What is my public IP?
Find your public (external) IP address, the one visible to the whole internet. Detected instantly in your browser, nothing stored.
Your public IP address, the one the outside internet sees, is shown above. It is assigned to your connection by your internet provider and is shared by every device behind your router. It is what distinguishes your network from every other network online.
The word public is the key distinction. Inside your home or office you also have private IP addresses (things like 192.168.x.x) that your router hands out to each device. Those never travel across the internet. Your public IP is the single face your whole network shows to the world.
This is the address that appears in server logs, that geolocation services use to guess your city, and that a VPN changes when you want to appear somewhere else.
What you should know
Why sites collect it
Any server you contact must know your public IP to send data back. Sites additionally use it for coarse geolocation, regional content rules, abuse prevention and security logging.
Privacy implications
Your public IP ties your activity to your provider and rough location and is logged nearly everywhere. It is not your identity, but with cooperation from a provider it can be linked to an account, which is why privacy-focused users route around it.
How to change or hide it
Use a VPN or Tor to present a different public IP. On a dynamic connection, a router restart may change it. On a static connection it stays fixed until your provider changes it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between public and private IP?
Your public IP is visible to the whole internet and shared by your network; your private IP is assigned by your router and only used inside your own network.
Does everyone in my house have the same public IP?
Usually yes. All your devices share one public IP through your router, while each has its own private IP internally.