different server.
Check your new online location with an IP finder.

➡️ Jump to more detailed instructions below.

While there are several tools available to change your online location, a VPN is the most reliable, versatile, and user-friendly option.

The best VPNs offer thousands of servers spread across dozens of countries. They connect in seconds with barely noticeable speed loss.

Some VPNs even allow you to spoof your HTML5 browser location and your phone’s GPS coordinates.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to change your VPN location on mobile and desktop, how to stop apps from using GPS to find your real location, and what to do if your VPN isn’t changing your location.

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How to Use a VPN to Change Location

Using a VPN is an easy and reliable way to change your IP address and virtual location.

When you turn on your VPN software, it replaces your IP address with the IP address of the server you connect to.

Once you’re connected to the VPN server, the websites and apps you use will see its IP address and corresponding geolocation rather than yours.

Connected to ExpressVPN's Mexican server location.

I changed my location to Mexico using ExpressVPN.

Changing location with a VPN is straightforward, even for absolute beginners. Watch this helpful video below to learn the basics:

With the right VPN, you’ll have access to servers in dozens of countries, and you’ll be able to switch between locations, for example from a US server to a UK server, through the app’s server list.

The best method to change your VPN location will vary depending on the device you’re using. In this section, I’ll explain exactly how to change your online location on smartphones and computers.

For other devices, head over to my dedicate guide on how to set up and use a VPN.

EXPERT ADVICE: Once you’ve connected to a VPN server, check that your IP address location has changed by using an IP checker tool.

Mobile (iOS & Android)

Changing your location with a VPN works the same way on iPhone, iPad, and Android, and it only takes a minute to set up.

How to Change Location with a VPN on Mobile

Download a trustworthy VPN: Get it from the App Store on iPhone and iPad, or from Google Play on Android.
Subscribe and log in: You can usually sign up inside the app. If you’ve already subscribed on the VPN’s website, log in with your account details.
Open the server list: Tap the location shown on the app’s home screen. Some apps keep the full list in a separate Locations tab.
Select a location: Tap the country or city you want. The best VPNs, like ExpressVPN, connect in under three seconds. Others can take a little longer.
Check your new location: Open our IP checker in your phone’s browser to confirm your IP address shows the right country.
To switch location, repeat steps 3 and 4.

How to Stop Apps Using Your Real GPS Location

A VPN changes your IP address, but it doesn’t change your phone’s GPS location. Apps that check GPS, like ESPN and NFL+, can still see where you really are, even with the VPN connected.

On iPhone and iPad, you can only block an app from accessing your location. On Android, you can also spoof your GPS so it matches your VPN server.

iPhone & iPad: Block Location Access

GPS spoofing isn’t possible on iOS, and any App Store app that claims to do it is fake. Instead, stop the app from seeing your location:

When the app asks for your location, tap Don’t Allow.
If you’ve already allowed it, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, tap the app, and select Never.

Android: Block Location Access

When the app asks for your location, tap Don’t allow.
If you’ve already allowed it, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, tap the app, and select Never.

How to Spoof Your GPS Location on Android

Some apps won’t work at all without location access. For those, the easiest fix is a VPN with built-in GPS spoofing, like Surfshark or Windscribe. It moves your GPS location to match whichever VPN server you connect to.

Here’s how to set it up:

Turn on Developer options: Go to Settings > About phone and tap Build number seven times. On Samsung phones, it’s under About phone > Software information.
Make your VPN the mock location app: Go to Settings > Developer options (under System on some phones), tap Select mock location app, and choose your VPN.
Turn on GPS spoofing in the VPN app: In Surfshark, go to Settings > VPN settings > Advanced settings and turn on Override GPS location. In Windscribe, open Preferences and turn on GPS Spoofing under General.
Connect to a VPN server: Your GPS location will now match the server’s location. Close and reopen any location-based apps so they pick up the change.

Setting up Surfshark’s Override GPS location.

You can also pair your VPN with a separate fake GPS app from Google Play. Set it as the mock location app in step 2, then pick a location that matches your VPN server. It’s more work, though, and the two can easily fall out of sync.

Keep in mind that some apps, especially banking apps and games, detect mock locations and refuse to work.

Desktop (PC & Mac)

For many people, using a VPN on PC or Mac is even easier than on a phone or tablet, although that depends on your reason for doing so.

How to Change VPN Location on PC or Mac

Subscribe to a VPN with user-friendly apps for PC and Mac: ExpressVPN offers the most intuitive software for PC and Mac.
Download the Windows or macOS software: I recommend downloading it from the VPN’s official website.
Run the installation file on your device.
Allow the software setup to finish: You may need to restart your device to complete the installation.
Open the app and log in to your account: This could be through an email and password, an activation code, or a sign-in link sent by email.
Check the app’s settings are configured how you want them: Go into the app’s settings and check everything looks in order. For instance, make sure the kill switch is active.
Click on the locations menu to see all server locations. Usually, there will be a quick-access link from the app’s home screen.
Select a location: If you picked a good VPN, you’ll connect to a server and change IP location within a few seconds.
To change location, repeat steps 7 and 8.
To disconnect and reconnect to the same location, use the On/Off button on the home screen. Your app will remember the last server location you connected to.

To avoid any unexpected issues, I also recommend disabling any system or web browser location services.

If you decide to use a VPN browser extension, make sure you enable HTML5 location spoofing and, if available, any WebRTC blocking setting.

How to Fix Your VPN Not Changing Location

If your VPN isn’t assigning your device a new IP location, something has gone wrong. Try the troubleshooting tips below to get your VPN working properly:

Make sure you’re using a reliable VPN. Poor-quality services, like many free ones, aren’t good at changing your virtual location.
Make sure your VPN is actually turned on and you’re connected to a VPN server. Some VPNs can unexpectedly disconnect, and some VPNs can simply fail to connect altogether.
Run a leak test to verify your VPN isn’t exposing your IP, DNS, or HTML5 data (and therefore revealing your true location).
Make sure you’ve selected and connected to a server in your desired location. Some VPNs will connect you to your nearest or fastest server unless you configure them otherwise.
Try connecting to a different VPN server in the same location. Some servers stop working properly if overloaded, or may fail to unblock geo-restricted content if a service has determined the IP address belongs to a VPN.
Delete your browser’s cache and cookies. Websites can use cookies to store identity and location data from previous visits.
Disable location services if you can. Turning these off prevents apps from determining where your device is located.

Why Use a VPN to Change Location?

The two main reasons for changing your VPN location are to protect your privacy and to access web content and services only available in certain countries or regions.

Your real IP address can be used to find your approximate location, which can be dangerous for users sending sensitive personal information or living in highly censored countries. That location data includes your country, city, time zone, and sometimes even your ZIP code.

Your location data can also be used for targeted advertising, surveillance, and some forms of online harassment. By hiding this essential information, you can protect yourself from doxxing, DoS attacks, and your ISP seeing your internet history.

Changing your online location also allows you to use the internet as if you were in another region or country, and therefore access geo-restricted content.

For instance, if you live in the US, you can use a VPN to change location to Japan and watch Japanese Netflix.

Or, if you live in Europe, you can change your Netflix region by choosing a VPN server in America or in Canada.

This also works to access geo-restricted video games. For example, the best VPNs for PUBG Mobile allow you to play the game from countries where it’s banned, such as India.

How to Change Location without a VPN

A VPN is the easiest way to change your virtual location on mobile and desktop devices.

However, there are alternative methods you can use to change your location on other devices, such as game consoles or smart TVs.

Here are the most popular alternatives to VPNs for changing your location:

Web Proxy: Quickly changes your browser’s IP location.
Smart DNS: A good alternative for smart TVs & game consoles.
Tor Browser: The most anonymous tool to change your location.

Web Proxy Servers

The simplest alternative to VPN services is to use a web proxy. Proxy servers are similar to VPNs in that they enable you to send your browser traffic through a remote server in a different country. This changes your IP address and apparent location, allowing you to unblock some geographically restricted content.

I changed my IP location using Hide.me’s free web proxy.

A good web proxy will also encrypt your traffic using HTTPS, but many free web proxies don’t. In fact, many free proxy servers are actually dangerous to use, and even the encrypted services are far less secure than a trustworthy VPN.

Smart DNS Proxies

If you need to change your location on a different device, the best alternative to a VPN is a Smart DNS proxy.

Smart DNS services work by changing your DNS server location instead of your IP address. This lets you bypass geographic restrictions on devices that aren’t compatible with VPN software, but it won’t protect your privacy.

By changing DNS servers, you can use Smart DNS to bypass geo-restrictions on content.

The benefit of Smart DNS versus a VPN is that it doesn’t require you to install any software. To use it, simply subscribe to a Smart DNS service and follow its instructions to change the DNS settings on the device of your choice.

The Tor Browser

You can also use the Tor Browser to change your location and unblock restricted websites. Tor routes your traffic through at least three randomly selected servers. By the end of this process, your traffic will appear to originate from the location of the last server in the chain.

How your internet data passes through the Tor network.

It’s technically possible to hide your true location with Tor, but it’s incredibly slow. Your traffic’s exact route through the network is also chosen at random, which means it’s difficult to choose the exact location you want to change to.

FAQs

Is It Legal to Change Location Using a VPN?

Yes, using a VPN to change your online location is legal in almost every country in the world.

The only countries where using a VPN is illegal are Belarus, Iraq, North Korea, and Turkmenistan.

Can My VPN Location Be Tracked?

It’s possible for your ISP, third-party websites, and other web service providers to know you’re using a VPN.

They’ll see your VPN location, but won’t be able to trace your real IP address or location. Your real location will be exposed, however, if your VPN leaks your DNS requests.

Can Companies Know My Real Location Even with a VPN?

Yes, large companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft use cookies and device fingerprinting to identify your device.

They may be able to infer your true location from this information even if you use a VPN.

Google also uses cell tower IDs and GPS data in its Android operating system to track you.