What is my IP address?

Instantly discover your public IP address and associated network information.

What is an IP address?

An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique numerical identifier assigned to every device connected to the Internet. It enables machines to communicate with each other on the network, much like a postal address allows you to receive mail. There are two versions: IPv4 (format like 192.168.1.1) and IPv6 (a longer format designed to address IPv4 exhaustion).

Your public IP address is the one visible from the Internet. It is assigned by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and can reveal approximate information about your geographic location, operator, and connection type. While it does not personally identify you, it is a piece of data worth paying attention to.

To protect your online privacy, you can use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) which hides your real IP address by replacing it with the VPN server's address. This tool does not identify VPNs as such: it displays the information attached to the address visible from the internet. That is precisely what lets you check a tunnel is working, by comparing the address and country shown against those of your VPN server.

Understanding your IP address

IPv4 vs IPv6: what's the difference?

IPv4 is the original addressing format, written as four numbers separated by dots (for example 192.0.2.1), offering roughly 4.3 billion possible addresses. As that pool has run low, IPv6 was designed with a vastly larger address space, written as eight groups of hexadecimal digits separated by colons (for example 2001:0db8:85a3::8a2e:0370:7334). Both protocols coexist today: depending on your ISP and network setup, your device may have an IPv4 address, an IPv6 address, or both at once.

Public vs private IP: two addresses, two jobs

On your local network (home, office), every device gets a private IP address, usually in the 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x range, assigned by your router. That address is never visible from the internet. Your public IP address — the one this tool displays — is what identifies your connection to the rest of the network: it's what the sites you visit actually see, and it's shared by every device connected through the same router.

Dynamic vs static addressing: the role of DHCP

Most consumer connections use a dynamic IP address: your ISP assigns it through DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), and it can change — for instance after a router restart or after a lease period set by your provider. A static IP address stays fixed over time; it's typically reserved for business use (servers, corporate VPNs) and has to be requested specifically from the ISP.

What your IP address reveals — and what it doesn't

A public IP address can reveal, with variable precision, the country, region, and sometimes city you're connecting from, along with your Internet service provider. This comes from IP geolocation databases and remains approximate: it usually points to your ISP's point of presence, not your home address. On its own, an IP address can't identify you by name — that requires cross-referencing with other data, something only your ISP can do, under a specific legal framework.

VPNs and proxies: hiding your IP address

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) routes your traffic through an intermediary server: the sites you visit see that server's IP address, not yours. A proxy serves a similar purpose for certain use cases, typically with less encryption. These tools are used to protect online privacy, get around geographic restrictions, or secure a connection on public Wi-Fi. This tool does not identify whether the displayed address belongs to a VPN or a proxy: geolocation providers keep that information for their paid plans. It is still useful the other way around — if you are connected through a VPN, the address and location shown here are the VPN server's, which lets you confirm at a glance that your traffic really goes through it.

Frequently asked questions

How does this site detect my IP address?

When you load this page, your browser sends a request to our server, which reads the IP address from the request headers. It then matches it against a geolocation database stored on that same server to derive the country, region, city, network operator and timezone. No external service is queried: your address never leaves our infrastructure.

Is my IP address stored anywhere?

The application stores nothing: your address is read on the fly for each request, resolved in memory against the local geolocation database, displayed, then forgotten. It is sent to no third party. Like any website though, the server hosting this page keeps technical access logs containing your IP address, used for security and purged after 30 days.

Why does my displayed IP address sometimes change?

Most consumer connections use a dynamic IP address, assigned by the ISP through DHCP. It can change after a router restart, a network outage, or after a lease period set by the provider. Connecting through a VPN also changes the visible IP address, since it's then the VPN server's address that gets displayed.

Why isn't the displayed location exact?

IP-based geolocation relies on databases that map address ranges to a geographic area, usually the ISP's point of presence. It gives an approximate area — often the right city or the nearest one — but never a precise street address.

What's the difference between IPv4 and IPv6?

IPv4 is the most common format (for example 192.0.2.1), but its address space — about 4.3 billion combinations — is running out. IPv6 is gradually replacing it with a much larger, hexadecimal address space (for example 2001:db8::1). Depending on your connection, this tool may detect one, the other, or both.

Can this tool detect VPNs and proxies?

Not directly: identifying address ranges that belong to VPNs or proxies is a paid feature with geolocation providers, and this tool runs on a free database installed on its own server. It is still useful to check your VPN another way — compare the address and country shown here with where you actually are. If they match your VPN server rather than your own connection, your traffic is going through the tunnel.

My VPN is connected, so why hasn't the displayed address changed?

Most often because your VPN is not doing what you assume. A corporate VPN exists to reach an internal network, not to hide your public address: it only sends traffic bound for that network through the tunnel, and lets everything else out through your usual connection. This is known as split tunnelling. The VPN is working exactly as intended, internal resources included, and yet the address shown here stays your own. With a consumer VPN, whose whole purpose is to change the address you present, an unchanged reading does point at a real problem. Check that the connection is actually established, then reload the page with your browser cache cleared, as some keep the previous response longer than others.

My IPv4 changed but my IPv6 did not. Does it matter?

It points to an IPv6 leak, a common weakness in VPNs. Many of them only handle IPv4: that traffic goes through the tunnel and shows the VPN server's address, while IPv6 traffic leaves directly, carrying your real address. Any site reachable over IPv6 then identifies you as usual, which cancels much of the protection you were expecting. Two remedies: turn on IPv6 support in your VPN client where it exists, or have it block IPv6 entirely while connected. Since this page shows both address families side by side, the leak is visible at a glance.