How do I know if an IP is public or private?

Private IPv4 ranges are 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16 (RFC 1918); private IPv6 is fc00::/7 (RFC 4193). Anything outside the reserved ranges is a public, globally routable address. This tool checks all the reserved ranges and tells you which bucket the address falls into.

Why does a private IP not reveal my location?

Private addresses such as 192.168.1.10 are reused on millions of separate networks behind NAT, so they cannot be routed to or geolocated on the public internet. A public IP, by contrast, is unique and can be mapped to an ISP and rough region.

What is a link-local or APIPA address?

An address in 169.254.0.0/16 (IPv4) or fe80::/10 (IPv6) is auto-assigned when no DHCP server responds. It only works on the local network segment and is never routed, so seeing one usually signals a network configuration problem.

What are the documentation IP ranges?

RFC 5737 reserves 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, and 203.0.113.0/24 for IPv4, and RFC 3849 reserves 2001:db8::/32 for IPv6, exclusively for examples and documentation. They should never appear in live traffic, so spotting one means it is placeholder data.

Is the address I enter sent anywhere?

No. The classification is computed purely from the address bits against the built-in IANA range tables. Nothing is looked up online, so the address you check never leaves your browser.

IP Address Type & Privacy Checker

Every IP address belongs to a special-use category defined by IANA: some are globally routable and can be geolocated, while others are private, loopback, link-local, or reserved and never appear on the public internet. This tool classifies any IPv4 or IPv6 address and explains what it reveals — useful when auditing logs, URLs, or configuration files.

How it works

The checker inspects the leading bits of the address against the IANA registries:

IPv4 is parsed as four octets and matched against ranges like 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16 (private), 127.0.0.0/8 (loopback), 169.254.0.0/16 (link-local), 100.64.0.0/10 (carrier-grade NAT), and the RFC 5737 documentation blocks.
IPv6 is fully expanded (handling :: compression and zone IDs) and matched against ::1 (loopback), fc00::/7 (unique-local), fe80::/10 (link-local), ff00::/8 (multicast), 2001:db8::/32 (documentation), and 2000::/3 (global unicast).
Anything not in a reserved range is reported as public / globally routable.

Privacy notes

A public result means the address is unique on the internet and can be mapped to an ISP and approximate location — so leaking it in a screenshot, log, or URL exposes network topology. A private result means the address is reused behind NAT and reveals only internal structure, which is far lower risk. The tool runs entirely locally, so it never reveals the address it is examining.