How to use What Is My IP Address?
The What Is My IP tool instantly shows the public IP address your connection presents to the internet, along with the approximate geolocation, ISP and network (ASN) associated with it. Your public IP is what websites, game servers and APIs actually see, which is often different from the private address on your own device behind a router or VPN. Use this tool to confirm a VPN is active and masking your real address, to whitelist your address in a firewall, or simply to see where the internet thinks you are connecting from.
- Open the tool — your public IPv4 (and IPv6 if available) is detected automatically.
- Read the approximate city, region and country derived from the address.
- Check the ISP and ASN to see which network is carrying your traffic.
- Toggle your VPN on or off and refresh to confirm the address changes.
- Copy the address when you need to whitelist it somewhere.
Public vs private IP addresses
Your device on a home or office network usually has a private IP address such as 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x that is only meaningful inside that local network. When you reach the internet, your router performs network address translation (NAT) so all of your devices share one public IP. That public address is what this tool reports and what remote servers log. Knowing the distinction matters when configuring port forwarding, firewall rules or remote access — external systems can only reach your public address, not the private one.
| Range | Size | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 | 16.7M addresses | Large corporate networks |
| 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 | 1M addresses | Medium networks |
| 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 | 65K addresses | Home and small office |
How accurate is IP geolocation?
IP geolocation maps your address to a location using databases that ISPs and registries publish. It is usually accurate to the correct country and often the right city, but it is an estimate, not GPS. Mobile carriers, corporate VPNs and large ISPs frequently route many users through a single regional gateway, so your reported city may be the location of that gateway rather than your own. This is normal and not a sign that anything is wrong with your connection.
Glossary
- Public IP
- The internet-routable address your network presents to remote servers.
- Private IP
- A non-routable address used inside a local network, defined by RFC 1918.
- NAT
- Network address translation — lets many private devices share one public IP.
- ASN
- Autonomous System Number — an identifier for the network operator carrying your traffic.
- Geolocation
- The estimated physical location associated with an IP address.
Related reading
Frequently Asked Questions
Why use What Is My IP Address??
- Instantly see the public IPv4 and IPv6 addresses your connection presents
- Confirm a VPN is active by verifying the address has changed
- Identify your ISP and ASN to understand which network your traffic uses
- Obtain the exact address needed for firewall or cloud security-group whitelists
Common use cases
- Verify a VPN exit node is masking your real address before sensitive browsing
- Find your public IP to whitelist in a company firewall or cloud security group
- Check whether your ISP assigns a static or dynamic address between sessions
- Confirm the country your IP reports when testing geo-restricted content
- Troubleshoot why a remote server refuses connections by verifying your source IP
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