What's My IP

Your public IP — the address your internet connection presents to the wider internet, not your device's local network address (like 192.168.x.x).

VPNs, proxies, and mobile carrier networks (CGNAT) can all show a different IP than you might expect — that's normal, not a bug.

A unique numeric label assigned to your connection so other computers on the internet know where to send data back to — similar to a mailing address, but for your connection rather than your physical location specifically.

IPv4 is the older format — four numbers 0-255 separated by dots (like 93.184.216.34) — with a hard limit of about 4.3 billion possible addresses. IPv6 is the newer format — longer, hexadecimal, separated by colons — built because IPv4 addresses were running out, with room for far more devices than IPv4 could ever support.

Not usually — most people only need whichever one shows as available. Some networks support both at once (dual-stack), which is why this tool checks and shows both separately rather than assuming only one applies to you.

Most home and mobile connections use dynamic IPs, reassigned periodically by your ISP, rather than a fixed address that never changes. Static IPs are more common on business plans or dedicated servers. Refresh this page after reconnecting to see if yours has changed.

Not on its own. A different IP address (from reconnecting, a new dynamic assignment, or a VPN) does limit how easily your activity can be tied together across sessions, but your ISP still logs which IP was assigned to you and when, and other tracking methods (cookies, browser fingerprinting) don't rely on your IP at all.

Your IP's registered location reflects your ISP's infrastructure, not your GPS position — many ISPs route traffic through a regional hub, so the city shown can be the nearest major hub rather than your literal address. This is normal and expected, not an error.

No — IP-based location resolves to a general area (city/region), determined by how your ISP has registered that IP block, not a precise, individual address. It's nowhere near GPS-level precision.

Large ISPs often register their IP blocks under a subsidiary, holding company, or regional network name rather than the consumer brand you recognize — so seeing a name that isn't your ISP's marketing name is normal, not a sign of a problem.

Often yes, if your ISP assigns dynamic IPs — a fresh connection can trigger a new address, though some ISPs keep assigning the same one for a long time if it's still available.

No — the lookup happens live, in your browser, and nothing about it is logged, stored, or tied to you here. Refreshing runs the exact same live check again from scratch.

On its own, not much beyond a rough general location and your ISP — it doesn't reveal your name, exact address, or browsing history directly. It's mainly used for basic troubleshooting, content localization, and connecting devices, though it can be one input among several used for broader tracking or blocking.

IPv4 only has room for about 4.3 billion unique combinations in its four-number format, while IPv6's longer, hexadecimal format supports a vastly larger address space — the extra length is what makes that possible, not an arbitrary design choice.

It calls a small set of public, no-signup services (ipify.org for the IP address itself, ipapi.co for location and ISP) directly from your browser — the same category of free, purpose-built API other IP lookup sites use, just without routing it through our own servers first.

Different tools use different geolocation databases, updated on different schedules, so minor differences — a neighboring city, a slightly different ISP subsidiary name — are common and don't mean either result is wrong.

Yes — Wi-Fi and mobile data are different network paths, often through entirely different ISPs, so seeing a different public IP (and sometimes a different city or ISP name) when you switch between them is expected.

Yes, when one exists — it looks up the reverse DNS (PTR) record for your IPv4 address and shows the hostname if your ISP has one configured.

Not every IP has a reverse DNS record set — many residential and mobile ISPs simply don't configure one, especially for dynamically assigned addresses. No hostname showing is normal, not a failure.

This looks up the reverse record for your IPv4 address specifically — IPv6 reverse DNS uses a different, more complex lookup format that's rarely populated for residential connections anyway.