# Pixelscan says inconsistent fingerprint: what it means

> A Pixelscan inconsistent fingerprint means two values your browser reports cannot both be true of one machine. Five causes we found, each dated.

Source: https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/pixelscan-inconsistent-fingerprint

## Pixelscan says inconsistent fingerprint: what it means

It means the values your browser reports cannot all be true of one real computer and its network: fonts that contradict the system, a chip the driver contradicts, canvas noise that reads as a filter, or a timezone far from the IP. Stock Chrome sometimes gets it too, so re-run first.

![5 in 5: Noise on every pixel failed Pixelscan 5 times in 5](https://mosaicbrowser.com/covers/pixelscan-inconsistent-fingerprint.webp)

When Pixelscan says your fingerprint is inconsistent, it has found two values in your browser that cannot both be true of one real computer on that network. The verdict is not about rarity, and Pixelscan does not tell you which value it was. In our runs the usual culprits were an operating system the installed fonts contradict, a graphics chip the driver contradicts, canvas noise that reads as a filter, and a timezone far from the IP. Some of the time it was nobody's fault but Pixelscan's.

Pixelscan is the detector we have spent the most hours on while building Tesseract Chrome, our own Chromium, so every cause below comes with the date we measured it and what moved the verdict. For what each card on the page compares, see the [card-by-card readout](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/what-does-pixelscan-check).

## First, rule out Pixelscan itself

In September 2026 three fresh profiles on our engine came back inconsistent one after another, and we treated it as a regression. We had already spent four rounds bisecting the configuration when someone opened an untouched Google Chrome 152 on the same Mac and got inconsistent twice. One stock run answered what the bisect had not.

We then ran that stock Chrome 20 times, a fresh profile each time, no proxy. Pixelscan called it consistent 16 times, masked 3 times, and gave no verdict once. Google's own browser, on our machine, was "masked" about one run in six.

So before you change anything:

1. Run the scan three times.
2. Run an untouched Chrome of the same version beside it, from the same address.
3. If both come back red, the finding is about the site or the address and not about your browser.

If you read Pixelscan with a script, watch for negations. Its clean label is "No masking detected", and a search for "masking detected" matches it. Our extractor did exactly that and logged ten clean profiles as failures. What gave it away was that it failed under every configuration, including one with no fingerprint switches at all, and a check that fails whatever you change is reading something other than what you changed.

## When the fonts belong to another operating system

The fonts on a computer are whatever is installed there, rendered the way its operating system renders them, and no browser setting reaches either. On our Mac in September 2026, a profile claiming Linux listed one font on Pixelscan (Abyssinica SIL) against 159 for the same Mac claiming macOS, and Pixelscan called it masking. Profiles claiming Windows left the scan running and never got a verdict. IPHey, on the same engine, gave the macOS claim 100/100 and the Windows claim 80/100.

This is why Mosaic, which lets a profile claim any desktop OS or Android, shows a caution in the editor when a profile claims a desktop other than the computer's own: the hardware is drawn coherently for the claimed OS, but the fonts still come from this machine, and the computer's own OS is always the strongest match.

Mosaic is a desktop app

Email yourself the link and open it on your computer.

[How it works: Its own Chromium](https://mosaicbrowser.com/features/engine)

## A renderer string the driver contradicts

WebGL tells a page two things about the graphics chip: the renderer string, which names it, and a capability record of limits and extensions, which the real driver writes. Change only the string and they disagree. We tried it on stock Chrome on an M4 Max, claiming an Apple M2 Pro, and Pixelscan failed it on every run while IPHey and BrowserScan did not move.

Our engine changes the string and the record together, in C++. Through the same sweep it passed every Apple chip we claimed, including an M9 Ultra that has never existed.

## Canvas noise that looks like a filter

Each profile gets its own canvas hash from a small amount of noise, and the way that noise is applied turned out to matter more than its presence. We got it wrong twice.

| Version | What we measured | Pixelscan |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Noise keyed on pixel position | The same text drawn at two heights came out 76 bytes apart (a real browser: 0) | consistent, inconsistent, consistent, inconsistent on four fresh profiles |
| Keyed on colour, every opaque pixel touched | Identical content stayed identical | failed 5 times out of 5 |
| Keyed on colour, about one colour in 32 | Identical content stayed identical | 8 passes from 8 fresh profiles, 8 distinct canvas hashes |

The first row was settled by one profile we bisected field by field: two passes with canvas noise off, six failures with it on. The second row was worse than the first because a change to every pixel is not what two graphics chips rounding differently look like. It is what an image filter looks like. ([Canvas fingerprinting](https://mosaicbrowser.com/glossary/canvas-fingerprinting) explains what the page draws and hashes.)

## One profile that fails while new ones pass

We had a profile that failed every run while fresh ones passed. A new user-data folder made no difference. Copying its whole fingerprint onto a new seed fixed it, and putting the old seed back on a passing profile broke that one, alternating cleanly over six rounds. Of its noise settings only canvas mattered: with canvas noise off it passed.

The noise itself was fine by every check we have for canvas consistency. It touched 0.30% of opaque pixels, where six other seeds touched between 0.07% and 0.30%. After that we drew 14 fresh seeds and all 14 passed. If one profile keeps failing and new ones do not, redraw that profile and leave the browser alone.

## A timezone from somewhere else

Pixelscan's proxy card compares where your exit is with the browser's timezone and language. A profile set to `Europe/Berlin` and German that browses from a Texas address will read inconsistent whatever its hardware says. On a VPN this is the cause we would check first, because a VPN moves the address and leaves the clock where it was ([how to match the two](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/browser-timezone-does-not-match-ip)).

## A checklist for a Pixelscan inconsistent fingerprint

| Check | If it moves the verdict |
| --- | --- |
| Re-run three times, with an untouched Chrome beside it | Both red: the site or the address |
| Read the proxy card | Timezone or language far from the exit |
| Compare the font count with a clean browser on the same machine | An operating system other than the computer's own |
| Turn off canvas noise on that one profile | The noise, or that seed |
| Make a fresh profile on the same proxy | If it passes, redraw the old one |

## Where Mosaic stands

On 19 September 2026 we ran the whole detector catalogue with a stock control, and Pixelscan read our profile as consistent, with no masking and no automated behaviour; the untouched Chrome beside it read the same. Across 74 freshly drawn profiles that month, 73 read clean, and the one that showed masking passed the next nine runs. That was one Mac with no proxy, on those dates, and it is not a promise about your machine or your exit.

![A profile fingerprint in Mosaic: GPU, screen, fonts, timezone and language matched to the exit](https://mosaicbrowser.com/shots/fingerprint-detail.png)
*One profile's machine, drawn from one real record*

To run it on a profile, open the row's menu, choose **Check detectors**, stay on Consistency and pick Pixelscan. The scan opens in that profile's own browser, through its own proxy. Every value Pixelscan compares is set inside [Tesseract Chrome](https://mosaicbrowser.com/features/engine), in C++, so the page, its workers and its iframes describe the same machine.

## Sources

1. [Pixelscan: fingerprint check](https://pixelscan.net/fingerprint-check), read November 2, 2026

## Questions

### Does an inconsistent result on Pixelscan mean I will be blocked?

No. Pixelscan is one public scanner with its own model. Sites with commercial bot protection read other signals too, and what an account may do is still decided by each platform's own rules.

### Why did Pixelscan say consistent and then inconsistent on the same browser?

Live scanners disagree with themselves. In September 2026 an untouched Google Chrome on our Mac was called masked in 3 of 20 runs. Run it three times and beside a control before reading anything into one result.

### Can a VPN cause an inconsistent fingerprint on Pixelscan?

Yes, through the proxy card. Pixelscan compares the location of the address it sees with the browser's timezone and language, and a VPN moves the address without moving the clock.

### Is it the antidetect browser or my settings?

Change one thing at a time on one profile and re-run. If turning every surface off makes it pass, the browser's base is clean and one surface is the cause; if a fresh profile passes and one old profile fails, the variable is that profile.

## Related

[What does Pixelscan check?](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/what-does-pixelscan-check): Pixelscan checks whether a browser's fingerprint agrees with itself and with its IP, then names the card that failed. What each card reads, with our dated runs.

[Browser timezone does not match IP: what it means and the fix](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/browser-timezone-does-not-match-ip): Browser timezone does not match IP? Your browser reads the computer's clock, and a proxy or VPN moves only the address. Match the zone to the exit.

[How to check your browser fingerprint, and read the result](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/check-your-browser-fingerprint): How to check your browser fingerprint: a uniqueness test says how rare it is, a consistency scanner whether it could be real. Run each twice.

[Canvas fingerprinting: how a drawing identifies your computer](https://mosaicbrowser.com/glossary/canvas-fingerprinting): Canvas fingerprinting draws hidden text and shapes, reads the pixels back and hashes them. Small rendering differences make the hash a mark of your machine.

[An anti-detect browser with its own Chromium engine](https://mosaicbrowser.com/features/engine): Mosaic is an anti-detect browser with its own Chromium engine, Tesseract Chrome: stock source plus 64 patches that change fingerprint values in C++.

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## Run this guide on your own accounts

Every Mosaic profile is a fingerprint, a proxy exit and a cookie jar that agree with each other, kept on your computer. Free holds 3 profiles. Pro is $49 a month for any number.

Mosaic is a desktop app

Email yourself the link and open it on your computer.