Guide
How IP geolocation works
The four data sources behind every 'your IP is in Berlin' result, realistic accuracy numbers by network type, and the reasons your city often shows up wrong.
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How the databases are built
No geolocation service has a pin on your house. They combine four imperfect sources:
- Registry allocations — the internet's regional registries (ARIN, RIPE NCC, APNIC, LACNIC, AFRINIC, APNIC) assign address blocks to ISPs, and those registrations carry organisation addresses, typically at city level. This is the foundation every database starts from.
- Network inference — BGP routing data and observed traffic patterns let providers estimate where a block actually serves, which often disagrees with where the organisation is registered.
- Active probing — test clients in datacenters around the world ping candidate networks and use round-trip time to triangulate where a block physically reaches.
- User-contributed data and models — opt-in samples ("your device says you are in city X, and your IP is in this block") plus machine learning that fuses everything.
Every commercial database (the ones this site and its peers use, and the big named ones) mixes these in different proportions — which is why two services can disagree on the city.
How accurate to expect
| Granularity | Typical accuracy, fixed broadband |
|---|---|
| Country | ~95–99% |
| Region / state | ~80–90% |
| City | ~70–85% |
On mobile, satellite, CGNAT and corporate networks, city accuracy drops noticeably — often to "the carrier's gateway city" rather than yours. VPN and proxy traffic is, by definition, wrong: it shows the exit server's location. Treat the checker's location as strong evidence, which is why it is labelled an estimate.
Why your city is often wrong
- CGNAT — your traffic exits the carrier at its gateway city, which may be a hundred kilometres from you (what is CGNAT).
- Server registration vs reality — the block is registered to the ISP's head office city, not your cabinet.
- Mobile and roaming — the tower serving you may be a neighbouring operator's, in the next city.
- VPN / proxy — the result is the server's city, full stop.
- Stale data — blocks move between operators; databases refresh at different rates.
What geolocation must not be used for
IP location is an inference, not a position fix. It cannot find a street, a building or a person, and it degrades exactly where it is most likely to be misused — border areas, mobile connections, shared addresses. Legitimate uses are regional (localised pricing and language, compliance with regional law, fraud priors); illegitimate ones treat a ~80% city guess as a physical location. If a service claims to know where you are "exactly" from your IP alone, you are being lied to.
Check yours: the checker shows the country, region and city alongside the ISP and ASN — if the city surprises you, the ASN usually explains why (carrier gateway, datacenter exit, or your ISP's registration city).
Frequently asked questions
Can IP geolocation pinpoint my house?
No. The best realistic resolution on fixed broadband is city-level, and usually it is the carrier's or the datacenter's city, not yours. GPS or an address is needed for physical location.
Why does a different service show a different city for my IP?
Each database blends registry data, probing and inference differently, and refreshes on different schedules. Country-level results usually agree; city-level ones often do not.
Is my city data 'personal data'?
Combined with other data, an IP address (and its location) is treated as personal data under GDPR and similar laws — which is why this site does not log your results server-side.
Keep reading
- What is an IP address?
- Public vs private IP addresses
- IPv4 vs IPv6
- How to hide your IP address
- How to check your IP address on a phone
- What is CGNAT?
- How to change your IP address
- Why does my IP address keep changing?
- How to find a website's IP address
- What is a datacenter IP?
- IPv6 privacy extensions
- What is an ASN?
- What is a local IP address?
- Why am I getting blocked or stuck on CAPTCHAs?
- What is IP reputation?
- How websites detect VPNs and proxies
- What is a DNS leak?
- What is a WebRTC leak?
- Proxy vs VPN
- How to check if your VPN actually works
- Static vs dynamic public IP
- How to find out who owns an IP address
- IPv6 in 2026
- Check my public IP address
Check any other IP address
Investigating a suspicious login, a spam email header or a server log entry? Run any IPv4 or IPv6 address through the same geolocation and proxy checks.