What is an IP address?

An IP address is a numeric label that identifies a device on a network. Each time you connect to the internet, your device uses an IP address so servers and services know where to send data.

There are two flavors: public IPs, which are visible to the wider internet, and private IPs, which devices use inside a home or office LAN. Routers share one public IP across the whole local network while assigning unique private addresses to each device.

IP addresses can be IPv4 (familiar four-group numbers) or IPv6 (longer hexadecimal strings). Both versions serve the same purpose: routing packets so the web knows where you are talking from and how to reply.

IPLookup.help is a quick way to see the public IP address your machine exposes to the internet, which is the address others witness when you browse or connect to online services.