IP Address Lookup Tool

IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) is the original addressing system, introduced in 1983. It uses a 32-bit format written as four groups of numbers separated by periods, like 192.168.1.1. This format allows for approximately 4.3 billion unique addresses. As the internet exploded in size over the decades, those 4.3 billion addresses were almost entirely consumed, which created a critical shortage.

IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) was designed specifically to solve that shortage. It uses a 128-bit format written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, like 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334. This format provides approximately 340 undecillion unique addresses - a number so astronomically large that every grain of sand on Earth could have billions of IP addresses assigned to it. IPv6 also includes built-in improvements to security, routing efficiency, and auto-configuration. Most modern internet infrastructure now supports both protocols simultaneously, a setup called dual stack.

IP geolocation is the process of estimating a physical location based on an IP address. It works by cross-referencing your IP against large commercial and public databases that map IP address ranges to approximate geographic regions. These databases are maintained by organizations like MaxMind, IP2Location, and various regional internet registries.

The accuracy varies significantly by level of detail. At the country level, geolocation is extremely accurate - roughly 95 to 99 percent correct. At the city or region level, accuracy drops to somewhere between 50 and 80 percent. At the street address level, IP geolocation simply cannot reliably identify where you physically live. When you see a map pin on your city, it typically reflects the location of your ISP's nearest data center or routing hub - not your home. A cable company may serve an entire metropolitan area from a single hub in one part of town, meaning every customer in that area appears to be located at that hub's coordinates. This is an important privacy point: while your ISP knows exactly who you are and which address you pay your bills from, websites and tools using geolocation alone cannot determine your precise location.

An ISP (Internet Service Provider) is the company that sells you internet access. Examples include Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Charter Spectrum, and Cox. Your ISP owns a large block of IP addresses, which it then leases to its customers. When you connect to the internet, your ISP's router assigns one of those addresses to your modem or router, effectively giving your household a temporary identity on the global network. Your ISP can see all traffic flowing through your connection and is legally required to respond to law-enforcement subpoenas identifying who held a particular IP address at a specific time.

An ASN (Autonomous System Number) is a unique identifier assigned to each large network operator - typically ISPs, universities, major corporations, cloud providers, and content delivery networks. The global internet is essentially a collection of thousands of these autonomous systems, each controlling its own block of IP addresses and routing policies. ASNs are assigned by regional internet registries (RIRs) such as ARIN in North America, RIPE NCC in Europe, and APNIC in Asia-Pacific. When you see an ASN like AS15169 next to an IP address, that number identifies Google's network. ASNs are crucial for network engineers and cybersecurity analysts when tracing the origin of traffic or diagnosing routing problems.

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) works by creating an encrypted tunnel between your device and a server operated by the VPN company. When you enable a VPN, all of your internet traffic is first routed to that VPN server before being sent out to the wider internet. The result is that websites and services you visit see the VPN server's IP address - not your real public IP assigned by your ISP. This is why a tool like this one will display your VPN's IP address and show a map pin in whatever city the VPN server is located in, rather than your actual location.

However, VPNs are not a perfect privacy shield. One significant vulnerability is called a DNS leak. DNS (Domain Name System) is the internet's phonebook: every time you type a website address like github.com, your device must first query a DNS server to translate that human-readable name into a numeric IP address. If your device is configured to use your ISP's DNS servers instead of the VPN provider's DNS servers, those DNS requests may travel outside the encrypted tunnel - revealing to your ISP (and potentially to observers) which websites you are visiting, even while your VPN connection is active. A well-configured VPN will route all DNS queries through its own servers to prevent this. You can test for DNS leaks using dedicated tools that show you which DNS servers your queries are actually being sent to. Additionally, technologies like WebRTC can sometimes reveal your real IP address to websites even when a VPN is in use, a vulnerability known as a WebRTC IP leak.