--- title: "IP Geolocation Accuracy, Proven by Active Measurement" slug: "/accuracy.html" description: "How accurate is IP geolocation? See real IPs where other providers name the wrong country, and the ping, traceroute and BGP proof behind ours." --- # IP Geolocation Accuracy, Proven by Active Measurement Registry records say one country; the network sometimes says another. We verify IP geolocation with ping, traceroute and BGP data, and show where other providers get it wrong. [Get a free API key](https://app.ipgeolocation.io/signup) [Talk to our team](https://ipgeolocation.io/book-a-meeting.html) Speed of light check 1 of 4: 64.137.39.6, measured in the United States IP address 64.137.39.6 Round trip from Ashburn 0.49 ms 3 of 9 providers say United Kingdom United Kingdom ruled out In 0.49 ms, light in fiber only gets about 49 km from Ashburn and back. IPGeolocation.io United States ## IP geolocation accuracy, checked IP by IP IPs from today's measurements where at least four IP data providers named a different country and our active measurement proved ours right. Each row shows what we measured, what they returned and the network evidence behind the call. IPs compared 3,702,258,432 IPv4 addresses Last compared on 24 OCT 2026 Providers compared 9 other IP geolocation providers % Disputed 8.1% of compared IPs, where at least one provider disagrees | IP address Network | IPGeolocation.io Measured country | Other providers Countries returned | Evidence Closest vantage point | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [173.194.16.168](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/173.194.16.168) Hosting IPv4 | [Germany](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/DE) Confirmed | United States ×4 4 agree with IPGeolocation.io | 0.85 ms from Frankfurt within 85 km | | [31.217.128.217](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/31.217.128.217) ISP IPv4 | [France](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/FR) Confirmed | United Kingdom ×5 1 agrees with IPGeolocation.io | 1.08 ms from Paris within 108 km | | [213.220.58.1](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/213.220.58.1) Hosting IPv4 | [United Kingdom](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/GB) Confirmed | Spain ×2 5 agree with IPGeolocation.io | 0.93 ms from London within 93 km | | [185.3.30.7](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/185.3.30.7) ISP IPv4 | [Netherlands](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/NL) Confirmed | South Africa ×5 2 agree with IPGeolocation.io | 0.6 ms from Amsterdam within 60 km | | [169.53.18.92](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/169.53.18.92) Hosting IPv4 | [Spain](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/ES) Confirmed | United States ×5 2 agree with IPGeolocation.io | 1.56 ms from Madrid within 156 km | | [186.2.175.56](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/186.2.175.56) Business IPv4 | [Russia](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/RU) Confirmed | Belize ×4 2 agree with IPGeolocation.io | 1.57 ms from Moscow within 157 km | | [72.56.48.12](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/72.56.48.12) IPv4 | [Sweden](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/SE) Confirmed | United States ×3 2 agree with IPGeolocation.io | 0.76 ms from Stockholm within 76 km | | [78.47.173.185](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/78.47.173.185) Hosting IPv4 | [Finland](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/FI) Confirmed | Germany ×9 0 agree with IPGeolocation.io | 0.27 ms from Helsinki within 27 km | | [188.64.86.14](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/188.64.86.14) ISP IPv4 | [Czech Republic](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/CZ) Confirmed | Poland ×6 2 agree with IPGeolocation.io | 0.52 ms from Prague within 52 km | | [54.37.140.88](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/54.37.140.88) Hosting IPv4 | [Poland](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/PL) Confirmed | France ×2 4 agree with IPGeolocation.io | 0.58 ms from Warsaw within 58 km | | [185.160.45.109](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/185.160.45.109) Hosting IPv4 | [Greece](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/GR) Confirmed | India ×7 1 agrees with IPGeolocation.io | 1.65 ms from Athens within 165 km | | [172.225.196.7](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/172.225.196.7) Hosting IPv4 | [Ireland](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/IE) Confirmed | Bahrain ×6 1 agrees with IPGeolocation.io | 0.29 ms from Dublin within 29 km | | [92.39.114.90](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/92.39.114.90) ISP IPv4 | [Germany](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/DE) Confirmed | United Kingdom ×7 1 agrees with IPGeolocation.io | 0.93 ms from Frankfurt within 93 km | | [104.166.133.1](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/104.166.133.1) Hosting IPv4 | [France](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/FR) Confirmed | United States ×3 4 agree with IPGeolocation.io | 0.97 ms from Marseille within 97 km | | [205.234.240.41](https://ipgeolocation.io/what-is-my-ip/205.234.240.41) Hosting IPv4 | [United Kingdom](https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/GB) Confirmed | United States ×4 5 agree with IPGeolocation.io | 0.81 ms from London within 81 km | Showing 15 of 279 ## Why does country accuracy matter so much? ### The field everything depends on Accurate pricing, local forms, and tax checkouts all rely on getting the country right. When the country is wrong, region, city and time zone can go wrong with it, and so can localization and analytics. ### What a round trip proves A ping crosses fiber at about 200 km per millisecond and has to come back, so each millisecond of round trip allows at most 100 km. If the circle stays inside one country, physics settles the country. If it crosses a border, one ping isn't enough: traceroute paths, BGP routing data and pings from other servers fill the gap. ### The first test for any provider When evaluating raw IP data, you must always start by checking the country field. If an IP is in the wrong country, the fields that depend on it can be wrong too, which makes country errors the quickest way to spot weak data. ### Where IP geolocation accuracy starts IP geolocation accuracy starts with the country. City-level location, region, time zone, currency, calling code and language all build on it, and so do tax, compliance and content-licensing rules. A wrong country can make every one of them wrong too. It's also the quickest field to check from the outside, which makes it the clearest one to show here. Everything lines up ### Try IP Geolocation for yourself See accurate location data in real time with our APIs. [Get a free API key](https://app.ipgeolocation.io/signup) No credit card required ## How does active measurement prove an IP's location? Every IP in today's list was measured by our Vantage Network rather than taken from registry records. Each measurement leaves evidence you can read: how fast the IP answered, which path the packets took and which network announces the address. ### Ping from vantage points Global measurement points probe the IP and use latency to bound its possible location. Measurement points around the world send probes and time every reply. Light in fiber covers about 200 km per millisecond, so each round trip draws a circle the IP cannot sit outside. `Ping the IP from Frankfurt:``0.6 ms → within 60 km` ### Trace the path Traceroutes reveal the network path and last known hop leading to the IP. Traceroutes map the router hops between our vantage points and the IP. The hops nearest to it on the path show which networks carry its traffic, and we cross-check those clues against the round-trip times. `Read the IP's traceroute path:``last hop edge-1.fra-de.example.net` ### Read the routing table BGP routing data shows which network currently announces the IP's prefix. BGP data shows which network announces the IP's prefix right now. We process routing changes in real time, so a prefix that moves to a new network or a new country gets noticed. `Read BGP routing tables and announcements:``announced by AS64500 (DE)` ### Confirm the location A location is confirmed when the measurements agree on it, for the country and for the city. A location counts as confirmed only when consistent measurements agree on it, whether it's the country or the city. When they disagree with the registry, the network wins, and that is the location we return. `Combine the evidence:``Frankfurt, Germany (confirmed)` ## Multilateration: pinning an IP to a city Multilateration times one IP from many of our servers and finds the one place every answer agrees on. It's one of the layers in [how our IP geolocation data is built](https://ipgeolocation.io/blog/how-ip-geolocation-data-is-built). 1. ### Time becomes distance A ping's round trip caps how far away the IP can be. Light in fiber covers about 200 km per millisecond, so a 1 ms round trip puts the IP within 100 km of the server. 2. ### Every reply draws a circle The server sits at its center, and the IP is somewhere inside it. 3. ### The overlap is where the IP is Circles from different directions cut the area down to the part they all share. 4. ### Closer servers draw tighter circles Servers hundreds of kilometers away can only narrow the IP to a region. Servers tens of kilometers away narrow it to a city. Narrowed to 11 km 7 far servers narrow one IP to a region within about 130 km. 5 servers inside that region narrow it to within 24 km, and 3 servers about 10 km away narrow it to Philadelphia, within 11 km. ## Why do IP databases get the country wrong? Country errors come from trusting paperwork over the network. These are the four patterns behind them. ### Leased and transferred IPv4 blocks * With almost no new IPv4 space left to allocate, organizations buy, sell and lease address blocks across borders. * A lease often leaves the registry record as it was, and a sale can take a while to show up, so a database can keep the old country long after the block moved. ### Routing and location changes * A hosting company registered in Amsterdam can run its servers in Berlin. * Registry data ties a range to the head office; active measurements tie it to where the servers are. ### Prefixes that moved * When a prefix is announced from a network in another country, routing tables show the move right away. * Databases rebuilt from old registry records can keep the original country long after the move. ### Stale geofeeds and records * Network operators publish geofeeds (RFC 8805) to declare where their ranges are, then forget to update them. * We test every feed against live measurements before we trust it. Example for Leased and transferred IPv4 blocks: 203.0.113.0/24 IPv4 block. Registered to: Netherlands. Leased to: Germany. Registry record: Netherlands (still listed). ## What this page shows, and what it doesn't The examples here are country level because that's where an error is plainest to see. All of our location data, city level included, runs through the same measurement pipeline. ### Example IPs A few IPs where providers report different countries than our measurement. Real IPs from today's list above. ### Compare locations We check where each IP data provider says the IP is located, and compare it to our measurement. Each row stands on its own. We're looking for differences, not counting how often providers make them. ### Examples highlight where errors happen These IPs show where at least four IP data providers reported a different country than our measurement. This is not a provider ranking. The list shows where errors happen, not how often any provider makes them. ### Query providers Every day we check what other providers return for the same IPs. ### Every answer, by provider Each row lists what each IP data provider returned for the IP, by name, next to our measurement. ### Each row has its own evidence Each row stands on its own: our measurement of the IP, next to what each provider returned. ### Ignore unclear IPs Exclude IPs that do not answer probes. ### Remove edge cases Leave out anycast addresses and border-straddling results. What's left are IPs our measurements place inside a single country. ### Keep clear results Only rows with clear measurements make the list. ### User connects via VPN The user's traffic goes through a VPN server in another location. ### IP shows VPN server location The IP appears where the VPN server is, and that is the correct answer for the IP. ### We detect the difference Our VPN, proxy and relay detection identifies anonymized connections and tells them apart from regular users. ### Report the IP Send us an IP or location result that looks wrong. [Submit a correction](https://ipgeolocation.io/corrections.html) ### We verify with live measurements We measure the IP again from our servers and compare. ### We update if needed If the location is incorrect, we review and update it. ## Use measured location data in your stack Every location on this page comes from the data your app gets back. Put it behind fraud checks, localization and analytics, and start free with 1,000 credits a day. [Get a free API key](https://app.ipgeolocation.io/signup) [Talk to our team](https://ipgeolocation.io/book-a-meeting.html) No credit card required. * 64.4.244.38: 7 providers said the United States; our measurement placed it in Australia, 11,964 km away. * 81.52.188.35: 6 providers said France; our measurement placed it in South Africa, 8,172 km away. * 154.85.78.202: 4 providers said Singapore; our measurement placed it in the United Arab Emirates, 5,836 km away. * 190.98.179.214: 5 providers said Brazil; our measurement placed it in Colombia, 4,058 km away. * [IP Geolocation API Real-time lookups for any IPv4 or IPv6 address JSON · XML](https://ipgeolocation.io/ip-location-api.html) * [IP Geolocation Database Downloads for lookups on your own servers CSV · MMDB](https://ipgeolocation.io/ip-geolocation-database.html)