What Is My IP Address? Public, Local, Shared or Dedicated
Your public IP loads instantly on the tool page. Here's the rest: how to find your local IP on any OS, whether your address is shared or dedicated, and what it really reveals.
Short answer: open What Is My IP — your public address appears the second the page loads, along with the city, provider and time zone it maps to. Nothing to click.
The catch is that you have two IP addresses, and people usually find the one they didn’t want. Here’s which is which, where the other one lives, and how to tell whether yours is shared with half your neighbourhood.
Public and local IP are different addresses
| Public (external) | Local (private) | |
|---|---|---|
| Assigned by | Your internet provider | Your router |
| Who can see it | Every site, game server and mail server you touch | Only devices on your own network |
| Typical form | 93.175.20.4 |
192.168.1.5, 10.0.0.12 |
| How many | One per household or office | One per device |
| Where to find it | What Is My IP | System settings or ipconfig |
| What it’s for | Port forwarding, IP allow-lists, forum bans, VPN checks | Printers, NAS boxes, cameras, local dev servers |
The rule: if someone outside your network needs the address, it’s the public one. If you’re wiring something up inside your house, it’s the local one.
How to find your local IP
No website can show you this one — the browser cannot see it. You need the device itself.
| System | What to do |
|---|---|
| Windows 10 / 11 | Win + R → cmd → run ipconfig. Read the “IPv4 Address” line under your active adapter (Ethernet or Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi) |
| Windows, no console | Settings → Network & Internet → Wi-Fi (or Ethernet) → Properties → “IPv4 address” |
| macOS | System Settings → Network → pick the active connection → Details → TCP/IP tab |
| Linux | ip addr show, or hostname -I for just the addresses |
| Android | Settings → Wi-Fi → tap your network → “IP address” |
| iPhone / iPad | Settings → Wi-Fi → ⓘ next to the network → “IP Address” |
| Router | Admin page (usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1) → connected clients list |
In ipconfig, the Default Gateway line is your router’s own address — that’s the one you type into the browser to reach its admin page.
What a valid IP address looks like
| Format | Example | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| IPv4 | 203.0.113.7 |
Four numbers separated by dots, each 0 to 255 |
| IPv6 | 2001:0db8:85a3::8a2e:0370:7334 |
Eight groups of four hex digits separated by colons; :: collapses one run of zeros |
| Subnet mask | 255.255.255.0 |
Not an address — the boundary of the network |
| CIDR notation | 192.168.1.0/24 |
Network address plus prefix length in bits |
| Address with port | 203.0.113.7:443 |
The port follows a colon and is not part of the address |
The usual mistake is an octet above 255. 192.168.1.256 is not an address: an octet is 8 bits, so 255 is the ceiling. To split an address into network, mask and usable host range, use the IP Subnet Calculator.
Is your IP shared or dedicated?
Most home connections no longer get an address of their own. Providers ran out of IPv4 years ago and now put many subscribers behind one public address using CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT). Your traffic still works; incoming connections do not.
The one-minute check:
- Open What Is My IP and note the address.
- Log into your router and find the WAN address (Status, Internet or WAN section).
- Same address — it’s yours. Different — you’re behind the provider’s NAT and sharing it.
You can also read it straight off the number. These ranges are never a public address of your own.
| Range | What it is | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 |
Private network, RFC 1918 | Local only |
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 |
Private network, RFC 1918 | Local only |
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 |
Private network, RFC 1918 | Local only, typical home LAN |
100.64.0.0 – 100.127.255.255 |
CGNAT, RFC 6598 | Shared with other subscribers |
169.254.0.0 – 169.254.255.255 |
APIPA / link-local | No address was issued, DHCP failed |
127.0.0.1 |
Loopback | The device itself, not a network |
100.64.x.x is the one worth memorising. It looks like an ordinary public address but it is reserved for carrier NAT, so seeing it in an external lookup settles the question. On mobile data you will see it almost every time.
What a shared address breaks: port forwarding, reaching your own camera or NAS from outside, hosting a game server, FTP, remote desktop without a relay, and seeding torrents. Most providers will sell you a dedicated public address as an add-on if you need any of that.
Dedicated and static are not the same thing — see below.
Why your IP keeps changing
Check it today and next week and it may well differ.
- Dynamic IP. Your provider owns a pool and leases you one, reshuffling it when the router reconnects or when the lease expires. This is the default for home accounts.
- Static IP. Pinned to you permanently, usually a paid extra, for when you’re hosting something at a fixed address.
- Mobile data. Carriers funnel thousands of handsets through shared gateways, so the “IP” belongs to the carrier and can hop as you move between towers.
- VPN or proxy. While it’s connected, sites see the VPN server’s address.
A dedicated address can still be dynamic: reachable from outside, but changing now and then — which is why people point a DDNS hostname at it.
What your IP actually reveals
Less than the scare stories claim, more than you would like.
Visible: country, city or nearest routing hop, the provider, the autonomous system number, the kind of network (residential, mobile, hosting), and often whether it’s a VPN or proxy. To see exactly what any address gives away, run it through IP Address Lookup — including someone else’s.
Not visible: your name, street, apartment or phone number. IP geolocation reads a provider database and routinely misses by tens of kilometres; on a mobile carrier it can land in a different city entirely. Subscriber details exist only at the provider and are released on legal request.
Precise position comes from somewhere else entirely — the browser Geolocation API, with your explicit permission, which is how My Location works. Open both one after the other and the gap is obvious.
Hiding it
Route your traffic through a VPN or proxy and the site sees that server’s address instead. The clearest proof a VPN is actually working: open What Is My IP before connecting and after. All three fields — address, city and provider — should change. If the provider is still yours, the tunnel never came up.
Tor swaps the address the same way, for its exit node. Incognito mode changes nothing about your IP; it only clears history and cookies on your own device.
FAQ
Why does the website show one IP and Windows another?
Because they are the two different addresses above. Windows shows the local one your router handed out (192.168.x.x); the website sees the public one your provider handed out. That’s working as designed.
Where does my IP address say I am? Usually your provider’s nearest point of presence, not your home. In a big city that might be a few kilometres off; on a mobile network it can be the wrong city. Check what yours resolves to with IP Address Lookup.
Who else is on my IP address? If you’re behind CGNAT, potentially hundreds of other subscribers of the same provider — which is why an IP ban on a forum can hit people who did nothing. If the router’s WAN address matches what the tool reports, nobody is on it but you.
Is my IP address protected? It isn’t hidden and can’t be: every server you connect to needs it to send the reply back. “Protected” in practice means masked by a VPN, or shielded behind CGNAT, where there is no inbound route to you in the first place.
What is my public IP range? Your provider owns a block and leases you one address from it. The block is visible as the ASN and netblock in IP Address Lookup; the IP Subnet Calculator will expand a CIDR range into its first and last usable address.
Does my IP change when I restart the router? On a dynamic address, often — but not always, since the provider may renew the same lease. On a static address, never.
How do I find the IP of a website rather than my own? That’s DNS, not “my IP”: a domain’s A record is its address. Look it up with DNS Lookup.
Curious what you’re broadcasting right now? What Is My IP already has it on screen.