---
title: What's my public IP address? How to find it with What Is My IP
description: The firewall rule is saved, the vendor has added your IP to their allowlist, and you still can't get in. Usually the address you gave them isn't the one the internet sees. Your public IP is the address servers see when you connect, and it's rarely the one your computer shows you. Here's how to find it in one click, how to read IPv4, IPv6, ISP and location, and the commands that confirm it from a terminal.
canonical: https://watchfor.io/blog/how-to-find-your-public-ip-address
---

# What's my public IP address? How to find it with What Is My IP

2026-10-04 · WatchFor Team · Guides · guides, networking, basics

The firewall rule is saved, the vendor has added your IP to their allowlist, and you still can't get in. Usually the address you gave them isn't the one the internet sees. Your public IP is the address servers see when you connect, and it's rarely the one your computer shows you. Here's how to find it in one click, how to read IPv4, IPv6, ISP and location, and the commands that confirm it from a terminal.

To find your public IP address, open a page that reads the address your
connection arrives from, or ask an outside server with `curl`. That address
belongs to your router or your ISP, not to your computer. The `192.168.x.x`
or `10.x.x.x` address in your network settings is private, and no server on
the internet ever sees it.

The free [What Is My IP](/whats-my-ip) page shows your public IPv4 and IPv6
addresses, the network they belong to and an approximate location as soon as
it loads. Nothing to type, no signup.

## What this tool answers

*Which address does the internet see when I connect?* You need it when you
add yourself to an SSH or database allowlist, send a vendor the IP to
whitelist, check whether a VPN is really in use, or work out why port
forwarding on your router does nothing. In each case the useful number is
the one outside servers see, and only an outside server can tell you what
that is.

## A real example

### Finding the public IP for a firewall allowlist

A common ticket: "I added my IP to the security group and SSH still times
out." The address in the rule came from the laptop's network settings. We
went through the same steps on one of our own machines.

Its network settings showed `192.168.1.11/24` on the wired interface (`ip -br
addr` on Linux, `ipconfig` on Windows). Then we opened
[What Is My IP](/whats-my-ip):

- The **IPv4 card** showed a public address. We're not publishing it, so
  this guide uses the documentation address `203.0.113.7` instead. It was
  nothing like `192.168.1.11`.
- The **IPv6 card** said *IPv6 not detected — your connection may be
  IPv4-only*.
- The **Location card** named a city and country, our timezone and the
  **ISP / Network** row: our ISP's name and its AS number.

The page also lists what the browser itself tells every site. Here is that
card from a clean test browser:

![The "What your connection reveals" card on the What Is My IP page: browser Chrome 154, operating system Linux, device Desktop, screen 1680 × 1050 @ 2x, language en-US, timezone UTC, and the full user agent string](/blog/how-to-find-your-public-ip-address-browser.webp)

Then we checked from a terminal. `curl -4 https://icanhazip.com` and the
OpenDNS trick in the command-line section below both returned the same
public address the page showed.

**The answer:** the allowlist needed the public address as a single host,
`203.0.113.7/32`. `192.168.1.11` is the laptop's address on the office
network. The router swaps it for the public address on every outgoing
connection ([NAT](/blog/nat-explained)), so a rule with the private address
never matches anything. There was no IPv6 to add. On a connection that has
IPv6, add both addresses: browsers and SSH clients try IPv6 first when they
can (RFC 8305), so an IPv4-only rule can still lock you out.

## How to read the results

| What you see | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Your IPv4 Address** | The address your connection arrived from, read by our edge. Behind a home or office router it's the router's public address, shared by every device on that network. |
| **Your IPv6 Address** | The browser only connects over one family, so the other one is fetched separately from an IPv4-only or IPv6-only host. *Not detected* means that family isn't available on your connection. |
| **PTR Lookup** | Looks up the reverse DNS name of the address. ISP names often contain the city or the line type; many addresses have none. |
| **City, Region, Country, Coordinates** | A geolocation guess for the address, accurate to about city level, sometimes only the country. It's where the ISP's records place the address, not where you sit. |
| **Timezone** (Location card) | The timezone of that guessed location. |
| **ISP / Network** | The organisation that announces the address on the internet, and its AS number, from routing data. With a VPN on, it names the VPN provider. |
| **What your connection reveals** | Browser, OS, device, screen, languages, timezone and user agent: what any website can read from the browser itself, regardless of IP. |

Nothing is stored. Refresh after you change something (turn on a VPN,
switch to mobile data) to see the new values.

## More ways to use it

- **Check that a VPN is on.** With the VPN connected, ISP / Network should
  name the VPN provider and the location should match the exit server. If
  the IPv4 card shows the VPN but the IPv6 card shows an address from your
  own ISP, IPv6 traffic is going around the tunnel (an IPv6 leak). Turn on
  the client's IPv6 or leak protection, or disable IPv6 on that network
  adapter.
- **Find out if you're behind CGNAT.** Compare the WAN address on your
  router's status page with the IPv4 on this page. If they differ, or the
  router's WAN is in `100.64.0.0/10` (the carrier-grade NAT range, RFC
  6598), your ISP shares one public address between many customers and
  inbound port forwarding can't work. Ask the ISP for a public IPv4, or use
  IPv6 or a tunnel. One exception: Tailscale also hands out `100.x`
  addresses, so a `100.x` on your laptop's interface can be Tailscale, not
  your ISP.
- **Give a vendor the right address.** Send the IPv4 (and IPv6, if shown)
  as single hosts, `/32` and `/128`. If your office has several outgoing
  addresses, check from more than one machine.
- **Explain a geo-block.** If a site serves the wrong country, the Location
  card shows where geolocation puts your address. The fix is to ask the
  geolocation provider to correct the record, not the site.
- **Look up someone else's address.** For an IP from your logs, use the
  [IP Address Lookup](/ip-lookup): it shows the owner, the BGP prefix and the
  reverse name of any address, not just yours.

## Tips and gotchas

- **Your public IP can change.** Most home and many office connections get
  a dynamic address that changes when the router reconnects or the lease
  runs out. If an allowlist breaks every few weeks, that's why. Use a static
  IP from the ISP, a VPN with a fixed exit address, or a bastion host.
- **Your computer never knows its public address.** `ipconfig`, `ip addr`
  and the Wi-Fi settings show the private address the router gave you. Only
  an outside server can see the public one; that's how this page and every
  command below work.
- **The location is an estimate.** IP geolocation comes from registry and
  ISP data, and mobile and satellite addresses are often placed in the
  carrier's hub city. The map is approximate by design.
- **Different devices, same address.** Everything behind one router shares
  one public IPv4. With IPv6 each device usually has its own address.
- **Corporate proxies change the answer.** Through an HTTP proxy or a Zero
  Trust client, servers see the proxy's address. Allowlist that one.
- **The browser card is fingerprinting surface.** Screen size, languages,
  timezone and user agent together narrow down who you are even without
  cookies. A VPN changes the IP, not these.

## Check it from the command line too

Each of these asks an outside server which address your request came from.
We ran them on the same machine as the example; the output below uses the
documentation address `203.0.113.7` in place of ours.

```bash
curl -s -4 https://icanhazip.com
curl -s -6 https://icanhazip.com
```

```text
203.0.113.7
curl: (7) Failed to connect to icanhazip.com port 443 after 1959 ms: Could not connect to server
```

The second command failed because that connection has no IPv6, the same
result as the page's IPv6 card. Without HTTP, DNS can do it:

```bash
dig +short myip.opendns.com @resolver1.opendns.com
dig +short TXT o-o.myaddr.l.google.com @ns1.google.com
```

```text
203.0.113.7
"203.0.113.7"
```

OpenDNS's resolver answers that special name with the address that asked;
Google's nameserver does the same in a TXT record. All three agreed with the
page. To see the private side for comparison:

```bash
ip -4 -br addr show eno1
ip route get 1.1.1.1
```

```text
eno1             UP             192.168.1.11/24
1.1.1.1 via 192.168.1.1 dev eno1 src 192.168.1.11 uid 1000
```

Traffic leaves through the router at `192.168.1.1` from `192.168.1.11`; the
router translates that to the public address. On Windows, `ipconfig` shows
the private side and `curl.exe -4 https://icanhazip.com` works in
PowerShell.

## FAQ

**What is the difference between a public and a private IP address?**
A private address (`10.0.0.0/8`, `172.16.0.0/12`, `192.168.0.0/16`, RFC
1918) only works inside your network. Your router translates it to the public
address, the one servers see. [What is an IP address?](/blog/what-is-an-ip-address)
explains both.

**Why does my IP address keep changing?**
Your ISP assigns it dynamically and it changes when the router reconnects or
the lease expires. Ask the ISP for a static IP if something depends on it.

**Can someone find my location from my IP address?**
Only roughly: usually the city or the ISP's hub, never a street address. The
ISP knows which customer had an address at a given time, but it shares that
only with law enforcement. [IPv4 vs IPv6](/blog/ipv4-vs-ipv6) covers why
IPv6 gives each device its own address.

---

Canonical page: https://watchfor.io/blog/how-to-find-your-public-ip-address · All articles: https://watchfor.io/blog/all.md · Site guide: https://watchfor.io/llms.txt