What is my IP address? Free Tool
| Your IP | 216.73.217.31 |
| City | Columbus |
| Region | Ohio |
| Country | United States of America |
| Country Code | US |
| ISP | Amazon.com |
| Latitude | 39.96118 |
| Longitude | -82.99879 |
About What is my IP address?
What This Tool Actually Does
This page shows you the public IP address that your internet connection presents to the outside world. When you open the page, the server that hosts this site reads the address of the connection that reached it, then sends that address to a vendor lookup service to fetch your approximate location and your internet service provider. The result appears immediately, with no form to fill in and no button to press. Every page load triggers the check, and the result is whatever the server sees at that exact moment.
The output is a small report built from eight fields. You get your IP address in a green badge, then the city, region, country, country code, ISP, latitude, and longitude that the vendor service associates with that address. Below the table sits an embedded Google Maps iframe, centred on the returned coordinates at zoom level thirteen. If any field comes back empty, the page prints "Not available" in its place. There is no input box, no history, and no stored data. The page simply reports what your connection looks like to this website.
A public IP address is the identifier that routers across the internet use to deliver traffic back to you. When you request a web page, your device sends packets that carry a source address, and the server you contacted uses that address to send the response. Most home connections have one public IPv4 address assigned by the ISP, shared by every device on the local network through a router that performs network address translation. The address you see on this page is the one your router's traffic appears to come from, after any middle boxes have done their work.
Who sees this address? Every website you visit sees it, because every server needs a return address for its responses. The site's logging system sees it, your ISP sees it, and any service you connect to can record it. This page just makes visible what is already being transmitted with every request you make. It shows you the same information that any web server you touch could log, without requiring you to dig through server logs or use a command-line tool.
The address shown here is a mirror of your current connection. It reflects the address your traffic carries, and it has no ability to alter that address or to hide it from other sites. The page is a display surface for data your network already broadcasts.
How to Use This Tool
- Open the tool page. Load this page in your browser, and the result computes automatically on every visit.
- Read the green badge. The address shown in the "Your IP" row is the public IPv4 address your connection presents to this server.
- Review the location fields. City, region, country, and coordinates describe the registered location of your ISP's address block, which may differ from your physical position.
- Check the ISP row. This names the organisation that owns the address range you are using, which may be your home provider or a VPN company.
- Look at the map. The pin sits at the coordinates the vendor returned, usually in the ISP's hub city rather than at your house.
- Cross-check when it matters. If you need a reliable answer for a technical task, compare this result with a second IP lookup service, because the edge cache can serve a previous visitor's data.
What a Public IP Address Is
An IP address works like a return address on a letter. When your device sends a request to a server, the request carries a source address so the server knows where to send the reply. The public IP address is the one that appears on the internet-facing side of your network. Devices inside your home or office use private addresses, typically in ranges like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x, and your router translates those private addresses into the single public address assigned by your internet service provider. This translation is called network address translation, and it is why every device in your house can browse the web while sharing one public IPv4 address.
The version of the internet protocol that most of the world still relies on, IPv4, has a limited supply of addresses. The protocol allows for roughly 4.3 billion unique addresses, a number that seemed enormous in the early 1980s and became inadequate as the internet grew. Network address translation became the practical answer to address exhaustion, letting many devices share one public address. The newer protocol, IPv6, was standardised to solve the shortage, and it provides an effectively limitless pool of addresses. Many networks still run IPv4 only, or use translation mechanisms to bridge the two protocols.
When you connect through a mobile phone on a cellular network, the address you get is often shared. Mobile carriers use large-scale network address translation, sometimes called carrier-grade NAT, to let many subscribers share a smaller pool of public addresses. Two different customers in the same city may appear to the internet with the same public IP at different times, or even at the same time with different port assignments. This means the address you see on this page may be serving thousands of other people as well.
The public IP address is assigned by your network operator, and it can change. Home broadband connections often use dynamic addressing, where the ISP reassigns addresses periodically or when the modem reconnects. A VPN changes the address you present to websites, because your traffic exits through the VPN provider's server. A corporate proxy does the same thing for office traffic. In every case, the address shown on this page is the exit point of your traffic, which is the address that every website you visit actually sees.
This page displays the address as the server receives it. The live test run for this rewrite, conducted through the public site, showed the tester's public IPv4 address exactly, with the real visitor address restored behind the Cloudflare proxy. The server reads the source address of your connection and reports it back to you.
Correcting the Old Description of This Tool
The previous version of this page made claims that the tool does not support. This section corrects those claims, based on what the code actually does and what the live tests showed.
The old copy said the tool could help you change your IP address or hide it. It cannot. This page has no control over your network configuration, your VPN, or your ISP's assignment. It only displays the address your connection arrives with. To change your public IP, you would need to reconnect your modem, contact your ISP, or use a VPN service. This page does none of those things and offers no buttons or settings for any of them.
The old copy described the location as precise or GPS-based. It is a free online SEO tool. The location comes from the registered address of the ISP's address block, which is city-level at best and often the ISP's hub city. The vendor lookup service returns registration data, and there is no GPS receiver in your browser that this page could access. The page makes no attempt to use the browser's geolocation API. The coordinates on the map point to where the ISP says the address block lives, which can be many kilometres from where you actually sit.
The old copy claimed the tool detects VPN or proxy use. It does not. The code performs no VPN detection, no proxy detection, and no analysis of your connection type beyond reading the source address. If you are using a VPN, the address shown is the VPN server's address, and the ISP field shows the VPN provider's name. The page does not label it as a VPN, and you would need to interpret the ISP name yourself.
The old copy said the tool shows IPv4 and IPv6 side by side, along with a hostname. It does not. The page displays a single address, and the vendor lookup may return nothing at all for an IPv6 address, producing "Not available" rows for the location fields. There is no reverse DNS lookup and no hostname field anywhere in the output.
The old copy claimed the data comes from a local GeoIP database. It does not. The server sends the IP address over plain HTTP to a lookup service run by the script vendor, ProThemes, and scrapes the returned HTML for the city, region, country code, ISP, and coordinates. The country name comes from a built-in code table. If the vendor service is down, every field reads "Not available".
The old copy said nothing is ever cached. That is false. This site is served through Cloudflare with a zone-wide rule that caches HTML pages at the edge. This page is not excluded from that rule, and a repeat request in the live test came back with cf-cache-status: HIT. A visitor served a cached copy can see the previous visitor's address and location. This is a configuration defect on the site's side, reported for fixing, and it remains a real limitation until the fix is deployed.
The Eight Fields and the Map
The output of this tool is a compact report. The green badge at the top shows "Your IP", and that is the field most people come here to see. The seven fields below it describe the address from the perspective of the vendor lookup service. Each field comes from the HTML that the vendor service returns when the server sends it the visitor's IP address.
The city field names the municipality that the vendor associates with the address block. The region field names the administrative division, which might be a state, a province, or a district depending on the country. The country field shows the country name, which comes from a built-in code table that maps the two-letter country code to a full name. The country code field shows that two-letter code, such as GE for Georgia or US for the United States. The ISP field names the organisation that owns the address range. The latitude and longitude fields give the coordinates that the vendor has on file for the address block.
The live test from September 2026 illustrates how these fields behave. A Georgian mobile ISP address returned city Tbilisi, region Tbilisi, country Georgia, country code GE, the ISP's name, and coordinates in central Tbilisi. The address was a mobile connection, so the location reflected the ISP's registration point. The map centred on those coordinates at zoom level thirteen, which shows a city-scale view.
| Field | What it shows | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Your IP | Public IPv4 of your connection | Server reads source address |
| City | Municipality for the address block | Vendor lookup service |
| Region | State, province, or district | Vendor lookup service |
| Country | Full country name | Built-in code table |
| Country Code | Two-letter country code | Vendor lookup service |
| ISP | Organisation owning the address range | Vendor lookup service |
| Latitude | North-south coordinate | Vendor lookup service |
| Longitude | East-west coordinate | Vendor lookup service |
Every location field traces back to the same vendor lookup. If that service is slow, down, or returns nothing for your address type, the entire location section fails together. The IP badge itself does not depend on the vendor, because the server reads that directly from your connection. The location fields all depend on one external service, which is a single point of failure for everything below the green badge.
The map below the table is a Google Maps embed, loaded through an iframe. It receives the latitude and longitude from the lookup and centres itself on those coordinates. The map is not interactive with your location in any way. It does not use your browser's geolocation, it does not know where you are, and it does not track you. It simply displays the coordinates that the vendor returned for the IP address. The accuracy of the map is exactly the accuracy of those coordinates, which is ISP-level at best.
Why the Location Is ISP-Level and Not GPS
People often expect an IP lookup to show their exact position, perhaps the street they live on or the building where they work. The technology does not work that way. The location data attached to an IP address comes from registration records, and these records name a city where the ISP has infrastructure, a headquarters, or a point of presence. The geolocation databases and lookup services map the address block to that registered city.
This means the location you see is where the ISP says the address block lives, which may be far from where you actually are. A large ISP might register an address block in a regional hub city and serve customers across an entire state or province from that block. A mobile carrier might route traffic from customers in many cities through a single gateway, so all of them appear to be in the gateway's city. The coordinates returned by the lookup service point to that gateway or hub.
The distinction between ISP-level location and GPS location matters for how you interpret the results. GPS, the Global Positioning System, uses satellites to determine the physical position of a receiver to within a few metres. Your phone has a GPS receiver, and your browser can access that position through the Geolocation API if you grant permission. This page does none of that. It never asks for your location, never accesses your device's sensors, and never uses the browser's geolocation features. The coordinates in the table come from the ISP's registration data.
| Location source | Typical accuracy | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| GPS | Metres | Satellite signals to your device |
| Wi-Fi positioning | Tens of metres | Known access point locations |
| Cell tower triangulation | Hundreds of metres | Signal strength to towers |
| IP geolocation | City level at best | ISP registration records |
The practical consequence is that the map pin can be in the wrong town. If you live in a suburb but your ISP's registered hub is in the nearby city, the map points to the city. If you use a mobile carrier, the location may reflect the carrier's regional gateway. If you use a VPN, the location is wherever the VPN server sits, which could be another country entirely. None of these cases mean the tool is broken. The tool reports what IP geolocation can actually deliver, which is a coarse approximation.
IP geolocation accuracy varies by country and by ISP. In densely populated areas with many ISPs, the registration data can be fairly precise, sometimes within a few kilometres of the actual user. In rural areas, or in countries where ISPs register large blocks to a central office, the accuracy drops significantly. Some ISPs deliberately register their address blocks in locations that do not match where they provide service. The vendor lookup service returns whatever registration data it has, and this page passes that data through without correction.
VPN and Carrier NAT Cases
A virtual private network changes how your traffic appears to the internet. When you connect to a VPN, your device encrypts its traffic and sends it to the VPN provider's server, which then forwards the traffic to its destination. The destination website sees the VPN server's IP address. This page, like any website, sees the VPN server's address. The city, region, country, and ISP fields all describe the VPN server's location and the VPN provider's network, because that is the connection the server observes.
The tool cannot tell that you are using a VPN. It has no way to detect the encryption, no way to see your home address behind the VPN tunnel, and no detection routine for proxy or VPN services. The output looks identical whether you are on a home connection, an office network, or a VPN. The only hint is the ISP name, which for a VPN service will be the VPN provider or the data centre that hosts the VPN server. You would need to recognise that name yourself to conclude that a VPN is in use.
Carrier-grade NAT creates a similar situation on mobile networks. Mobile carriers often place their customers behind large NAT gateways, so many subscribers share a pool of public IP addresses. The address your phone presents to a website is the address of the carrier's gateway. The location data for that gateway address points to the gateway's location, which may be a central facility in a major city. If you travel within your country while on mobile data, your public IP and its location may not change at all, because your traffic still exits through the same carrier gateway.
| Connection type | IP shown | Location shown |
|---|---|---|
| Home broadband | Your ISP-assigned address | ISP registration city |
| Office network | Corporate proxy address | Proxy location |
| VPN connection | VPN server address | VPN server location |
| Mobile data | Carrier NAT gateway address | Carrier gateway city |
The address you see on this page is always the address of the last network device that forwarded your traffic to this server. That device could be your home router, your office proxy, your VPN server, or your mobile carrier's NAT gateway. Each of those devices has its own location, and the lookup service reports that location. The tool is accurate about what it shows, which is the exit point of your traffic. It is silent about everything behind that exit point, because no website can see past it.
This behaviour matches how the entire internet works. Every website you visit sees the same exit point that this page sees. If you are concerned about what websites can learn about your location, the answer is that they can learn the location of your exit point, which is exactly what this page shows. A VPN moves that exit point to the VPN provider's location. A corporate proxy moves it to the office. Your home router leaves it at your ISP's registered address. This page simply reports the exit point, and it reports it accurately.
The Vendor Lookup Dependency
The location data on this page comes from a third-party service. The server sends the visitor's IP address over plain HTTP to a lookup service run by the script vendor, ProThemes, and then scrapes the returned HTML to extract the city, region, country code, ISP, latitude, and longitude. The country name is the only field that does not come from the vendor, since it is derived from a built-in code table that maps the two-letter country code to a full name. Every other location field depends entirely on the vendor's response.
This dependency has consequences. If the vendor service is down, the page cannot show any location data, and every field reads "Not available". If the vendor service is slow, the page takes longer to load. If the vendor changes its HTML structure, the scraping logic may fail until the site owner updates the code. The site has no local GeoIP database and no fallback lookup service. The vendor is the only source for location data, and the tool has no control over the vendor's uptime or the accuracy of the vendor's records.
The plain HTTP request to the vendor service is another limitation. The visitor's IP address is sent without encryption to the lookup service. This does not expose the address to any new party in a meaningful way, since the address is already visible to every network hop between the visitor and this site, and the vendor needs the address to perform the lookup. The request could theoretically be intercepted or modified in transit. The site owner accepts this trade-off to keep the tool simple and free of API keys.
The lookup depends on the vendor returning data for the specific IP address. For IPv4 addresses, the vendor generally returns the full set of fields. For IPv6 addresses, the vendor may return nothing at all, which produces "Not available" rows across the location table. The page has no IPv6-specific handling and no alternate lookup path for IPv6 addresses. If you connect over IPv6, you may see your address in the green badge and nothing but "Not available" below it.
| Dependency | Effect on this tool |
|---|---|
| Vendor service down | All location fields show "Not available" |
| Vendor service slow | Page loads slowly |
| IPv6 address sent | Vendor may return no data |
| Vendor HTML changes | Scraping may fail |
This tool is only as reliable as its vendor. The IP address in the green badge is read directly from your connection and is always accurate. Everything below that badge is a pass-through from a service the site does not control. When the vendor works, the data is useful and generally correct at the city level. When the vendor fails, the page reports "Not available".
The Cloudflare Cache Caveat
This site is served through Cloudflare, a content delivery network that caches web pages at its edge locations around the world. The zone-wide caching rule applies to HTML pages, and this page is not excluded from that rule. When you request the page, Cloudflare may serve you a copy that it stored earlier, without forwarding your request to the origin server. The live test confirmed this behaviour, with a repeat request returning the cf-cache-status: HIT header, which indicates that the response came from Cloudflare's cache.
The cache creates a problem for an IP lookup tool. The whole point of the page is to show the address of the visitor who requests it. If Cloudflare serves a cached copy of the page, the page contains the results from a previous visitor's request. The previous visitor's IP address, city, region, country, ISP, and coordinates are baked into the cached HTML. A new visitor who receives that cached copy sees the previous visitor's data.
The cache-control header sent to browsers specifies max-age=14400, which is four hours. This means browsers may store the page for four hours and reuse it without contacting the server. The edge cache at Cloudflare keeps copies much longer than four hours. A hard reload in your browser does not bypass the edge cache, because the edge cache responds before your request reaches the origin server. The only reliable way to get a fresh result is to wait for the cache to expire, or to use a different network path that hits a different Cloudflare data centre with an empty cache.
This is a configuration defect on the site's side, and it has been reported for fixing. Until the fix is deployed, the address shown on this page should be cross-checked with a second service when the answer matters. If you need to know your public IP for a firewall rule, a DNS configuration, or a remote access setup, verify the address with another IP lookup website before you rely on it.
The caching behaviour also affects how you should interpret the page when it loads. If the page appears instantly and shows data that seems wrong for your location, the cache is the likely culprit. The page may be showing the previous visitor's address from the same Cloudflare data centre. There is no way to tell from the page itself whether you received a cached copy, because the page does not display the cache status header. You would need to inspect the response headers in your browser's developer tools to see whether cf-cache-status reads HIT or MISS.
| Cache element | Value | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Browser cache | max-age=14400 |
Browser may reuse page for four hours |
| Cloudflare edge | Much longer than four hours | Edge serves stored copy |
| Hard reload | Does not bypass edge | Still receives cached copy |
| Cache status | cf-cache-status: HIT |
Confirms edge cache served the page |
This page can show you stale data, and the staleness comes from the infrastructure. The tool itself computes the correct result for the request that reaches the origin server. The problem is that many requests never reach the origin server, because Cloudflare answers them from the cache. The site owner knows about this defect and has reported it for fixing, but until the fix is deployed, the caveat stands.
Limitations
Every tool has limits, and this one has several that come directly from its code and its infrastructure. The first limit is the absence of an input field. You cannot type an IP address into this page and ask it to look up that address. The page only reports the address of the visitor who loads it. If you need to look up an arbitrary address, the Bulk IP Lookup tool on this site is the right destination.
The second limit is IPv6 handling. The page has no IPv6-specific logic. The vendor lookup may return nothing for an IPv6 address, leaving the location fields empty. The page will still show the address in the green badge, because the server reads that directly from the connection, but the location data may be entirely absent. There is no fallback lookup and no separate treatment for IPv6 visitors.
The third limit is the absence of network intelligence. The page shows no hostname, no reverse DNS record, no autonomous system number, and no ASN information. It performs no proxy detection and no VPN detection. It offers no browser details, no device information, and no operating system data. The page answers one question, what is my public IP address and where does it appear to be, and it leaves every other network question to other tools.
The fourth limit is the vendor dependency, which has already been described. The location data comes from a third-party service over plain HTTP, and the page has no fallback when that service fails. The accuracy of the location is limited by the vendor's records, which are ISP registration data at best. The map is only as accurate as the coordinates the vendor returns, and those coordinates can point to an ISP hub city.
The fifth limit is the caching defect. The Cloudflare edge cache can serve a previous visitor's results to a new visitor, and the browser cache can reuse a four-hour-old copy. The page cannot detect that it is being served from the cache, and the visitor cannot tell from the page content alone. Cross-checking with a second service is the only reliable mitigation until the site owner fixes the cache configuration.
The rate limit is worth understanding. This tool has no CAPTCHA and no tool-specific request cap. Each page load is one request, and the page computes its result on every load. The site-wide throttle applies to every page on this site, including this one. If a single visitor address makes more than roughly fifteen requests within one second, that address receives a 503 error for the rest of the day. Normal use of this tool, which involves loading the page occasionally, will never approach that threshold.
| Limitation | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| No input field | Cannot look up other addresses here |
| No IPv6 handling | Location fields may be empty over IPv6 |
| No network intelligence | No hostname, ASN, or VPN detection |
| Vendor dependency | Down vendor means "Not available" |
| CDN cache defect | May show another visitor's data |
| Site-wide throttle | 15 requests per second blocks for the day |
This tool is a simple display tool. It shows you the address your connection presents and the ISP-level location associated with that address. It does not diagnose your network, detect your VPN, or pinpoint your physical position. For those tasks, you need other tools, and the Related Tools section points to the ones this site offers.
Related Tools
If you need to look up the location and ISP for an address that is not your own, use the Bulk IP Lookup tool, which accepts multiple addresses at once.
If you want details about your browser, your operating system, your screen resolution, and other client-side information that this page does not show, use the What is my Browser tool.
If you have a domain name and need to find the IP address it resolves to, use the Domain into IP Converter tool, which performs the DNS lookup for you.
How the Lookup Works Under the Hood
The process begins when your browser requests this page. The request travels from your device to your router, then across your ISP's network, and eventually to Cloudflare's edge network. Cloudflare checks its cache, and if it has a fresh copy of the page, it returns that copy immediately. If not, it forwards the request to the origin server, which is the machine that actually runs this website. The origin server reads the source IP address from the incoming connection, which is your real address after Cloudflare has restored it in a special header.
The server then constructs the lookup request. It takes your IP address and sends it over plain HTTP to the vendor's lookup service. The vendor service receives the address, consults its geolocation database, and returns an HTML page containing the city, region, country code, ISP, latitude, and longitude associated with that address. The server receives that HTML and scrapes the relevant fields out of it. The country name is filled in from a built-in code table that maps the two-letter country code to a full name.
The server assembles the final page. It places your IP address in a green badge at the top of the results table. It fills in the seven location fields with the scraped data, or with "Not available" if any field is empty. It embeds a Google Maps iframe, passing the latitude and longitude as parameters and setting the zoom level to thirteen. The page is then sent back through Cloudflare, which may cache it for subsequent visitors.
The scraping approach means the tool depends on the vendor's HTML structure staying stable. If the vendor redesigns its page, the scraping logic may fail to find the fields, and the output will show "Not available" even though the vendor is online. The site owner would need to update the scraping code to match the vendor's new format. This fragility is inherent to the design choice of scraping.
The entire process happens on every page load. There is no form submission and no button press, because there is nothing for the visitor to configure. The page is a server-side computation that runs whenever the origin server receives a request. The only variation between visitors is the IP address that the server reads from each connection, and the only variation in output is what the vendor returns for that address.
How to Check Your IP Address on Other Systems
This page is convenient, but it is not the only way to learn your public IP address. The same information is available through several other methods, and knowing them helps you cross-check the result from this page, which is especially useful given the caching caveat. Each method has its own strengths and weaknesses.
The simplest alternative is a search engine. Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo all display your public IP address when you search for "what is my ip" or a similar phrase. The search engine learns your address when your request reaches its servers, and it displays the address directly in the search results. This method has no caching problem, because the search engine computes the result fresh for each request.
The command line offers another approach. On Windows, you can open Command Prompt and run nslookup myip.opendns.com resolver1.opendns.com to query OpenDNS for your public address. On macOS and Linux, you can use curl ifconfig.me or curl ipinfo.io/ip to fetch your address from a web service. These commands work well for scripting and for verifying the address that this page shows.
Your router's administration page also displays your public IP address. Most home routers show the WAN IP address on their status page, which is the address your ISP has assigned to your connection. This is the same address that this page should show when you are on your home network without a VPN. If the router shows a different address from this page, the Cloudflare cache is likely serving you stale data.
| Method | Command or action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Search engine | Search "what is my ip" | Fresh result each time |
| Command line | curl ifconfig.me |
Works on macOS and Linux |
| DNS query | nslookup myip.opendns.com |
Works on Windows |
| Router status | Check WAN IP page | Shows ISP-assigned address |
You have several independent ways to verify your public IP address. When the answer matters, use two of them. If this page agrees with a second source, you can trust the result. If this page disagrees, the cache is probably serving you an old copy, and you should try again later or use the alternative method.
What Your IP Address Reveals About You
The public IP address is often described as a digital fingerprint, but the comparison overstates what the address reveals. An IP address identifies a network connection, and it can show which ISP you use and roughly where that ISP's network is located. It cannot show your name, your home address, your browsing history, or your identity. Websites can combine your IP address with other data, such as cookies or login information, to build a profile, but the IP address alone is a coarse identifier.
The location associated with your IP address is the ISP's registered location, which is public information. Anyone can look up the owner of an IP address range using the Regional Internet Registries, such as ARIN for North America, RIPE for Europe, and APNIC for Asia Pacific. These registries maintain the official records of which organisation holds each address block. The lookup services that this page uses draw on these records, along with other data sources, to provide the city and ISP information.
Your IP address changes as you move between networks. When you leave your home and connect to a coffee shop's Wi-Fi, you use the coffee shop's public IP address. When you switch to mobile data, you use your carrier's gateway address. When you turn on a VPN, you use the VPN server's address. Each network gives you a different public IP, and each one reveals a different location. Your IP address is a property of your current connection.
The practical privacy implication is that websites can tell what network you are on and roughly where that network is. An online store can see that you are connecting from a particular city. A streaming service can check whether your IP address matches the country where its content is licensed. A bank can flag logins from unusual locations. These uses are all based on the same ISP-level data that this page displays.
This page does not store your IP address or any of the lookup results. The code performs no logging of the visitor's address, and the page keeps no history of past lookups. The lookup request to the vendor service is transient, and the vendor's response is discarded after the page is rendered. The only record of your visit exists in the site's general web server logs, if those logs are enabled, and in Cloudflare's own logs, which are outside the site owner's control.
The Difference Between Public and Private IP Addresses
Every network device has an IP address, but not every IP address is reachable from the internet. Public IP addresses are globally unique and routable across the internet. Private IP addresses are reserved for use inside local networks and are not routable on the public internet. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has reserved several ranges for private use, including 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16. These ranges can be used by anyone inside their own network, and they never appear on the public internet.
Your home network almost certainly uses private addresses. Your router assigns addresses like 192.168.1.10 to your laptop and 192.168.1.11 to your phone. When those devices request a web page, the router replaces the private source address with the router's public IP address, which is the address your ISP assigned. The web server responds to the public address, and the router forwards the response to the correct private device. This process is invisible to the devices and to the web server.
This page shows your public IP address, never your private address. The server that runs this page cannot see your private address, because private addresses are stripped off by your router before traffic leaves your network. If you look at the network settings on your computer, you will see a private address like 192.168.1.10, but that address is meaningless to the internet. The address that matters for internet communication is the public one, and that is what this page reports.
The distinction explains why the location data is coarse. Your private address is assigned by your router and is unique only within your home. Your public address is assigned by your ISP and is shared by all the devices on your home network. The ISP knows which customer has which public address at any given time, but that information is not public. The public geolocation data only knows which ISP owns the address block and where that ISP is registered, which is why the location stops at the city level.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the IP address shown on this page my real public IP?
The address shown is the address your connection presents to this server, which is the same address that every website you visit sees. For a home connection without a VPN, this is the public IPv4 address assigned by your ISP. For a VPN or corporate proxy, it is the exit point of that service. The Cloudflare cache can occasionally serve a previous visitor's address, so cross-check with a second service when the answer matters.
Why does the location show the wrong city?
The location comes from the ISP's registration records, and these records name a city where the ISP has infrastructure or a headquarters. Geolocation services map the entire address block to that city. If you live outside the registered city, or if you use a mobile carrier with a central gateway, the location will be off. The page does not use GPS or your browser's location services.
Does this tool detect my VPN or proxy?
No. The page performs no VPN detection and no proxy detection. It simply reports the address of your connection's exit point, which is the VPN server's address when you use a VPN. The ISP field will show the VPN provider's name, but the page does not label it as a VPN. You would need to recognise the provider name yourself to conclude that a VPN is in use.
Why does the page show "Not available" for some fields?
The location fields come from a vendor lookup service. If that service is down, if it returns no data for your address, or if the scraping logic fails to find the data, the field shows "Not available". This is especially common for IPv6 addresses, since the vendor may not return location data for IPv6. The IP address in the green badge is read directly from your connection and should always be accurate.
Can I use this tool to look up another IP address?
No. This page has no input field and accepts no parameters. It only reports the address of the visitor who loads the page. If you need to look up an arbitrary IP address, use the Bulk IP Lookup tool on this site, which accepts multiple addresses and returns their location data.
Why might this page show an address that is not mine?
The site is served through Cloudflare with a caching rule that stores HTML pages at the edge. This page is not excluded from that rule, so a visitor can receive a cached copy that contains the previous visitor's IP address and location. The cache can persist for hours, and a hard reload does not bypass it. The site owner has reported this defect for fixing, and cross-checking with a second service is the recommended mitigation.