What Is Split Routing: Why Different Websites See You in Different Countries
cdnping · 2026-10-17
Most proxy clients route by rules by default: domestic sites connect directly, overseas sites go through the proxy. The upside is that domestic traffic takes no detour; the result is that different sites may see you in different countries.
How split routing works
The client keeps a rule table that decides, by domain, IP range, or geo database, whether each connection goes direct, through proxy A, or through proxy B. Common rule types include DOMAIN-SUFFIX,GEOIP,CN,MATCH and so on. Rules are matched from top to bottom, stopping at the first match.
Why it matters
- Different domains of the same service may go through different exits.For example, a web page goes through the proxy but one of its API subdomains isn't covered by the rules, so the same account appears in two countries at once.
- AI services are available by region.OpenAI, Anthropic, and others determine your region from where requests come from, and regions not on their supported list are blocked. You need to know which country these services actually see.
- Spend less time going in circles when troubleshooting."Why is this site so slow?" Often it's simply because it was routed through a distant exit.
How to see your own split routing
The most direct way is to ask several websites at once, "What IP do you see for me?" Many sites deployed on Cloudflare provide /cdn-cgi/trace path, which returns the visitor's IP and country (ip= and loc= field).cdnping's multi-exit checksends concurrent requests to Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, 1.1.1.1, ipify, ipinfo, and a domestic site, and puts the results in one table.
If more than one country shows up in the table, split routing is in effect. Whether to change it depends on what you want these sites to see.
Reading is good; testing it yourself is better.
Keep reading
- Native IP vs. Broadcast IP: Differences, How to Tell, and Common Misconceptions
- DNS leaks and WebRTC leaks: how they work, how to check, and how to fix them
- Calling AI Model APIs from Mainland China: Latency, Reachability, and Choices
- Choosing a Public Frontend CDN for Projects in China: jsDelivr, unpkg, cdnjs, and Domestic Mirrors