Find Your IP from the Command Line

The commands below show your public IP address — the one the internet sees — directly from a terminal or command prompt, without opening a browser.

Linux / macOS

curl — simplest one-liner

curl https://api.ipify.org

Returns just your IP address on a single line, no trailing newline.

# JSON output
curl "https://api.ipify.org?format=json"

curl — parse with jq

curl -s "https://api.ipify.org?format=json" | jq -r .ip

Requires jq (brew install jq on macOS, apt install jq on Ubuntu/Debian).

wget — alternative to curl

wget -qO- https://api.ipify.org

Available on most Linux systems where curl is not installed.

dig — via DNS, no HTTP needed

dig +short myip.opendns.com @resolver1.opendns.com

Uses OpenDNS to resolve your public IP. Fast, and works even when HTTP traffic is blocked in your environment.

Check your IPv6 address

curl -6 https://api64.ipify.org

If your network supports IPv6, this returns your IPv6 address specifically.

Save IP as an environment variable

MY_IP=$(curl -s https://api.ipify.org)
echo "Your public IP: $MY_IP"

Useful in shell scripts that need to know the current public IP — for example, to update a DNS record or add to an allowlist.

Show network interfaces (local IPs)

# Linux
ip addr show

# macOS
ifconfig | grep "inet "

These are your private local-network IPs, not your public internet IP.

Windows

ipconfig — show all adapters

ipconfig /all

Lists every network adapter with its IP address, DNS servers, default gateway, and MAC address.

nslookup — via DNS

nslookup myip.opendns.com resolver1.opendns.com

The Windows equivalent of dig — uses OpenDNS to find your public IP.

PowerShell

Get your public IP

(Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://api.ipify.org").Content

# Shorter alias
(irm "https://api.ipify.org")

Save to a variable

$myIP = (irm "https://api.ipify.org")
Write-Host "Public IP: $myIP"

List all local IPs

Get-NetIPAddress | Where-Object {$_.AddressFamily -eq "IPv4"} | Select-Object InterfaceAlias, IPAddress

Using in Docker or CI/CD pipelines

To check the outbound IP of a container or build pipeline, run:

curl -s https://api.ipify.org

The IP returned is the host's public IP or the cloud provider's NAT gateway — not the container's internal address. This is useful for confirming which IP your outbound traffic originates from, for example when adding to an allowlist or debugging firewall rules.

Alternative services

If api.ipify.org is unreachable, any of these return a plain-text IP address and are drop-in replacements in scripts:

curl https://ifconfig.me
curl https://icanhazip.com
curl https://checkip.amazonaws.com

Troubleshooting

• curl not found — use wget or dig instead. On macOS: brew install curl.
• Behind a corporate proxy — the IP returned may be your proxy server's IP, not your machine's direct IP. Try curl -x "" https://api.ipify.org to bypass the proxy.
• VPN active — the IP shown is your VPN server's IP, not your real IP. Disconnect VPN first if you need your actual IP.
• curl result differs from browser — may be an IPv4/IPv6 difference. Force a specific version with -4 or -6 flags.
• Timeout or connection refused — try a fallback service like ifconfig.me, or use dig to avoid HTTP entirely.

Developer: Debug Proxy and CDN Headers

When your application runs behind a reverse proxy or CDN, knowing which header carries the real client IP is critical for logging, rate-limiting, and geolocation accuracy.

Inspect forwarding headers with curl

# See all response headers (including what the server sees)
curl -s -I https://api.ipify.org

# See all request headers curl sends outbound
curl -v https://api.ipify.org 2>&1 | grep "^>"

Common headers added by CDNs

CDNs like Cloudflare inject headers so your origin server knows the real client IP:

• CF-Connecting-IP — the real client IP, as forwarded by Cloudflare to the origin
• X-Forwarded-For — a comma-separated list of IPs in proxy hop order (can be spoofed by clients)
• X-Real-IP — the client IP as set by Nginx or another upstream proxy

Open IPGu.net to see all headers your server receives from your connection — including any forwarding headers your CDN or proxy is injecting.

Detect your outbound IP in VPN or proxy environments

# Check which IP curl is using (VPN server, proxy, or real IP)
curl -s https://api.ipify.org

# Bypass any HTTP_PROXY environment variable
curl -x "" -s https://api.ipify.org

# Compare IPv4 vs IPv6 outbound IPs
curl -4 -s https://api.ipify.org && curl -6 -s https://api64.ipify.org

Frequently Asked Questions