IP address, which stands for ‘Internet Protocol’ address, is a unique address assigned to each device (computer, phone, tablets, TV, etc.) connected to a local network or the internet. It is used to identify and locate a device on a network or the internet. IP addresses manage the connection between devices that send and receive data across a network.

There are a lot of reasons why you may want to know your device IP address, including when you need to let other users in the same network access files on your computer when you are hosting a multiplayer video game, and you want to share your IP address to other players, to set up a home router, or to troubleshoot a device.

Whatever the reason may be, there are seven different ways you can use to find your IP address in Windows 11.

IP Address Types and Versions

Before you start learning about how to find your IP address, you should learn about the types and versions of IP addresses.

There are two different types of IP addresses: public and private. A private IP address is used to communicate with other devices within the same network (like an office network, school network, home, etc.). The router automatically assigns the private IP to its connected devices. A public IP address (could be either Static or Dynamic) is used to connect to the wider internet, which is assigned by your local ISP (Internet Service Provider).

IP Address Versions

There are two versions of the IP address:

  • IPv4: Internet Protocol Version 4
  • IPv6: Internet Protocol Version 6

The IPv4 version uses a 32-bit number scheme, shown as four decimal numbers, each with a range of 0 to 255, which support 4.3 billion devices in the world. It is the most widely used type of IP address on the Internet and inside companies.

Example of IPv4 address: 192.168.10.5

However, the growth of the Internet, smartphones, laptops and devices caused the internet to run out of IPv4 addresses. That’s why the newer IPv6 version is designed to replace IPv4.

IPv6 version uses 128-bit hexadecimal digits, which can support trillions of devices. It is made up of eight groups of numbers, and lower-case letters mixed and separated by a colon.

Example of IPv6 address: 2009:0bs8:25a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:733f

Since the complete transition of IPv4 to IPv6 is way off, a lot of Internet Service Providers (ISP) are adopting the Dual-Stack approach, which allows devices to run IPv4 and IPv6  in parallel.

Find Your Public IP Address using Internet

The simplest way to find your computer’s IP address is to search “what is my IP address” on a search engine such Google, Bing, etc.

In addition to search engines, there several websites that can show you your IP addresses (IPv4 and IPv6). A couple of those websites are whatismyipaddress.com and whatismyip.com.

Find your Private IP Address using Settings in Windows 11

The easiest method to find your IP address in Windows 11 is to look it up in System Settings.

First, click on the WiFi or Ethernet adapter icon at the right corner of the taskbar (it is a group of internet, sound, and battery icons) to open the Action Center.

The Action Center will fly out. Now, click the arrow button next to the WiFi or Ethernet icon.

Next, select your connection and click on the ‘Properties’ icon (which is an ‘i’ in a circle) or right-click on your connection and select the ‘Properties’ option.

It will open your network connection properties page, scroll down, and you will see your IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

This page will display your other TCP/IP address information of your network adapter, including DNS settings, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, MAC address, Manufacturer, Link speed information, Link-local IPv6 address, and driver version.

Alternatively, you find this information by navigating to Settings → Network & internet → Wi-Fi or Ethernet and clicking on the name of your network properties.

Find Private IP Address using Control Panel in Windows 11

Another easy method to find both your public and private IP address on Windows 11 is by using ‘Network and Sharing Center’ in Control Panel. This method can also be used on all other Windows versions to find the IP addresses.

First, search for ‘Control panel’ in the Windows search and open it from the result.

Next, click the ‘View network status and tasks’ link under the ‘Network and Internet’ category in the Control Panel.

In the Network and Sharing Center window, click on your network name next to ‘Connections’.

Alternatively, you can the ‘Change adapter settings’ link on the left sidebar to see a list of all the network adapters installed on your computer, including the virtual ones.

Here, right-click on your network and select ‘Status’ or just double-click on it.

Either way, it will open the network Status dialog box. There, click the ‘Details’ button.

This will open up the Network Connection Details dialog. Here, you can find your private IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and all other network connection details. If you’re looking for your public IP address, then this information will be shown next to ‘Temporary IPv6 Address’.

Here, you can also find the ‘Default Gateway’ address, which is the address of your router.

Find Your Private IP Address in Task Manager

You can also find your IP address in the Windows Task Manager. Open Task Manager by right-clicking the Windows Start button on the taskbar and selecting ‘Task Manager’.

Next, switch to the ‘Performance’ tab and click your network (WiFi, if you’re connected to WiFi) on the left panel. In the right panel, you will see your local IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

Find Local IP Address Using Command Prompt

The ‘ipconfig’ command on the command prompt can display all your computer’s current TCP/IP network configuration values.

To open the Command prompt, search for ‘cmd’ or ‘command prompt’ in the Windows search and open the first result. Or, open the Run command (Windows key + R), enter ‘cmd’, and click ‘OK’.

Then, type ipconfig in the command prompt and press Enter.

If you are connected to a WiFi connection, you would see your IP addresses under the ‘Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:’ section. Or if you have an ethernet connection, your address would be under the ‘Ethernet adapter:’ section.

If you want to see all the details of your network adapter, enter ipconfig/all command.

Find the IP Address in PowerShell

Another command-line tool that can be used to get the IP addresses is Windows PowerShell.

To open PowerShell, enter ‘Powershell’ in the Run box or search for it in the Windows search and click the result.

To find your local IP addresses, type gip and press Enter.

It will also show you details about other adapters that have been installed on your computer (like Ethernet, Bluetooth, etc.).

You can also enter Get-NetIPConfiguration to get the same results.

Find Your IP Address in System Information Tool

Windows System information tool gathers and displays all the important details about the operating system, hardware, and software environment in your computer system. You can also use the System Information tool to check your IP address.

You can search for ‘System Information’ in the Windows search bar and click on the search result.

Or type msinfo32 in the Run box and press Enter.

In the System Information window, on the left pane, expand Components → Network → Adapter. On the right pane, details about each network adapter are displayed in different sections.

Scroll down till you find the name of your adapter (like Wireless LAN, Ethernet, etc.). You will find your IP address next to the field named ‘IP Address’. If your computer has a dual-stack IP configuration, then both IPv4 and IPv6 will appear next to the IP Address field.

If an adapter is disconnected, it will show its IP address as ‘Not Available’.

Find the IP Addresses of All devices in Your Local Network

In the command prompt, you can also scan and get the IP addresses of all the devices connected to your local area network. This method really useful if you are managing a local network. 

When a new node or device is added to a network, it gets an IP address and the ARP Cache (which a collection of Address Resolution protocol entries) is updated with that IP address and their associated MAC address. You can invoke the ‘arp -a’ command to get the list of IP addresses of all the devices in the network.

To do that, open the Command prompt, type arp -a command, and press Enter.

This will list all the private IP addresses, their MAC addresses (Physical Address), and their allocation type (whether dynamic or static) in the network.