What Is My IP Address?
See your public IP address, approximate location and ISP, and browser signals that help spot a VPN, proxy, or DNS leak.
Public IP address
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IPv4 address
Checking…
IPv6 address
Checking…
Address our server saw for this page request
Unavailable
Country (from edge headers)
Not provided by host
Region / city
Not provided by host
Browser timezone
(UTC+0.0)
Browser language
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No obvious timezone or IP mismatch detected. This is only a coarse heuristic, not a definitive VPN check.
Checked at …. Your IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are detected using address-family-locked lookup endpoints, the same technique other IP checkers use, so the IPv4 value here matches what those sites report. Nothing is stored or logged.
Quick guide: how to use the Public IP & Location
Takes under a minute- 1Your public IPv4 and IPv6 addresses load automatically.
- 2Compare them with what other sites report to spot a VPN or proxy.
- 3Approximate location comes from the IP database, not GPS.
- 4Refresh after connecting or disconnecting a VPN to see the change.
Overview
Every device connected to the internet needs an address that other computers can use to send data back to it, similar to how a postal address lets mail find its way to your door. Your public IP address is that identifier as seen from outside your home or office network, assigned by your internet service provider and shared by every device on your local network unless you're using something unusual like a dedicated business connection.
This page reads your public IP address directly from the request your browser makes to our server, along with whatever coarse location information your hosting provider's network can see, such as country, region, and city. It also checks a few signals your browser itself exposes, like your system timezone and language, and compares them against what your IP suggests, which is one of the simplest ways to spot a VPN or proxy that isn't behaving quite like a real connection from that location would.
None of this requires installing anything or sending your data anywhere beyond our own server, and nothing shown here is stored or logged for any purpose beyond generating the page you're looking at right now.
Public versus private IP addresses
The address shown at the top of this page is your public IP, the one the wider internet sees. Every device on your home network, your laptop, phone, smart TV, and so on, also has a private IP address only visible inside your own network, typically starting with 192.168 or 10. Your router handles the translation between the many private addresses inside your home and the single public address your ISP gave you, a process called network address translation.
How to read your results
- Public IP address: the identifier your ISP has currently assigned to your connection. It's normal for this to change occasionally unless you've paid for a static address.
- Country, region, city: a coarse estimate based on where your IP address block is registered, not a precise location. Expect this to be accurate to a state or metro area, not a street address.
- Browser timezone and language: settings reported directly by your device, independent of your IP address, useful for comparison against your IP's apparent location.
- Timezone mismatch flagged: a rough heuristic suggesting your browser's timezone and your IP's apparent country don't obviously line up. This is common while travelling and also common when using a VPN, so treat it as a hint rather than proof.
- No mismatch detected: your browser timezone and IP location are broadly consistent, though this alone doesn't rule out a well-configured VPN matching its exit location to your usual region.
Troubleshooting
The IP address shown doesn't match what another site tells me
Different services sometimes see slightly different addresses if you're behind a load balancer, corporate proxy, or certain mobile carrier configurations that route traffic through shared gateways. If you have multiple network connections active, such as Wi-Fi and a VPN client both running, the address that reaches a given site depends on which route the request actually took.
The location shown is wrong by a lot, not just a nearby city
Large location errors, like a different country entirely, usually mean either your ISP's address block is registered somewhere other than where it's actually used, which is common for mobile carriers and some regional ISPs, or that traffic is passing through a VPN, proxy, or corporate network exit point you weren't aware of, such as an employer's network tunnel.
I turned on a VPN and my IP address didn't change
Refresh this page after confirming the VPN app shows a connected status, since some VPN clients only begin routing traffic a few seconds after showing connected. If the address still hasn't changed, check whether your VPN app has a kill switch or split tunneling setting that might be excluding your browser from the tunnel.
I'm worried a website can identify me personally from my IP
An IP address alone typically reveals your ISP and a rough geographic area, not your name or exact address. Services generally need a court order served to your ISP to connect an IP address to a specific subscriber, which is different from a website simply seeing the address in its server logs.
VPNs, proxies, and what they actually hide
A VPN encrypts your traffic between your device and the VPN provider's server, and websites you visit see the VPN server's IP address instead of your own. This is useful for masking your location and keeping your traffic private from your local network operator, such as public Wi-Fi at a coffee shop, but it doesn't make you anonymous in an absolute sense. The VPN provider itself can typically see your real IP address and traffic, which is why choosing a provider with a clear, audited no-logs policy matters if privacy from the provider itself is a concern.
A proxy server works similarly for the specific traffic routed through it but usually doesn't encrypt the connection the way a VPN does, meaning your local network operator can still see what you're doing even though the destination website sees the proxy's address rather than yours.
Tor takes a different approach, routing your traffic through at least three independent relays run by volunteers around the world, so no single point in the chain knows both who you are and what you're visiting. This provides stronger anonymity than a typical VPN but comes with a significant speed reduction, making it better suited to specific privacy needs than everyday browsing.
Understanding DNS leaks
When you type a website address, your device performs a DNS lookup to translate that name into an IP address before connecting. If you're using a VPN, this lookup should also travel through the VPN's own DNS servers. A DNS leak occurs when your operating system bypasses that tunnel and sends the lookup directly to your ISP's DNS servers instead, which reveals your real ISP and rough location to anyone positioned to observe that traffic, even while your actual browsing traffic stays encrypted inside the VPN.
DNS leaks are more common than most people expect, particularly on operating systems with aggressive network prioritization features, or after a VPN client crashes and silently falls back to your system's default DNS settings. Dedicated DNS leak testing tools work by having your browser look up a series of unique subdomains and checking which DNS servers actually resolved them, comparing that against the DNS servers your VPN provider expects to be used.
If you rely on a VPN for privacy and want to check for leaks, look for a feature in your VPN client called DNS leak protection or similar, and consider enabling your operating system's setting to disable fallback to other DNS servers when a VPN is active.
Frequently asked questions
What is my IP address?
Your public IP address is shown at the top of this page, read directly from the connection your browser made to our server. It's the address other computers on the internet use to send data back to your network, distinct from the private IP address your router assigns to devices inside your home.
Why does my IP address show a different city than where I actually live?
Public IP addresses are assigned in blocks to internet service providers, and geolocation databases estimate location based on where that block is registered, which is often the ISP's regional hub rather than your exact address. Being off by a city, or even a state, is completely normal and doesn't indicate a problem.
Is it safe for people to know my IP address?
Your IP address alone doesn't reveal your name, exact address, or browsing history. It can be used to estimate your rough geographic region and your internet provider, and in rare cases combined with other data for targeted attacks, which is why people who want extra privacy use a VPN to mask it.
How do I hide my IP address?
A VPN (virtual private network) routes your traffic through a remote server, so websites see the VPN server's IP address instead of yours. The Tor browser provides stronger anonymity by routing through multiple relays, though at a noticeable speed cost. Your own ISP can still see your traffic pattern with either option, though not the content on an encrypted connection.
What's the difference between IPv4 and IPv6?
IPv4 addresses look like four numbers separated by dots, such as 203.0.113.42, and the available pool of them has been exhausted for years, which is why many networks now also support IPv6, a much larger address space written as groups of hexadecimal digits separated by colons. Most home connections use IPv4 for outbound traffic even if IPv6 is also available.
Why does my IP address keep changing?
Most home internet connections use dynamic IP addresses that your ISP can reassign periodically, especially after your router restarts or reconnects. This is normal and doesn't affect your ability to browse the internet; only certain uses like hosting a server benefit from a fixed address.
What does this tool mean by a timezone mismatch?
If your browser's reported timezone doesn't line up with the country your IP address appears to be registered in, that's a rough signal, not proof, that you might be using a VPN or proxy, since VPN exit servers are often in a different country than the user's actual timezone.
What is a DNS leak and how do I check for one?
A DNS leak happens when your device sends domain name lookups outside of an active VPN tunnel, revealing your real ISP and rough location to websites and observers even though your traffic itself is routed through the VPN. Dedicated DNS leak test tools compare the DNS servers you're actually using against your VPN provider's expected servers to catch this.
Can two people on the same Wi-Fi network have different public IP addresses?
No, devices sharing the same home or office router share one public IP address as seen from the outside internet, since the router performs network address translation to let many private devices share a single public connection. Each device does have its own private, internal IP address that's only visible on your local network.
Why does my ISP show up instead of a specific company name?
Public IP address blocks are registered to internet service providers and hosting companies, not to individual customers, so lookups will show the name of your ISP, mobile carrier, or a hosting provider rather than your name or household.
Does using a VPN slow down my internet?
Usually yes, to some degree, since your traffic takes a longer path through the VPN server and gets encrypted along the way. The amount of slowdown depends on the distance to the VPN server, the server's own load, and the encryption overhead, and is often barely noticeable with a good provider on a fast connection.
Why do I see a private address like 192.168.x.x instead of my public one somewhere else?
Addresses starting with 192.168, 10, or 172.16 through 172.31 are private, reserved ranges used only inside local networks like your home Wi-Fi and are never visible to the outside internet. Your router translates between this private address and your single public address automatically.