What Is My ISP? See Your Internet Provider Instantly

This page detects your ISP live from your connection, then shows how to verify it with ASN and ownership checks so VPNs, carriers, and campus networks do not fool you.

Your ISP is the provider carrying your connection onto the public internet, but identifying it correctly is more than reading one brand name from a lookup. Large providers use multiple ASNs, mobile carriers share gateways, VPNs can replace the visible network entirely, and campus or corporate connections may route through upstream providers you do not recognize. The right workflow combines public IP, ASN, ownership, and sometimes reverse DNS instead of trusting one label in isolation.

Who is my ISP? The short answer

The detector above already answers it: the organization it names is the provider currently carrying your connection. If you searched who is my ISP, what's my ISP, my ISP name, or simply my ISP, those are all the same question, and that field is the answer.

Two things are worth knowing before you rely on it. First, the name you see is the network operator announcing your address, which is not always the retail brand you pay each month - a provider can bill you as one company and route your traffic as another. Second, if a VPN, proxy, or corporate tunnel is active, the detector reports that network instead of your own, because that is genuinely what the public internet sees. The rest of this guide covers how to confirm the result and what to do when the answer looks wrong.

What the ISP card shows

The card at the top of this page runs as soon as the page loads. Every field comes from the connection your browser used to reach us, so there is nothing to type in:

• Internet Service Provider - the network operator announcing your public IP address, with its ASN.
• IP address - the public address your connection uses on the internet, the one most websites log.
• Approximate location - an estimate from IP geolocation databases. It usually points to the ISP's nearest hub rather than your street, so a neighboring city is normal (see why IP location is often wrong).

What an ISP actually is

ISP stands for Internet Service Provider. In plain language, it is the network company that gives you internet access and carries your traffic beyond the local router. That might be a home broadband provider, a mobile carrier, a business fiber operator, a campus network, or even a satellite service.

The important detail is that the public internet sees the ISP as a network operator, not only as a retail brand. A provider may market one name to consumers while announcing traffic through several different autonomous systems or legal entities. That is why "who is my ISP?" and "which ASN is my IP using?" are closely related questions.

Lily's ISP guide

Confirm the network behind the name

The visible ISP is your starting point. Cross-check its ASN and ownership when a VPN, mobile gateway, or upstream carrier makes the result look unfamiliar.

Check the ASNVerify ownership

How to check your ISP correctly

1. Open the IP lookup homepage.
2. Record the visible public IP and the ISP/organization field.
3. Cross-check the announcing network with ASN Lookup.
4. If the result looks unusual, inspect ownership with WHOIS / RDAP.
5. Use Reverse DNS if you want extra provider naming hints or infrastructure clues.

That multi-step check matters because a single field can be misleading. A VPN may replace the visible ISP entirely. A mobile carrier may show a national core network instead of a local brand. A university connection may egress through a research network you did not expect.

What you can verify with simple commands

A local command does not directly tell you the public ISP branding the same way a web lookup does, but it helps confirm the path you are using:

nslookup example.com
tracert example.com
whois 198.51.100.42

The traceroute or WHOIS result often makes the provider context clearer, especially if your public IP sits inside a different organization than your retail brand suggests. Local interface commands such as ipconfig or ifconfig are still useful, but those usually show your local device configuration rather than the full public internet identity of the upstream ISP.

ISP, ASN, organization, and hostname are related but different

In clean cases, these point in the same direction. In messier cases, the retail brand, ASN, and WHOIS owner can all differ slightly while still describing the same broader provider family.

What is my ISP number?

This question usually means one of two different things, and the answer depends on which one you need.

If you mean the number that identifies your provider on the public internet, that is the ASN, the autonomous system number. It looks like AS7922 or AS3320, it is public, and it is the closest thing to an official identifier for a network. The detector above reports it alongside the provider name, and you can look up any ASN directly with our ASN lookup. This is the number to quote when reporting abuse, discussing routing, or checking which network actually announces an address.

If you mean your account or customer number with your provider, that is private billing data and it is not visible from your IP address. No lookup tool can show it, and any site claiming to reveal it is not reading it from your connection. You will find it on a bill, in the provider's app, or in your account portal.

The distinction matters because the two are sometimes confused in support conversations. An ASN identifies a network to the entire internet. An account number identifies you to one company. Sharing an ASN is harmless; sharing an account number is not.

Home broadband, mobile, and enterprise networks identify differently

A residential ISP connection often maps cleanly to a consumer broadband provider and ASN family. Mobile networks are trickier because traffic is frequently centralized through shared gateways and CGNAT infrastructure, so the visible identity may feel less local than expected. Enterprise, campus, and hotel networks are different again: the user may think of the venue as the provider, while the public egress actually belongs to a separate carrier or institutional backbone.

That is why there is no single "how to find my ISP" shortcut that works equally well for every access model without context. The right answer comes from combining the visible network, routing identity, and how that type of connection usually behaves.

Where ISP identification matters in practice

• VPN verification. If the visible ISP changed to a hosting or VPN provider, you know the tunnel changed the public path.
• Fraud and login review. Security teams compare normal ISP patterns against unexpected cloud or overseas networks.
• Streaming and geolocation troubleshooting. The ISP and ASN context often explains why a location result looks off.
• ISP support escalation. Knowing the exact network and ASN helps when you suspect CGNAT, port blocks, or route problems.
• Email and abuse review. A residential broadband ASN means something different from a cloud relay ASN in reputation checks.
• Home-lab and self-hosting. The type of provider matters for public IP availability, CGNAT, and inbound reachability.

The ISP type often explains what you can do with the connection

Identifying the ISP is not only about naming the provider. It also hints at the constraints of the line. A mobile carrier often suggests CGNAT and shared addressing. A business fiber provider may offer static IPs and better inbound reachability. A campus or hotel network may mean you are behind institutional firewalls and egress controls. The ISP answer becomes much more useful once you connect it to capability, not only branding.

That is why support and troubleshooting improve when you ask not just "who is my ISP?" but also "what kind of access model am I actually on?"

Why your ISP may look different than expected

• You are using a VPN or proxy. Outside services now see the VPN provider's network, not your home ISP.
• You are on a mobile carrier. Shared gateways and carrier-grade NAT often surface a centralized network identity rather than a local tower or city.
• You are on a campus or company network. The public egress may belong to an upstream provider or institutional ASN.
• The lookup shows ownership instead of the retail brand. The legal entity holding the block is not always the exact customer brand people expect to see.
• The ISP recently reassigned or reorganized ranges. Different databases update at different speeds.
• You are behind CGNAT or shared infrastructure. The visible network may be a core shared provider range instead of a customer-specific public assignment.

How to verify ISP identity with higher confidence

One source is rarely enough for attribution. A good workflow combines the public IP, ASN, and registration records, then uses reverse DNS or geolocation as supporting context rather than final proof.

• IP Address Lookup for the quick public result.
• ASN Lookup for routing ownership.
• WHOIS / RDAP Lookup for allocation and registration context.
• Reverse DNS for provider naming clues.
• ISP Directory if you want to browse provider profiles and compare likely networks.

In the United States, most home connections trace back to a handful of large providers. If your lookup shows one of these, the provider profile explains its typical ASN, reverse DNS naming, and CGNAT behavior: Comcast Xfinity, Charter Spectrum, AT&T Internet, Verizon Fios, and T-Mobile.

What your ISP can still see

Even when most websites use HTTPS, the ISP still handles the connection itself and can usually observe metadata such as timing, destination reachability, and overall traffic patterns. DNS behavior matters too, especially if you are not using a privacy tool or if DNS is leaking outside a VPN tunnel.

That does not mean the ISP can read every encrypted page you load, but it does mean the provider is an important part of the privacy model. If that is your concern, read What Is a VPN? and How to Protect Your IP Address.

IPv4 vs IPv6: why your ISP can appear twice

Most modern connections are dual-stack: the ISP gives you an IPv4 address and an IPv6 prefix, and your browser uses whichever answers first for each site. The card above shows whichever address your browser used to reach this page. On a normal home line both addresses belong to the same provider, even if the network names differ slightly because the ISP announces its IPv6 space from a different ASN or legal entity.

• No IPv6 address usually means your ISP or router has not enabled IPv6. It is not a fault, and websites still work over IPv4.
• Mobile networks increasingly run IPv6-only cores and translate to IPv4 at the carrier edge (464XLAT or NAT64), so the IPv6 address is the one that really identifies the connection.
• A VPN that shows its own network on IPv4 but your home ISP on IPv6 is leaking. The tunnel covers only IPv4, and every IPv6-capable site still sees your real provider. Confirm it with the IPv6 leak test.

The protocol differences themselves, from address size to NAT and adoption, are covered in IPv4 vs IPv6.

Reverse DNS can support ISP checks, but it is not the final proof

PTR hostnames often contain provider naming patterns, pool markers, or regional hints that support the ISP conclusion. A hostname that clearly looks like a dynamic broadband pool is useful context. But reverse DNS is still only a label assigned to the IP. It should reinforce ASN and ownership data, not replace them.

In other words, reverse DNS is most helpful when the result is already almost clear and you want one more supporting clue. If the network identity is disputed, ASN and WHOIS are stronger anchors.

How to find your ISP from inside the OS (no website needed)

For a quick local check without opening any external page:

• Windows: PowerShell Resolve-DnsName whoami.akamai.net returns your public IP via an Akamai DNS trick, then you can plug that into a WHOIS query. Or simpler: curl ifconfig.io/json returns IP, ASN, and ISP in one JSON blob.
• macOS / Linux: curl ipinfo.io returns ISP, ASN, city, and country in one call. The org field is the ISP/ASN combination.
• Mobile (Android, iOS): open a browser and load the IP Trackers homepage. The ISP, ASN, and city show in one card without installing anything.

How to identify your ISP's parent company and brand structure

Many ISPs operate under multiple brand names or are owned by a larger parent. The IP lookup may show the legal entity rather than the retail brand you signed up with. Some common examples:

• Optimum / Suddenlink / Cablevision are all retail brands under Altice USA. IP lookups often show "Altice" or "Optimum Online" regardless of which retail brand you bought.
• Xfinity is the consumer brand of Comcast. IP lookups usually show "Comcast Cable" or AS7922.
• Spectrum is the consumer brand of Charter Communications. Lookups show "Charter" or AS11426.
• Verizon Fios is the residential brand of Verizon Communications. Lookups show "MCI Communications Services" (legacy name) or AS701.
• BT Broadband in the UK shows "British Telecommunications" (AS2856). Plusnet is a BT-owned brand that also shows on AS2856 / AS6871.
• Sky Broadband in the UK shows "Sky UK Limited" (AS5607). After the Comcast acquisition the parent is Comcast but the network identity is still Sky UK.

Use the WHOIS/RDAP lookup to find the registered legal entity name and ASN lookup to find the routing operator. Combined, those two answers give the true network identity behind the retail brand.

Resellers, MVNOs and wholesale networks

Sometimes the company you pay does not own the network at all. Three common setups change what an ISP lookup shows:

• Wholesale broadband. In the UK most copper and fiber lines run over Openreach, but larger retailers such as Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone operate their own core networks and IP space, so a lookup shows the retailer. Smaller providers that buy a complete wholesale service may show the wholesale supplier instead.
• Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). Brands such as Mint Mobile, Visible and Cricket sell service on a larger carrier's network. Your traffic usually leaves through the host carrier, so the lookup shows T-Mobile, Verizon or AT&T rather than the brand on your bill.
• Open-access fiber. Some municipal networks, such as UTOPIA Fiber in Utah, build the fiber and let you choose a retail ISP from a marketplace. The lookup normally shows the retail ISP you picked, because it supplies the IP address.

In each case the lookup is not wrong. It names the network that carries your traffic onto the internet, which is what websites, games and streaming services see.

What kind of ISP you have determines what you can actually do

The ISP type affects capability more than the brand name. A quick reference for what each type typically supports:

• Fibre (FTTH/FTTP): public IPv4 usually available by default, gigabit speeds, low latency, often dual-stack IPv6. Self-hosting and gaming work well. Examples: Verizon Fios, AT&T Fiber, Google Fiber, BT Full Fibre.
• Cable (DOCSIS): public IPv4 common, usually asymmetric (faster down than up), IPv6 widespread on modern deployments. Self-hosting works but upload speeds limit large transfers. Examples: Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum, Virgin Media.
• DSL (VDSL, copper): public IPv4 usually available, slower speeds (typically 10-100 Mbps), IPv6 inconsistent. Self-hosting works for light services. Examples: AT&T DSL, BT ADSL/VDSL, legacy carriers.
• Mobile broadband (4G/5G home internet): CGNAT by default, dynamic IPv4, IPv6 often available. Port forwarding does not work without a static-IP add-on. Examples: T-Mobile Home Internet, Verizon 5G Home, EE Home Broadband.
• Fixed wireless (WISP): often CGNAT, variable speeds depending on tower load, latency higher than fibre or cable. Self-hosting depends on the WISP's NAT policy.
• Satellite (Starlink, Viasat, HughesNet): CGNAT by default on all three, high latency on geostationary (Viasat, HughesNet ~600ms) and lower on LEO (Starlink ~30ms). Port forwarding requires Starlink's priority plan or equivalent add-on.

When the problem is an ISP outage

If pages stop loading, the card cannot reach its lookup either, so an empty result is itself a clue. Check whether other devices fail too, look at the modem lights, and open your provider's status page over mobile data. The full five-minute routine, including the ping tests that separate a router fault from an ISP outage, is in Is My Internet Down?

Common mistakes and edge cases

• Assuming the ISP field and ASN must match word-for-word. A provider can use multiple ASNs and legal entities.
• Using location as the only validation signal. The network owner is often more stable than city-level geolocation.
• Forgetting about VPNs and enterprise tunnels. These can replace the visible provider completely.
• Confusing local router information with ISP identity. Your gateway IP tells you about the LAN, not necessarily the outside network owner.
• Trusting one database snapshot forever. Providers reassign and reorganize space, so context changes over time.
• Reading "organization" as "who currently controls the user." It may only describe who holds the block, not which retail product is delivering the connection.

Can you change your ISP or your IP address?

Your IP address is easier to change than your ISP. Most home connections use dynamic addresses, so restarting the router can bring a new one, although many ISPs hand the same address back for weeks. A VPN changes the address and provider that websites see without touching your contract, and a static IP is a paid add-on when you need the opposite.

Changing your ISP depends on which networks reach your address. Before you switch, compare providers in the ISP directory and check the details that matter for how you use the connection: whether the new provider uses CGNAT, offers IPv6, allows port forwarding, and how fast the upload is.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find my ISP quickly? Use the homepage lookup, then confirm the network with ASN Lookup.

Why does my ISP show as something I do not recognize? You may be on a VPN, mobile core network, institutional egress, or a block owned by a parent organization rather than the retail brand.

What is the difference between ISP and ASN? The ISP is the provider concept users recognize; the ASN is the routing identifier used on the internet backbone.

Can my ISP change without me changing providers? The visible public network can change if you use a VPN, move between networks, tether through mobile data, or use a different upstream path.

Can I identify my ISP from a local private IP? Not reliably. Private addresses identify local LAN scope, not the public upstream provider.

Does WHOIS always show the exact ISP name I pay? Not always. WHOIS may show a parent company, upstream owner, or registration entity rather than the retail label on your monthly bill.

Can my ISP see what I do online? Your ISP can usually see which domains you connect to (through DNS lookups and the TLS server name), when you connect, and how much data you use. HTTPS hides page content and full URLs. A VPN hides the destinations from the ISP, although the VPN provider can then see that metadata.

Why does my ISP show a different location? IP geolocation places your address near the ISP's routing hub or where the address block is registered, not at your home. Mobile carriers and CGNAT make the gap larger, so a result in a nearby or regional city is normal.

Is my ISP the same as my internet provider? Usually, yes. The exception is resellers and MVNOs: you pay one brand while another company's network carries your traffic, so the lookup shows the network operator rather than the brand on your bill.

Why do IPv4 and IPv6 show different providers? On a normal line both belong to the same ISP, sometimes under a different ASN or company name. If a VPN is on and IPv6 still shows your home ISP, the VPN is not tunneling IPv6; confirm it with the IPv6 leak test.

Can I change my ISP or my IP address? Restarting your router can give you a new dynamic IP, and a VPN changes the IP and provider that websites see. Changing ISP depends on which providers serve your address, so compare options in the ISP directory first.

How do I know if my ISP is down? If every device fails, the modem shows an Internet, Online or LOS fault, and pings to 1.1.1.1 fail while your router still answers, the problem is upstream. Confirm on your provider's app or status page using mobile data, or follow the steps in Is My Internet Down?

Is this ISP checker free and safe? Yes, it is free and needs no sign-up. It shows only what every website you visit already receives from your connection, plus an estimate from IP databases. The privacy policy explains how lookup data is handled.

Related reading: What Is ASN?, IP Address Lookup Basics, CGNAT IP Range, What Is a VPN?, and What Is My IP Address?

By Tudor Uzun

Founder and Senior Software Engineer, IP Trackers

Published February 9, 2026Updated September 11, 2026Editorial standards