Quick Links

Key Takeaways

  • You can find and change your Mac's IP address through the Network panel in System Settings or by using Terminal commands.
  • Changing your IP address can help resolve network conflicts, such as when you receive an "another device is using your IP address" message.
  • If you set a manual IP, it's important to reserve this in your router to make sure your Mac consistently uses the same address.

Need to double-check your Mac's IP address or adjust it to avoid a network conflict? We'll show you how to easily find and change the IP address of your Mac.

How to Find Your IP Address on a Mac

The easiest way to check your Mac's IP address is through the Network panel in System Settings. Click the Apple menu in the top-left of your screen and choose System Settings to open it, or use Cmd + Space to search for "settings" with Spotlight.

Here, click Network from the left sidebar to open the relevant menu. Your current network shows at the top, with a green Connected dot—this is Wi-Fi, assuming you're using a wireless connection. Click the one you're using.

On the resulting page, you'll see the name of your current network at the top. Click the Details button next to this to open a new window with full information about the network.

Mac Network System Settings panel

There, you'll see an IP address field, which displays the current private IP address of your Mac on your network. For convenience, the Router's IP address is also shown. You can select these addresses to copy and paste them elsewhere.

Mac View IP Address in System Settings

View Your Mac's IP Address Through the Terminal

The above method is quick and reliable, but you can also see your Mac's IP address using a Terminal command if you don't want to click through multiple menus. Open Terminal by searching for it on Spotlight (Cmd +Space).

Next, enter the following command to show your IP address on a Wi-Fi connection:

        ipconfig getifaddr en0
    

For an Ethernet connection, use this command instead:

        ipconfig getifaddr en1
    
Mac check IP in Terminal

Either way works; if you can memorize this handy Terminal command, it's a bit faster than clicking through the System Settings menus.

How to Change the IP Address of Your Mac

While viewing your computer's IP address is enough in some cases, what about when you need to get a new IP address on your Mac? This is necessary if you see the "another device is using your IP address" message, though you can change your IP address for other reasons too.

To change your Mac's IP address, head back to the same Network menu mentioned above. On the window where you confirmed your Mac's IP address, click the TCP/IP menu on the left. This shows more details about your Mac's current network connection. Next to Configure IPv4, you'll probably see Using DHCP.

Mac TCP IP Network Menu

DHCP, or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, allows routers to automatically manage IP addresses. This is why when you connect a new device to your network, you don't have to manually select an open IP address for it.

To get a new IP address from your router, click the Renew DHCP Lease button. This will result in your computer releasing its IP address and getting a new one, which should resolve any duplicate IP errors.

How to Set a Manual IP Address on macOS

If you want more control over your Mac's network settings, you can assign an IP address manually (also called a static IP). With this option, the specified address will not change for your device, which can further help resolve issues with duplicate IP addresses.

To set a static IP address on your Mac, return to the TCP/IP tab mentioned above. In the Configure IPv4 field, click Using DHCP and change it to Using DHCP with manual address.

Mac set DHCP with Manual Address

You can also choose Manually if you want. However, the former option is more convenient as it only has you specify the IP address, so you don't need to confirm other information like your router's IP.

Finding an Unused IP Address

When setting a manual IP, you'll need to choose an IP address that isn't already in use on your network. Otherwise, you'll create a duplicate IP problem. While you can log into your router to check IP addresses in use, it's faster to check for an open one using the Terminal.

To do so, you first need to know the IP format of your network. You'll find this on the TCP/IP tab visited earlier—the address of the Router is the format your network uses. This is often 192.168.0.X (with the last digit being unique to each device) but you should double-check what yours is.

Once you know, use Cmd + Space to open Spotlight and search for Terminal. Then enter the following command to ping an address and see if it exists on your network, replacing the address with one you want to use:

        ping 192.168.0.102
    
Mac Find Open IPs using Terminal

If this results in something like 64 bytes from 192.168.0.102 followed by other information, that means a device with that address exists on your network and is responding to your ping. Don't use that address for your Mac; try the ping command again with a new address until you find one that's available.

If you have lots of devices on your network, you might wish to use the arp -a command to filter out unavailable options. This displays all IP addresses on your network at once, showing what's already in use.

When your ping to an IP repeatedly shows Request timeout, you've found a free address. You can enter that IP address in the IPv4 Address field of the Network settings page. Once you do this and confirm with OK, your Mac's IP address will stay the same unless you change it.

Reserving a Manual IP in Your Router

For best results, when you set a manual IP address on your Mac, you should also reserve that address in your router. That way, your router knows that your Mac expects to always use the same address.

To open your router's management panel, open your browser and type the IP address that appears next to Router in the TCP/IP panel you used earlier. You'll then need to log in with your router admin and password, which is different than the password you connect to Wi-Fi with.

If you've never logged into your router before, check Routerpasswords.com to find the default for yours, then be sure to change it for security. And if you're not familiar with working in a router, you may want to read our general router introduction first.

IP address reservation options will differ slightly depending on your router. On my ASUS router, for instance, the relevant menu is under LAN > DHCP Server. Turn Enable Manual Assignment on, then in the box below, you can select a device and reserve an IP address for it. You don't need to change the DNS Server, but you may want to set the Host Name, Description, or similar box to remember what's what.

Reserved IP in ASUS Router

Given that the router identifies devices by MAC address (not related to the Mac platform), you'll need to pick out your Mac from the list. I've previously named my devices (under Network Map) to make them easier to identify. If you're not sure which item is your Mac, you'll need to find your Mac's MAC address manually.

See our guide to static IP addresses for more help.

IP Address Conflict Troubleshooting

If you needed to change your Mac's IP address because you saw an "another device is using your IP address" error, resetting and renewing your IP address or assigning a manual IP should have fixed the problem. If not, we have a guide to fixing IP address conflicts that you should consult next.

No two devices on your network can have the same address, since your router won't know which is which. This is why you see this message, which shouldn't happen unless your router is acting up or you've manually assigned a duplicate address.

However, it can also happen if a computer is in hibernate mode for a long time; when it wakes up, it might have an old IP address that your router has since assigned to something else. In that case, releasing and renewing the address as described above should fix it.

Public vs. Private IP Addresses on Mac

Finally, we should quickly mention the two different kinds of IP addresses for clarity.

Everything we discussed above pertains to private IP addresses, which are used only on your network. Most home networks use the same range of addresses (often starting with 192.168.0.X), but those values are only used by your local network. A manual (or static) private IP makes it easier to locate devices on your network by their IP addresses.

In contrast, your public IP is what the rest of the internet sees when any device on your network goes online. While you can pay your ISP for a static IP address, a dynamic public IP is fine for most people. Your public IP doesn't affect the "another device is using your IP address" error that you might see on your Mac.

To find your public IP, simply Google "what is my IP address" or visit a site like MyIP.com. We've compared public and private IPs if you'd like more info. And if you want to change your public IP, try one of the best VPN services.

We've looked at how to view your Mac's IP address, as well as changing it if needed. In most cases, you can rely on DHCP and don't need to manage IP addresses manually. While setting addresses by hand does have its uses, the increased overhead isn't worth it unless you're doing so to troubleshoot a problem.