What is my IPv4 address?
See your public IPv4 address, the classic four-number internet address. Looked up live in your browser, private and instant.
Your public IPv4 address is shown above, if your connection has one. IPv4 is the original internet addressing scheme, written as four numbers from 0 to 255 separated by dots, like 198.51.100.7. It has been the backbone of the internet since the 1980s.
There are only about 4.3 billion IPv4 addresses, which the world ran out of years ago. That scarcity is why providers share a single public IPv4 among many customers using carrier-grade NAT, and why IPv6, with a vastly larger pool, was created.
If nothing appears above, your connection may be IPv6-only, or your provider may route you through shared IPv4. Either way, the address shown is what an IPv4 server sees when you connect.
What you should know
Why sites collect it
Servers need an IPv4 address to reply to you over the older internet. Sites log it for the same reasons as any IP: rough location, rate limiting, fraud checks and access control.
Privacy implications
An IPv4 address that is shared across many users (via carrier-grade NAT) is less identifying than a dedicated one, but it still maps to a provider and region. It is logged widely, so treat it as semi-public.
How to change or hide it
A VPN or Tor replaces your visible IPv4 with theirs. If your provider gives you a dynamic address, reconnecting can rotate it. You generally cannot pick your own IPv4 on a consumer connection.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between IPv4 and IPv6?
IPv4 uses four numbers and has a limited address space that ran out; IPv6 uses a much longer format with an enormous address space. Both can identify your connection to a server.
Why do I have no IPv4 address?
Some modern connections are IPv6-only or place you behind shared IPv4. In that case a pure IPv4 lookup may return nothing while IPv6 works.