How to Find Your IP Address in Linux

I checked the address assigned to this Linux machine with the iproute2 tools and an external address service. Use ip -br addr for addresses on local interfaces, ip route get 1.1.1.1 when a script needs the route-selected source address, and curl -4 -s icanhazip.com for the public IPv4 address.

These commands answer different questions. Your private address belongs to an interface on the local network, while your public address is the source address an outside service sees after network address translation.

Private and public IP addresses are different

Find the private IP with ip -br addr

The ip command from iproute2 lists addresses assigned to every interface.

ip -br addr

Read the address on the interface that carries your network traffic, not 127.0.0.1 on lo. This server reports 10.0.0.76/24 on enp0s6, plus several container bridge addresses.

Ask the routing table which address leaves the host

A machine with VPNs, containers, or several network cards can have several valid private addresses. Ask the kernel which source address it would use for a destination.

ip route get 1.1.1.1

Look for src in the output. A script that needs the primary route can extract that field rather than guessing from interface order.

Find the public IP from outside the machine

Local interface commands cannot know the public address when a router performs NAT, so query an address-echo service from the terminal.

curl -4 -s icanhazip.com

• Use curl -s ifconfig.co for plain text when either address family is acceptable.
• Use curl -4 -s icanhazip.com to request IPv4 only.
• Use wget -qO- icanhazip.com when curl is unavailable.
• Use dig +short myip.opendns.com @resolver1.opendns.com when DNS egress is available but HTTP is restricted.

An echo service sees the address presented to it, not necessarily an address assigned directly to your Linux interface. Treat the returned value as public network information.

Why ifconfig is missing

ifconfig belongs to the older net-tools package and is not installed on many current distributions. Use ip addr for the supported interface view.

sudo apt install net-tools

Install net-tools only when an older script or troubleshooting procedure requires ifconfig. For new scripts, ip addr and ip route expose more of the kernel’s current network state.

Choose the command for the task

For a script, make both lookups fail visibly instead of printing empty values.

priv=$(ip route get 1.1.1.1 | awk '{print $7; exit}')
pub=$(curl -4 -s --max-time 5 icanhazip.com)
[ -n "$priv" ] && printf 'private: %s\n' "$priv" || printf 'private: lookup failed\n'
[ -n "$pub" ] && printf 'public: %s\n' "$pub" || printf 'public: lookup failed\n'

The max-time limit prevents an unavailable network from holding the script forever. For related diagnostics, continue with our Linux ping guide, traceroute guide, and netstat and nslookup guide.

When DNS itself needs attention, compare the result with our change DNS on Linux guide and the wget IPv4 and IPv6 guide.

Frequently asked questions