What this page actually shows
When the page loads, it makes a single request to this site's own /api/ip endpoint, which runs on Cloudflare's network. Cloudflare's edge server already knows the address your request arrived from, plus metadata about it, so the endpoint simply returns what the connection reveals. No third-party lookup service is involved, and the figures below are what Cloudflare reports.
| Field | Where it comes from | How reliable it is |
|---|---|---|
| IP address | The source address of your connection | Exact, for the network path you are using |
| Location (city, region, country) | Cloudflare's IP geolocation database | Country is usually right; city is often only the nearest hub |
| Timezone, postal code, coordinates | Same geolocation data | Approximate, and the coordinates are not your street address |
| ISP / AS organisation | The Autonomous System that announces your address block | Reliable: it names whoever operates the network, such as your ISP, a mobile carrier or a VPN host |
| Cloudflare colo | The Cloudflare data centre that handled your request, shown as a short airport-style code | Tells you which edge location served you, not where you are |
IPv4 versus IPv6
An IPv4 address is 32 bits written as four decimal numbers, such as 203.0.113.42 (an address reserved for documentation by RFC 5737). IPv6 addresses are 128 bits, written as hexadecimal groups separated by colons, such as 2001:db8::1. The page labels the result as IPv6 whenever the address contains a colon. If your device and network support both, which one you see depends on which the browser preferred for the connection, so you may see a different address type on different networks.
Public versus private addresses
This page reports your public address, the one the wider internet sees. Inside your home or office, your devices have private addresses such as 192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x or 172.16.x.x to 172.31.x.x (reserved by RFC 1918), which this tool will never show. All devices behind one router normally share a single public address.
Common reasons the result surprises you
- The location is in the wrong city. Geolocation is inferred from where the address block was registered, not from your device's GPS. Mobile carriers and some ISPs route traffic through a distant regional gateway.
- You are on a VPN or proxy. Then you see the exit server's address, country and organisation, which is exactly the check to run after connecting.
- It changes over time. Most home connections get a dynamic address that can change when the router restarts or the lease expires. Cloud servers and business lines are more often static.
- Carrier-grade NAT. Some mobile and fibre providers share one public address across many customers, so your IP may be shared with strangers.
Practical uses
The most common uses are adding an address to a firewall or database allowlist, confirming a VPN is working, and giving support staff an address to check in server logs. To go further, query the domain side with the DNS lookup or check ownership with the WHOIS lookup. The user agent parser shows the other main thing your browser tells every site.
This lookup relies on the site's server-side function, so it works on the live site but not under a plain local development server.