Want websites to see a different IP? See how to hide your IP address.
Updated October 16, 2026. This page shows live IPv4 and IPv6 results in your browser every time it loads.
Your public IP is also called your external IP. With any VPN or proxy off, your public IPv4 address matches the WAN IP on your router's status page only when the router holds that public address itself. Behind carrier-grade NAT or a second router, the two differ; our guide to carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) shows how to compare them and what a mismatch means.
What is an IP address?
An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a number that identifies your device on the internet. Every time you load a website, send an email, or stream a video, your IP address is how servers know where to send the response. The address at the top of this page is your public IP address: the one servers see when your traffic reaches them.
Public IP vs. private IP address
Your public IP is the address the internet sees — the one assigned by your ISP. Your private IP (like 192.168.1.10 or 10.0.0.5) is used only inside your home or office network. Your router translates between the two using a process called NAT. Because of NAT, every device on your Wi-Fi shares one public IPv4 address, and that is the one websites see. Some ISPs add a second layer, carrier-grade NAT, and share one public IPv4 address among many customers: your router then gets a shared address, often between 100.64.0.0 and 100.127.255.255, and the public IP belongs to the ISP's gateway.
IPv4 vs. IPv6 — what is the difference?
The difference is size and format: an IPv4 address is a 32-bit number written as four numbers from 0 to 255, such as 203.0.113.42, while an IPv6 address is a 128-bit number written in hexadecimal, such as 2001:db8::1. IPv4 supports about 4.3 billion addresses, which the internet has now outgrown; IPv6 has effectively unlimited space. Most modern ISPs run dual-stack, meaning you have both an IPv4 and an IPv6 address at the same time. This page shows both when available. For a deeper check of any domain, try our IPv6 checker.
What is my IPv4 address?
Your public IPv4 address, also called your external IPv4, is the 32-bit address, such as 203.0.113.42, that every site you reach over IPv4 sees; this page shows it at the top. It is the address a "WAN IP checker" or "public IPv4 lookup" reports; your router's own WAN IP is the same only when the router holds a public address. If the IPv4 row reads "Not detected", your connection most likely reached this page over IPv6 only, so your IPv6 address is shown at the top instead; select Check again in the card to rule out a lookup that failed.
What is my IPv6 address?
Your public IPv6 address is the longer, 128-bit address shown at the top of this page (the 2001:db8::1 style one): in the IPv6 row, or as the main address when no IPv4 address is detected. IPv6 rarely uses NAT, so this address usually belongs to your own device rather than your router, and each device on your network shows a different one. Most phones and computers connect from a temporary IPv6 address that they replace about once a day; the network prefix at the start comes from your ISP and usually stays the same, though some ISPs assign a new one on every reconnect.
If the IPv6 row reads "Not detected", the tool could not reach you over IPv6: your ISP or router may not provide it, your device may have it turned off, your VPN or proxy may not carry IPv6, or the IPv6 lookup timed out or was blocked. Select Check again in the card to try again.
What does your IP address reveal about you?
Your IP address reveals your approximate city and country, your ISP, and the ASN (the network your ISP owns). It often shows the connection type — mobile, broadband, business, or hosting. It does not expose your name, your street address, or your personal files. But combined with browser fingerprints and cookies, it can be enough to recognise you across different sites.
Is my IP static or dynamic?
Most home and mobile ISPs give you a dynamic IP. Your IP can change when you reboot your router, when your DHCP lease expires, or when you reconnect to the network. A static IP stays the same and is usually reserved for business lines, servers, and some hosting plans. If you reload this page after restarting your router and the IP changes, you are on a dynamic IP.
How to change or mask your IP address
You can mask your real IP by routing your traffic through a proxy server, a VPN or the Tor network, so websites see that service's IP address instead of yours:
- Proxy server: routes your traffic through another IP. A datacenter proxy is fast and cost-efficient, but strict sites can recognize hosting ranges; a residential proxy uses a real home IP, which looks most like ordinary user traffic.
- VPN: encrypts your traffic and sends it through a VPN server. Convenient for browsing, but VPN ranges are easy for strict sites to recognize.
- Tor: free and routes through volunteer relays, but slow and blocked by many services.
For scraping, account management, ad verification, and geo-testing, a proxy service fits better than a VPN or Tor: you choose where your requests exit and whether the IP rotates or stays the same. ColdProxy offers Residential IPv4 (Unmetered), where you pay for speed and get unlimited traffic, and Residential IPv4 (GB Based), where you buy a monthly traffic pack, both in 195+ countries. Residential IPv6 and Datacenter IPv6 serve sites on IPv6 or a supported CDN. See all plans on the pricing page.
How to check if your VPN or proxy is working
Your VPN or proxy works when this page shows its IP, country and ISP instead of yours. Open this page with your VPN or proxy off and note the IP, ISP, and city. Then turn it on and reload. If the IP, country, ISP, and timezone all change to the expected values, your connection is routing correctly. If any of them still match your real ISP, you have a leak. Check the IPv6 field too: if it still starts with the same network prefix as with your VPN off, your IPv6 traffic is bypassing the VPN. The card also notes when your IPv4 and IPv6 traffic leave through different networks, and flags an address that looks like a hosting or datacenter IP.
This check covers the IP address your web traffic leaves from. A VPN can still expose your real IP through WebRTC or your ISP through DNS, which need their own leak tests, and a proxy set in one browser or app covers only the traffic you send through it. For batch testing a list of proxies in one go, use our free proxy checker.
How we detect your IP address
This page renders in your browser and calls two ColdProxy IP detection endpoints in parallel — one forced over IPv4 and one forced over IPv6 — so we can show both addresses at the same time when your network supports both. We enrich the result with IP geolocation data (region, postal code, coordinates) and the hostname from your ISP's reverse-DNS record. Your browser and operating system come from the User-Agent header your browser sends to every website you visit. The lookup is used only to show you the result: there is no form or signup, and ColdProxy does not keep your IP address.