IP geolocation estimates where an internet connection is located from its IP address. It powers language and currency selection on shopping sites, streaming rights, fraud checks and the map on our home page. It is useful, but it is an estimate, not a GPS position.
How accurate is it?
| Level | Typical accuracy |
|---|---|
| Country | Correct for the vast majority of addresses |
| Region or state | Usually correct for fixed home broadband |
| City | Often correct within 25–50 km for home broadband; often wrong for mobile and business networks |
| Postal code | A rough guess |
| Street or building | Not possible |
The coordinates a lookup shows are the center of an estimated area, often a city center, not the location of a house.
Where the data comes from
Location providers combine several sources:
- Registry records. Regional internet registries record which organization holds each address block and its country.
- Provider information. Many internet providers publish which address ranges they use in which city (geofeeds).
- Routing and network measurements. Latency and traceroutes show roughly where a network is.
- User-submitted and partner data, such as Wi-Fi location signals linked to IP addresses.
Why your location may be wrong
- Mobile data: carriers route traffic through a small number of central gateways, so a phone in one city often appears in another.
- VPNs and proxies: you appear at the server's location. That is the point. See what is a VPN.
- Company networks: offices often reach the internet through a headquarters or cloud gateway far away.
- Recently reassigned addresses: address blocks move between providers and countries; databases take weeks to catch up.
- Carrier-grade NAT: many customers share one public address. See what is CGNAT.
- Satellite internet: traffic exits at a ground station that can be in another country.
How to correct your location
You cannot change the database yourself, but you can report errors:
- Ask your internet provider to publish or fix its geofeed (RFC 8805).
- Submit corrections to the major location providers through their correction forms.
- Websites that show the wrong country or language often let you change it manually.
What IP location cannot reveal
An IP address does not reveal your name, street address or phone number. Only your provider can match an address to a customer, and it shares that only with law enforcement under a legal order. Read what someone can do with your IP address.
Frequently asked questions
Why do different sites show different locations for my IP?
Each site uses its own location database, and the databases disagree, especially at city level.
Is the location on this site accurate?
Your location comes from Cloudflare's network data, which is among the most up-to-date sources, but the same limits apply.
Can police find me from my IP address?
They can ask your provider which customer used an address at a specific time, with the legal authority to do so. The IP alone does not reveal it.