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Pixelscan, explained

Pixelscan tells you whether your browser fingerprint is "consistent" or "inconsistent", with four cards for location, proxy, masking and bots. In our test a person's everyday Chrome got "inconsistent" and "Masking detected", so a red result on its own proves very little.

A commercial site with proxy and anti-detect partners. Open Pixelscan

What is Pixelscan?

Pixelscan (pixelscan.net) is one of the most-used fingerprint checkers, especially among people who manage many browser profiles. Its main test gives a one-line verdict, "Your browser fingerprint is consistent" or "inconsistent", followed by four cards, and below that a long list of what websites can see: IPs (including the WebRTC address), time zone from JavaScript and from the IP, screen, fonts and more.

The site also has IP, proxy, VPN, DNS and WebRTC leak tools, and a large blog. It is commercial: next to a "Masking detected" result it links to a list of the best anti-detect browsers, and it promotes partner deals.

What Pixelscan checks

Location

Whether the browser's time zone agrees with where the IP geolocates. A mismatch shows as "Timezone spoofed".

Proxy

Whether the IP looks like a proxy or data-centre address rather than a home or mobile connection.

Fingerprint (masking)

Whether values such as canvas or WebGL output look deliberately altered. "Masking detected" means it thinks something is changing them.

Bot check

Whether the page sees signs of automation, such as a browser driven by Playwright or Selenium.

Browser compatibility

A row checking the user agent against the features each browser family actually supports.

How to read your Pixelscan result

Consistent / inconsistent
The overall line. It turns red if any card fails, so always read the four cards to see which one.
Timezone spoofed
Your browser's time zone and your IP's location disagree, or Pixelscan thinks they do. Travel, VPNs and geolocation-database errors all cause it.
Masking detected
Something alters rendering or fingerprint values. Privacy extensions and ad blockers can do this, and so can anti-detect browsers that add canvas noise.
Automated behavior detected
The page believes the browser is being driven by a program. This is the card that separates automation from a person.

What real browsers scored

Measured on 20 and 21 September 2026 on one Windows 11 PC (NVIDIA RTX 3070) on a home fibre connection in the Netherlands, with no proxy or VPN. Three browsers: a person's everyday Chrome 153 with an ad blocker, used by hand; the same genuine Chrome 153 driven by Playwright; and Clearcote 153 driven by Playwright with a fingerprint seed.

BrowserPixelscan said
Everyday Chrome 153, by handInconsistent · No proxy · Masking detected · No automated behavior
Genuine Chrome 153, PlaywrightInconsistent · Timezone spoofed · No proxy · No masking · Automated behavior detected

Neither browser got "consistent". The genuine Chrome under Playwright was caught as automated; the everyday Chrome was not, but got "Masking detected", most likely from its ad blocker.

Results that show up on normal browsers

  • "Inconsistent" on an ordinary browser. Neither browser in our test, including the one used by a person, got "consistent".
  • "Masking detected" on a normal Chrome with a privacy extension or ad blocker installed.
  • "Timezone spoofed" when the time zone does match: the genuine Chrome in our test reported Europe/Amsterdam on a Dutch IP and was still flagged. IP geolocation databases disagree, even about which Dutch town a line is in.

FAQ

Why does Pixelscan say my fingerprint is inconsistent?

Read the four cards to find out which one failed. In our test even a person's everyday Chrome was "inconsistent", because of the masking card. The most common causes are a time zone that doesn't match your IP, a privacy extension, or canvas noise from an anti-detect browser.

What does "Masking detected" mean on Pixelscan?

Pixelscan believes something is altering fingerprint values such as canvas or WebGL output. Privacy extensions and ad blockers can trigger it, and so can anti-detect browsers that add noise. In our test a normal Chrome with an ad blocker got it.

Is Pixelscan reliable?

It is useful for spotting one thing at a time, for example whether your time zone matches your proxy. Its overall verdict is strict enough that ordinary browsers fail it, so don't treat "inconsistent" as proof of a problem without reading the cards.

Does Pixelscan detect Playwright and Puppeteer?

It can: in our test it caught a genuine Chrome driven by Playwright ("Automated behavior detected"). That is one site on one day; other sites look at other signals.

Want every check explained?

The Clearcote audit runs 272 coherence checks on whatever browser opens it, with a plain-English explanation and a fix for each one. Free, no account.

Run the audit Other test sites

Related reading

Q&AWhat is canvas fingerprinting?Canvas fingerprinting draws text/graphics to a hidden canvas and hashes the pixels; tiny GPU/driver/font differences make the hash device-specific.Q&AWhat is a timezone / IP mismatch?When a browser's timezone, locale and language don't match the geolocation of its IP (often a proxy), the contradiction flags the session as suspicious.Test guideBrowserScan, explainedBrowserScan gives your browser an authenticity percentage and lists exactly what it took points off for. That makes it one of the easier tests to read, as long as you know which deductions come from your connection rather than your browser.Test guideIphey, explainedIphey gives your browser a one-word trust verdict and a score out of 100. It is quick and popular, but the verdict is easy to misread: in our test every browser we tried, including a person's everyday Chrome, was called "Unreliable".