iCloud Private Relay and AdGuard for Safari with AdGuard-DNS (via local VPN)

VPN
1

So many conflicting information out there, so i did some testing which shows me that iCloud Private Relay and AdGuard for Safari with AdGuard-DNS (via local VPN) do indeed work together.

Testing an iPhone iOS18, an iPad iPadOS 18 and a Mac MacOS 15, all have iCloud Private Relay ON

https://whatismyipaddress.com tells me i am on iCloud Private Relay on all three devices, a different city is shown for each device

  • In Safari with AdGuard for Safari ON and AdGuard-DNS ON

https://adblock-tester.com gives my iPhone 76/100, my iPad 70/100 and my Mac 81/100

https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock gives me 79%, 78% and 84%

  • In Safari with AdGuard for Safari ON and AdGuard-DNS OFF

https://adblock-tester.com gives my iPhone 66/100, my iPad 45/100 and my Mac 81/100 (same as no AdGuard-DNS in MacOS-App)

https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock gives me 4%, 4% and 84% (same as no AdGuard-DNS in MacOS-App)

  • In Safari with AdGuard completely OFF

https://adblock-tester.com gives my iPhone 68/100, my iPad 46/100 and my Mac 66/100

https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock gives me 4%, 4% and 4%

2

I’ve been using both iCloud private relay and AdGuard DNS server via AdGuard pro app on iOS for years. But lately it’s been a little off. Some ads are getting through and checking for dns leaks here https://www.dnscheck.tools/

Still using any of the AdGuard DNS servers It now states that :Your DNS resolvers provide partial client IP address information (ECS):

whereas it did not say that before. Testing quad 9 and other DNS servers on AdGuard app does not report partial client IP address info leak. Does yours say this too?

I get a 100 on Adblock tester
Also get a 99 on d3ward ad test.

3

Thanks OP, I didn’t realize the two can work together now.

4

For me, this checks out only on iOS (no iPad to test). MacOS 15 broke AdGuard for Safari and no rules work with iCloud Private Relay enabled.

5

Does yours say this too?

Not the OP but mine reports this too. It’s in-country but not my actual city. But I figure Private Relay is set to my country/timezone anyway.

Funny, I was still under the impression that Private Relay and AdGuard DNS (via paid app) were not compatible. I litearlly just turned on PR again and it worked. No apparent issues. Haven’t tried using AG VPN yet though.

6

Correct, i said i use ‘Adguard for Safari’ in this test and the MacOS one is just a simple addon without DNS via VPN.

7

Is there a solution to this though ? Like you said, this was working fine before MacOS15 where both could coexist (Adguard for Mac + iCloud Private Relay), but not anymore.