use case: CDN routing
IP geolocation for CDN routing and origin selection
Pick the closest CDN POP and the right origin region for a visitor using country, ASN, and continent metadata from the IP.
Use IP geolocation to choose the right CDN POP, origin region, and failover behavior for a visitor before any TLS round trip. CDN providers like Cloudflare, Fastly, Akamai, and AWS CloudFront expose the resolved country, continent, ASN, and POP in request headers, which lets edge workers pick a regional origin, route through compliance boundaries (data residency), or fall back to a healthier POP. Paste an IP to see what the geolocation library returns for country, continent, time zone, and ASN, then validate it against your CDN provider header to keep edge logic and origin logic in sync.
Statistics as of .
Source: https://developers.cloudflare.com/network/cf-ipcountry/ (accessed 2026-05-06)
Network tool FAQ
Should I trust the CDN-provided country header or run my own GeoIP?
Trust the CDN header at the edge for routing speed, but run your own GeoIP at the origin for audit. Pin the CDN country to a request header your origin can verify so you do not parse it twice.
How do I handle a country mismatch between CDN and library?
Log both, use the CDN value for routing (it is what already happened), and use the library for downstream logic. Investigate persistent mismatches — they often surface stale databases or VPN edge cases.
Can IP geolocation enforce data residency?
It is a useful first filter, but legal data residency typically requires the actual data store and processing to live in-region. Use IP geolocation to pick the right write endpoint, not as the only legal control.