How to Find My IP Address on Mac (Public & Private)

Step-by-step guide to finding your public and private IP address on macOS using System Settings, Terminal, and the Option-click shortcut.

By Tudor Uzun

Founder and Senior Software Engineer, IP Trackers

Published April 11, 2026Editorial standards

macOS makes it easy to find your IP address, but the result still depends on which layer you mean. Your Mac can have a local Wi-Fi or Ethernet IP, one or more IPv6 addresses, a loopback address, and a public internet IP seen by websites. This guide shows how to find each one on modern macOS versions like Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia, and how to tell which result actually matters for your task.

Public IP vs local IP on Mac

Your public IP is the outside-facing address websites and external services see. Your local/private IP is the address assigned to the Mac inside your home or office network. Both are real, but they answer different questions.

If you are debugging file sharing, printer access, or router rules, the local IP is usually the one you need. If you are checking a VPN, geolocation, or what outside services can see, the public IP is the relevant one.

How to find your public IP on Mac

The easiest answer is the homepage IP checker, which shows the public IP along with provider and ASN context.

From Terminal, you can also use:

curl ifconfig.me
curl https://icanhazip.com

These commands query outside services and print the public-facing result. They are useful for quick confirmation, but the homepage remains better when you want context around the network.

How to find your local IP on Mac

Method 1: System Settings

1. Open System Settings.
2. Select Wi-Fi or Network.
3. Click Details next to the active connection.
4. Open the TCP/IP tab and read the IP Address field.

Method 2: Terminal for Wi-Fi

ipconfig getifaddr en0

On many Macs, en0 is Wi-Fi, though interface names can differ depending on hardware and current state.

Method 3: Terminal for all interfaces

ifconfig
ifconfig | grep "inet "

This shows multiple addresses, including loopback. It is useful when you want the full picture rather than one simplified answer.

Method 4: Default route and router context

netstat -nr | grep default

The IP beside defaultis the router/gateway, which helps if the real goal is router login or LAN troubleshooting rather than only finding the Mac's address.

Option-click Wi-Fi is useful because it shows several clues at once

Holding the Optionkey and clicking the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar is one of macOS's most practical shortcuts. It can show the current IP, router, security type, channel, and BSSID in one place. For everyday troubleshooting, that is often faster than opening several settings panes.

It is not as scriptable as Terminal, but it is a good bridge between GUI simplicity and actual technical detail.

What macOS may show beyond the main local IP

• Loopback: 127.0.0.1 is localhost and does not represent your network-facing address.
• IPv6 entries: modern macOS often assigns IPv6 addresses alongside IPv4.
• Virtual adapters: Docker, virtualization tools, and VPNs can create extra interfaces and addresses.
• Ethernet and Wi-Fi together: both can exist in the same output if cables and Wi-Fi are active simultaneously.

Interface names on Mac matter more than many guides admit

Older tutorials often assume Wi-Fi is always en0 and Ethernet is always en1. That works often enough to spread, but it is not a guarantee. Docking setups, USB adapters, virtualization, and different hardware generations can shift interface naming.

That is why System Settings and full ifconfig output are still valuable even for technical users. They help you confirm which interface is actually active before you trust a one-line command.

MAC address is not the same as Mac IP

macOS users frequently see the phrase "Mac address" and mix it up with the hardware MAC address. These are different concepts. The IP address identifies your current network path. The MAC address is the hardware-level identifier of the network adapter.

ifconfig en0 | grep ether

If you are looking for the hardware identifier specifically, continue with our MAC Address Lookup guide.

Where this matters in practice

• Printer, NAS, and file sharing. You need the local IP on the LAN.
• VPN verification. You need the public IP and usually DNS or route context too.
• Router login.You need the default gateway, not the Mac's public IP.
• Multi-interface troubleshooting. Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and VPNs can compete or overlap in ways that matter operationally.
• Remote support. Public and private addresses serve different support scenarios.

Common mistakes and edge cases

• Using the local IP when you mean the public IP. This is the most common source of confusion.
• Ignoring extra interfaces. VPNs and virtual adapters can make Terminal output look noisier than expected.
• Confusing "Mac address" with MAC address. The similar wording hides a real networking difference.
• Reading loopback as a real LAN address. 127.0.0.1 is not the address other devices use to reach your Mac.
• Forgetting IPv6. Some services and VPN checks rely on it even when users focus only on IPv4.

Useful IP Trackers tools after finding your Mac's IP

• IP Location Lookup helps explain what outside services think about the public IP.
• ASN Lookup shows the announcing network behind the public result.
• DNS Leak Test matters if you are validating a VPN or privacy setup on the Mac.
• IP Blacklist Check is useful when mail or reputation issues are part of the problem.
• Find My Router IP is the next step if your real goal is router access.

Stable local addressing matters for some Mac workflows

If the Mac is only browsing the web, a changing private IP is rarely a problem. But if it is hosting Screen Sharing, file shares, developer services, or local automation endpoints, a predictable LAN address can save time. In those cases, a DHCP reservation on the router is often the cleaner answer compared with manually forcing static settings on macOS.

Wi-Fi and Ethernet priority can change what "my IP" means on Mac

Macs often move between docks, adapters, and Wi-Fi networks without much visible ceremony. If Ethernet becomes active while Wi-Fi stays connected, the route preference may change even though both adapters still show addresses. That is another reason to check both the interface assignment and the actual public result when troubleshooting.

Reading the ifconfig output line by line on macOS

When you run ifconfig on a Mac, the output can look dense if you have never broken it down. Each block starts with an interface name like lo0, en0, en1,utun0, or bridge0. Inside each block, the important lines for finding "your IP" are:

• inet 192.168.1.42 netmask 0xffffff00 — the IPv4 address and subnet mask on that interface. The 0xffffff00 mask is the hex form of 255.255.255.0, a typical home subnet.
• inet6 fe80::...%en0 — a link-local IPv6 address. Link-local always starts with fe80:: and only works on the immediate network segment.
• inet6 2001:... — a global IPv6 address, used for actual internet traffic when IPv6 is enabled.
• ether b8:e6:0c:... — the hardware MAC address of that interface.
• status: active — confirms the interface is currently carrying traffic. Inactive or unattached interfaces still show in output but are not the ones you want for "my IP."

Once you know which lines mean what, the noisy ifconfigoutput stops feeling random. You can ignore loopback, ignoreutun tunnel interfaces unless a VPN is your focus, and zero in on the en0 or en1 block that saysstatus: active.

Sharing your Mac's IP safely with support or remote-access tools

Tech support, IT teams, and remote-access tools sometimes ask you to share "your IP." This is one of the most common places macOS users get burned, because the wrong address sends them down a useless troubleshooting path. The rule is simple: if support is helping you with an outside-facing problem (a web service, a VPN, geolocation, a blocklist, a firewall rule on their side), they need the public IP. If support is helping with a LAN-side problem (a printer, a NAS, a shared drive, Screen Sharing on the same network), they need the local IP.

Two safety notes worth repeating: never share your private LAN address publicly thinking it grants outside attackers anything — it does not, because 192.168.x.x is not routable on the open internet. And never paste your public IP into open forums alongside personal information; the IP alone is fine, but combined with names or accounts it builds a profile. For most help interactions, sharing the public IP privately with the support agent is enough.

Static IP vs DHCP reservation on macOS

If you want your Mac's local IP to stay the same across reboots, you have two paths, and only one is recommended. The first path is to manually configure a static IP on the Mac itself in System Settings > Network > Wi-Fi/Ethernet > Details > TCP/IP by switching "Configure IPv4" from Using DHCP to Manually. That works, but it forces you to also enter the subnet, gateway, and DNS by hand, and if you ever change routers or networks the Mac will fail to get online until you reset those values.

The cleaner path is a DHCP reservation on the router. You give the router the Mac's MAC address (read from the same TCP/IP screen, labeled "Wi-Fi Address" or "Ethernet ID") and tell it "always hand this Mac the same local IP." The Mac still runs in normal DHCP mode and gets everything else automatically, but the address is sticky. That is what you want for AirPlay receivers, Time Machine targets, Screen Sharing hosts, and any home server running on the Mac.

Renewing the DHCP lease on macOS when the IP looks stuck

Sometimes a Mac shows a private IP from a network you are no longer connected to, or shows 169.254.x.x (an automatic link-local address that means DHCP failed). The fix is to renew the DHCP lease without rebooting. The fastest path is System Settings > Network > Wi-Fi/Ethernet > Details > TCP/IP > Renew DHCP Lease. From Terminal, you can also run:

sudo ipconfig set en0 DHCP

Either approach asks the router for a fresh lease. If the new lease still does not look right, the issue is on the router side, not the Mac, and the next step is checking the router's DHCP pool or reservation list.

What changes when you join a corporate or VPN network

Plugging a Mac into a corporate network, joining a corporate Wi-Fi, or connecting an enterprise VPN client can change every layer of the "what's my IP" answer at once. The local IP may come from a much larger private range like 10.x.x.x instead of192.168.x.x. The default gateway may be a router you have no admin access to. DNS resolution may be forced through internal resolvers that resolve internal-only hostnames. And outbound traffic to the open internet may exit through a corporate egress IP rather than anything close to your physical location.

On the Mac itself, all of this still shows up in the same places — System Settings, ifconfig, netstat -nr, scutil --dns for DNS. But the meaning of each number changes. Your "public IP" on a corporate VPN tells the world about the company, not your home. That is the desired behavior of the VPN, not a bug.

Frequently asked questions

How do I see my public IP on Mac? Use the homepage checker or a Terminal command such as curl ifconfig.me.

How do I see my local IP on Mac? Check System Settings or use ipconfig getifaddr en0.

Why does my Mac show several IP addresses? Because several interfaces, IPv6 entries, loopback, or VPN adapters may exist at the same time.

Is the router IP the same as my Mac's IP? No. The router IP is the gateway address; your Mac has its own local address.

Does a VPN change my Mac's local IP? Usually it changes the public-facing path and may add a tunnel adapter, while the LAN address can remain the same.

Is the MAC address the same as the IP address? No. They identify different networking layers.

Related reading: Public vs Private IP, Find My Router IP, MAC Address Lookup, and Computer IP vs Router IP.