Where to Find Your IP Address on Any Computer

Every device connected to a network has an IP address — a numerical label that identifies it on that network. Whether you're troubleshooting a connection issue, setting up remote access, or configuring a router, knowing where to find your IP address is a fundamental skill. The tricky part is that "your IP address" can mean two different things, and the steps to find it vary depending on your operating system.

What Kind of IP Address Are You Looking For?

Before you dig into settings menus, it helps to understand the difference between two distinct types:

• Local (private) IP address — This is the address your router assigns to your device within your home or office network. It's only visible to other devices on the same network. Common formats look like 192.168.x.x or 10.0.x.x.
• Public (external) IP address — This is the address your Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigns to your network. It's visible to websites and services you connect to on the internet. All devices on the same network share this single public address.

Most troubleshooting tasks — like connecting two devices on the same Wi-Fi — require your local IP. Situations like whitelisting your address with an external server require your public IP.

How to Find Your IP Address on Windows 🖥️

Using Settings (Windows 10 and 11)

1. Open Settings → Network & Internet
2. Click Wi-Fi or Ethernet depending on your connection type
3. Select the active network, then click Properties
4. Scroll down to find IPv4 address

Using the Command Prompt

1. Press Windows + R, type cmd, and hit Enter
2. Type ipconfig and press Enter
3. Look for your active adapter (Wi-Fi or Ethernet) and find the line labeled IPv4 Address

The ipconfig method is faster and shows all active network adapters at once — useful if your machine has both wired and wireless connections active simultaneously.

How to Find Your IP Address on macOS

Using System Settings (macOS Ventura and Later)

1. Click the Apple menu → System Settings
2. Select Network from the sidebar
3. Click on your active connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet)
4. Your IP address appears on that screen, often labeled as IP address

Using the Terminal

1. Open Terminal (found in Applications → Utilities)
2. Type ifconfig | grep "inet " and press Enter
3. Your local IP will appear next to inet — look for an address starting with 192.168 or 10.

On older macOS versions (Monterey and earlier), the path is System Preferences → Network rather than System Settings.

How to Find Your IP Address on Linux

The method depends slightly on which distribution and desktop environment you're using, but the terminal approach works universally:

1. Open a terminal window
2. Type ip addr show or hostname -I and press Enter
3. Look for the inet entry under your active interface (often labeled eth0 for Ethernet or wlan0 for wireless)

Some desktop environments — like GNOME or KDE — also display the IP address under Settings → Network.

How to Find Your Public IP Address

Your public IP isn't stored in your computer's settings the same way a local IP is — it's assigned by your ISP at the router level. The simplest methods:

• Visit any "what is my IP" website from a browser — they display your public IP immediately
• In a terminal, you can run: curl ifconfig.me (works on macOS, Linux, and Windows with curl installed)

IPv4 vs. IPv6: Which One Do You Need?

Modern systems often display both an IPv4 address (e.g., 192.168.1.45) and an IPv6 address (e.g., fe80::1a2b:3c4d:5e6f). For most everyday tasks — printer setup, local file sharing, basic troubleshooting — the IPv4 address is the one you'll reference. IPv6 is the newer standard and is increasingly used for internet-facing traffic, but many local tools and interfaces still default to IPv4.

Why Your IP Address Changes

One important variable: most IP addresses are dynamic, meaning they can change.

• Local IPs are assigned by your router via DHCP and may change if you reconnect to the network or the router reboots
• Public IPs are assigned by your ISP and typically change periodically unless you've paid for a static IP

This matters when your use case depends on a consistent address — remote desktop access, hosting a local server, or maintaining a connection that relies on a fixed identifier. A static local IP can be configured through your router's DHCP reservation settings; a static public IP is a separate arrangement with your ISP.

What Changes Depending on Your Setup

The exact steps and the addresses you find will vary based on:

• Operating system version — navigation paths differ between Windows 10, Windows 11, macOS Ventura, and older releases
• Connection type — wired Ethernet and Wi-Fi show up as separate adapters with separate addresses
• Network configuration — corporate or enterprise networks, VPNs, and virtual machines all add additional network interfaces, each with their own IP
• VPN usage — an active VPN replaces your visible public IP and may add virtual network adapters, making the output of ipconfig or ifconfig longer and more complex

Someone on a home network with a single Wi-Fi connection will see a clean, simple result. Someone on a work laptop with a VPN, virtual machine, and both wired and wireless adapters active may see five or six different interfaces listed — and identifying the right one requires knowing which adapter is actually carrying the traffic they care about.