IP location checker
Check the location of an IP address against the registry, and find out why it sometimes says the wrong city.
Results for 8.8.8.8
Approximate location
Mountain View, California, United States
DB-IP puts 8.8.8.8 in or near Mountain View. Take it as a good guess at the area, not a street address.
AS15169 · 8.8.8.0/24
The ARIN record has no country, so this is the owner's address. Not where the block is used
A rule of thumb. DB-IP gives no accuracy for single addresses.
A dot on a plain world grid, near 37.42, -122.08. The map is a rough guide: at this scale a dot covers far more than a city.
- IP location is approximate. It shows where an address block is used or registered, which can be far from the person using it: VPNs, mobile networks, carrier-grade NAT, satellite links and company networks often appear in another city or country.
- Google Public DNS is answered from many places at once, so one city says little about where it really is.
Sources compared2
We compare the two independent sources we have: DB-IP’s location, and the country the registry holds for the address block. They can disagree for good reasons.
| Source | Country | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| DB-IP Lite city database | US | United States |
| Registry record (RDAP), owner's address | – | United States (the record has no country of its own) |
DB-IP says US and the owner's address in the registry is in United States. The registry record has no country of its own, so this is the closest comparison. It supports the country, not the city.
About this data
- Location
- DB-IP Lite city database, 2026-11 release
- Network
- DB-IP Lite ASN database, 2026-11 release
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Updated
- Monthly, by DB-IP
Structured result (JSON) · 2.3 KB
{
"query": "8.8.8.8",
"kind": "ip",
"addresses": [
{
"ip": "8.8.8.8",
"version": 4,
"status": "located",
"location": {
"city": "Mountain View",
"region": "California",
"country": {
"code": "US",
"name": "United States",
"euMember": false
},
"continent": {
"code": "NA",
"name": "North America"
},
"latitude": 37.42,
"longitude": -122.08,
"precision": "city",
"typicalRadiusKm": 50
},
"network": {
"asn": 15169,
"organization": "Google LLC",
"range": "8.8.8.0/24"
},
"registry": {
"status": "found",
"name": "GOGL",
"ownerCountry": "United States",
"rir": "ARIN",
"range": "8.8.8.0/24"
},
"agreement": {
"verdict": "agree",
"sources": [
{
"source": "DB-IP Lite city database",
"country": "US",
"detail": "United States"
},
{
"source": "Registry record (RDAP), owner's address",
"detail": "United States (the record has no country of its own)"
}
],
"summary": "DB-IP says US and the owner's address in the registry is in United States. The registry record has no country of its own, so this is the closest comparison. It supports the country, not the city."
},
"anycast": "Google Public DNS is answered from many places at once, so one city says little about where it really is.",
"notes": []
}
],
"truncated": false,
"accuracy": "IP location is approximate. It shows where an address block is used or registered, which can be far from the person using it: VPNs, mobile networks, carrier-grade NAT, satellite links and company networks often appear in another city or country.",
"notes": [],
"data": {
"city": {
"builtAt": "2026-11-01T02:52:26.000Z",
"release": "2026-11"
},
"asn": {
"builtAt": "2026-11-01T02:52:43.000Z",
"release": "2026-11"
}
},
"attribution": {
"text": "IP geolocation by DB-IP",
"url": "https://db-ip.com",
"license": "CC BY 4.0",
"licenseUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}
}Why an IP location can be wrong
An IP address has no built-in position. Every location you see is an inference by a database company, drawn from registry records, routing data, network names and sometimes measurements. When the inference is wrong, the address shows the wrong city for everyone who looks it up with that database.
- The address belongs to a mobile network. Phones often reach the internet through a gateway in a central city, which can be hundreds of kilometres from the phone.
- A VPN or proxy is in use. The address is the exit server's, so the person appears in the country of the exit.
- Many customers share one address. With carrier-grade NAT, the address belongs to the provider, and its location is where the provider keeps it.
- The block changed hands. Address space is leased and sold. A database can keep the old owner's location for weeks or months.
- A company routes everything through one office. A branch in one city can appear as the head office in another.
Two sources, side by side
LookupOwl sets two independent answers next to each other. The first is DB-IP's location for the address. The second is the country in the registry record for the block, which comes straight from the regional internet registry. If both name the same country, you can lean on the country. If they differ, the page says so and explains the likely reason, such as an anycast service or a network registered in one country and used in another.
| DB-IP and the registry | What to conclude |
|---|---|
| Same country | The country is probably right. The city may still be a guess. |
| Different countries, CDN or anycast address | Neither says where a visitor is served. The address is announced from many places. |
| Different countries, ordinary address | The block is probably registered in one country and used in another. Trust the registry for ownership and DB-IP for use, with caution. |
| Only one source has an answer | Treat the answer as unconfirmed. |
How to check an address
- Look it upPaste the address, or a domain whose addresses you want to check. The headline gives the best guess and the badges give the caveats.
- Read the note under the answerIt states plainly that the location is approximate, and adds a note when the address is a CDN, an anycast service or a private range.
- Open the sources tabYou will see what DB-IP and the registry said for each address, so you can judge the disagreement yourself.
What to do about a wrong location
If you run the network, you can ask data providers to correct their records. Many accept a request through a form on their website, and network operators can publish a geofeed, a small file that lists the location of each address block (RFC 8805, linked from the registry record through RFC 9632). If you are an ordinary user and a site shows the wrong city, there is little to fix on your side. Switching networks or turning a VPN off changes the result, and the site can ask your browser for a precise location instead.
Questions people ask
Why does my IP address show a different city?
The database has placed your provider's address block in a different city. This is common on mobile data and on home connections where the provider routes traffic through a regional hub. The city is where the provider's equipment is, not where you are, and it can change when the provider moves its address blocks.
Does turning on a VPN change my IP location?
Yes. With a VPN on, websites see the VPN server's address, and that address is located where the server is. This page will show the exit country or city. A lookup of your own address through the What is my IP tool shows what sites see right now.
How often is the location data updated?
The DB-IP Lite databases are published monthly, and LookupOwl fetches the new release when it comes out. A change you made to your network may therefore take up to a month to show here, and longer in other databases, which update on their own schedules.
Is the registry country the same as the location?
No. The registry country is the country in which the owner registered the address block. It tells you who is responsible for the block, not where the equipment stands. Large companies often register blocks in one country and use them in many, which is why the page compares the two instead of treating them as one fact.
Can I get the exact coordinates of an IP address?
The page shows the centre of the area the database gives, rounded to about a kilometre. It is not a street address, and the area around it may be tens or hundreds of kilometres wide. No free database gives a reliable point for an individual address.
Why is the location of a website different from where its server is?
Many sites sit behind a content delivery network, which answers from the nearest of many locations. The address you see belongs to that network, so it says little about the origin server. Who hosts this website tells you when a site is behind a CDN.
Use it from AI, the API or the command line
Every LookupOwl tool is also a free API and an MCP tool, with no key and no account. This one is ip_location. Please be kind to the rate limits.
curl "https://lookupowl.com/api/v1/tools/ip-location?q=8.8.8.8"claude mcp add --transport http lookupowl https://lookupowl.com/mcp