How to Find the IP Address of Any Website
Four methods from dead simple to developer-grade. Most take under 10 seconds.
Every website has an IP address. The easiest way to find it is our DNS lookup tool — paste a domain, get the IP. For multiple record types or automation, use nslookup or dig in your terminal.
Instant Website IP Lookup
Skip the terminal. Paste any domain below and we will resolve it right here.
Pro Tip: Try looking up your own website to see where it is hosted. Then run the IP through our IP Lookup to find the hosting provider.
4 Methods to Find a Website's IP Address
Use Our DNS Lookup Tool
This is the simplest method. Go to our DNS Lookup page, paste any domain name, and hit enter. You will get the full DNS record set — A records (IPv4), AAAA records (IPv6), nameservers, MX records, and more. The IP address is the A record.
No software to install, no terminal to open. This works on any device, including your phone. I built the tool above so you do not even have to leave this page.
When to use this: You need a quick answer and you are not comfortable with the command line. Or you want to see all DNS record types at once, not just the IP.
Use the Command Line (nslookup / dig)
If you are comfortable with a terminal, this is the fastest method. Open your command prompt (Windows) or terminal (Mac/Linux) and run one command. You will have the IP in under 2 seconds.
Open Command Prompt (press Win + R, type cmd, hit Enter) and run:
nslookup google.comServer: dns.google
Address: 8.8.8.8
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Addresses: 142.250.80.46
142.250.80.78The IP addresses under "Non-authoritative answer" are what you are looking for. "Non-authoritative" just means the result came from a cache, not directly from Google's DNS servers. The answer is still correct.
When to use this: You are a developer or sysadmin and need to script DNS lookups, check propagation across different DNS servers, or query specific record types. The command line gives you full control over which DNS server to query — add @8.8.8.8 after the domain to force Google's DNS, or @1.1.1.1 for Cloudflare.
Use the ping Command
The ping command was designed to test connectivity, but the first thing it does is resolve the domain to an IP. That makes it a quick-and-dirty IP finder that works on every operating system without installing anything.
ping google.com
PING google.com (142.250.80.46): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 142.250.80.46: icmp_seq=0 ttl=117 time=3.2 msThe IP is right there in parentheses on the first line. Press Ctrl + C to stop the ping once you have the address.
Some servers block ICMP (ping) requests. If you get "Request timed out," the site is not necessarily down — it just does not respond to ping. Use nslookup or dig instead.
Use Online WHOIS
WHOIS goes beyond just the IP address. It tells you who registered the domain, when it expires, what nameservers it uses, and the registrar information. If you need the full picture of a domain — not just its IP — WHOIS is where you go.
Use our WHOIS Lookup to pull registration data, nameservers, and registrant info for any domain. Most domain owners enable WHOIS privacy protection, so you will see the privacy service's contact details instead of the actual owner. That is normal.
When to use this: You want more than just the IP. You are investigating a suspicious domain, verifying ownership, or checking when a domain expires.
What Can You Do with a Website's IP?
Knowing a website's IP is useful for network troubleshooting and research. But there are limits. Here is an honest breakdown.
- ✓Check which hosting provider a site uses
- ✓Verify DNS propagation after a migration
- ✓Bypass DNS issues by accessing the IP directly
- ✓Perform security research and reconnaissance
- ✓Block specific servers in your firewall rules
- ✓Test connectivity to the server with ping or traceroute
- ✓Find out if two domains share the same server
- ✗Access private data on the server
- ✗Hack the website (that is a crime, not a tutorial)
- ✗Find the site owner — usually behind WHOIS privacy
- ✗See the website's source code or database
- ✗Bypass authentication or access restricted pages
- ✗Determine the physical location of the server precisely
Common Gotchas
You ran a lookup, got an IP. Great. But the IP you see might not tell the full story. Here are four things that trip people up.
CDN IPs are not the real server
If a site uses Cloudflare, AWS CloudFront, Fastly, or any other CDN, the IP you get is the CDN's edge server — not the origin. The whole point of a CDN is to sit in front of the real server. You will see IPs owned by Cloudflare or Amazon, not the hosting provider. Run the IP through our IP Lookup tool to check who owns it.
Shared hosting means many sites on one IP
On shared hosting, dozens or even hundreds of websites share the same IP address. The server uses the Host header in your HTTP request to figure out which site to serve. If you navigate to the IP directly in your browser, you will probably see a default page or an error. Use our Reverse DNS tool to see what other domains share that IP.
IPs change
Cloud hosting providers (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) assign IPs dynamically. A site's IP can change after a redeployment, server migration, or even a routine infrastructure update. DNS records have a TTL (time to live) that tells resolvers how long to cache the result. If you are monitoring a site's IP, check it periodically — do not assume it is permanent.
IPv6 addresses look completely different
If you see something like 2607:f8b0:4004:800::200e, that is an IPv6 address — the newer, longer format. It works the same way, just with a much larger address space. Most websites have both an IPv4 (A record) and IPv6 (AAAA record) address. Our DNS tool shows both. For deeper IPv6 analysis, check our IPv6 tools.
When Would You Actually Need This?
Finding a website's IP is not just a party trick. Here are the situations where it actually matters.
Debugging DNS after a migration
You just moved your site to a new host and updated the DNS records. But is the new IP actually propagating? Run a lookup from multiple locations (or use dig @8.8.8.8 yourdomain.com and dig @1.1.1.1 yourdomain.com) to verify different DNS resolvers are returning the new IP. Propagation usually takes 1-48 hours depending on the old record's TTL.
Checking if a competitor uses Cloudflare
Look up their domain, grab the IP, then run it through an IP lookup. If the owner is "Cloudflare, Inc." the site is behind their CDN. You can also check the HTTP response headers for cf-ray — a dead giveaway.
Blocking a server in your firewall
If you know the IP of a domain you want to block at the network level, you can add a firewall rule for that IP. This is more reliable than DNS-based blocking because it works even if someone configures a custom DNS resolver. Just keep in mind that the IP might change (see the gotchas above).
Tracing the route to a slow website
Got a site that loads slowly? First, find its IP. Then run a traceroute to see every hop between you and the server. You will see exactly where latency spikes — is it your ISP, a peering point, or the server itself?
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Every website that is publicly accessible has at least one IP address. You can find it using a DNS lookup tool, the nslookup or dig commands in your terminal, or even the ping command. However, many websites use CDNs like Cloudflare, which means the IP you see is the CDN's edge server, not the origin server.
Large websites use multiple IP addresses for load balancing, redundancy, and geographic distribution. A DNS lookup for google.com might return several IPs, each pointing to a different data center. CDNs like Cloudflare and AWS CloudFront also return different IPs depending on your location to serve content from the nearest edge server.
Both query DNS servers, but dig provides more detailed output including TTL values, query time, and the full DNS response. nslookup is simpler and available on Windows by default. dig is preferred by network administrators and is the standard on Mac and Linux systems. For simply finding an IP, both work equally well.
If a website uses a CDN (like Cloudflare, AWS CloudFront, or Fastly), the DNS lookup returns the CDN's edge server IP, not the origin server. The CDN acts as a reverse proxy, hiding the real server IP. This is actually a security feature — it protects the origin server from direct attacks.
Yes. Once you have the IP address, use a WHOIS lookup or IP lookup tool to find the hosting provider. The results will show the organization that owns the IP range, which is usually the hosting company (e.g., Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, Cloudflare). This is useful for identifying a site's infrastructure.
Yes. Websites on cloud hosting or CDNs can change IPs frequently. Even traditional hosting providers may reassign IPs during server migrations. DNS records have a TTL (time to live) that controls how long the IP is cached. If you bookmarked an IP address instead of using the domain name, it may stop working when the IP changes.
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