IP Address Lookup
Look up any IP address to see where it's located, which provider it belongs to, and whether it's a VPN, proxy or data center. Works with IPv4, IPv6, domains and URLs.
Lookup Result
The marker shows the approximate area of the IP address, not an exact location.
Owner and abuse contact: WHOIS Lookup · Spam and attack reports: IP Blacklist Check
Understanding Your Result
The result at the top is one of these:
Possible results
| City, state, country | A regular home, mobile or business connection. The location is the area where the provider uses the address, usually right to the state. |
| Data center address | The address belongs to a server, a cloud service such as AWS or Google Cloud, or a website. Logins and form submissions from these addresses are often bots. |
| VPN, proxy or Tor | The address belongs to a privacy service. The location is the server's, and the real person could be anywhere. |
| Private address | Addresses such as 192.168.1.10 work only inside a local network and have no public location. See private vs. public addresses. |
What an IP Lookup Can and Can't Tell You
An IP address is assigned to a network, not to a person. A lookup tells you a lot about that network and almost nothing about who used it:
| An IP lookup shows | An IP lookup doesn't show |
|---|---|
| Country, state and often the city | A street address or exact location |
| The internet provider or company that uses the address | The name of the person using it |
| Home, mobile, business or data center connection | A phone number or email address |
| Whether it's a VPN, proxy or Tor exit node | The real location behind a VPN |
| Time zone and network (ASN) | Which device on the network was used |
Only the internet provider can match an address and a time to a customer, and US providers share that only with law enforcement or in response to a subpoena. More in Can Someone Find My Home Address From My IP?
How Accurate Is IP Location?
- Country: almost always right.
- State: right for most US home connections.
- City: often the provider's nearest hub, which can be 10 to 50 miles away, or a big city in the same region.
- Mobile networks: phones on cellular data can appear in another city or even another state, because carriers route traffic through a few large hubs.
- VPN, proxy and Tor: the location is the server, which can be on another continent.
See why your own address may show the wrong place in How Accurate Is IP Geolocation?
How to Find the IP Address to Look Up
From an Email
Every email carries hidden headers with the servers it passed through. Open the full headers and look for lines starting with Received: from. The lowest one that isn't from your own email provider usually shows the sender's server or IP address in square brackets.
- Gmail: open the message → menu with three dots → Show original.
- Outlook.com: open the message → menu with three dots → View → View message source.
- Outlook for Windows: open the message → File → Properties → Internet headers.
- Apple Mail: View → Message → All Headers.
- Yahoo Mail: open the message → More → View raw message.
Mail sent from Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo or iCloud on the web usually doesn't include the sender's own IP address, only the provider's server. A lookup then shows Google or Microsoft, not the sender. To check whether a sender's domain can be faked, use the SPF, DKIM & DMARC Checker.
From a Suspicious Login
Many services show where your account was used. Microsoft lists IP addresses under Security → Sign-in activity, and Google shows recent sign-ins under Security → Recent security activity. Banks, social networks and streaming services have similar pages, often called Devices or Where you're logged in. Look up the address: a data center or VPN in a country you've never visited is a strong sign that someone else has your password.
From Website, Server or Router Logs
Web servers, WordPress security plugins and firewalls log the IP address of every visitor and failed login. Your router's admin page lists the devices on your network, but those show private addresses such as 192.168.1.15, which can't be looked up (see below).
Private vs. Public IP Addresses
Your router gives each device at home a private address and shares one public address for all of them. Only public addresses can be looked up. These ranges are private or reserved:
| Range | What it is |
|---|---|
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 | Private. Used by most home routers. |
10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 | Private. Common in offices, schools and some routers, such as Xfinity's. |
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 | Private. Used in business networks and by Docker and virtual machines. |
100.64.0.0 – 100.127.255.255 | Carrier-grade NAT. Shared by many customers inside a provider's network, common with mobile and 5G home internet. |
127.0.0.1 and ::1 | Loopback. Always means "this device". |
169.254.x.x and fe80::/10 | Link-local. A device assigns it to itself when it can't reach the router. |
fc00::/7 | Private IPv6 addresses for local networks. |
To see your own public address, go to the home page. To change it, see How to Change Your IP Address. To see every address in a range such as 100.64.0.0/10, use the Subnet Calculator.
What to Do About a Suspicious IP Address
Look it up here. A home connection in your own area may simply be you on another device. A data center, VPN or Tor address in another country is far more suspicious.
The IP Blacklist Check shows whether others have reported the address for spam, hacking or fraud.
If the address appeared in your login history, change your password, turn on two-factor authentication and sign out other sessions. Check whether your email was exposed in a breach with the Email Breach Check.
For spam or attacks, email the network's abuse contact, which you'll find with the WHOIS Lookup. For fraud, extortion or threats, report to the FBI at ic3.gov or to your local police, and include the IP address with the exact date, time and time zone.
Don't try to track down the person yourself. The location is approximate, the address may belong to a VPN or to an innocent customer who shares it, and contacting the wrong person can get you into legal trouble. Leave identification to the provider and law enforcement.
The Verdict: An IP Address Points to a Network, Not a Person
A lookup reliably shows the provider, the connection type and the general area. That's enough to tell a home user from a bot, a VPN or a data center, and to spot a login from the wrong side of the world.
It can't reveal a name or a street address. The same is true for your own IP address: every website sees your provider and approximate location. A VPN replaces both with the VPN server's.
Compare VPNs That Hide Your IP