A public address is the address visible to a service reached over the internet. It may belong directly to your device, but it more commonly belongs to a router, carrier-grade NAT gateway, VPN endpoint, corporate proxy, or another system acting on behalf of the connection. Changing networks, enabling a VPN, reconnecting a modem, or waiting for an ISP lease to change can produce a different result.

Public IPv4

The globally reachable 32-bit address used for the IPv4 probe, written as four decimal numbers separated by dots. Public IPv4 addresses are scarce, so several devices often share one address through network address translation (NAT).

Public IPv6

The globally reachable 128-bit address used for the IPv6 probe, written as hexadecimal groups separated by colons. Consecutive zero groups may be compressed with a double colon, so a valid IPv6 address can look much shorter than its full representation.

Unavailable

The browser could not complete that address-family probe. Many networks still provide IPv4 without IPv6; an IPv6-only environment can produce the opposite result. Firewalls, DNS filtering, captive portals, and browser extensions can also block a probe.

IPv4 and IPv6 solve the same basic addressing and routing problem with different address formats and protocol details. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses, while IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses and provides a vastly larger address space. A valid address is not automatically a public address: both protocols reserve ranges for local communication, private networks, documentation, testing, multicast, and other special purposes.^{[1, 2]}

Global

An address intended to be routable beyond a local network or administrative domain. Actual reachability can still be limited by firewalls, routing policy, or provider configuration.

Private or unique-local

An address intended for internal networks rather than direct global routing. Common private IPv4 ranges include 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16; IPv6 unique-local addresses use fc00::/7.

Loopback

An address that sends traffic back to the same device. IPv4 reserves 127.0.0.0/8 for loopback, and the IPv6 loopback address is ::1. Routers do not forward loopback traffic onto the internet.

Link-local

An address usable only on the local network link. It is not a public internet address and normally cannot be routed beyond that link.

An IP address is connection information, not a reliable personal identity or precise location. A household, workplace, mobile carrier, VPN service, or public hotspot may serve many people through the same public address. Approximate IP geolocation can identify the wrong city or region and should not be treated as a physical-location measurement.

To test both address families from the browser, this page contacts ipify's IPv4-only and IPv6-only endpoints. Each successful endpoint necessarily observes the address used to contact it. The tool displays the returned addresses and does not request location, organization, or device-profile data.^[4]

• A VPN or proxy normally shows its exit address rather than the address assigned by your ISP.
• Mobile and shared networks may use carrier-grade NAT, so many subscribers can share one public IPv4 address.
• An unavailable IPv6 result usually means the current path lacks working IPv6 connectivity; it does not invalidate the IPv4 result.
• A visible public address does not prove that unsolicited inbound connections can reach the device.

• IP Address Validator

  Validate, normalize, and classify an IPv4 or IPv6 address that you enter manually.

• Browser Info Checker

  Inspect the browser family, rendering engine, operating system, and device type reported by the current browser.