How to Find Your IP Address on Any Device (Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android)
CodexFuse Team · 2026-10-27T22:47:53.027Z · 16 min read min read
Find your IP address on Windows, Mac, iPhone, or Android in under a minute — public vs private explained, router IP, and the VPN check that explains a changed address.
Learning how to find your IP address takes about two minutes, once you know which of your two addresses you actually need. Every device on your home network has a private IP address that only works inside that network, and your whole household shares one public IP address that the rest of the internet sees. Most guides skip that distinction, which is why people end up staring at two different numbers and wondering which one is "theirs." Both are yours — they just answer different questions. Start with the fastest check: our free IP address lookup shows your public IP in one click, and if you want the background first, our guide to what an IP address is explains how the two layers fit together.
How do I find my IP address?
It depends on which address you need. Your public IP address — the one websites see — is the easy one: open any "what is my IP" lookup page and it is printed at the top. Your private IP address — the one your router gave your device — lives in your device's network settings, and the path is different on Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android. Follow the three steps below and you will have both in under a minute.
- Find your public IP first: open a browser and search "what is my IP" or use an IP lookup tool. That number is your connection's public address.
- Find your private IP next: open your device's network settings (the exact path is in the per-device sections below) and look for the IPv4 address line.
- Compare the two: if the settings number starts with 192.168, 10., or 172.16–172.31, that is your private address — it will never match the public one, and that is normal.
Public vs private IP: which one do you need?
You need your public IP when the other side is on the internet, and your private IP when the other side is on your own network. A game server, a website, or a remote-access tool wants the public address. A printer, a game console, a port-forwarding rule, or a tech-support call about one device wants the private address. Mixing them up is the most common mistake in this whole task — the public address will not reach your printer, and the private address will not reach you from outside the house.
Your private IP comes from your router, which hands one out to each device through DHCP. Your public IP comes from your internet provider and is assigned to your connection as a whole. That is why every phone, laptop, and TV in your house shows the same public IP in a browser lookup but a different private IP in its own settings. The practical rule from the Nerds2You guide is worth memorizing: if the number came from the device's network settings, you are probably looking at a private IP; if it came from a browser lookup site, you are probably looking at the public IP.
| Address type | Where you find it | Who assigns it | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public IP | Browser lookup site or search | Your internet provider | Websites, game servers, remote access |
| Private IP | Device network settings | Your router (DHCP) | Printers, consoles, port forwarding, local sharing |
| Router IP (gateway) | The "Router" line in device settings | Router manufacturer default | Logging in to the router admin page |
Private addresses always fall inside three ranges set aside for local networks. If the number in your settings starts with one of these, it is private by definition — it cannot be reached from the internet at all. Both the SimplyMac guide and the Hide.me guide list the same three ranges, and they are worth checking against before you paste an address anywhere.
| Private range | Example | Where you usually see it |
|---|---|---|
| 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 | 10.0.0.24 | Large home networks, some ISP routers, corporate networks |
| 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 | 172.16.5.10 | Medium networks, Docker and some business routers |
| 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 | 192.168.1.24 | Almost every home router |
How to find your IP address on Windows
On Windows 10 and Windows 11, the Settings app is the easiest path, and the Command Prompt is the fastest one. Use Settings when you want to be sure you are looking at the right connection, and use the command when the menus are being unhelpful.
Open Settings, then go to Network & Internet. Choose Wi-Fi or Ethernet, depending on how the computer is connected, then open Properties on your active network. Your address is listed next to IPv4 address. On Windows 11 the same screen also shows the IPv6 address on many systems. The one mistake to avoid here is clicking the wrong adapter: laptops often show a leftover Ethernet profile from a dock, and its address is not the one your Wi-Fi is using.
For the command-line method, press Win + R, type cmd, and press Enter. Type ipconfig and press Enter, then look for the IPv4 Address line under your active connection. The output lists every adapter, including virtual ones from VPN software, so read the section for the connection you are actually using. If the address starts with 169.254, Windows did not get a lease from the router — the device assigned itself an address and is effectively talking to itself, which is the Nerds2You guide's sign that the network connection itself needs fixing first.
How to find your IP address on Mac
On a Mac, System Settings holds the same information in two clicks, and Terminal gives it in one command. Open System Settings, choose Network, select your active connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet), and click Details. The TCP/IP tab shows the IPv4 address, the IPv6 address, and the router address side by side. On older Macs the same details live under Apple menu > System Preferences > Network, with Advanced instead of Details — the labels changed, the logic did not.
There is also a shortcut worth knowing: hold the Option key and click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar, and your IP address appears below the network name. For the command line, open Terminal and run ipconfig getifaddr en0 for Wi-Fi or ipconfig getifaddr en1 for Ethernet — though some MacBook models swap which interface is which, so do not assume en0 is always Wi-Fi. A fuller dump of every interface comes from ifconfig, where you look for the "inet" entry under your active connection. Either way, the address you find is the private one, not the public one. If the result starts with 169.254, the Mac assigned itself an address because DHCP did not complete.
How to find your IP address on iPhone
On an iPhone or iPad, the address is three taps away. Open Settings, tap Wi-Fi, then tap the information icon next to the network you are connected to. Your IP address is listed under IPv4 Address. The same screen shows a Router line — do not mistake it for your own address. The Router value is the gateway your phone uses to reach the internet, and it is the address you type into a browser when you want to log in to the router.
Two things catch people out here. First, the number can change when you disconnect and reconnect, because the router hands out addresses as devices join — so screenshot it if you need to read it back to support over the phone. Second, iOS does not show your cellular IP address in Settings at all. If you are on mobile data, open Safari and search "what's my IP" to see your public cellular address instead. The same search is how you check the public IP on any phone, and it is the answer to the "find my IP address" question most people actually mean when they type it into Google.
How to find your IP address on Android
On Android, the path is the same idea with different labels, because every manufacturer moves the menus slightly. Open Settings, go to Network & Internet (or Connections on Samsung devices), tap Wi-Fi, then tap the connected network name. Scroll down and your IP address is shown in the network details. Some phones show it immediately; others tuck it behind an Advanced panel inside the Wi-Fi menu.
The per-brand paths from the SimplyMac guide are a useful shortcut if your menus do not match the generic steps: on a Pixel, it is Settings > Network & Internet > Internet > Wi-Fi; on a Samsung Galaxy, Settings > Connections > Wi-Fi; on a OnePlus, Settings > Wi-Fi & Network > Wi-Fi. As with iPhone, the address in these settings is the private Wi-Fi address. Your mobile-data address is not shown in Settings in any useful way, because the carrier controls that side of the connection — check it with a browser search instead.
How to find your IP address on Linux
On Linux, the terminal is the reliable path. Open a terminal and type hostname -I and press Enter — your address is shown on one line. The Hide.me guide gives the equivalent as ip a, which lists every adapter with its address. Either command shows the private address for the active connection, and a browser lookup still gives you the public one. If you are on a Raspberry Pi or a headless server, these are the only methods that matter, because there is no settings screen to open.
How to find your router's IP address
Your router's IP address is the gateway address your devices use to reach the internet, and you need it whenever you want to log in to the router itself. The fastest way to find it is the Router line in your iPhone or Mac network details — that number is the router's address on your network. On Windows it appears in the ipconfig output as Default Gateway.
Most home routers use one of two defaults: 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. Type that address into a browser and sign in with the admin credentials printed on the router label or set during installation. Inside the admin page, look for WAN, Internet, or Status — that is the router's view of the public-facing connection, and it is the number to compare against a browser lookup site when the two disagree. Most routers also have an Attached Devices or DHCP Client List page, which shows the private IP of every phone, laptop, TV, and camera on the network. That list is the quickest way to work out which device got which address on a busy home network. If you cannot reach the admin page at all, check that you are on the right Wi-Fi network — and if you have forgotten the password, our guide on how to find your Wi-Fi password covers the router-sticker method that gets you back in.
Why does my IP address look different in different places?
Your IP address looks different in different places because the number depends on where you look from, not because anything is broken. Your phone, your laptop, and your router each show a different layer of the same connection, and a VPN or a carrier network adds another layer on top. The three most common reasons for a surprise number are a VPN, carrier-grade NAT, and a dynamic address.
A VPN is the first thing to check. When a VPN is connected, every lookup site sees the VPN server's address instead of your real one — that is the entire point of the service. If the address changed right after you installed or connected a VPN, nothing is wrong; but if you want proof the VPN is actually doing its job, run our guide on how to check if your VPN is working, which tests the IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks that a single lookup cannot see.
The second reason is carrier-grade NAT. Some internet providers — cable and mobile networks especially — share one public address across many customers. When that happens, your router's WAN page may show a private-looking address starting with 100.64, while the browser lookup shows the shared public address. The Nerds2You guide flags this as the check to run before blaming the router: if the router WAN and the lookup site disagree, CGNAT is the most likely explanation, and no amount of restarting the router will make them match.
The third reason is simpler: most home addresses are dynamic. Your provider can change your public IP when the router reconnects, and your router can hand your devices different private IPs when they rejoin the network. A number that was right last month is not guaranteed to be right today, which is why the lookup-and-settings check is worth repeating instead of trusting a saved note.
What your IP address can (and can't) tell someone
Your IP address can suggest an approximate city or region and the name of your internet provider, but it cannot reveal your street address, your name, or your phone number. That is the honest limit, and it is the same in every guide we read for this article. The Nerds2You guide puts it plainly: an IP address is good for troubleshooting and rough location, not for pinpointing a house or a person.
Geolocation is also less precise than the lookup pages make it look. The whatsmyip.now guide rates city-level accuracy at 50–80% and street address as never derivable from an IP at all, because the address usually points at your provider's routing hub rather than your home. Mobile data is the worst case: carriers route through regional gateways, so a phone in one city routinely appears in another hundreds of kilometres away. Two lookup sites can even disagree with each other about the same address, because address blocks get reassigned between networks faster than the geolocation databases refresh. If a website thinks you are in the wrong city, compare the browser-reported public IP, the router WAN address, and the registered network owner before drawing any conclusions — and remember that an IPv6 address is a different format for the same job, not a different kind of lookup. IPv4 uses about 4.3 billion addresses in the familiar dotted form, while IPv6 uses a 128-bit scheme with roughly 340 undecillion addresses, which is why modern networks can show either one depending on the path the traffic takes.
What to do when the IP looks wrong
When the number does not look right, work through the short list below before changing any settings. Most "wrong IP" problems are a wrong adapter, a failed DHCP lease, or a VPN doing exactly what it was asked to do.
- The address starts with 169.254. Your device did not get an address from the router. Restart the router, forget and rejoin the Wi-Fi network, and check whether other devices on the same network have the same problem.
- The address belongs to the wrong connection. Laptops with a dock or a VPN show several adapters in ipconfig and Settings. Confirm you are reading the Wi-Fi or Ethernet entry for the connection you are actually using.
- The public IP changed overnight. That is usually a dynamic address renewing, or a VPN connecting on startup. Check the VPN first, then compare the router WAN page with a lookup site.
- A website shows the wrong city. That is a geolocation-database problem, not a problem with your connection. The city shown is your provider's routing hub, and it can be hundreds of kilometres from where you sit.
- You need to know what a domain resolves to. That is a different question from finding your own IP, and it is answered with a DNS lookup, which shows the addresses a name points at and whether they are answering.
Sources
- Nerds2You — "How to Find Your IP Address on Any Device" (nerds2you.ca/how-to-find-your-ip-address/) — public vs private rule, Windows Settings and ncpa.cpl paths, 169.254.x.x self-assigned warning, macOS TCP/IP tab and ipconfig getifaddr, iPhone Router-line warning, Android label differences, router WAN at 192.168.0.1/192.168.1.1, CGNAT 100.64.x.x, geolocation limits, CIRA Canada IPv6 adoption 2.6% (2016) to 18.2% (2017).
- SimplyMac — "How to Find Your IP Address On Mac, Windows, iPhone, or Android" (simplymac.com/macos/how-to-find-ip-address-mac-windows-iphone-android) — per-device quick-reference table, private ranges 10.0.0.0–10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0–172.31.255.255, 192.168.0.0–192.168.255.255, IPv4 ~4.3 billion addresses, IPv6 ~340 undecillion addresses, Pixel/Samsung/OnePlus settings paths, Option-click Wi-Fi shortcut on Mac.
- Hide.me — "Finding Your Local and Public IP Address on Various Platforms" (hide.me/en/blog/finding-your-local-and-public-ip-address/) — public vs local definitions, IANA private ranges, Windows ipconfig, Fedora ip a, macOS ifconfig, iOS and Android steps, public check via browser or curl ifconfig.me, VPN changes the public IP.
- TP-Link — "How to Find Your IP Address on Different Devices" (tp-link.com/us/support/faq/838/) — vendor support FAQ with per-OS steps for Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, iPhone, and Android.
- AdGuard VPN — "What is my IP address" (adguard-vpn.com/en/what-is-my-ip.html) — per-platform private-IP steps, public IP reveals ISP location only, never an exact address.
- Surfshark — "What is my IP address? See your public IP" (surfshark.com/what-is-my-ip) — Windows, macOS, iPhone, Android, and Linux steps, hostname -I on Linux, PlayStation and Xbox paths.
- Avast — "How to Find Your IP Address on Windows" (avast.com/c-how-to-find-ip-address) — Windows 10 Settings and Command Prompt methods, ipconfig output reading.
- whatsmyip.now — "What Is My IP Address? – IPv4 & IPv6" (whatsmyip.now) — geolocation accuracy table (country over 99%, city 50–80%, street never), mobile-data and CGNAT reasons for a wrong-looking location.
All sources were fetched and read in full on October 28, 2026. Example addresses in this article (such as 192.168.1.24) are illustrations of the private ranges, not real addresses.
Frequently asked questions
What is my IP address right now?
Your public IP address is the one the internet sees, and the fastest way to see it is a browser lookup: search "what is my IP" or use our free IP address lookup tool, and the address is printed at the top of the page. That number is your connection's public address, shared by every device in your home. Your private address is different on each device and lives in its network settings.
Is my IP address the same on every device?
No. Every device has its own private IP address on your home network, handed out by your router — your phone might be 192.168.1.24 while your laptop is 192.168.1.25. But all of them share the same public IP address, because your internet provider assigns it to the connection, not to each device. A browser lookup on any device in the house shows the same public number.
How do I find my IP address on my phone?
On iPhone, open Settings, tap Wi-Fi, tap the information icon next to your connected network, and read the IPv4 Address line. On Android, open Settings, go to Network & Internet, tap Wi-Fi, tap the connected network, and scroll to the IP address in the network details. Both show the private Wi-Fi address; for the public address on mobile data, search "what's my IP" in the browser instead.
Can someone find my exact location from my IP address?
No. An IP address can suggest an approximate city or region and the name of your internet provider, but it cannot reveal your street address, your name, or your phone number. City-level geolocation is only 50–80% accurate, because the address usually points at your provider's routing hub rather than your home, and mobile data can place you hundreds of kilometres from where you actually are.
Why does my IP address keep changing?
Most home addresses are dynamic. Your internet provider can assign a new public IP when your router reconnects, and your router hands out private IPs as devices join and leave the network. A VPN also changes the public IP every time it connects, showing the VPN server's address instead of yours. If you need a stable address for a server or a remote-access setup, that is a static-IP request to your provider, not something you fix in settings.