Hosting & Datacenter IP Detection API
Tell real users from servers: check any IPv4 or IPv6 address for hosting/datacenter networks with is_hosting,
and get its country and ASN in the same call. Useful against bots, scrapers and automated signups.
Risk flags, including is_hosting, are on paid plans · from $9/month (coming soon) · no overage charges
Example
Look up one IP and keep the hosting flag and the network with jq:
$ curl -s https://api.networkdatalabs.com/v0/ip/8.8.8.8 \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \ | jq '{country_code: .location.country_code, asn: .network.asn, as_org: .network.as_org, is_hosting: .traits.is_hosting}' { "country_code": "US", "asn": 15169, "as_org": "Google LLC", "is_hosting": true }
8.8.8.8 is a public DNS resolver in Mountain View on a hosting network, so is_hosting is true.
A home broadband or mobile carrier IP returns false.
Have a list? POST /v0/bulk (paid plans) takes up to 100 IPs per request with the same schema; each IP counts toward the monthly quota.
Response fields
traits.is_hosting— the IP is on a cloud, hosting or CDN network where real users rarely browse from. Paid plans.- Other risk flags —
is_vpn(known VPN networks),is_tor(Tor exits) andis_relay(privacy relay), also on paid plans. - Network —
asn,as_org,isp,organizationandnetwork(CIDR), on every plan. - Location —
country_code, region, city andaccuracy_radius_km, on every plan.
It’s the same GET /v0/ip/{ip} lookup as our IP geolocation API. On the Free plan the response omits the risk flags and keeps geo and ASN.
What teams use it for
- Bot & scraper friction — add a challenge or rate limit when traffic comes from datacenter IPs
- Signup & trial abuse — score signups from hosting networks higher, together with
is_vpnandis_tor - Clean analytics — separate server traffic from human visitors in your reports
- Allow server-to-server traffic — expect
is_hosting: trueon API clients and webhooks and don’t block them by mistake
What it doesn’t do
- Not every hosting IP is a bot. Corporate networks, VPN exits and legitimate integrations run on hosting networks too. Use the flag as one signal, not a hard block.
- It doesn’t identify the software. It tells you the network type, not whether the client is a browser, a script or a crawler.
FAQ
Is is_hosting available on the Free plan?
No. Free includes 1,000 requests per UTC calendar month with geolocation + ASN, 1 request/second, for personal and non-commercial use.
Risk flags (is_hosting, is_vpn, is_tor, is_relay) are on paid plans: $9, $29 and $79/month, or $90, $290 and $790/year, coming soon, with no overage charges.
Does it support IPv6?
Yes. GET /v0/ip/{ip} and POST /v0/bulk accept both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
(for example 2001:4860:4860::8888). Malformed IPs return 400 INVALID_IP.
Start building
Sign up for a free account, or read the quickstart and full reference in the docs.
Related APIs
- VPN Detection API — known VPN networks, Tor exits and privacy relays
- IP Fraud Detection API — VPN, Tor, privacy relay, hosting and geo signals for signup, login and payment risk
- ASN Lookup API — ASN, ISP and organization for any IP
- IP Geolocation API — full location with accuracy radius, network/ASN and traits
- API Docs — quickstart, endpoints and the full field reference