I noticed something weird. I have an M1 Mac running Monterey and I do not have iCloud+ subscription and therefore I do not have iCloud Private Relay (iCPR) turned on.
However, in Safari, if I run speed tests with various sites (e.g. https://www.spectrum.com/internet/speed-test) my IP address is reported as iCPR and is different from my known public IP address.
Probably related to this, my reported download speed varies widely from 100 to 500 Mbps. On all my Mojave and older computers I get consistently 480 Mbps. Apple acknowledged that iCPR affects speed test results.
So, why does it look like I have iCPR turned on when I do not have an iCloud+ subscription?
Very interesting. I do have iCloud+, but I do not have iCloud Private Relay turned on. On most speed test sites, I see the same thing you reported (i.e., the client is listed as “iCloud Private Relay”, and the IP address is one I do not recognize). Unique among the eight or so I looked at, the fast.com site reports the client as the name of a city about 30 miles away, and with the label “Frontier” (which is my ISP), along with my true external IP address.
My connection tests out as a symmetric 100Mb/S, which is what I pay Frontier for. With my VPN turned on (NordVPN), the client name changes to “PacketHub”, and the IP changes as well. With my VPN off and iCPR turned on, the client name (not surprisingly) changes back to “iCloud Private Relay” with that unrecognized IP address.
Finally, with NordVPN on I see a roughly 5% drop in both upload and download performance. With iCPR I see the same 5% drop for download speed, but over a 20% drop in upload speed.