Who allocates IP addresses?

IANA assigns pools to five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs): ARIN, RIPE NCC, APNIC, LACNIC, and AFRINIC. ISPs and enterprises receive allocations or assignments from their RIR; WHOIS reflects that delegation chain down to customer assignments when published.

An Autonomous System Number identifies a network that runs BGP and presents a coherent routing policy on the internet. An IP WHOIS result often includes the origin ASN for a prefix, which helps you understand whether traffic is coming from a cloud provider, ISP, or enterprise backbone.

Why doesn’t WHOIS name a person for every IP?

Privacy law, dynamic addressing, and carrier practices mean many records stop at the ISP or hosting company with an abuse contact. Geolocation databases infer city-level data from routing and crowdsourcing—it is approximate, not authoritative.

How accurate is IP geolocation?

Good enough for broad region or country in many cases; poor for exact street address. Mobile NAT, VPNs, anycast, and satellite backhaul skew results. Treat geolocation as a hint; use WHOIS for network attribution and [DNS](/dns-lookup) for hostname intent.

How is IP WHOIS different from domain WHOIS?

Domain WHOIS is about DNS registration under a TLD. IP WHOIS is about number resources and routing authority. A hostname resolves via DNS to an IP; WHOIS on that IP tells you the network operator, not necessarily the domain registrant—use [domain WHOIS](/domain-whois) for the name side.

IP Whois

v1.0.0

IP Whois Lookup returns the owner organization, ISP, ASN, allocation dates and regional internet registry (ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, etc.) for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Use it for incident response, network mapping, abuse reporting and routing investigations.

IP information will appear here

Resolve an IP to its registered holder, netblock, RIR, and ASN context. Essential for abuse handling, peering questions, and understanding where traffic really originates.

Read the full guide →

Frequently Asked Questions

Who allocates IP addresses?: IANA assigns pools to five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs): ARIN, RIPE NCC, APNIC, LACNIC, and AFRINIC. ISPs and enterprises receive allocations or assignments from their RIR; WHOIS reflects that delegation chain down to customer assignments when published.
What is an ASN?: An Autonomous System Number identifies a network that runs BGP and presents a coherent routing policy on the internet. An IP WHOIS result often includes the origin ASN for a prefix, which helps you understand whether traffic is coming from a cloud provider, ISP, or enterprise backbone.
Why doesn’t WHOIS name a person for every IP?: Privacy law, dynamic addressing, and carrier practices mean many records stop at the ISP or hosting company with an abuse contact. Geolocation databases infer city-level data from routing and crowdsourcing—it is approximate, not authoritative.
How accurate is IP geolocation?: Good enough for broad region or country in many cases; poor for exact street address. Mobile NAT, VPNs, anycast, and satellite backhaul skew results. Treat geolocation as a hint; use WHOIS for network attribution and [DNS](/dns-lookup) for hostname intent.
How is IP WHOIS different from domain WHOIS?: Domain WHOIS is about DNS registration under a TLD. IP WHOIS is about number resources and routing authority. A hostname resolves via DNS to an IP; WHOIS on that IP tells you the network operator, not necessarily the domain registrant—use [domain WHOIS](/domain-whois) for the name side.