What Is My IP Address? Live IPv4, IPv6 and Location Checker

What each field above means

• IPv4 address — the familiar four-number address, such as 203.0.113.42. Almost every connection still has one.
• IPv6 address — the newer, longer format. If this says Not detected, your provider has not enabled IPv6 yet. That is completely normal and nothing is wrong.
• City, region and country — read this as where your internet provider registered the address, not where you are sitting. See the section below on why it is often wrong.
• Internet provider and network — the company routing your traffic and its ASN, the number identifying that network globally. These two are reliable.
• Time zone — estimated from the IP address, which is how sites guess your local time before you log in.
• Browser language — read from your browser settings rather than your IP. It is one of many details that make up a browser fingerprint.

Why the city is often wrong — and what actually works

This is the most common complaint about every IP checker, so it is worth explaining properly rather than pretending the number is precise.

IP geolocation databases do not measure where you are. They record where a block of addresses was registered by the provider that owns it. If your provider registered its address ranges at its head office, every customer on those ranges appears at that head office — whether they are next door or four hundred kilometres away.

The effect is strongest in countries where a handful of providers serve the whole population. In Bangladesh, for example, the large majority of consumer addresses resolve to Dhaka regardless of the customer’s actual city. The same happens with mobile data almost everywhere, because the traffic exits through a small number of central gateways.

No provider fixes this. Paid commercial databases have the same limitation, because the underlying registration data is the same. Any site claiming to pinpoint your town from an IP address alone is showing you the provider’s address and hoping you do not notice.

What is accurate: the IP addresses themselves, the provider name, the ASN, and the country. Country-level accuracy is generally very good. City-level accuracy is not, and should never be relied on for anything that matters.

If you want your real position, use the Show my precise location button in the checker above. That asks your browser for GPS or Wi-Fi positioning, which is accurate to a street rather than a city. It only runs if you grant permission, and the result stays in your browser.

What is an IP address?

An Internet Protocol address is a label that identifies your connection on a network. When you request a web page, the server needs somewhere to send the reply — your IP address is that return address. Without it, data would have no way back to you.

The address shown above is your public IP: the one assigned by your internet provider and visible to every site you visit. It usually identifies your whole household or office rather than one device.

Public and private IP addresses are different

This trips people up constantly. If you check your IP inside Windows or on your phone’s Wi-Fi settings, you will often see something like 192.168.1.5 or 10.0.0.8. That is a private address, handed out by your router to devices inside your home. It is invisible to the outside world, and millions of homes use the exact same ranges.

The address at the top of this page is the public one — what the internet actually sees. If the two do not match, nothing is broken. That is precisely how home networks are designed to work.

IPv4 and IPv6, briefly

IPv4 ran out of addresses years ago, which is why providers now share single addresses between many customers. IPv6 was designed to end that shortage for good. The two run side by side, and most connections today use whichever the destination supports.

What your IP address does and does not reveal

It does reveal: your country, your internet provider, the network your address belongs to, and roughly what kind of connection you are on. That is enough for a site to choose a language, apply regional pricing, or flag a login as unusual.

It does not reveal: your name, your street address, your phone number, your exact town in most cases, or who is using the device. Anyone claiming to have found your home from an IP address alone is either guessing or lying. Law enforcement can request subscriber details from a provider with a legal order — that is a formal process, not something a website can do.

Using this page to test a VPN for leaks

Load this page with your VPN switched off and note what it says. Then connect your VPN, refresh, and compare.

• If the IP address and country both change, your VPN is routing traffic correctly.
• If the IPv4 address changes but the IPv6 address still shows your real one, you have an IPv6 leak — a genuinely common fault. Either enable IPv6 support in your VPN app or disable IPv6 on your device.
• If nothing changes, the VPN is not actually carrying your browser traffic.

Compare the provider and ASN rather than the city here. Those change reliably when a VPN is working; the city may look odd either way.

How your IP address relates to account security

Your IP address is one of the signals services use to decide whether a login looks like you. Sign in from your usual provider and country and nothing happens. Sign in from somewhere unfamiliar and you are far more likely to be challenged for a verification code, or blocked outright.

That is useful, and it is also why IP address alone is a weak defence. Attackers rent servers in whatever country they need, and a matching location proves very little. The control that actually stops an unauthorised login is a second factor — see what two-factor authentication is and how the six-digit codes are generated.

One warning worth repeating: if a code arrives that you did not request, someone already has your password. Treat it as an alarm, not as spam.

How to change or hide your IP address

• Restart your router. Most home connections use dynamic addresses, so a reboot often assigns a new one.
• Use a VPN. Sites then see the VPN server’s address instead of yours. Note that a VPN hides your address — it does not protect your accounts, stop phishing, or replace a second factor.
• Use mobile data. A different network means a different address.
• Use Tor. Strong anonymity, considerably slower, and unnecessary for everyday browsing.

Frequently asked questions

Why does it show the wrong city?

Because the database records where your provider registered the address block, not where you are. In countries served by a few large providers, almost every customer appears in the capital. This is a limitation of IP geolocation itself, not of any particular checker. Use the precise location button if you need your real position.

Does this page show my exact home address?

No. It shows the area your provider registered, which can be hundreds of kilometres away. It cannot show a street or a house.

Why does my IPv6 say “not detected”?

Your provider has not enabled IPv6 on your connection. Nothing is wrong and nothing needs fixing — a large share of connections worldwide are still IPv4 only.

Why does my IP address keep changing?

Most residential connections use dynamic addressing, so your provider reassigns an address periodically or whenever the router restarts. A fixed address is usually a paid business option.

Can someone hack me if they know my IP address?

Not realistically. A modern router blocks unsolicited incoming connections by default. Your accounts are far more likely to be lost through a reused password or a phishing page than through your IP address — which is why a second factor and saved backup codes matter more than hiding it.

Is it safe to share my IP address?

Generally yes — every website you visit already receives it. Avoid posting it publicly alongside other personal details, and be cautious in online games and chat apps, where it is occasionally used for nuisance attacks.

Do you store any of this?

No. The lookups happen in your browser and the results are displayed to you only. Precise location is never requested unless you press the button, and it is not transmitted. See our privacy policy for how the rest of the site handles data.