Because Snap says it acts on it. When a login fails with a network-blocked message, Snap’s help explains that it “may have detected suspicious activity from your IP address, or the use of a VPN”, lists spam and VPN use among the causes, and adds that the activity “may have come from someone else that was using your internet connection”. On a public VPN exit or a crowded proxy pool, that someone else can be any other customer of the same service. Snap’s connection tips are about your own network, not a proxy: switch to a different Wi-Fi connection, turn Wi-Fi off and use mobile data, and disable a VPN if the device is on one.
The address also carries a country. Snap’s privacy policy lists “IP address-based location information” apart from precise location, which it takes from sources such as GPS when you grant the permission, and its Brazil page tells people who moved away to avoid a VPN, “which can skew our location determination”. The tagging shows from the outside, too: a plain request we sent to www.snapchat.com from a Paris server on 11 October 2026, with no account and no cookies, came back with the response header x-snap-client-country: FR. So the country of the address should be the country of the account.
A dedicated carrier IP answers both points as far as an address can. No other customer of ours routes traffic through it while it is yours, though the carrier itself shares public IPs among its subscribers; it sits on a mobile network rather than in a datacenter or a VPN range; and it stays in the country you ordered for the whole month. It hides nothing else, and the limits further down get as much space as this.
- PER ACCOUNT
- One dedicated IP; no other customer of ours shares it during your month.
- SESSION
- Holds one address for as long as 24 hours, so a day of chats and Snaps comes from one place.
- NEW ADDRESS
- On demand: open your change-IP URL, found in the client area, and the next request leaves from a fresh one.
- CARRIERS
- Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile in the United States; Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom, Free Mobile in France. Italy and Spain are also offered at checkout.
FROM SNAP’S OWN PAGES
“If you can’t log into Snapchat, and you see a message that your network is blocked, then Team Snapchat may have detected suspicious activity from your IP address, or the use of a VPN.”
“Make sure you are using a device you’ve previously used with Snapchat, and that you avoid using a VPN, which can skew our location determination.”
“IP address-based location information (IP address)”