How to Find the IP Address of Your Router

Every device on your home or office network communicates through a central hub — your router. And like every networked device, your router has its own IP address. Knowing how to find it is one of the most practical networking skills you can have, whether you're troubleshooting connectivity issues, configuring port forwarding, or accessing your router's admin panel.

Here's exactly how to find it, across every major platform.

What Is a Router's IP Address?

Your router actually has two IP addresses:

• Local IP address (default gateway): The address your devices use to communicate with the router on your home network. This is typically something like 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1.
• Public IP address (WAN IP): The address your router presents to the internet, assigned by your ISP. This is what external websites see when you browse.

Most of the time when people ask how to find their router's IP address, they mean the local IP address — also called the default gateway. That's the address you type into a browser to access your router's settings page.

How to Find Your Router's IP Address on Windows

Using the Command Prompt:

1. Press Windows + R, type cmd, and hit Enter
2. In the Command Prompt window, type ipconfig and press Enter
3. Look for the section labeled "Default Gateway" under your active network adapter (usually labeled Ethernet or Wi-Fi)
4. The number listed there is your router's local IP address

Using Windows Settings:

1. Open Settings → Network & Internet
2. Click on your active connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet)
3. Scroll down to find "Default gateway" listed under network properties

The value will typically be a four-part number like 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1.

How to Find Your Router's IP Address on macOS

Using System Preferences/Settings:

1. Click the Apple menu → System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS versions)
2. Go to Network
3. Select your active connection from the left panel
4. Click Details (or Advanced on older versions), then choose the TCP/IP tab
5. Your router's IP is listed next to "Router"

Using Terminal:

1. Open Terminal (found in Applications → Utilities)
2. Type netstat -nr | grep default and press Enter
3. The IP address in the first result is your router's gateway address

How to Find Your Router's IP Address on iPhone or iPad 📱

1. Open Settings → Wi-Fi
2. Tap the ⓘ icon next to your connected network
3. Scroll down to the "Router" field
4. The IP address listed there is your router's local address

How to Find Your Router's IP Address on Android

Android varies slightly by manufacturer and OS version, but the general path is:

1. Go to Settings → Wi-Fi (or Connections → Wi-Fi)
2. Tap and hold your connected network, then tap Manage network or tap the gear/info icon
3. Look for Gateway or Router under network details
4. On some devices you may need to switch the IP settings view from DHCP to reveal the full details panel

Some Android skins (Samsung One UI, MIUI, etc.) label this slightly differently, but the Gateway field is what you're looking for.

How to Find Your Router's IP Address on Linux

Open a terminal and run:

ip route | grep default 

The address following via is your router's IP. Alternatively, route -n will display a routing table where the gateway is clearly labeled.

Finding Your Public (WAN) IP Address

If you need your public IP address — the one visible to the internet — that's separate from the default gateway. The simplest way is to search "what is my IP" in any browser. Google, among other services, displays it directly in the search results.

Your public IP is assigned and managed by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), and it may change over time unless you've requested a static IP.

Common Router IP Address Defaults by Brand

While you should always verify using the methods above, most routers ship with predictable default gateway addresses:

These are defaults — any of them can be changed by a network administrator, and some ISP-provided routers use non-standard ranges.

What Affects Which IP Address Your Router Uses

Not every network looks the same, and a few variables determine what IP address your router actually holds:

• Router manufacturer defaults — different brands ship with different address schemes
• ISP-configured equipment — gateway routers provided by your ISP may use entirely different address ranges, especially for business plans
• Manual configuration — a network admin may have reassigned the router's local IP deliberately
• Multiple routers or mesh systems — in networks with more than one routing device, each node may have its own IP, and your device's "default gateway" may point to a secondary unit rather than the primary modem/router combo 🌐
• IPv6 — increasingly common, IPv6 gateway addresses look entirely different from the familiar four-octet IPv4 format

When the Default Gateway Doesn't Work

If you type your router's IP into a browser and nothing loads, a few things could be happening:

• You're on a different network segment than expected
• The router's web interface has been disabled or is running on a non-standard port
• The address was changed from the factory default
• You're connected to a Wi-Fi extender or mesh node rather than the primary router

In those cases, checking the ipconfig or ip route output directly on your device gives you the most reliable answer — it reflects what your device actually sees as its gateway, regardless of what the factory default was.

The steps above will work in the vast majority of setups, but the specific IP you find — and what you can actually do with it — depends on how your particular network is configured and what kind of hardware you're working with.