Skip to content
Spaw
Get your API key

iCloud Private Relay

published · September 12, 2026

iCloud Private Relay is Apple's two-hop relay for Safari and iCloud+ subscribers; a site sees an Apple egress address with a coarse location, never the subscriber's own.

iCloud Private Relay is the privacy service Apple switches on for iCloud+ subscribers in Safari: traffic passes through two hops, one run by Apple that knows the subscriber and one run by a partner that knows the destination, so neither sees both. A website sees the second hop's address — an egress address Apple publishes in a list with the coarse city or region it stands for — and never the subscriber's own.

What Spaw answers

is_relay is true on an address from Apple's published egress list, privacy_service reads iCloud Private Relay, and the operator-declared location from that list wins over the database with location_source: operator. The weight is +10, the smallest of the anonymity signals, because Private Relay is on by default for a paying subscriber and says almost nothing about intent; the datacenter weight is skipped for relay egress, since it sits on infrastructure by design. Apple's egress ranges also appear in the aggregate VPN list, so is_vpn answers false on them unless a VPN provider's own list names the address — the first-party declaration outranks the aggregate classification.

What it does not mean

A relay address is not a VPN in the sense fraud teams mean: there is no server to pick, no country to choose, and the location Apple publishes is honest to the region. Treating +10 as a block would refuse a large share of iPhone users for no signal at all.

Related

markdown version: /glossary/icloud-private-relay.md

Verify addresses the same way

The Spaw API runs every check described here on each lookup, with an SMTP handshake that never sends mail. 10 free lookups a month, no card required.

Get your API key

More glossary

  • Area-code overlay

    An area-code overlay is a new area code added over the same area as an existing one, instead of splitting it, so neighbours can hold different codes and local calls need ten digits.

  • Calling window

    A calling window is the span of local hours a sender contacts people in. Spaw answers in_call_window from the number's time zones: clock arithmetic, not compliance advice.

  • Fictional number

    A fictional number sits in a range kept out of service for films, TV and other fiction: 555-0100 to 555-0199 in North America, and ranges Ofcom, ARCEP, ACMA and ComReg reserve elsewhere.

  • International (exit) prefix

    An international prefix is what is dialled to leave a country before the calling code: 00 in most of the world, 011 in North America. Spaw reads it and suggests a fix in did_you_mean.

  • International network number

    An international network number sits under a calling code the ITU gives a global service rather than a country, such as +870, +881, +882 or +883, so its country is null.

  • Live carrier check (HLR lookup)

    A live carrier check asks the mobile networks, at the moment of the lookup, whether a number is in service, which network serves it and whether it is roaming. On Spaw it is not enabled.

  • Number pooling (thousands-blocks)

    Number pooling splits a North American central office code into ten blocks of a thousand numbers, each assigned to a carrier separately, so one code can hold several carriers' numbers.

  • Number portability

    Number portability lets a subscriber keep a phone number when changing carrier. The number's block stays listed under the carrier it was issued to, so block data names the original holder.