How to Find Your IP Address on Any Device

Your IP address is your device's unique identifier on a network — think of it like a mailing address that lets data know where to go and where to come from. Whether you're troubleshooting a connection, setting up a home server, configuring a router, or just curious, finding your IP address is a straightforward task — once you know where to look.

The catch: which IP address you need, and where to find it, depends entirely on your device, operating system, and what you're actually trying to do.

Public IP vs. Private IP: The First Thing to Understand

Before hunting for your IP address, it helps to know there are two distinct types — and they serve completely different purposes.

Public IP address — This is the address your internet service provider (ISP) assigns to your network. It's what the outside world sees when you visit a website or connect to an external service. Every device on your home network shares this one public IP.

Private IP address — This is the address your router assigns to each individual device within your local network. Your laptop, phone, smart TV, and game console each get their own private IP. These typically fall in ranges like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x.

If you're troubleshooting remote access, port forwarding, or VPN configuration, you probably need your public IP. If you're configuring devices on your local network — printers, media servers, smart home devices — you need the private IP.

How to Find Your Public IP Address 🌐

This is the easiest of the two. Open any browser on any device and search:

"what is my IP address"

Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo all display your public IP directly in the search results. Alternatively, sites like whatismyip.com or ipinfo.io show your public IP alongside additional details like approximate location and ISP name.

Keep in mind: if you're using a VPN, the IP address shown will belong to the VPN server, not your actual ISP-assigned address. That's the point of a VPN — but worth remembering when troubleshooting.

How to Find Your Private IP Address by Device

Windows

1. Open the Start menu and search for Command Prompt
2. Type ipconfig and press Enter
3. Look for the IPv4 Address listed under your active network adapter (Ethernet or Wi-Fi)

Alternatively, go to Settings → Network & Internet → Wi-Fi or Ethernet → Click your connection → Properties and scroll to find the IPv4 address.

macOS

1. Open System Settings (or System Preferences on older versions)
2. Go to Network
3. Select your active connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet)
4. Your IP address appears directly in the panel

Or: hold the Option key and click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar — your IP shows up immediately.

iPhone / iPad (iOS)

1. Go to Settings → Wi-Fi
2. Tap the ℹ️ icon next to your connected network
3. Your IP address appears under the IPv4 Address section

Android

Steps vary slightly by manufacturer and Android version, but the general path is:

1. Go to Settings → Network & Internet → Wi-Fi
2. Tap your connected network
3. Expand Advanced or tap the network details
4. Look for IP address in the list

Some Android skins (Samsung One UI, for example) show this under Connection Details.

Linux

Open a terminal and run:

ip addr show 

or the older command:

ifconfig 

Look for the inet value under your active interface (usually eth0 for Ethernet or wlan0 for Wi-Fi).

Via Your Router

Every device connected to your network appears in your router's admin panel. Access it by typing your router's gateway address (commonly 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1) into a browser, then log in. Under a section labeled Connected Devices, DHCP Clients, or LAN, you'll see each device's name and assigned private IP.

IPv4 vs. IPv6: Why You Might See Two Addresses

Modern networks often assign both an IPv4 address (the classic 192.168.x.x format) and an IPv6 address (a longer alphanumeric string like fe80::1a2b:3c4d:5e6f).

IPv4 is the older standard with a limited address pool. IPv6 is the newer, vastly larger addressing system that networks are progressively adopting. For most everyday tasks, your IPv4 address is the one that matters — but some services and configurations increasingly rely on IPv6.

Factors That Change Which IP Address You See

When the Method You Use Actually Matters

For most people, any of the above methods gets the job done quickly. But depending on what you're doing with the IP address — configuring remote desktop access, setting firewall rules, running a local server, registering a device on a managed network — the type of IP and which interface it's tied to starts to matter significantly.

A static private IP behaves differently than a dynamically assigned one. A dual-band router may assign different IPs to the same device depending on which band it connects to. A device connected via both Wi-Fi and Ethernet will have two separate private IPs simultaneously.

How you're connecting, what you're connecting to, and what you intend to do with that IP address once you have it — those are the variables that determine which of the above methods actually gets you what you need. 🔍