What Is an IP Address? Why It Shapes What Your Team Sees
An IP address is the number that identifies a device on a network so that data can find it. For marketing and e-commerce teams it matters for a second reason: websites read it to estimate where a visitor is, and many use that estimate to choose the language, currency, prices, search results or ads they show. That is why the view from your office often isn’t the view your customers get.
Below: how an address routes a request, the two address formats, what a site learns from an IP, and the gap between public and private addresses. The last section shows how a proxy swaps the IP a site records, which is what lets a team see other markets.
We write these guides for e-commerce, marketing and agency teams that pay for proxies by the gigabyte.
How an IP address routes a request
An IP address works much like a delivery address. When a browser asks for a page, the request carries the device’s IP, which tells the server where the reply should go, and routers hand the data on, hop by hop, until it arrives. Without these addresses the network couldn’t tell which of billions of devices a response belongs to.
In an office or at home, devices normally reach the internet through one public IP that the internet provider assigns to the router. A proxy places a different IP in that path, so the site sees the proxy’s address instead of your company’s.
IPv4 and IPv6: the two address formats
Two versions are in use. IPv4 addresses are 32-bit and written as four numbers, such as 203.0.113.42, which allows about 4.3 billion addresses — a supply that has effectively run out. IPv6 addresses are 128-bit and written in hexadecimal, such as 2001:0db8:85a3::8a2e:0370:7334, giving an almost unlimited supply. The two run side by side today, as the table shows.
| Feature | IPv4 | IPv6 |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 32-bit | 128-bit |
| Format | Four dot-separated numbers, e.g. 203.0.113.42 | Hexadecimal groups, e.g. 2001:0db8::7334 |
| Address space | About 4.3 billion | Practically unlimited |
| Status | Exhausted but still dominant | Growing adoption |
What a website learns from an IP
From a public IP a site can estimate location, often to city level, identify the internet provider or hosting company, and see the network type through its ASN. It cannot see a name or a street address.
Those signals affect teams in two ways. First, sites may adjust prices, language and results by location, so checks run from the office show only your own market. Second, sites judge the network itself: an address owned by a hosting company is treated differently from one on a household ISP, and that gap explains the extra trust residential and mobile IPs get over datacenter ones. For the detail, see what is a residential IP.
Public and private addresses
Only some addresses are visible on the internet. A public IP is one of a kind across the whole internet, reachable from anywhere, and it is the one a website logs. A private IP, such as 192.168.x.x on an office or home network, only means something inside that network, and the same ranges are reused in millions of buildings. NAT on the router converts between the two.
Whatever the type, the site only ever sees the proxy’s public address. What varies is the network behind it — datacenter, residential or mobile — and that sets the level of trust.
Seeing other markets through a proxy
A proxy relays your request through an intermediary, so the site records the proxy’s IP and location rather than yours. A team can then present the country or city it needs — to read local search results, confirm ads run in the right market or research prices abroad — and spread large collection jobs over many IPs.
Every tier, from $3.50/GB, is listed on the pricing page. Use the proxy calculator to size a job, and buy now once the team is ready.
Match the pool to the workflow
Every pool is billed per GB and run from the same dashboard, so one team can keep low-cost volume work and high-trust checks side by side.
High-volume collection from unprotected sites, automation, SEO tools
Market research, ad verification and geo-accurate checks on protected sites
Phone-first platforms, app and mobile ad testing
Hard targets where every failed request is costly
Covering several markets in one report? MIX packages combine multi-country residential traffic in a single order. Agencies buying on behalf of clients can apply for the reseller programme.
Get your team running
Per-GB pricing from $3.50 · 55+ countries · instant delivery · 30-day validity · no traffic logs · 24/7 human support
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1
Size the job
Pick a proxy type in the proxy calculator and enter the gigabytes you expect to use to see the order total.
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2
Order and pay
Choose the pool on the proxies page and pay by card through Stripe or in crypto through Cryptomus. Each order is billed per GB and does not renew on its own.
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3
Share access
Credentials appear in the dashboard as soon as payment clears. Add them to each tool with a login or an IP whitelist, then send one test request before the real job starts.
Questions team leads ask
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