Public IP vs private IP
Your public IP is the address that the rest of the internet sees when you make connections. It belongs to your ISP and is shared by your home router — all devices on your home network share the same public IP from the outside world's perspective. NAT (Network Address Translation) is what allows this.
Your private IP is the address your router assigns to your device within your home network: typically something like 192.168.1.x or 10.0.0.x. Private IP ranges (defined in RFC 1918) are 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16. These addresses aren't routable on the public internet.
The Irreva My IP tool shows your public IP — what external servers see. To find your private IP on Windows, run ipconfig in Command Prompt. On Mac/Linux, use ifconfig or ip addr.
IPv4 vs IPv6
IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses written as four dot-separated numbers (0–255 each): 93.184.216.34. IPv4 allows about 4.3 billion unique addresses. With the explosion of internet-connected devices, IPv4 addresses ran out years ago — hence IPv6.
IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334. IPv6 allows an astronomically large number of addresses — enough to give every grain of sand on Earth its own address, many times over.
Most modern devices and networks support both IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously (this is called dual-stack). When you visit a website, the connection uses IPv6 if both your device and the server support it, otherwise falls back to IPv4.
What your IP reveals and what it doesn't
Your IP address reveals your ISP and an approximate geographic location — typically the city or region where your ISP's infrastructure is. It does not reveal your home address, name, or precise location. The geolocation is based on IP registry data, which can be inaccurate, especially for mobile connections or VPNs.
Website operators, ad networks, and services you connect to can log your IP. Combined with other data, this can be used to track behavior across sessions. This is one reason privacy-focused users use VPNs — the VPN server's IP is what external services see, not your real IP.
For developers, knowing your current public IP is useful for whitelisting your IP in cloud security groups, firewall rules, and database access controls.