Public vs Private IP Addresses Explained
The difference between public and private IP addresses is one of the most useful things to understand about home networking. Your device quietly uses both at once, and here is exactly what each one does.
Public vs private IP addresses: the short version
The key to public vs private IP addresses is where each one is used. A private IP address works only inside your own network, letting your laptop, phone, and printer find each other. A public IP address is the single address the outside world sees, assigned to your whole connection by your internet provider. Your router sits in the middle and translates between the two.
If you are still getting comfortable with the basics, our guide on what an IP address is is a good starting point before we compare the two kinds.
What is a private IP address?
A private IP address identifies a device within a local network, such as your home or office. These addresses come from ranges specifically reserved for private use, which means they are never routed on the public internet and can be reused freely in every household.
The reserved private ranges are:
10.0.0.0to10.255.255.255172.16.0.0to172.31.255.255192.168.0.0to192.168.255.255
That last range is why so many home devices have addresses like 192.168.1.5. Your router usually hands these out automatically using DHCP. These and other special-purpose addresses are covered in our tour of reserved IP addresses.
What is a public IP address?
A public IP address is globally unique and reachable across the internet. Your internet provider assigns one to your connection, and it is the address that websites, game servers, and email systems see when you contact them. Where a private address like 192.168.1.5 means nothing outside your home, a public address is meaningful everywhere.
Most homes are given a single public address for the entire household, no matter how many devices are connected. That one address represents your whole network to the rest of the world.
Millions of homes use the exact same private address, such as 192.168.1.1 for the router, at the same time. This causes no conflict because private addresses never travel beyond the local network.
How they work together
So how does a house full of devices, each with its own private address, share a single public one? The answer is Network Address Translation, or NAT. When your laptop requests a web page, your router swaps the laptop's private source address for the household's public address. When the reply returns, the router remembers which device asked and forwards it to the right private address.
This clever bookkeeping lets one public address serve dozens of devices at once. We go deeper on this in our guide to what NAT is. The device doing all this translating is, of course, your router.
| Private IP | Public IP | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it works | Inside your local network | Across the whole internet |
| Assigned by | Your router (DHCP) | Your internet provider |
| Example | 192.168.1.5 | 192.0.2.1 |
| Unique? | Only within your network | Globally unique |
| Visible to websites? | No | Yes |
How to check each address
Finding both addresses is straightforward. Your private IP appears in your device's network settings, listed as its local or IPv4 address. Your public IP is easiest to find by asking a website that reads it back to you, since your device itself does not know it directly.
That is exactly what the animal checkers at IP Animals do: they report the public IP your connection is presenting to the world. For step-by-step instructions on every device, see our guide on how to find your IP address.
Does this affect privacy?
Because your private address never leaves your network, websites cannot see it. They only ever see your public address, which can be roughly located to a region as explained in how IP geolocation works. The separation between private and public addressing is a natural side effect of NAT rather than a deliberate privacy shield, but it does mean the internal layout of your home network stays hidden from the outside.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a public and private IP address?
A private IP address identifies a device inside your local network and is not visible on the internet, while a public IP address identifies your whole connection to the outside world. Your router sits between the two and translates traffic between them.
Why does my device have two IP addresses?
Your device has a private IP so it can be reached by other devices on your home network, and it shares a public IP so it can reach the wider internet. The router bridges the two using network address translation.
Which IP address do websites see?
Websites see your public IP address, the one assigned to your connection by your internet provider. They cannot see your private address, such as 192.168.1.5, because it never leaves your local network.
Are private IP addresses less secure?
Private addresses are not directly reachable from the internet, which adds a layer of separation, but they are not a security measure on their own. Real protection comes from your router's firewall and good network settings, not from the address type.