What Is My IP Address

What is my IP address, and what does it say about me? Our free What Is My IP tool shows the public IP address websites see when you visit, tells you whether it is IPv4 or IPv6, and names the network it belongs to, which is usually your internet provider, your workplace or your VPN. Below that you will see the browser and connection details every site can read, such as your browser, operating system, language and time zone. You can also look up any other IPv4 or IPv6 address to see whether it is public or private, its reverse DNS name and which organization the address block is registered to. The guide explains public and private addresses, NAT, dynamic and static IPs, and how to find your local IP on any device.

How to use the What is my IP

1. 1 Read your public IPYour public address appears at the top as soon as the page loads, with a label saying whether it is IPv4 or IPv6. Press Copy to put it on your clipboard for a support ticket, a firewall allow list or a remote access setting.
2. 2 Check which network it belongs toFor a public address the tool reads the registry record and shows the network holding it. If that is your VPN or employer rather than your home provider, your traffic is going through them.
3. 3 Review your browser detailsThe second card lists what your browser shares with every site: browser and version, operating system, languages, time zone, screen size, cookies and Do Not Track. Copy all of it in one go if a help desk asks for it.
4. 4 Look up another addressPaste any IPv4 or IPv6 address, for example one from a server log or an email header, and press Look up. The tool checks the format, classifies the range and, for public addresses, fetches reverse DNS and the registry record.
5. 5 Copy the resultUse Copy result to grab a plain-text summary of the lookup for a report, an abuse complaint or your own notes.

Public and private IP addresses

Every device that talks over the internet needs an address so that replies find their way back. Your laptop, phone and smart TV each have a private address on your home or office network, handed out by the router. Your router, in turn, has a public address given by your internet provider. Websites only ever see the public one.

Private ranges are set aside for internal use and can be reused by any network in the world. For IPv4 they are 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12 and 192.168.0.0/16, which is why so many routers live at 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. Because thousands of networks use the same private numbers, a private address cannot be traced across the internet, and looking one up in a registry tells you nothing.

A public address is unique on the internet at any moment. It is assigned through a chain that starts with the regional internet registries, ARIN for North America, RIPE NCC for Europe and the Middle East, APNIC for Asia Pacific, LACNIC for Latin America and AFRINIC for Africa, which allocate blocks to providers and large organizations. That is the record the lookup box reads.

IPv4 and IPv6 explained

IPv4 addresses are written as four numbers from 0 to 255, such as 203.0.113.25. The format allows a little over four billion addresses, which ran out long ago given how many devices are now online. IPv6 was designed to replace it and uses 128-bit addresses written in hexadecimal groups separated by colons, such as 2001:db8:85a3::8a2e:370:7334, where a double colon stands for a run of zero groups.

Most networks now run both side by side. If your provider supports IPv6 and the website you visit does too, your device will usually prefer IPv6; otherwise it falls back to IPv4. That means one device can show different public addresses on different sites. This page tells you which family you used to reach us. Seeing your other address would require a separate test address for each family, and we do not use browser tricks or outside services to dig it out. Your router's status page or your device's network settings will list every address it holds.

With IPv6 each home normally gets a whole block of addresses, so devices can have their own public address. Modern operating systems use temporary privacy addresses that change regularly, so the address websites see does not stay tied to one device forever.

NAT, CGNAT, and dynamic or static addresses

Network address translation, or NAT, is how many private devices share one public IPv4 address. The router rewrites outgoing traffic so it appears to come from the public address and keeps a table so replies reach the right device. It is the reason a family of five with a dozen gadgets shows up as one address online.

Some providers, especially mobile networks and newer fiber or fixed wireless services, add a second layer called carrier-grade NAT. Your router then receives an address from the shared range 100.64.0.0/10 instead of a true public one, and the provider shares a single public address among many customers. If the address on your router's status page does not match the one shown here, CGNAT is the likely reason. It can stop port forwarding, hosting game servers and some remote access tools from working, and the fix is usually to ask for a public or static address, or to use IPv6.

Most home connections have a dynamic address that can change when the router restarts, after a lease expires or when the provider reorganizes its network. A static address stays the same and is common on business plans. You need a static address, or a dynamic DNS service, if you run a mail server, host a website from your own hardware or allow-list your office in a cloud firewall.

What websites can and cannot learn from your IP

An IP address reveals the network you are connecting from, not your name or street address. From the registry record anyone can see the organization holding the block and the country where it is registered. Commercial geolocation databases go further and estimate a city or region, but those estimates are often wrong, sometimes by hundreds of miles, and mobile and CGNAT addresses are especially hard to place.

Only your internet provider can link an address and a time to a specific customer account, and in most countries it releases that information only under a legal process. Websites and advertisers rely far more on cookies, logins and browser fingerprinting than on IP addresses to recognize returning visitors, which is why the browser details card matters too.

• Sites can see: your public IP, the network or provider it belongs to, a rough location guess, and whether it belongs to a known VPN or hosting company.
• Sites cannot see from the IP alone: your name, your exact home address, which device on your network you are using, or your private address.
• Your browser separately shares its user agent, preferred languages, time zone and screen size, which together can make you more recognizable than your IP does.

How VPNs and proxies change your IP

A VPN sends all your traffic through an encrypted tunnel to the VPN provider's server, and websites see that server's address instead of yours. Run this tool with the VPN switched on and the network owner should change to the VPN company or the hosting firm it rents servers from. If it still shows your home provider, the VPN is not working, or it is split tunneling and only routing some apps.

A proxy does something similar for a single browser or app. Corporate networks often route web traffic through a security gateway, so employees appear to come from the company's address. Privacy relays built into some browsers and phones hide your address from sites while still giving a rough region.

Remember that a VPN shifts trust rather than removing it. The VPN provider can see the same connection information your internet provider used to see. Your browser details also stay the same, so a site can still recognize the browser even when the address changes.

Reading a lookup result

The lookup classifies every address first. Public addresses get the full treatment. Private, loopback, link-local, carrier-grade NAT, documentation, multicast and other reserved ranges are labeled and explained, and nothing is sent to any outside service for them, because there is nothing meaningful to find.

Reverse DNS is the name the network owner has attached to the address with a PTR record. Providers often use names that hint at the connection type or region, and mail servers should always have one that matches their sending name. No PTR record is normal for many home connections.

The network owner, block and registered country come from RDAP, the structured successor to WHOIS run by the regional registries. The country is where the block is registered, which for global companies and cloud providers can be a different continent from the actual user. Treat it as a clue for abuse reports and troubleshooting, not as a location.

Examples you can copy

ipconfig

Look for "IPv4 Address" and "IPv6 Address" under your active
Wi-Fi or Ethernet adapter. "Default Gateway" is your router.

PowerShell alternative:
Get-NetIPAddress -AddressFamily IPv4 | Format-Table InterfaceAlias, IPAddress

ipconfig getifaddr en0

en0 is usually Wi-Fi on recent Macs; try en1 if it prints nothing.
Or open System Settings > Wi-Fi > Details next to your network.

ip addr show

Short version:
ip -brief addr
hostname -I

Addresses after "inet" are IPv4 and after "inet6" are IPv6.

iPhone or iPad:
Settings > Wi-Fi > tap the (i) next to your network > IP Address

Android (wording varies by maker):
Settings > Network & internet > Internet > tap your Wi-Fi network
or Settings > About phone > Status > IP address

nslookup myip.opendns.com resolver1.opendns.com

This asks OpenDNS which address your query came from.
Compare it with the address shown on this page.

Common mistakes to avoid

Frequently asked questions