What is my location?

There are two answers below: what your IP address gives away, and what your device reports itself once you allow it.

How accurate is a location based on your IP address?

Location from an IP address is an estimate. Providers publish where each range of addresses is used, and databases like ipinfo.io turn that into a map. The country is almost always right, the city usually, and that is where it stops: your street and house number are nowhere in there.

On mobile internet, and with providers that route their traffic through one central point, you can easily end up a hundred kilometers away. That is not a measurement error. The address really is used there, you just happen to be somewhere else.

The GPS button above works differently. It asks your browser for the location of the device itself, based on GPS, nearby Wi-Fi networks and cell towers. That is accurate to within a few meters, and it only happens after you click allow. Refuse, and the estimate from your IP address is all that is left.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my location wrong?

Probably because your provider registers the address somewhere other than where you are. On mobile internet, business lines and VPNs that is the rule rather than the exception.

Can a website see my street address?

Not from your IP address, and not without you clicking allow. Only once you give the browser permission for your location does an accurate position become available.

How do I change the location websites see?

With a VPN or proxy in another country. Watch out that your time zone and language settings move along with it, or the difference stands out right away.

Why does this page ask for my location?

Only so it can put the GPS position next to the estimate from your IP address. You can ignore the prompt, the rest of the page works fine.

What does a mismatch between my time zone and my location mean?

Then your IP address points at a different country than the clock on your device. For websites that is a well-known sign that there is a VPN in between.