Your public IP address is the identifier the rest of the internet sees when your device sends traffic. Every site you visit, every API you hit, and every server you connect to receives this address as the return label on your packets. IPFerret shows it to you instantly on the home page, with no sign-up and no tracking.
Public vs. private IP
Inside your home or office, your router gives each device a private IP — usually something starting with 192.168, 10., or 172.16. Those addresses are only meaningful on your local network. When traffic leaves for the wider internet, your router translates everything to a single public IP supplied by your ISP. That public IP is what IPFerret reports.
IPv4 and IPv6
IPv4 addresses look like 203.0.113.42 — four numbers separated by dots. IPv6 addresses are much longer and use hex groups separated by colons. The internet is gradually migrating to IPv6 because IPv4 addresses have run out. If your ISP supports it, you may see an IPv6 address here instead. You can verify IPv6 reachability on the IPv6 test page.
What can websites learn from your IP?
An IP address by itself reveals an approximate region (often city-level) and the network operator (ASN) that owns the address range. It does not reveal your name, your physical address, or what you do online, unless that information is correlated by an ISP or a court order. IPFerret shows the same data any other website can see — nothing more.
How to hide your IP
If you don't want sites to see your real public IP, the two common options are a VPN (which routes your traffic through another server) or the Tor network. Finn detects common VPN/Tor exit ranges when a privacy signal is available from the geo provider, and surfaces that on the home page.
Use the API
Want the same data from a script? Hit /api/ip for a plain JSON response, or /api/lookup for the full enriched payload.