What Is My IP Address

Why You Are Here

People arrive at this page for one of three reasons, and only the first is really about the number itself.

You need the address for something practical. Whitelisting your connection for a work VPN or database, giving it to IT support, configuring a firewall rule, or checking whether a VPN is actually routing your traffic.

You want to know what it reveals. Whether someone can find your home from it, what websites learn about you, and how exposed the address makes you.

Something looks wrong. The location says a city you have never visited, the address keeps changing, or a site has blocked you for something you did not do. The explanation for all three is usually the same, and it is covered in Carrier-Grade NAT.

What This Tool Does

This tool detects and displays the public IP address your connection presents to the internet, along with your IPv4 and IPv6 details and the approximate location associated with that address.

Nothing needs to be entered. Your browser reveals this address to every site it connects to as a normal part of how internet connections work, and this page simply shows you what yours is at the moment the page loads.

The address shown is your PUBLIC IP, the one every website you visit can already see. It is how servers know where to send data back to you. It is not the private address shown in your device's own network settings, which only works inside your own network.

Public and Private IP Addresses

These are frequently confused, and the difference matters for almost everything else on this page.

	Public IP	Private IP
Assigned by	Your internet provider	Your router
Visible to	Every website you visit	Only devices on your own network
Shared with	All devices on your network	Nothing outside your network
Where to see it	This page	Your device's network settings
Example	203.0.113.42	192.168.1.14

Every device in your home shares one public IP

Your laptop, phone, and television all appear to the outside world as the same address. Inside your network, each has its own private address that your router uses to route traffic to the right device.

Reserved private address ranges

Range	Typical Use
10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255	Large corporate networks
172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255	Medium networks, some routers
192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255	Almost all home routers
100.64.0.0 to 100.127.255.255	Carrier-Grade NAT — see Section 4
127.0.0.1	Loopback, always means this device

That fourth range is the one worth knowing about, and it explains more than any other detail on this page.

Carrier-Grade NAT — Why Your IP Is Probably Shared

This is the single most useful thing to understand about modern IP addresses, and almost no competing page explains it.

The world ran out of IPv4 addresses

There are roughly 4.3 billion possible IPv4 addresses and considerably more devices than that. Rather than assign every customer a unique public address, most mobile networks and many home broadband providers now put hundreds or thousands of customers behind a single shared public IP. This is called Carrier-Grade NAT, usually shortened to CGNAT.

How to tell if you are behind it

Look at the IP address your device reports in its own network settings. If it falls in the 100.64.x.x to 100.127.x.x range, you are behind Carrier-Grade NAT. Some providers also use ordinary private ranges, in which case comparing your router's WAN address against the public address shown on this page will reveal it: if they differ, there is carrier NAT between you and the internet.

What CGNAT explains

Symptom	Why
Location shows the wrong city	The shared address is registered where your provider's hub is, not where you are
Your public IP changes without warning	You are moved between shared addresses as the network balances load
Port forwarding does not work	You do not control the public address, so nothing can be forwarded to you
A site blocked you for no reason	Someone else sharing your address triggered the block
CAPTCHAs appear constantly	Heavy traffic from the shared address makes it look automated

On mobile data this is close to universal

A phone's public IP typically belongs to a regional carrier hub that may be a considerable distance from the handset, which is why mobile IP geolocation is so frequently wrong.

If you need a unique public address

Most providers offer a static IP as a paid option. It is worth asking for specifically if you host services, need reliable port forwarding, or require your address whitelisted somewhere.

IPv4 and IPv6

Two versions of the protocol run side by side. Many connections have both.

	IPv4	IPv6
Format	Four numbers, dot separated	Eight hexadecimal groups, colon separated
Example	203.0.113.42	2001:0db8:85a3::8a2e:0370:7334
Total addresses	About 4.3 billion	About 340 undecillion
Status	Exhausted, heavily shared	Plentiful, adoption still growing
Address per device	Usually shared via NAT	Often unique per device

IPv6 is NOT more private than IPv4

This is a common assumption and it is wrong. Because IPv6 addresses are plentiful, devices frequently receive a unique public address rather than hiding behind a shared one, which can make individual devices MORE identifiable. Most operating systems mitigate this with privacy extensions that rotate the address periodically, but the protocol itself offers no privacy advantage.

Seeing both is normal. A dual-stack connection has both addresses, and which one a website sees depends on what that site supports.

What Your IP Address Does and Does Not Reveal

Can be determined	Cannot be determined
Your internet provider	Your name
Your approximate city or region	Your street address
Your country, with high accuracy	Your identity
Whether you are on mobile or fixed broadband	What you do on other sites
Whether the address belongs to a known VPN or data centre	Anything stored on your device

On accuracy

Country-level geolocation is reliable, typically around 99 percent. City-level is considerably weaker, often quoted between 50 and 75 percent, and can be wrong by tens of miles or more. Street-level location from an IP alone is not possible.

Only your internet provider can connect an IP address to a customer

And in most jurisdictions they will do so only under a legal request. A website seeing your IP knows roughly where the network is and who provides it, not who you are.

Why the Location Shown Is Often Wrong

Geolocation does not track you. It looks your address up in a database that records where blocks of addresses are REGISTERED, which is frequently not where they are USED.

Cause	What happens
Carrier-Grade NAT	Your address is registered at a regional hub
Mobile networks	Traffic routes through carrier infrastructure elsewhere
VPN or proxy	You show the server's location, which is the intended effect
Business connections	Registered to a head office rather than the site
Stale database records	Reassigned address blocks take time to update

To correct a persistently wrong location, contact the geolocation database providers directly rather than your ISP. Websites license this data from a handful of providers, so a correction at source propagates to everyone using it. Expect it to take time.

Why Your IP Address Changes

Type	Behaviour	Typical Use
Dynamic	Changes periodically or on reconnection	Standard home broadband
Static	Fixed permanently	Servers, business lines, usually paid
CGNAT shared	Changes as the carrier reassigns	Mobile, many home providers

Most home connections are dynamic. Restarting your router, a provider reassignment, or a lease expiry will all produce a new address. If you need consistency for remote access or whitelisting, a static address from your provider is the reliable answer rather than any workaround.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Assuming Your IP Address Reveals Your Home Address

An IP address maps to a network, not a person or a building. Country-level accuracy is high, but city-level is often wrong and street-level is not achievable from an IP alone. Only your internet provider holds the link between an address and a subscriber, and disclosing it normally requires a legal request. The concern people bring to this page is understandable but the exposure is far smaller than assumed.

Believing IPv6 Is More Private Than IPv4

The opposite can be true. Under IPv4, many devices share one public address, which obscures individual devices. IPv6 addresses are abundant enough that each device may hold its own public address, making it more directly identifiable. Privacy extensions in modern operating systems rotate these addresses to reduce that, but IPv6 offers no inherent privacy benefit over IPv4.

Confusing the Address in Your Device Settings With Your Public IP

Your device's network settings usually show a private address such as 192.168.1.14, which is meaningless outside your own network. Giving that to IT support or a firewall whitelist will not work. The public address is the one shown on this page, and it is the only one the wider internet can see.

Quick Reference

Item	Detail
Public IP	Visible to every site you visit
Private IP	Only works inside your network
Home routers	Usually 192.168.x.x
CGNAT range	100.64.x.x to 100.127.x.x
Loopback	127.0.0.1 means this device
IPv4	Four numbers, exhausted
IPv6	Hexadecimal, plentiful
Privacy	IPv6 is not more private
Country accuracy	High
City accuracy	Often wrong
Street address	Not possible from an IP
Wrong location	Usually CGNAT or mobile
Need a fixed address	Ask for a static IP

Frequently Asked Questions

What is my IP address?

Your public IP address is shown at the top of this page. It is the address your internet provider has assigned to your connection, and it is visible to every website and service you connect to. It is detected automatically when the page loads, so nothing needs to be entered.

What is the difference between a public and private IP address?

A public IP is assigned by your internet provider and is visible to the wider internet. A private IP is assigned by your router and only works inside your own network. Every device in your home shares one public address while holding its own private one, typically starting 192.168 or 10.

Can someone find my home address from my IP address?

No. An IP address points to a network rather than a building, and geolocation is an estimate based on where the address block is registered. Country accuracy is high, city accuracy is considerably weaker, and street-level location is not possible from an IP alone. Only your internet provider holds the link between an address and a subscriber.

Why does my IP address show the wrong city?

Most often because your connection is behind Carrier-Grade NAT, where hundreds of customers share one public address registered at a regional hub rather than at your location. Mobile networks almost always work this way. VPNs, business connections registered to a head office, and out-of-date geolocation databases produce the same effect.

Why does my IP address keep changing?

Most home connections use dynamic addresses that change when you reconnect, restart your router, or when your provider reassigns them. If you are behind Carrier-Grade NAT, your public address may also change as the carrier balances load across shared addresses. A static IP from your provider is the fix if you need it to stay constant.

What is the difference between IPv4 and IPv6?

IPv4 uses four dot-separated numbers such as 203.0.113.42 and has about 4.3 billion possible addresses, which have run out. IPv6 uses longer hexadecimal addresses and provides a vastly larger pool. Many connections support both. IPv6 is newer but not more private, since devices often receive their own public address rather than sharing one.

How do I find my private IP address?

On Windows, open Settings, then Network and Internet, and select your active connection to see its IP details. On macOS, open System Settings, then Network, and view the details of your connection. Command line users can run ipconfig on Windows or ifconfig on macOS and Linux. That address is only meaningful within your own network.

Does this page store my IP address?

Your IP address is detected when the page loads in order to display it back to you. Every website you visit already receives this address as a normal part of how internet connections work, so this page shows you information that is not private to begin with. Use this What Is My IP Address page whenever you need to check your current public address.

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