"Clearnet services" are websites which you can access with any browser, like [privacyguides.org](https://www.privacyguides.org). Tor lets you connect to these websites anonymously by routing your traffic through a network comprised of thousands of volunteer-run servers called nodes (or relays).
Every time you [connect to Tor](../tor.md), it will choose three nodes to build a path to the internet—this path is called a "circuit."
<figuremarkdown>
![Tor path showing your device connecting to an entry node, middle node, and exit node before reaching the destination website](../assets/img/how-tor-works/tor-path.svg#only-light)
![Tor path showing your device connecting to an entry node, middle node, and exit node before reaching the destination website](../assets/img/how-tor-works/tor-path-dark.svg#only-dark)
"Onion Services" (also commonly referred to as "hidden services") are websites which can only be accessed by the Tor browser. These websites have a long randomly generated domain name ending with `.onion`.
Connecting to an Onion Service in Tor works very similarly to connecting to a clearnet service, but your traffic is routed through a total of **six** nodes before reaching the destination server. Just like before however, only three of these nodes are contributing to *your* anonymity, the other three nodes protect *the Onion Service's* anonymity, hiding the website's true IP and location in the same manner that Tor Browser is hiding yours.
<figurestyle="width:100%"markdown>
![Tor path showing your traffic being routed through your three Tor nodes plus three additional Tor nodes which hide the website's identity](../assets/img/how-tor-works/tor-path-hidden-service.svg#only-light)
![Tor path showing your traffic being routed through your three Tor nodes plus three additional Tor nodes which hide the website's identity](../assets/img/how-tor-works/tor-path-hidden-service-dark.svg#only-dark)
<figcaption>Tor circuit pathway with Onion Services. Nodes in the <spanclass="pg-blue">blue</span> fence belong to your browser, while nodes in the <spanclass="pg-red">red</span> fence belong to the server, so their identity is hidden from you.</figcaption>