GeoIP Lookup
Geolocate any IPv4 address — country, ISP, coordinates and more.
What the lookup returns
Enter a public IPv4 address and the tool returns what geolocation databases associate with it:
- Country, with flag and two-letter code
- Region or state, and city
- Approximate postal code, where the database holds one
- Time zone for the region
- Internet service provider and the organization responsible for the block
- ASN, the autonomous system number announcing that range
- Approximate latitude and longitude, with a map and a link to Google Maps
How IP geolocation works
Blocks of IP addresses are handed out by regional registries to carriers, providers, companies and data centers. Each organization registers information about the blocks it receives, and those records are public.
Geolocation databases combine those records with routing data, latency measurements and other sources to estimate where each range is in use. The result is therefore an estimate, and its accuracy varies a great deal with the type of network.
This kind of query is known as IP Lookup, GeoIP or IP Geolocation.
An IP location is not exact
IP geolocation is not GPS and normally does not identify the physical address of a person. The point returned is usually the geographic center of a city or the registered location of the provider, not the home of the person using the connection.
Several things distort the result. Mobile networks often point to the city where the carrier facility sits. CGNAT places many subscribers behind one address. VPNs and proxies show the exit of the server in use. CDNs and cloud providers operate the same blocks across several countries.
Country-level results are generally more reliable than city-level results. Accuracy can vary significantly depending on the ISP, network type and geolocation database in use. Treat the result as an indication, never as proof.
What can you learn from an IP address?
It helps to investigate access logs, understand where suspicious traffic comes from, identify the organization that owns an address, diagnose routing problems and check whether an access came from the expected region before digging further.
The ASN is often the most useful field in an investigation: it identifies the network announcing that block and reveals, for instance, whether the address belongs to a residential provider, a data center or a hosting service — a distinction that matters when judging automated traffic.
The result should not be used on its own as proof of where a person physically is, nor as the only basis for blocking an access.
Addresses that cannot be located
Geolocation applies to public addresses. Private addresses such as 10.0.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 are used inside local networks and exist in millions of places at once, so they have no public location.
The tool recognizes and refuses those ranges immediately, along with other reserved ones: loopback (127.0.0.0/8), link-local (169.254.0.0/16), CGNAT (100.64.0.0/10), multicast and the ranges reserved for future use.
The lookup accepts IPv4 addresses. IPv6 addresses are not served by this tool yet.
Sharing a lookup
The address you query goes into the page URL, in the ip parameter. That means the link can be copied and sent to someone else, who will see the same lookup already filled in — handy when documenting an investigation or asking for a second opinion on an access.
Frequently asked questions
Can you find out where someone lives from their IP?
Not reliably with public geolocation. The address gets you to a region and to the provider responsible, and nothing more precise than that. Tying an address to a household depends on the provider records, which are available only through legal process.
Why does an IP show up in a different city?
Because the registered location usually corresponds to the provider infrastructure, the network exit point or the data center operating that block. On mobile connections it is especially common for the result to name the city of the carrier facility.
Does a VPN interfere with IP geolocation?
Yes. With a VPN active, the apparent address and location become those of the VPN exit server. That is precisely the effect most people are after when using one.
What does ISP mean?
ISP stands for Internet Service Provider: the company supplying the connection. In many cases the organization field carries a different name, that of the company actually holding the address block.
What is an ASN?
ASN stands for Autonomous System Number. Networks that participate in BGP routing may use one or more ASNs to identify themselves on the internet. ISPs, cloud providers, data centers and large enterprise networks commonly operate their own ASNs, which makes the field useful for telling what kind of network sits behind an address.
Why is a lookup for a private address refused?
Because private addresses are not unique on the internet: the same 192.168.1.1 exists in practically every home network in the world. There is no public location that could be associated with them, so the lookup is refused outright rather than returning something meaningless.
Want to find out which address your own connection is using first? See what your IP is
Need to know which address a domain points to before looking it up? Run a DNS lookup