How to Set Up Your Paid CleanBrowsing Account

Step 1: Access Your Dashboard

After purchasing a CleanBrowsing plan, log in to your dashboard at my.cleanbrowsing.org. Your dashboard displays:

• Your assigned DNS IPs: Unique to your account (e.g., 185.228.168.67 / 185.228.169.67). These are different from the free filter IPs.
• Your current public IP: The IP address your network is using to reach the internet.
• Filter settings: Content categories that are currently enabled or disabled.
• Query statistics: DNS query volumes, blocked requests, and activity logs.

Step 2: Bind Your Public IP

CleanBrowsing uses your public IP address to identify your account and apply your custom filter settings. You must bind your network's public IP to your account.

How to Bind Your IP

• Step 1: Go to Settings → Network in your dashboard.
• Step 2: Add your public IP address. You can find your public IP by searching "what is my IP" in Google.
• Step 3: Save the settings. Your custom filters will now apply to DNS queries coming from that IP.

Dynamic IP Addresses

If your ISP assigns a dynamic IP (which changes periodically), you need to keep your IP updated in CleanBrowsing. Options include:

• CleanBrowsing DDNS Updater: A lightweight script that automatically updates your IP when it changes.
• CleanBrowsing API: Use the API to programmatically update your IP from a cron job or scheduled task.
• Third-party DDNS: Services like No-IP or DynDNS can be integrated.

Step 3: Configure DNS on Your Devices

Replace any existing DNS settings with your assigned paid DNS IPs. You can configure DNS at the router level (network-wide) or on individual devices.

Important: Remove Free Filter IPs

If you were previously using CleanBrowsing's free filters (185.228.168.168, 185.228.168.10, or 185.228.168.9), you must remove them. Using both free and paid IPs causes inconsistent filtering — some queries go through the free filter (no customization) and others through your paid filter (with your custom settings).

Router-Level Configuration

For network-wide coverage, configure DNS on your router. Enter your assigned paid DNS IPs in the router's DNS settings. Every device on the network will automatically use your paid filtering. See our router guides for specific router models.

Device-Level Configuration

For per-device setup, configure DNS in the network settings of each device. This is useful if your router doesn't allow DNS changes or if you need different filtering for specific devices.

Step 4: Customize Your Filters

With a paid account, you have full control over content filtering categories. Go to the Filters section of your dashboard to customize what is blocked.

Content Categories

Toggle 14+ content categories on or off: Adult Content, Malware/Phishing, VPNs & Proxies, Gaming, Streaming, Social Media, Dating, Gambling, and more. See our full list of predefined filters.

Custom Domains

• Allow List: Add domains that should never be blocked, even if they fall into a blocked category.
• Block List: Add specific domains to block that aren't covered by category filters.

When Do Changes Take Effect?

Dashboard changes — including enabling/disabling content categories and updating custom block or allow lists — take 30 to 45 minutes to fully propagate across CleanBrowsing's resolver network. After waiting, you must also flush DNS cache on your devices and browsers, since they store old responses based on TTL (Time-to-Live) values.

Important: Do not test immediately after making changes. Wait at least 30 minutes, then flush your DNS cache and clear your browser DNS cache before verifying.

Category Filters vs. Custom Block Lists

When you enable a content category (e.g., "Video Streaming"), it automatically covers all domains in that category. There is no need to also add individual domains (like netflix.com or hulu.com) to your custom block list — the category already handles them. Doubling up with custom blocks on top of category blocks does not improve filtering and can actually complicate troubleshooting if you later need to make exceptions.

Use the custom block list only for domains that are not covered by any predefined category — for example, a specific internal site or niche domain you want blocked.