How to find the Wi-Fi IP address of your Mac, iPhone, and iPad

Learn how to easily find the Wi-Fi IP address of your Mac, iPhone, and iPad in this comprehensive tutorial.

Mac's Wi-Fi IP address

Whether it’s for establishing remote access, troubleshooting network issues, configuring firewalls, setting up external devices like a printer, or just knowing more about your computer, this tutorial shows you easy ways to find the internal and external IP addresses of your Mac, iPhone, or iPad.

Internal/local vs. external/public IP address

An internal IP address, also called a local IP address, is a unique identifier assigned to devices on a local network by a router. It is used to facilitate communication between devices on the same network. A local IP address is typically not visible to devices outside the network.

An external IP address, also called a public IP address, is a unique identifier assigned to a device by an Internet Service Provider (ISP). It is used to facilitate communication between devices on different networks over the internet. This address is visible to other devices on the internet and is necessary for devices to connect to the internet.

Four ways to see the internal IP address of your Mac

You can use one of these methods as convenient.

1. From the Control Center or the menu bar

By now, perhaps you’ve caught on to the trend that the Alt/Option key (⌥) allows you to do some really nifty things with regard to the menu bar on your Mac. For example, clicking the volume button on the menu bar while holding the Option key lets you switch audio outputs and inputs with ease.

As you might have already gathered, the same principle applies to the Wi-Fi button on the menu bar. By holding the Option key while clicking the Wi-Fi button, you gain access to a plethora of technical details related to your Mac’s Wi-Fi connection.

  1. Hold the Option key on your Mac’s keyboard.
  2. Click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar to see its IP Address.
See Mac's Wi-Fi IP address by holding the Option key and clicking Wi-Fi icon in menu bar

If the Wi-Fi icon isn’t added to the menu bar, you can open Control Center and click the Wi-Fi field while holding the Option key.

Wi-Fi section in Mac Control Center

Along with the IP address, you’ll also gain quick access to your wireless router’s IP address, the transmit rate, SNR, and more. You’ll find that this is also a good way to grab your wireless MAC address, interface name, and wireless channel.

Although you can easily find your Wi-Fi IP address by venturing to System Settings, this method will save you at least a click or two. You can also quickly obtain much more detailed information from the menu bar than you can from System Settings.

Don’t have the Wi-Fi button in your menu bar, but would like it there?

  • On recent versions of macOS: Go to System Settings > Control Center and select Show in Menu Bar for Wi-Fi.
  • On older versions of macOS: Go to System Preferences and open Network. Mark the checkbox next to Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar.

2. From System Settings

  1. Open System Settings on your Mac and go to Wi-Fi.
  2. Click the Details button next to the connected network.
  3. You will see the IP address here. Additionally, you can click TCP/IP and see the IP address there.
See Mac IP address in System Settings

On macOS Monterey and earlier, go to System Preferences > Network and select Wi-Fi. Further, you can use the Advanced button to dig into more details.

Wi-Fi IP address in Network settings of System Preferences

3. Using Terminal

Open Terminal and copy and paste or type in the following command:

ipconfig getifaddr en0

Your IP address will be shown on the right below the command.

Mac IP Address in Terminal Command

If the above command doesn’t work, use this one: ipconfig getifaddr en1

You might also see the following command used if you happen to Google to find your IP address in Terminal. It works as well but gives you the extra information you don’t need.

ifconfig |grep inet
Mac IP Address in Terminal Command

4. From your Wi-Fi router’s page

The above methods are the easiest ways to find your IP address. But if you’re curious to learn more, you can also find out the IP address of your Mac and other connected devices by accessing your router’s or internet provider’s (ISP) admin page.

  1. Connect to the Wi-Fi network.
  2. Visit your router’s admin page and log in. You will find the login page and credentials mentioned at the back of the router. If not, do a web search with your router’s details, like brand or ISP name. In many cases, the default username and password are both admin or administrator.
  3. Once you’re logged in, go to the Local Devices, Connected Devices, or a similarly named section, and you should see the IP address here. Here’s how it looks on my Wi-Fi router’s page:
IP address of connected devices on Wi-Fi router admin page

Three ways to find your public IP address

Since your external IP address is considered “public,” you can find it on the Internet in a few easy ways. Just make sure you’re using the Mac you want the external IP address for.

1. Use Google for your IP address

Head to Google and enter “IP address,” “What’s my IP address,” or something similar. You’ll see your external IP address displayed right at the top.

Mac external IP Address on Google

2. Use Terminal

Open Terminal, enter curl ifconfig.me and hit the enter key to see your public IP address.

3. Use What Is My IP Address?

There is also a handy site that answers your question easily. Go to: https://whatismyipaddress.com, and your external IP address will be displayed immediately. A similar site you can visit is: https://www.whatsmyip.org.

What Is My IP Address website
WhatIsMyIPAddress.com

See your IP address on your iPhone or iPad

To see the external IP address, you can follow the Google or WhatIsMyIPAddress method explained above. And to see your internal IP address, just use these steps:

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and tap Wi-Fi.
  2. Tap the info button ⓘ next to the connected Wi-Fi network name.
  3. Scroll down, and you will see your IP Address under the IPV4 Address heading. And if your device is using IPV6 Address, it will have multiple IP addresses that you can see by tapping the IP Address column underneath it.
See IP address in Wi-Fi settings on your iPhone

As you can see, obtaining your internal and external IP addresses is easy. So be sure to bookmark this page for future reference as well.

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