Not for most browsing. Every large site still answers on IPv4, and carrier-grade NAT keeps IPv4-only customers working. IPv6 helps when you want a routable address per device without NAT, which matters for self-hosting, peer-to-peer applications, and some game consoles that report a strict NAT type on CGNAT.

Why does my IPv6 address change so often?

Most operating systems enable SLAAC privacy extensions (RFC 8981) and rotate a temporary address roughly every day for outgoing connections. The stable part is the /64 prefix your ISP delegates. That prefix can also change when your router reconnects, unless your ISP assigns it statically.

Why is my IPv6 address a different network than my IPv4 address?

You are carrying the two families over different paths. The common causes are a VPN that tunnels only IPv4 and leaks IPv6 to your ISP, or a tunnel broker like Hurricane Electric providing IPv6 on top of an IPv4-only ISP. If you use a VPN, treat this as a leak and check the VPN verdict.

My router says IPv6 is enabled but this test says no IPv6. Why?

Enabling IPv6 in the router UI only turns on the client. The router still has to receive a prefix from the ISP by DHCPv6 prefix delegation and advertise it on the LAN. Check the router status page for a delegated prefix and a global address on the WAN interface, not just the setting toggle.

Does an IPv6 address identify me more precisely than IPv4?

It can. Behind CGNAT, thousands of IPv4 customers share one address. An IPv6 /64 usually belongs to one household, so it is a narrower identifier. Geolocation accuracy does not improve; it stays approximate and reflects ISP routing, not a street.

What Is My IPv6 Address?

Check whether your connection has working IPv6, and see which family your browser actually used to reach us.

This request

The address your browser used to load this page, and the family it chose when both were on offer.

Arriving address

216.73.216.7IPv4

Announcing network

AS16509 — Anthropic, PBC

IPv6 check

Runs in your browser

Verdict

The answer in one line: one of four results, from the two probes plus the family this page arrived on.

Testing both address families…

Two requests are running, one to an IPv4-only hostname and one to an IPv6-only hostname. Each gives up after 2.5 seconds.

Could not test without JavaScript

The test needs your browser to call two single-family hostnames, so it cannot run from the server. The address above is still correct: this page arrived over IPv4.

From a terminal, curl -6 https://v6.whatsmyip.fyi/ip and curl -4 https://v4.whatsmyip.fyi/ip answer the same question.

How the test works

Two hostnames exist for this: v4.whatsmyip.fyi has an A record only, and v6.whatsmyip.fyi has an AAAA record only. The page fetches a small JSON payload from each. A hostname with only one record type cannot fall back to the other family, so a success proves that family works end to end, not just that a DNS answer existed.

The third data point is the connection you are already on. The request that rendered this page carried a source address, and that address tells us which family your browser chose when both were available. Comparing “can” against “did” is what separates the first two verdicts.

Common reasons IPv6 is missing

The ISP does not offer it. Adoption varies widely by country and by carrier. Mobile networks are usually far ahead of fixed-line ones.
The router has no delegated prefix. IPv6 on the LAN depends on DHCPv6-PD from the ISP. Some ISP-supplied routers ship with it off.
A third-party router replaced the ISP one. Reconfigure the WAN interface for DHCPv6 with prefix delegation, and enable router advertisements on the LAN.
The device disabled it. Windows, macOS, and Linux all allow disabling IPv6 per interface, and some VPN clients do it deliberately to prevent leaks.

Limits

This test measures your browser’s path to our edge. It does not prove that every IPv6 destination is reachable from your network, and it says nothing about IPv6 inside your LAN. Address family selection also depends on the operating system’s policy table, so a device on the same network can produce a different verdict than yours.

About this tool

This page loads a resource over an IPv6-only hostname and an IPv4-only hostname, then reports which family you have and which one your browser chose for the request that reached us. You get both addresses, both ASNs, and a single verdict. If IPv6 is missing, the page names the usual reason and what to change, which is often the ISP rather than anything on your device.

How to read the result

Verdict: IPv6 working and preferred: Both the A and AAAA probes succeeded, and the request that reached the edge arrived over IPv6. Your OS resolver and browser applied RFC 6724 destination address selection and chose the v6 path.
Verdict: IPv6 available, browser preferred IPv4: The IPv6-only probe succeeded, so the path exists, but the request that reached the edge came over IPv4. Happy Eyeballs (RFC 8305) races both families and falls back to IPv4 when the v6 handshake is slower or fails intermittently.
Verdict: No IPv6: The IPv6-only probe failed, so this connection has no IPv6 at all. Either your ISP does not deliver it, your router does not request a prefix by DHCPv6-PD, or IPv6 is disabled on this device or interface.
Verdict: Could not test: One or both probes timed out or were blocked before returning a result. A captive portal, a corporate proxy, or an extension that blocks cross-origin requests will produce this, and we would rather say so than guess.
IPv4 address and ASN: The source address of the IPv4 connection, and the autonomous system that announces the prefix containing it.
IPv6 address and ASN: The source address of the IPv6 connection and its announcing ASN. An ASN different from your IPv4 ASN usually means a tunnel broker or a VPN carrying only one family, so one of your two connections is going somewhere else.

Questions people ask

Do I need IPv6?: Not for most browsing. Every large site still answers on IPv4, and carrier-grade NAT keeps IPv4-only customers working. IPv6 helps when you want a routable address per device without NAT, which matters for self-hosting, peer-to-peer applications, and some game consoles that report a strict NAT type on CGNAT.
Why does my IPv6 address change so often?: Most operating systems enable SLAAC privacy extensions (RFC 8981) and rotate a temporary address roughly every day for outgoing connections. The stable part is the /64 prefix your ISP delegates. That prefix can also change when your router reconnects, unless your ISP assigns it statically.
Why is my IPv6 address a different network than my IPv4 address?: You are carrying the two families over different paths. The common causes are a VPN that tunnels only IPv4 and leaks IPv6 to your ISP, or a tunnel broker like Hurricane Electric providing IPv6 on top of an IPv4-only ISP. If you use a VPN, treat this as a leak and check the VPN verdict.
My router says IPv6 is enabled but this test says no IPv6. Why?: Enabling IPv6 in the router UI only turns on the client. The router still has to receive a prefix from the ISP by DHCPv6 prefix delegation and advertise it on the LAN. Check the router status page for a delegated prefix and a global address on the WAN interface, not just the setting toggle.
Does an IPv6 address identify me more precisely than IPv4?: It can. Behind CGNAT, thousands of IPv4 customers share one address. An IPv6 /64 usually belongs to one household, so it is a narrower identifier. Geolocation accuracy does not improve; it stays approximate and reflects ISP routing, not a street.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05.