DNS resolver registry · CleanBrowsing

CleanBrowsing DNS servers

CleanBrowsing offers 3 service variants with different filtering, reachable over DNS (53), DoT, DoH. Every address and endpoint below is taken from the operator's documentation; the behaviour is what we measured on 2026-09-24.
185.228.168.9
primary address
12
addresses in 3 variants
Validates
DNSSEC in our test
None sent
client subnet (ECS)
Addresses Check your resolver

Addresses

CleanBrowsing DNS addresses by variant

Set the IPv4 or IPv6 addresses as your DNS servers, or use an encrypted endpoint where one is listed.

CleanBrowsing Security Filter

Phishing, spam, malware and malicious domains

IPv4
185.228.168.9
185.228.169.9
IPv6
2a0d:2a00:1::2
2a0d:2a00:2::2
DoH
https://doh.cleanbrowsing.org/doh/security-filter/
DoT
security-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.org

CleanBrowsing Adult Filter

Adult content, plus the Security Filter

IPv4
185.228.168.10
185.228.169.11
IPv6
2a0d:2a00:1::1
2a0d:2a00:2::1
DoH
https://doh.cleanbrowsing.org/doh/adult-filter/
DoT
adult-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.org

CleanBrowsing Family Filter

Adult content, proxy and VPN domains, and mixed-content sites

IPv4
185.228.168.168
185.228.169.168
IPv6
2a0d:2a00:1::
2a0d:2a00:2::
DoH
https://doh.cleanbrowsing.org/doh/family-filter/
DoT
family-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.org

Measured

What we observed

Measured 2026-09-24 from one vantage point, three rounds per address, majority result. Anycast resolvers can behave differently from other networks. How we test

DNSSEC validation Validates

Returned SERVFAIL for dnssec-failed.org, rhybar.cz and badsig.go.dnscheck.tools on every address that answered, while resolving example.com.

Client subnet (ECS)

No client subnet reached the authoritative server from any address we probed.

Plain DNS and NXDOMAIN

6/6 documented IPv4 addresses answered on port 53. Random non-existent names came back as NXDOMAIN, so errors are not rewritten into ads or search pages.

Encrypted endpoints

  • DoH https://doh.cleanbrowsing.org/doh/security-filter/Answered
  • DoH https://doh.cleanbrowsing.org/doh/adult-filter/Answered
  • DoH https://doh.cleanbrowsing.org/doh/family-filter/Answered
  • DoT security-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.orgAnswered
  • DoT adult-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.orgAnswered
  • DoT family-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.orgAnswered

Networks

Which networks carry it

The announcing network comes from RIPEstat routing data for each documented address. The query network is where the resolver sent its own lookups during our probe, which a DNS leak test reports.

Announcing the service addresses

  • AS205157 CIDNOC Daniel Cid

Queried from, in our probe

  • AS20473 AS-VULTR - The Constant Company, LLC

In the operator's words

Operator statements

Quoted from the operator's pages and checked word for word. We have not audited these practices.
“If you are using our free DNS services, we do not log or store any personally identifiable information (such as your IP address) that could tie DNS requests back to you.”
cleanbrowsing.org

Check it

Confirm your device is using CleanBrowsing

Changing a DNS setting does not guarantee your lookups reach that resolver: a VPN, a browser's own secure DNS or a proxy can send them elsewhere. Our DNS leak test shows which resolvers actually received your queries.

From a terminal

# Which address did the resolver query from?
dig +short whoami.akamai.net @185.228.168.9

# Does it pass your subnet on (ECS)?
dig +short TXT o-o.myaddr.l.google.com @185.228.168.9

# Does it validate DNSSEC? SERVFAIL means yes
dig dnssec-failed.org @185.228.168.9

Behind a proxy

With an HTTP proxy, or a client set to socks5h://, the proxy side resolves hostnames, so your own resolver setting does not apply to that traffic. With socks5:// in curl or Python requests, your device resolves names first. The SOCKS5 vs SOCKS5h guide shows how to check which one you have.

Questions

CleanBrowsing questions

What are CleanBrowsing's DNS server addresses?

CleanBrowsing Security Filter: 185.228.168.9, 185.228.169.9, 2a0d:2a00:1::2, 2a0d:2a00:2::2. CleanBrowsing Adult Filter: 185.228.168.10, 185.228.169.11, 2a0d:2a00:1::1, 2a0d:2a00:2::1. CleanBrowsing Family Filter: 185.228.168.168, 185.228.169.168, 2a0d:2a00:1::, 2a0d:2a00:2::.

Does CleanBrowsing validate DNSSEC?

Yes. On 2026-09-24 every CleanBrowsing address that answered returned SERVFAIL for three deliberately mis-signed domains while resolving ordinary names.

Does CleanBrowsing support DNS over HTTPS or DNS over TLS?

DoH: https://doh.cleanbrowsing.org/doh/security-filter/, https://doh.cleanbrowsing.org/doh/adult-filter/, https://doh.cleanbrowsing.org/doh/family-filter/. DoT: security-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.org, adult-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.org, family-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.org. 6 of 6 answered our test query on 2026-09-24.

Does CleanBrowsing send my IP subnet to other servers (ECS)?

We observed no client subnet on any address we probed.

How can I check that I am using CleanBrowsing?

Run a DNS leak test and compare the network it reports with the one CleanBrowsing queried from in our probe (AS20473). On the command line, dig +short whoami.akamai.net @185.228.168.9 returns the address the resolver used to query Akamai.

Sources

Sources and dates

Documentation checked 2026-09-24. Measured 2026-09-24. Registry reviewed 2026-09-24.

Compare

Other resolvers where DNSSEC validates

Cloudflare 1.1.1.1

1.1.1.1 · 1.0.0.1

DNSSEC: validates

Google Public DNS

8.8.8.8 · 8.8.4.4

DNSSEC: validates

Quad9

9.9.9.9 · 149.112.112.112

DNSSEC: validates

OpenDNS

208.67.222.222 · 208.67.220.220

DNSSEC: validates

AdGuard DNS

94.140.14.14 · 94.140.15.15

DNSSEC: validates

Control D Free DNS

76.76.2.0 · 76.76.10.0

DNSSEC: validates
All 20 resolvers

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