How to View Your IP Address on a Mac

Knowing your IP address is one of those fundamental networking tasks that comes up more often than you'd expect — whether you're troubleshooting a connection, setting up file sharing, configuring a router, or connecting remotely to your machine. On a Mac, there are several ways to find it, and which method makes sense depends on what type of IP address you need and how comfortable you are with different parts of macOS.

What Kind of IP Address Are You Looking For?

Before diving into the steps, it's worth clarifying something most guides skip: there are two distinct IP addresses associated with your Mac, and they serve completely different purposes.

• Local (private) IP address — This is the address your Mac has within your home or office network. It's assigned by your router and typically looks like 192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, or 172.16.x.x. This is what you need for local network tasks like file sharing, printer setup, or SSH access within your network.
• Public (external) IP address — This is the address the rest of the internet sees. It's assigned by your ISP and is shared across all devices on your network. This matters for things like port forwarding, remote access from outside your network, or checking whether a VPN is working.

Most built-in macOS methods show you the local IP address. Finding your public IP requires a different approach.

Method 1: System Settings (macOS Ventura and Later)

Apple redesigned the network settings interface in macOS Ventura, so the path is slightly different from older versions.

1. Click the Apple menu in the top-left corner
2. Select System Settings
3. Click Network in the sidebar
4. Select your active connection — either Wi-Fi or Ethernet
5. For Wi-Fi, click the Details button next to your connected network name
6. Your IP address appears next to the IP Address field

This view also shows your subnet mask, router address, and DNS servers — useful context if you're doing any network configuration.

Method 2: System Preferences (macOS Monterey and Earlier)

On macOS Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, and earlier versions:

1. Open System Preferences
2. Click Network
3. Select your active connection from the left panel (Wi-Fi or Ethernet)
4. Your IP address is displayed directly in the right panel
5. For more detail, click Advanced, then go to the TCP/IP tab

Method 3: Using Terminal 🖥️

If you prefer the command line — or need the information in a script or troubleshooting session — Terminal gives you fast, direct access.

Open Terminal (found in Applications > Utilities) and use one of these commands:

For Wi-Fi:

ipconfig getifaddr en0 

For Ethernet:

ipconfig getifaddr en1 

For all network interfaces at once:

ifconfig | grep "inet " 

The ifconfig output can look cluttered, but look for lines that start with inet followed by an address that isn't 127.0.0.1 (that's just the loopback address, not your real network IP).

Method 4: Finding Your Public IP Address

None of the above macOS methods reveal your public IP. For that, the simplest approach is using Terminal:

curl ifconfig.me 

Or just open any web browser and search "what is my IP address" — the result appears at the top of the page. The address shown is what external servers see when your Mac connects to the internet.

Keep in mind that your public IP can change unless your ISP has assigned you a static one. Most residential connections use dynamic IPs, meaning the address may be different after your router restarts or after a period of inactivity.

Method 5: Checking via the Menu Bar

For quick, repeated access, you can hold the Option key and click the Wi-Fi icon in your menu bar. On many macOS versions, this reveals extended network information including your IP address without opening any settings panel.

This isn't available on all configurations and may not display for Ethernet connections, but it's the fastest lookup method when it works.

Factors That Affect What You See

The IP address your Mac shows isn't a fixed property of the machine — it's contextual. A few variables determine what you'll find:

• Connection type: Wi-Fi and Ethernet are separate interfaces with separate IP addresses. If both are active, your Mac has two local IPs simultaneously.
• Network configuration: DHCP (automatic assignment) is standard on most home networks. In managed or enterprise environments, IPs may be statically assigned by a network administrator.
• VPN status: When a VPN is active, your network interface may show a VPN-assigned IP rather than your router-assigned one, and your public IP will reflect the VPN server's address instead of your ISP's.
• IPv4 vs IPv6: Modern networks often assign both an IPv4 address (192.168.x.x format) and an IPv6 address (longer, colon-separated). Most local tasks use IPv4, but IPv6 is increasingly relevant for internet-facing connections.

Why the Interface Name Matters in Terminal

macOS names network interfaces differently depending on hardware generation and macOS version. On most Macs, en0 is Wi-Fi and en1 is Ethernet — but this can vary, particularly on Macs with Thunderbolt adapters or USB-C ethernet dongles. If en0 returns nothing useful, try en1, en2, or run ifconfig to see all active interfaces listed together.

The method that works best for you depends on how often you need this information, whether you're working with local or public IPs, and how your specific Mac is connected to the network. Those details shift what the right tool actually is.