How to find your IP address on any device

Which address do you want?#

Your public address is the one every website sees. It belongs to your router or your ISP's equipment, so it is the same on every device in the house. Your private address is the one your router gave a single device, and it only means something on your own network. Public vs private IP addresses explains why there are two.

Your public IP address#

The home page reads it straight off the connection you are using and shows both IPv4 and IPv6 if you have them. Nothing to install and nothing to log in to. If you would rather stay in the terminal, the same site answers plain-text requests:

curl https://my-ip-address.in/ip          # just the address
curl https://my-ip-address.in/ip.json     # the address as JSON

Paste the result into a lookup to see the ISP, the network and the approximate location that anyone else would learn from it.

Your private IP address, device by device#

Windows 10 and 11

1. Open Settings, then Network & internet.
2. Choose Wi-Fi or Ethernet, whichever you are connected with, and open the network's Properties.
3. Read the IPv4 address and, if present, the IPv6 address rows.

ipconfig

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.14
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

macOS

1. Open System Settings, then Wi-Fi (or Network for Ethernet).
2. Click Details next to the connected network.
3. Open TCP/IP to see the address, the router and the subnet mask.

ipconfig getifaddr en0

Linux

ip -br addr                 # one line per interface, with its addresses
ip route get 1.1.1.1        # shows the source address used to reach the internet
hostname -I                 # all addresses on one line (not available on every distribution)

The desktop network settings show the same thing under the connection's details. The ip command is documented in the ip(8) manual page.

Android

1. Open Settings, then Network & internet (or Connections on some phones), then Wi-Fi.
2. Tap the connected network, or the gear beside it.
3. Open Advanced or Network details to see IP address.

The wording moves between manufacturers and Android versions, but the path is always Wi-Fi, then the connected network's details.

iPhone and iPad

1. Open Settings, then Wi-Fi.
2. Tap the ⓘ button next to the connected network.
3. Read IP Address under the IPV4 ADDRESS heading, with the router beside it.

On mobile data iOS does not show an address at all. The public address on the home page is the one that matters there anyway.

Your router

1. Find the router's address: it is the default gateway from any of the steps above. Common values are 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1 and 10.0.0.1.
2. Type it into a browser and log in. The default credentials are usually printed on a label on the router, and should have been changed.
3. Open the status, Internet or WAN page. It shows the public address, and usually the DNS servers and connection type too.

Compare the WAN address with the one on the home page. A match means your router owns the public address. A mismatch, or a WAN address starting 10., 192.168. or 100.64 to 100.127, means your ISP is translating addresses upstream: see what NAT and CGNAT are.

If the address looks wrong#

• It is in another country. A VPN, proxy or corporate gateway is probably on. The VPN check says whether the address belongs to one, and the leak test says whether anything is escaping around it.
• Your phone and laptop disagree. One is on mobile data or a different network, or one of them is using IPv6 and the other IPv4.
• It changed since yesterday. Most home addresses are dynamic. See static vs dynamic IP addresses.
• It starts with 169.254. The device could not reach the router's DHCP service. Check the cable, the Wi-Fi password, and whether the router is on.
• The location is a city you never visited. That is normal, and a property of geolocation rather than of your address: why IP location is often wrong.

Common questions#