How to Find Your IP Address on Any Device

Step-by-step ways to find your public and private IP address on Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, and your router, plus what the difference between the two actually means.

By CheckPublicIP Team

Published 2026-07-12

You actually have two IP addresses at once, and knowing which one you need saves a lot of confusion. Your public IP is the address the internet sees, assigned by your provider. Your private IP is the address your router hands out to each device inside your home. This guide shows you how to find both on every common device.

The fastest way to find your public IP

Open this site. The moment the page loads, the big number at the top of our home page is your public IPv4 (and IPv6, if your connection has one). That is the address websites, game servers, and streaming services use to reach you. No commands, no settings menus — it is read straight from your connection. To see the location, ISP, and network behind any address, paste it into our IP lookup tool.

Everything below is for finding your private IP, which your device only knows about internally and never reveals to websites. If you are unsure why there are two, our explainer on public versus private IP addresses breaks it down.

Find your private IP on Windows

  1. Press Windows + R, type cmd, and press Enter.
  2. Type ipconfig and press Enter.
  3. Look for IPv4 Address under your active adapter. It usually starts with 192.168 or 10.

You can also open Settings → Network & Internet, click your connection, and read the IP details there.

Find your private IP on macOS

  1. Open System Settings → Network.
  2. Select your active connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet).
  3. Your private IP is listed under “IP address.”

Prefer the terminal? Run ipconfig getifaddr en0 for Wi-Fi or en1 for Ethernet.

Find your private IP on iPhone and iPad

  1. Open Settings → Wi-Fi.
  2. Tap the i icon next to the network you are connected to.
  3. Your private IP appears under “IP Address.”

Find your private IP on Android

Steps vary slightly by manufacturer, but generally:

  1. Open Settings → Network & internet → Wi-Fi.
  2. Tap your connected network (or the gear icon next to it).
  3. Look under Advanced or Network details for the IP address.

Find your router's IP address

Your router's private IP — the one you type into a browser to open its settings — is usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. On Windows, run ipconfig and read the Default Gateway. On a Mac it is shown as Router in the Network panel. Our step-by-step guide on finding your router's IP address covers every platform in detail.

Public and private: which one do you need?

  • Setting up port forwarding, remote access, or a game server? You need your public IP so people outside your network can reach you.
  • Configuring a printer, NAS, or device on your own network? You need the private IP of that device.
  • Troubleshooting with your ISP? They almost always mean your public IP.

The bottom line

Your public IP is one click away on our home page, while your private IP lives in your device's network settings. They serve completely different jobs: one identifies you to the wider internet, the other organizes devices inside your home. Once you know which you need, finding it takes under a minute on any device.

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