How to Find Your Private IP Address

Your device lives two lives. One identity faces the Internet. The other exists only inside your home.

Your private IP address is what your router calls your device—the name it uses to direct traffic between your laptop, your phone, your TV. Outside your network, this address means nothing. Inside, it's how everything finds everything else.

Think of it like an apartment building. Your public IP is the street address: 17 Oak Street. Your private IP is your unit number: Apartment 3B. Mail from across town needs the street address. But once you're inside the building, you just knock on 3B.

Every device on your network gets its own unit number—192.168.1.12, 192.168.1.13, 192.168.1.14. Your router assigns them and makes sure messages reach the right door.

Here's how to find yours.

Windows

The visual path: Start → Settings → Network & Internet → Your connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet) → Properties. Look for "IPv4 address."

The fast path: Press the Windows key, type cmd, press Enter. Then type ipconfig and press Enter. Find "IPv4 Address" under your active connection.

Both reach the same destination. The command line is faster once you know it exists.

macOS

Apple menu → System Settings → Network → Your active connection (the one with the green dot). Your IP address appears right there.

For the full picture: click Details → TCP/IP. You'll see your address, subnet mask, and router—the complete building layout.

Linux

Open a terminal and run:

• ip address (or ip a) — comprehensive details for every network interface. Look for the "inet" line under your active connection.
• hostname -I — just the addresses, nothing else.
• ifconfig — older systems, same information.

iPhone and iPad

Settings → Wi-Fi → Tap the ⓘ icon next to your connected network → Scroll to "IPv4 Address."

Android

Settings → Network & Internet → Wi-Fi → Tap your network name → Find "IP address."

Pixel phones show it under About phone. Samsung buries it in Status information. But every Android device exposes it somewhere in network settings.

Why Two Addresses Exist

Your router performs a trick called NAT—Network Address Translation. Every device in your home shares one public IP address to reach the Internet, but each keeps its own private address for talking to each other.

This creates something interesting: your laptop is genuinely unreachable from outside your network. Not because a firewall blocks it. Not because of some security setting. The private address simply doesn't exist on the public Internet. Your laptop isn't hidden behind a wall—the address doesn't lead there.

Private IP addresses always fall into reserved ranges: 192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, or 172.16.x.x through 172.31.x.x. These will never appear as public addresses. They exist exclusively for internal networks—your apartment building, not the street.

When You Need This

Connecting a printer. Setting up port forwarding. Troubleshooting why two devices can't see each other. Assigning a static IP. Running a local server.

Whenever devices need to find each other directly, the private address is where you start.