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IP Address

Also known as: Internet Protocol address

A numeric label assigned to each device on a network so that it can send and receive data over the internet.

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What is an IP address?

An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique numeric identifier assigned to every device that connects to a TCP/IP network. Routers use IP addresses to deliver packets between the correct source and destination, the same way a postal address routes a physical letter. Every request a browser, app, or server makes carries both a source IP and a destination IP.

Two versions are in active use: IPv4 (32-bit, written as four decimal numbers like 192.0.2.1) and IPv6 (128-bit, written as eight hexadecimal groups like 2001:db8::1). IPv4 supports about 4.3 billion unique addresses, which was exhausted in the 2010s; IPv6 supports 340 undecillion addresses and is now deployed alongside IPv4 on most modern networks.

Public vs. private IP addresses

Public IPs are globally routable and assigned by your ISP. They identify your network to the rest of the internet. Private IPs (like 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16) are used inside local networks and are not routable on the public internet. Home routers typically use NAT to share one public IP across many private devices.

What can an IP address reveal?

IP addresses can be mapped to a rough geographic location (country with ~99% accuracy, city with 50-80% accuracy), the ISP or organization that owns the block, and the autonomous system (ASN) responsible for routing. They cannot directly reveal personal identity on their own, but they can be correlated with other signals when an account or logged session is also involved.

Use our IP lookup tool to see what information a given IP reveals.

Frequently Asked Questions

A public IPv4 address is globally unique at any given moment, but it can change over time as ISPs rotate assignments. Private IPs like 192.168.1.1 are reused across every home network.
No. An IP address can be mapped to a country with about 99% accuracy and to a city with 50-80% accuracy, but it cannot reveal a street address. Residential IPs typically resolve to the ISP's regional hub, not the subscriber's home.
On the public internet, no — each public IP is unique at a given moment. On a private network behind NAT, many devices share one public IP while each has its own private IP like 192.168.0.5.
An IPv4 address has four numbers separated by dots, each from 0 to 255 (up to 12 digits total, like 192.168.001.100). An IPv6 address has eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, up to 32 characters plus colons.
Sharing a public IP is low risk on its own — it can reveal your approximate location and ISP but not your personal identity. Combined with other data (session cookies, usernames), it can contribute to tracking, and it exposes your device to port scanning.
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