What Is My IP Address?

An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique identifier for each device on a network, such as the internet. When you connect to the internet, your internet service provider (ISP) assigns you an IP address.

The primary purpose of an IP address is to allow web-connected devices to find and communicate with each other. Without specific IP addresses, devices wouldn’t be able to send and receive information from each other over the internet.

The secondary purpose of an IP address is for location addressing. In other words, to place your device in an approximate physical location in the world (also known as geolocation).

In a way, IP addresses are comparable to postal addresses.

In a typical household, multiple devices are connected to a single internet connection through a router (or combination of routers). In this scenario, all these devices have the same public IP address.

If one of these devices (e.g. your smartphone) is connected to the internet through a wireless carrier, it would have a different IP address than a device connected to your home router (and through an internet service provider).

What Is My IP Location?

When an IP checker tool detects an IP address, it queries a database (e.g. ARIN) to find the specific area in the world where the IP address is mapped to. This ‘area’ is known as your IP’s geolocation.

IP address locations are not the most accurate, but they do reveal in which city you appear to be located, and who your internet service provider is.

Checking your IP address is simple. Use our tool (at the top of this page) from any web browser and it will display your IP address (IPv4 and/or IPv6), geolocation, and host information.

You can also use a script to check your IP address automatically. If that’s what you want to do, use our https://ip4.top10vpn.com/ URL, instead.

If you want to look up the details of another IP address (not necessarily yours), then use our IP Address Lookup tool.

Below are step-by-step instructions on how to manually find your public IP address on popular devices and operating systems:

There are two types of IP address protocols in use around the world: IPv4 (IP4) and IPv6 (IP6).

IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) was introduced in 1981, way before the huge growth of internet-connected devices. It uses a 32-bit address structure, which supports approximately 4.3 billion IP addresses.

Each IPv4 address is unique and usually looks like this: 192.0.2.235. The IP address is separated into four fields of digits, with each field representing a ‘byte.’

IPv4 is still the most-used Internet Protocol (78-80% household penetration), however IP4 addresses are running out quickly. There just aren’t enough IPv4 addresses for every internet user.

IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) was first introduced in 1995 to solve the supply problem of IPv4 addresses.

Differently to IPv4, IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, which gives IPv6 a capacity of up to 340 undecillion IP addresses!

Here is an example of what an IPv6 address looks like:

2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334.

IPv6 addresses aren’t as widespread as IPv4, but if your ISP has assigned you one then you should experience faster, safer and more reliable internet data transfers.

According to a Google study, global IPv6 adoption currently sits at over 40%. In the United States, IPv6 penetration is closer to 50%.

Be aware that a device using an IPv4 address can’t communicate with another device (or server) using IPv6.

If you’re connected to an IPv6-enabled network, and you use a VPN that does not support IPv6, your personal IPv6 address may be exposed.

If you’re connected to a VPN service while using our IP checker tool, you may see different details between your IPv4 address and your IPv6 address.

This is most likely because your VPN is not tunneling IPv6 correctly. This means that your real IPv6 address, and all the data associated with it, is still publicly exposed.

There are two ways to fix IPv6 address leaks using your VPN:

1. Check if your VPN has IPv6 leak protection within the app’s settings. If it does, make sure it’s enabled.
2. See if your VPN can disable or block IPv6. This is the next best option – your VPN will simply disable your IPv6 connection to prevent leaks, rather than attempt to tunnel it.

If you cannot find either of these options, your VPN cannot fix the problem.

In this case, you can attempt to fix the issue within your device’s network settings by manually disabling IPv6.

We explain how to disable IPv6 on multiple platforms in our guide to fixing IP address leaks.

If you have both an IPv4 and an IPv6 address, the latter will likely be your device’s preferred protocol.

In this scenario, you can fix the leak by blocking all IPv6 traffic. Don’t worry, your internet connection will still work since your device will exclusively use IPv4.

There are two more types of IP addresses: public and private.

Your public IP address is the IP address that’s visible to other devices you connect to on the internet. It’s also known as the ‘external’ IP address.

Your private IP address is the IP address assigned within your internal network, for example at home or at your office.

When you visit an external website, or open up a mobile application, only your public IP address is visible.

For instance, when you visit www.top10vpn.com without a VPN, we can see your public IP address and we’ll display it in our tool (don’t worry, we don’t store IP addresses).

Typically, if someone talks about an “IP Address” they are referring to their public IP address, not their private one.

For devices connected to a home or office router, the router will assign each device a private IP address. This lets the router distinguish internet traffic going to and from each device.

Private IP Ranges

Private IP addresses look different to public IP addresses, and fall into these three 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

To see your private IP addresses, you’ll have to log into your router using the details provided by your router vendor or supplier. Or, look at the network settings on your device.

When your ISP assigns you a public IP address, you’ll either get a static or a dynamic IP address.

A static public IP address always remains the same. That’s unless you switch ISP, or you relocate. This makes connecting remotely to your computer or other home equipment easier, because your IP address never changes.

However, static IP addresses pose some security risks. Since the IP address never changes, it’s easier for hackers to locate the relevant DNS server. Use one of our other bespoke tools to check your DNS server.

For residential connections, most ISPs assign dynamic public IP addresses. This means your IP address will change over time – typically when your router reconnects to the ISP after a reboot or network outage.

If you’re using a VPN service, you’ll likely be assigned a dynamic VPN IP address. Having said that, some VPN services let you purchase a static VPN IP address for an additional fee.

Dynamic Public IP Addresses

Dynamic IP addresses are assigned by Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) servers and change over time. Your IP address can change a few times a year, or several times a month.

ISPs are increasingly assigning dynamic IP addresses because they cost less to maintain. They can be frequently re-used and re-assigned to devices connecting to the internet.

In practice, having a dynamic IP address doesn’t change the way you use the internet. But, it can make accessing computers, equipment or web resources remotely more difficult.

For instance, to connect to your PC or Webcam remotely, you need to know your IP address. That can become a problem if your IP address changes regularly.

Your IP address reveals certain information about you. For example, where you’re located (approximately) and what internet-connected devices you use.

Furthermore, your ISP or mobile carrier can see what websites you visit through your public IP address.

Below is a short list of actions companies and individuals can take once they know your IP address:

• Determine your approximate location. Your IP address reveals your country, city, and sometimes your ZIP code.
• Block your IP address and restrict access to web services.
• Carry out a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. This involves sending huge amounts of traffic to your IP address server, causing the server to crash. When this happens, your internet connection drops.
• Scan for open ports. Hackers can scan open ports to identify your devices’ vulnerabilities to online attacks.
• Doxing. By obtaining your IP address, someone can dox you. This means uncovering your real identity or personal information and releasing it to the public.
• Targeted advertising based on IP address. Businesses can display online ads only targeting specific IP addresses.

We recommend our readers to change (and hide) their real IP address as much as possible to avoid running into the risks highlighted above.

As we explained above, there are several risks associated with individuals and companies knowing your IP address.

As such, it’s very important to hide your IP address. Below are two effective ways to do this.

Hide Your IP address with a Web Proxy

A web proxy (usually available via a website, or web application) lets you route internet traffic from applications on your device to a proxy server, and then on to your web destination.

Web proxies are typically set up on an application-by-application basis, e.g. via a web browser.

When you connect to a proxy server, your IP address changes to one assigned by the server. This masks your true IP address while using a proxied application, and the websites you visit only see the proxy’s IP address.

Hide Your IP Address with a VPN

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a better software version of a web proxy, which you can install and use on most devices.

Like proxies, VPNs divert your internet traffic through a remote private server, which assigns you a different IP address. Websites and apps you use will see the remote server’s IP address.

Unlike proxies, secure VPNs use sophisticated connection protocols (e.g. OpenVPN and WireGuard), and encryption (e.g. AES 256-bit), to further secure your internet data transfers.

High-quality VPN services route all your internet traffic through a secure VPN server. They anonymize your web activity, regardless of which application you’re using.

Finally, VPNs and proxies let you temporarily change your IP address to one belonging to another country or city, which most other methods to change IP address aren’t able to do.

See below more guides we’ve published to help you learn more about IP addresses: