Some DNS-based ad blockers and privacy VPNs block a hostname MonAI needs. When that happens the app can look partly broken while your internet works fine everywhere else.
MonAI's backend runs on Google Cloud Functions at the address cloudfunctions.net (full address: us-central1-ai-art-7c643.cloudfunctions.net). Some ad-blocking DNS services and VPN filters block this address because unrelated projects also host content there. When it's blocked, your phone can't reach MonAI's servers — the app will show a "Network filter detected" message naming the blocked address.
Add cloudfunctions.net to your blocker's allowlist (sometimes called a whitelist) — that's the address blocked in almost every case. If the app's message names a different address, allow that one instead.
AdGuard (app or AdGuard DNS)
Settings → Filtering → User rules → add:
@@||cloudfunctions.net^
NextDNS
Open your configuration at my.nextdns.io → Allowlist tab → add cloudfunctions.net
Pi-hole
Admin page → Domains → enter cloudfunctions.net → Add to Allow List (choose wildcard)
Phone Guardian / other VPN-based blockers
Open the app's protection or filtering settings and add cloudfunctions.net as an allowed/trusted domain. If there's no allowlist option, pause protection while using MonAI.
Or turn off Android Private DNS
Settings → Network & internet → Private DNS → Off (or Automatic). You can turn it back on afterwards — but the block will return unless the address is allowlisted.
If things still misbehave after allowing cloudfunctions.net, your blocker may be filtering more than one address. This is everything the app talks to:
| Address | What stops working when it's blocked |
|---|---|
us-central1-ai-art-7c643.cloudfunctions.net |
Published gallery, home feed, likes, followers, account verification |
media.monai.art |
Artwork images everywhere in the app |
images.monai.art |
Live preview while your art is rendering |
websockets.monai.art |
Progress updates during generation |
firestore.googleapis.com |
Creating art, your galleries, almost everything |
firebasestorage.googleapis.com |
Uploading your own photos (image-to-image, inpainting) |
identitytoolkit.googleapis.com and securetoken.googleapis.com |
Signing in |
wiki.monai.art |
These help pages |
The Google addresses (googleapis.com) are almost never blocked — check them last.
Using MonAI for free? The free version is funded by ads, and reward ads are also how free accounts are verified for image generation. Ad blockers block ad delivery by design, so with one active you may not be able to generate at all. The simplest reliable setup is to exclude the MonAI app entirely from your blocker's filtering.