What My IP Address is, and what it is not
A free site that shows the address every website sees when you connect, explains what that address reveals, and lets you test how much of it you can hide.
What it does#
My IP Address shows the public IP address your connection presents to every website, together with the network, the approximate location and the type of connection behind it. Around that it offers:
- a lookup for any IP address, domain or URL, including bulk and side-by-side comparison;
- free tools to test what a connection gives away: a VPN leak test, a VPN, proxy and Tor check, a blocklist check, a password and email breach check, a browser fingerprint viewer, a DNS lookup, an HTTP header viewer, an email header tracer, a subnet calculator, a password generator and a privacy quiz;
- guides that explain IP addresses, DNS, NAT and subnetting, each with the sources it relies on;
- a public API that returns the same data as plain text or JSON.
Why it exists#
Most people never see what their connection tells a website. The aim is to show it plainly, to explain what it means and what it does not, and to let people test the protections they rely on, such as a VPN, instead of taking them on trust.
Where the data comes from#
- Location and network
- A third-party IP intelligence provider, currently ipwhois.io, with free fallback providers if it does not answer. It reports the ISP, the ASN, the route and an estimated location with an accuracy radius.
- Registration records
- WHOIS and RDAP data published by the regional internet registries: who holds an address block, and its abuse contact.
- VPN, proxy and hosting flags
- The provider's own flags, checked against the published Tor exit list, which is refreshed hourly.
- Blocklists
- Live queries to public DNS blocklists, about sixty of them.
- Breaches
- The Have I Been Pwned service, for the breach check. Passwords are checked with a technique that never sends them.
How accurate it is#
Every answer here that concerns a place, or whether an address is a VPN, is an estimate. Location from an IP address is reliable to the country, uncertain to the city and useless for finding a person: why IP geolocation is often wrong explains it. VPN and proxy detection is heuristic, and a blocklist result is a snapshot. The API documentation says the same thing to developers.
How your data is handled#
Your IP address is used to answer your request and then discarded. Caches and rate limits see only a salted one-way hash that expires within an hour. Analytics load only if you opt in, and several tools run entirely in your browser. The privacy policy has the detail, and the terms cover using the site and the API.
How the guides are written#
Each guide answers one question, shows the date it was last updated, and cites the specifications and registries it relies on: the RFCs, IANA and the regional registries. Addresses in examples come from the ranges reserved for documentation, so no example points at a real device. If you find a mistake, tell us and we will look into it.
Who runs it#
My IP Address is an independent project. To reach whoever runs it, see the contact page.