What Is My IP Address? Public, Local, IPv4 and IPv6

Your IP address is the public number your internet connection uses when it talks to websites and apps. It is assigned by your internet provider, every site you visit sees it, and you can check what your IP address is at the top of the ipcomet home page in about a second.

The short answer gets more interesting once you notice that most people have more than one address. Your router has a public one, your phone or laptop has a private one inside your home network, and many connections now have an IPv6 address as well as an IPv4 one. This guide explains which of them counts as "my IP", why different tools can disagree, and how to check each one.

Which IP address is "my IP"?

When people ask "what is my IP address", they almost always mean the public address that websites see. The other addresses matter for setting up a home network or fixing a problem, but they never leave your local network.

Address	Example	Who sees it	Where to find it
Public IPv4	203.0.113.42	Every website and app you use	The big number on the ipcomet home page
Public IPv6	2001:db8:4f2a::1c	Websites you reach over IPv6	The IPv6 line under it on the same page
Private (local) IPv4	192.168.1.23	Only devices on your home or office network	Your device's network settings
Link-local IPv6	fe80::1c	Only the local network segment	Your device's network settings

The example addresses in this guide come from ranges set aside for documentation (RFC 5737 for IPv4 and RFC 3849 for IPv6), so they do not belong to anyone. For a deeper look at the split between the first and third rows, read public vs private IP addresses.

What is my public IP address?

Your public IP address is the one your internet provider gives to your connection. At home it belongs to your router, and every phone, laptop and TV behind that router shares it. The router keeps track of which device asked for what, a job called network address translation (NAT), so a website only ever sees the router's public address.

On mobile data the public address belongs to your provider's network rather than your phone alone, and it usually changes when you move between Wi-Fi and mobile data. That is why your IP on a phone can look completely different from the one on your home computer, even when both are in the same room.

Some providers go one step further and share one public IPv4 address between many customers. If your router's own WAN address falls between 100.64.0.0 and 100.127.255.255, the 100.64.0.0/10 block that RFC 6598 reserves for carrier-grade NAT, the address websites see is not yours alone. Our guide to CGNAT shows how to tell and what it breaks.

What is my IPv4 address?

Your IPv4 address is the familiar four numbers separated by dots, each between 0 and 255. IPv4 addresses are 32 bits long, as defined in RFC 791, the original Internet Protocol specification from 1981, which allows about 4.3 billion addresses in total. That limit is the reason home networks share one public address and why providers use carrier-grade NAT.

ipcomet shows your public IPv4 address as the main number, even when your browser happened to connect over IPv6. IPv4 is still the address most people are asked for by games, remote-access tools and support teams. Your IPv6 address appears on the line below it.

What is my IPv6 address?

Your IPv6 address is the longer one written in groups of letters and numbers separated by colons. IPv6 addresses are 128 bits long under RFC 8200, enough for every device to have its own public address without sharing. If the IPv6 line on the home page says it was not detected, your provider or network does not offer IPv6 yet, which is still common and nothing to fix.

Two things make IPv6 addresses look unstable:

Temporary addresses. Most phones and computers create random temporary IPv6 addresses for outgoing connections and replace them over time, so sites cannot follow one address for long. RFC 8981 sets a default of one day before a new one is preferred and two days before the old one stops working.
IPv6 is tried first. When a site supports both versions, browsers and operating systems usually prefer IPv6 and fall back to IPv4 if it is slow. RFC 8305, the "Happy Eyeballs" method, assumes this preference and recommends waiting about 250 milliseconds before trying the other version.

So a site that shows only one address may show your IPv6 address on one visit and your IPv4 address on another. Our guide to IPv6 covers the address format and types in detail.

What is my private IP address?

Your private IP address identifies your device inside your own network, and websites never see it. RFC 1918 reserves three blocks for this use: 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255 and 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255. Most home routers hand out addresses that start with 192.168 or 10.

You need the private address when you set up port forwarding, connect to a printer or reach another computer at home. The quickest ways to see it:

Windows: open Command Prompt and run ipconfig, then read the IPv4 Address line.
Mac: run ipconfig getifaddr en0 in Terminal for Wi-Fi.
Linux: run ip addr and look at the inet line of your active connection.

Phones show it under the details of the Wi-Fi network you are connected to. Our guide on how to find your IP address has the steps for every device, and finding your router's IP address covers the gateway address.

Why do different sites show a different IP address?

Two IP checkers can both be right and still disagree. The usual reasons, in the order we would check them:

What you see	Likely reason	What to do
One site shows IPv4, another shows IPv6	Your connection has both, and each site connected over a different one	Compare the IPv4 and IPv6 lines on the home page
The address changed since yesterday	Your provider assigns a dynamic address, or your IPv6 temporary address rotated	Read why your IP address changes
A VPN's address on one site, your real one on another	The VPN is off in one browser, or a browser extension proxies only some tabs	Run a WebRTC leak test and see is my VPN working
Phone and laptop show different addresses	One is on mobile data and the other on Wi-Fi	Switch both to the same network and check again
Your router's WAN address differs from the website's answer	Your provider uses carrier-grade NAT	Read what CGNAT is

The location next to your address can also look wrong, because it comes from a database of address blocks rather than GPS. Our guide to why your IP location is wrong explains why it often points to your provider's nearest hub.

How do I check my IP address from a terminal?

Request the ipcomet home page with curl over HTTPS and it replies with your public address as a single line of text:

curl https://ipcomet.com

We ran this on 30 October 2026 and got back the address and nothing else. Add -4 or -6 after curl to ask for a specific version. Include https://: a plain http:// request is redirected, and curl prints the redirect page unless you add -L. For scripts, https://ipcomet.com/api/ip always returns plain text. The free IP API page lists every endpoint, and our guide to getting your public IP from the command line covers CMD, PowerShell and Terminal.

Is it a problem that websites can see my IP address?

For most people, no. Your public address shows roughly where your provider connects you, often your city or region, and which provider you use. It does not show your name, your street address or your browsing history. Only your provider can match an address to a customer account, and it normally does so only for legal requests.

If you want to keep your address from the sites you visit, a VPN or a proxy replaces it with theirs. Read can someone track you by your IP address for the limits, and how to hide your IP address for the options.

Frequently asked questions

Is my IP address the same as my Wi-Fi address?

Not quite. Your device has a private address on your Wi-Fi network, such as 192.168.1.23, and the router has the public address websites see. "My IP" usually means the public one.

Do all devices in my house have the same IP address?

They share one public IPv4 address through the router, so websites see the same address for all of them. Each device still has its own private address, and over IPv6 each device usually has its own public address too.

Can two people have the same IP address?

Yes. Everyone on the same home network shares one public IPv4 address, and providers that use carrier-grade NAT share one address between many customers at the same time.

What is my IP address on my phone?

Open the ipcomet home page in your phone's browser. On Wi-Fi you will see your router's public address, and on mobile data you will see your carrier's.

Does my IP address change?

Most home and mobile connections get dynamic addresses that can change after a router restart, a reconnect or a set lease time. IPv6 temporary addresses also rotate on their own. A fixed address is usually a paid option from your provider.

Sources and further reading

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