Freebuff CLI returns "not available in your country" – no fallback or documentation

[shiva-manu]

## Description When using Freebuff CLI, I receive the error:

"Freebuff is not available in your country."

This prevents any interaction with the tool.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Run Freebuff CLI
2. Enter any prompt (e.g., "hey which model am I talking with now")
3. Observe error

Expected Behavior

• Either:
  • The CLI should work normally, OR
  • There should be a clear fallback / warning before execution, OR
  • Documentation should mention region restrictions

Actual Behavior

• CLI initializes successfully
• On prompt execution, it throws:
  "Freebuff is not available in your country."

Environment

• OS: Ubuntu (Linux)
• CLI: firecrawl / freebuff (mention exact version if possible)
• Location: India

Additional Context

• No prior warning about geo-restrictions
• This blocks usage completely
• Is this intentional, or a misconfiguration?

Question

• Is there a way to bypass this (API key / self-host / config)?
• Or is Freebuff officially restricted by region?

[ShovitDutta]

Unfortunately, Freebuff is currently unavailable in India and several other Asian countries.

[whshang]

Neither US

[zzx1314]

Neither US

VPN cannot be used

[nieyanzhai]

oh, shit 😂

[HarrySza]

I'm getting it without VPN.

Free mode isn't available in your region we detected vpn or anonymized network traffic from GB.
Freebuff can't be used from anonymized networks.

[jahooma]

Hi @HarrySza , are you in the UK? Were you at a coffee shop using wifi or was it your office or home?

[iulicafarafrica]

Hello, I was using freebuff from Germany via a cloud instance purchased from Hetzner. I was working on my project—a beauty website—when I was suddenly disconnected. Now, I see the message: 'Free mode isn't available in your region; we detected VPN or anonymized network traffic from DE.' What is the issue with using freebuff on Hetzner infrastructure?

[Jackytfy]

FREEBUFF
Free mode isn't available in your region
We detected residentialproxy or anonymized network traffic from Us.Freebuff
can't be used from anonymized networks.Press Ctrl+C to exit.

[jahooma]

Hi, sorry guys!

I'm using a service to identify vpn's, residential proxy's, and related, and it has some false positives.

Unfortunately I don't know a better solution, because this is the only thing that has worked to block the traffic from countries where we don't want to allow access.

[Jackytfy]

Which countries are we supporting now? I don't think this approach is good. Why impose restrictions? Does technology have national boundaries? I feel that technology should be borderless.  田凤叶 ***@***.***  

…

------------------ 原始邮件 ------------------ 发件人: "James ***@***.***>; 发送时间: 2026年4月30日(星期四) 下午2:00 收件人: ***@***.***>; 抄送: ***@***.***>; ***@***.***>; 主题: Re: [CodebuffAI/codebuff] Freebuff CLI returns "not available in your country" – no fallback or documentation (Issue #505) jahooma  哈胡玛 left a comment   留言(CodebuffAI/freebuff#505) （CodebuffAI/codebuff#505） Hi, sorry guys!  大家好，抱歉！ I'm using a service to identify vpn's, residential proxy's, and related, and it has some false positives. 我正在使用一个服务来识别 VPN、住宅代理和相关服务，但有一些误报。 Unfortunately I don't know a better solution, because this is the only thing that has worked to block the traffic from countries where we don't want to allow access. 很遗憾我不知道更好的解决方案，因为这是唯一有效阻断来自我们不想允许访问国家的流量的方法。 — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. 直接回复此邮件，访问 GitHub 查看， 或取消订阅 。 Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS or Android. 使用 GitHub Mobile for iOS 或 Android 随时分诊通知。 You are receiving this because you commented. 你收到这个是因为你评论了。 Message ID: ***@***.***>

[HarrySza]

Hi @HarrySza , are you in the UK? Were you at a coffee shop using wifi or was it your office or home?

Yes UK. This is at home, naked no VPN. Come over for a coffee. This last VPN filtering has wiped out Freebuff. In all fairness I would pay for Freebuff. Codebuff is too expensive on credits, hallucinates too much and sometimes loops will eat up $100's. Perhaps we can integrate premium Freebuff or lite Codebuff where we use less expensive GLM, Minimax and/or KIMI models. As a fellow startup I sympathise with all the struggles you guys are going through. Must say Codebuff and now Freebuff has been fairly inconsistent and unreliable, but when it works it beats the competition. I still fall back on keys I rent, I would much rather spend all that on your products if we could stop breaking with new updates.

[HarrySza]

Which countries are we supporting now? I don't think this approach is good. Why impose restrictions? Does technology have national boundaries? I feel that technology should be borderless. 

田凤叶
@.***

 
…

They are listen on MIT website.

North America | United States
Europe | Germany, France, United Kingdom, Spain
Asia | India, Japan, South Korea
South America | Brazil, Argentina
Africa | South Africa, Nigeria

[plexichat]

Can reproduce the issue in the UK -> We detected residential proxy or anonymised traffic from GB.
This is from the same network I have only ever used freebuff on, no proxy or VPN ever used with freebuff, standard 1.1.1.1 DNS.

[rahulmasal]

[rahulmasal]

Team,

you need to add IN in codebase that's it.