What is my IP address?

Your public IP address is the address the rest of the internet sees your connection coming from. It is not the 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x address printed on your own machine — that one is private to your network and is never visible from outside. Most home connections have one public IPv4 address (or one IPv6 prefix) shared by every device behind the router. The lookup below asks IP99 what address your browser is arriving from, and returns the network it belongs to.

Your address

What a lookup answers

A real response for Google's public resolver, captured 2026-09-13 — the same fields you get for your own address:

{
  "ip": "8.8.8.8",
  "geo": { "continent": "NA", "country": "US", "region": "California",
           "city": "Mountain View", "lat": 37.386, "lon": -122.084,
           "tz": "America/Los_Angeles" },
  "network": { "asn": 15169, "usage_type": "IDC" },
  "risk": { "score": 0, "level": "none", "signals": ["hosting"] },
  "evidence_state": "none",
  "computed_at": "2026-09-13T15:40:41Z"
}

• ip — the public address, in the same form every other service will see it.
• geo — country, region and city as the database places the address, plus coordinates and time zone. City-level accuracy is normal for consumer addresses and weaker for mobile and corporate ranges.
• network.asn, network.usage_type — which network announces the address and what kind of network it is: IDC datacenter, DYN residential broadband, MOB mobile, GTW gateway / NAT egress. See what is an ASN.
• risk, evidence_state — whether the address has been observed in proxy, VPN or other risk infrastructure, and how fresh that observation is. A score of 0 means no evidence, not safe: see what an IP risk score means.

Public IP vs private IP

• Private — 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16, and fc00::/7 for IPv6. Used inside your own network, reused by every network in the world, and never routed on the internet. Your router hands these out; no website can see them.
• Public — everything else that is routed. This is what a website sees, what a lookup reports, and what a blocklist would list.
• Loopback and link-local — 127.0.0.1, ::1, 169.254.0.0/16, fe80::/10. Always local to one machine or one link.

A lookup refuses to return a profile for the private and reserved ranges above: they have no public profile because they are not on the public internet.

How to find your public IP

• The box at the top of this page asks from your browser, so it reports the address the internet sees for that connection — including your VPN or proxy exit if you are using one.
• Command line: curl https://ip99.com/v1/ip returns the full JSON; curl -4 ifconfig.me and curl -6 ifconfig.me force one protocol.
• On this machine only: ipconfig (Windows), ip addr (Linux) or ifconfig (macOS) show your local addresses. If the one printed starts with 192.168. or 10., that is the private address — the public one is on the router, not the machine.

Why it can change, and why it is not always yours alone

• It changes when your ISP says so. Most home and mobile connections get an address by DHCP with a lease from hours to weeks; a router reboot, a lease expiry or a carrier's re-addressing can change it. Static addresses are usually a paid option on business plans.
• Mobile and carrier-grade NAT. Phone networks put many subscribers behind one public address (usage_type: "GTW"), so the address is not a person. The same is true of guest Wi-Fi and some apartment broadband.
• A VPN or proxy replaces it. While one is active the address belongs to the exit, not to your line — which is why the lookup reports the exit's country rather than yours.
• IPv4 and IPv6 can differ. A dual-stack connection has a public IPv4 address and an IPv6 prefix, and a site may see whichever its DNS prefers. If two services disagree about your address, check which protocol each one used.

What your IP address does not reveal

An address identifies a connection, not a person. From the address alone nobody learns your name, your account, your device or your street address — geolocation is derived from registration and routing data, so it places the block, not the building. City-level is the realistic accuracy for consumer addresses, and a result that points at your ISP's regional office is the normal case rather than a fault. See how IP geolocation works and its limits.

FAQ

What is my IP address?

Your public IP address is the address your connection appears to come from on the internet. The lookup box on this page asks IP99 for it, and also returns the country, region, city, network (ASN) and usage type of that address. The 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x address on your own machine is private and is never the answer.

How do I find my IP address without JavaScript?

Run curl https://ip99.com/v1/ip for JSON, or curl ifconfig.me for plain text, from the machine you want the address of. To see the address a specific connection exits from — including a VPN — run it from that connection.

Why does my IP address keep changing?

Most consumer connections get their address by DHCP with a lease of hours to weeks, so a router reboot, a lease expiry or a change by the carrier moves it. Mobile connections change it more often, on purpose. A static address is normally a paid option.

Is my IP address the same as my location?

No. The address is a routing identity; location is a separate database that maps it to a place, normally down to a city and sometimes only to a region or the ISP. It cannot locate a device or a building.

Can two people have the same IP address?

Yes, and it is common. Carrier-grade NAT on mobile and some broadband puts many subscribers behind one public address, guest networks share one, and a VPN exit with hundreds of users is a single address. That is why an IP address is not an identity.

Does my IP address reveal personal information?

Not by itself. A lookup can show the country, region, city and the network operator, but not your name, account, device or street address. The geolocation comes from registry and routing data, so it places the network block rather than you.

Related: IP location: where an IP address is · IP address lookup: what you can and cannot find out · How to detect a proxy, VPN or datacenter IP · Rotating residential proxies and dial-up pools · Residential proxy vs datacenter proxy · Is this IP a VPN? · What an IP risk score means · How fresh should IP risk evidence be? · What is an ASN? · Free IP geolocation and risk API · Proxy exit addresses captured this week · IP risk profile · IP ranges by country · IP ranges by ASN.