Provider-neutral self-test pilot
Brave VPN is built into a browser and is documented as not stopping there: Brave describes it as protecting internet traffic on every app on your device, even outside Brave, at the network level. The killswitch, though, is listed for iOS only. And the operator behind it is Guardian, which Brave describes as having been acquired by DNSFilter. Those three facts frame most of what a leak test can tell you here, and the reading describes this browser in this session.
Live test
Brave documents this as covering every app on the device rather than just the browser, so a check in another browser on the same machine should also show the tunnel address.
Current-session checks
Take a reading before connecting and one after, then repeat the address check in a second browser, because Brave documents the coverage as device-wide rather than browser-only.
Before you read the result
The points below come from Brave's own product pages and announcements for its Firewall plus VPN offering.
Brave documents the feature as protecting internet traffic on every application on your device, even outside Brave, and describes it as network-level protection rather than a proxy inside the browser. Unlike a browser VPN, a check run in a different browser on the same machine should therefore also show the tunnel address, and one that does not is worth investigating rather than expecting.
Brave's own feature list names a killswitch and marks it iOS only. On Windows, macOS and Android there is consequently no documented feature to blame when a check catches your own address after a reconnect. The question becomes what was reachable during the gap, which no single reading can answer, and which is why a recorded disconnect is more informative here than elsewhere.
Brave states that the service is powered by Guardian, and describes Guardian as a firewall and VPN technology platform that was acquired by DNSFilter. An address lookup naming an operator you did not expect is consistent with that arrangement, so compare the network behind your exit address against the region you selected rather than against the word Brave.
Brave frames the product as a firewall plus a VPN and is explicit about why: a VPN encrypts your internet traffic but cannot block harmful trackers and other online nuisances, which is the firewall half's job. A resource that will not load partway through a check may have been blocked by the firewall rather than having failed on the network.
Brave lists smart proxying, for reaching sites and applications that try to block VPN traffic, as available on iOS and desktop, and lists Android, iOS, macOS and Windows with Linux described as coming. One subscription is documented as covering up to ten devices. That last number is worth remembering when two of your devices give different answers to the same check.
Between the readings
Brave lists a killswitch for iOS only, so on desktop and Android there is no documented feature to fall back on. What a recorded drop measures is what got out in the gap instead.
Safe Copy exports use safe summary categories and remove raw IP, exact city, full user-agent, raw fingerprint data, raw resolver IPs and WebRTC candidates. It is not a certificate, provider audit, or proof of anonymity.
FAQ
Brave documents it as protecting internet traffic on every application on your device, even outside Brave, and describes it as network-level protection. That is why a check in a second browser is a useful confirmation here.
Brave's feature list names a killswitch and marks it iOS only. On other platforms there is no documented kill switch, so an address that appears after a reconnect has no such setting to be traced back to.
Brave states that the service is powered by Guardian, and describes Guardian as a firewall and VPN technology platform acquired by DNSFilter. An exit address naming an unfamiliar operator is consistent with that.
It may have been the firewall half. Brave is explicit that a VPN encrypts traffic but does not block trackers, and that blocking is what the firewall component does, so a refused resource can come from there.
Brave lists Android, iOS, macOS and Windows, describes Linux support as coming, and documents one subscription as covering up to ten devices across those platforms.
No. These checks read what this browser exposed in one session. What a provider records happens on its own servers and cannot be observed from a web page.