Your router lists a device called "Unknown" with a string like 3E:5B:91:C4:0D:72. A hotel asks you to register your console by MAC address. A school says "send us your device's MAC". All three want the same thing: six pairs of letters and numbers that identify one piece of network hardware.
A MAC address is a 12-character hardware ID that every network adapter has: your Wi-Fi chip, your Ethernet port, your Bluetooth radio. Other devices on the same network use it to tell who is who. It has nothing to do with Apple's Mac computers. MAC stands for media access control.
- A MAC address is 48 bits, written as 12 hex characters. It belongs to a network adapter, not to the whole device. A phone has at least a Wi-Fi one and a Bluetooth one.
- It only travels as far as your local network or Wi-Fi range. Websites never see it.
- Modern phones and laptops swap it for a random one on public Wi-Fi. A random address has 2, 6, A or E as the second character.
- A VPN doesn't hide your MAC address, because it never leaves the local link in the first place. Private Wi-Fi settings handle that part.
What is a MAC address?
Every device that connects to a network does it through a network interface, a chip that talks over Wi-Fi, a cable or Bluetooth. The manufacturer gives each interface an identifier. That's the MAC address, also called the physical address, hardware address, Wi-Fi address or burned-in address. Different menus use different words for the same thing.
It's one address per interface, not one per device. A laptop with Wi-Fi and an Ethernet port has two. A phone has one for Wi-Fi and another for Bluetooth.
Local networks use it to deliver data. When your router sends a page to your phone, it addresses the data frame to your phone's MAC address on the last leg of the trip. That's why it's called a layer 2, or data link, address in the networking model. The part you're used to, the IP address, does the work on the larger journey.
There are 2^48 possible addresses, about 281 trillion. The IEEE, the standards body that hands out the manufacturer blocks, keeps the registry. Wikipedia has a readable summary of the address structure.
What a MAC address looks like
Six pairs of hexadecimal characters (0 to 9 and A to F), separated by colons or hyphens, or with no separator at all:
00:00:5E:00:53:AF
00-00-5E-00-53-AF
00005E0053AFThat example comes from a block that the standards document RFC 7042 reserves for documentation, so it doesn't belong to any real device.
The address splits in two:
- The first three pairs are the OUI, the organizationally unique identifier. It names the manufacturer that bought the block from the IEEE. Public lookup tools can turn an OUI into a company name, which is how network scanners show "Apple" or "Intel" next to a device.
- The last three pairs are assigned by that manufacturer, one per adapter, so no two adapters in the world should share one.
How to tell if an address is random
This is the part most guides skip. Look at the second character of the first pair. In 3E:5B:91:C4:0D:72 it's E.
Inside the first pair, one bit says whether the address came from the manufacturer or was set by software. It's set to 1 for software. In hex, that means the second character is 2, 6, A or E on an address meant for one device (a unicast address, which is what your phone uses). So:
- 2, 6, A or E as the second character: the address was assigned by software, which in practice means your phone or laptop is using a random private address on that network.
- Anything else: it's most likely the real hardware address.
If your router shows two entries for your phone, or an address that doesn't match the one on the box, this is usually why.
MAC address vs IP address
| MAC address | IP address | |
|---|---|---|
| Identifies | A network adapter | A connection on a network |
| Assigned by | The manufacturer (or random, by your OS) | Your router (private) or your provider (public) |
| Changes | Rarely, unless randomized | Often, when you change networks |
| Reach | Your local network only | The whole internet |
| Example | 00:00:5E:00:53:AF | 192.168.1.24 |
The simplest way to remember it: the MAC address says which adapter you are. The IP address says where you currently are. We explain the second one in What Is an IP Address?.
They work as a pair. When your laptop wants to reach a device on your home network, it knows the IP address but needs the MAC address to actually send the frame. A protocol called ARP handles that lookup. You can see the result on your own computer:
arp -aThat prints the IP addresses and MAC addresses of the devices your computer has recently talked to. Microsoft documents the Windows version, and macOS and Linux have the same command.
Once data leaves your network, your router swaps the MAC addresses for the next hop's, and every router on the way does the same. Your MAC address stays on your local link and doesn't reach the website you're visiting.
What is a MAC address used for?
- Delivering data. A router or switch uses it to send data to the right device on a local network.
- Reserving addresses. Routers can always give the same IP to the same MAC address. It's how a printer keeps its address.
- Controls and filters. Parental controls, guest lists and "block this device" buttons usually identify a device by its MAC address.
- Registration. Hotels, universities and some internet providers link access to a MAC address, which is why they ask for one.
- Inventory. IT teams use it to track which devices are on a network.
- Presence analytics. Shops and venues with Wi-Fi can count repeat visitors by the MAC addresses their phones send out. More on that below.
How to find your MAC address
Which address you find depends on the adapter. Use the Wi-Fi one for Wi-Fi, the Ethernet one for the cable.
Windows. Open Command Prompt and run ipconfig /all. Look for "Physical Address" under your Wi-Fi or Ethernet adapter. getmac /v prints them as a list. In Windows 11 you can also open Settings, Network & internet, Wi-Fi, and look under the hardware properties.
Mac. Open System Settings, Network, pick Wi-Fi, click Details and look at Hardware. If Private Wi-Fi Address is on, the Wi-Fi tab shows the private one for that network.
iPhone and iPad. Open Settings, General, About and read Wi-Fi Address. To see what a particular network sees, open Settings, Wi-Fi and tap the info button next to the network. That's the private address.
Android. Open Settings, About phone, Status information (the name varies by brand) and read Wi-Fi MAC address. For one network, open its details and look under Privacy, where you can choose between a random and the device MAC address.
Linux. Run ip link and read the link/ether line.
Game consoles and smart TVs. Look in the network settings or the system information screen. PlayStation and Xbox list wired and wireless addresses separately.
Another device on your network. Open your router's admin page and read the list of connected devices. It shows the MAC address next to each name.
If a service asks for your MAC address and it doesn't match what your phone shows, ask which one they want. Networks that expect the real hardware address may need you to turn private addresses off for that network.
MAC address randomization: why your phone has a fake one
A device that looks for Wi-Fi sends out small signals asking nearby networks to answer. In those signals sits its MAC address, unencrypted. Anyone with a cheap radio nearby can read it, and because a hardware address never changes, the same phone can be recognised at the mall, at the airport, and at a café across town.
That's a real privacy problem, and the standards bodies know it. RFC 9797 lists how the address is exposed to anyone within radio range, including wireless network operators. The US government's own mobile threat catalogue from NIST says a persistent MAC address "readily enables physical tracking" of a device.
It has happened at scale. In January 2014, CBC News published a Snowden document showing that Canada's signals intelligence agency, CSEC, had used data from a major airport's free Wi-Fi to follow the wireless devices of travellers for a week or more as they showed up in other hotspots. The agency disputed that it had "tracked" anyone, and said it was analysing historic metadata for a model of network activity, but the document is a clear picture of what an unchanging identifier makes possible.
Operating systems now fight this with private or random addresses:
- Apple. iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch use a different private address on each Wi-Fi network. Since iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia 15, you can choose Off, Fixed or Rotating for each network. Fixed keeps the same private address on that network, and is the default on networks with WPA2 or stronger security. Rotating changes it every two weeks, and is the default on open networks. Details are on Apple's support page.
- Android. From Android 10, the phone uses a randomized address by default, and keeps it the same for a given network until a factory reset. Newer versions can re-randomize on some networks. The Android documentation lists the exact rules.
- Windows. Windows has a switch for random hardware addresses, for all networks or for one network, as long as your Wi-Fi adapter supports it. Microsoft describes it on its Wi-Fi support page.
Randomization has a cost. Anything that remembers devices by their MAC address can lose track of you: a router that reserves an IP for your phone, parental controls, a hotel or campus network that registered your device, an "unknown device" alert on a mesh system. eero lists the features that can be affected. The usual fix is to set that one network to a fixed private address, or to turn private addresses off for a network you trust and control, like your home Wi-Fi.
Can a MAC address be changed or spoofed?
The address burned into the hardware doesn't change. Software can override it, though, and that is what "MAC spoofing" means: the adapter announces a different address than the one it was built with. Operating systems do it themselves for randomization, and network engineers use it for testing or to replace a device without reconfiguring a network.
Spoofing is also the reason MAC filtering, where a router only admits devices on an approved list, isn't real security. An attacker can read an approved address from the air and copy it. Smallstep's write-up walks through why. Use a strong Wi-Fi password and WPA2 or WPA3 as protection, and treat a MAC list as housekeeping.
Using a spoofed address on a network that isn't yours, or to dodge a ban, can break its terms of use and the law. Check the rules before you try it.
Who can see your MAC address?
| Who | Sees your MAC address? |
|---|---|
| Websites and apps you visit | No. It doesn't leave your local network |
| Your router and Wi-Fi owner | Yes, for every device connected |
| Hotel, café or airport Wi-Fi | Yes, the one you used to connect |
| Someone within Wi-Fi range | Yes, if your device uses its real address while scanning |
| Your internet provider | Only the address of the device it connects to, usually your modem or router |
This is the limit of MAC-based tracking. A stranger on the other side of the world can't read it, but anyone physically near you or running the network can. That's why it matters most on public Wi-Fi: see Can the Wi-Fi Owner See What You Search? for what else the network can see. On an iPhone, a related setting hides your IP from known trackers: Limit IP Address Tracking on iPhone.
Does a VPN hide your MAC address?
No. A VPN encrypts your traffic and swaps your public IP address for the VPN server's. Your MAC address works at a layer below that, between your device and the router, and it never travels across the internet anyway. A VPN can't change what your device announces to the Wi-Fi next to it.
So the two tools do different jobs. The private Wi-Fi address setting on your device controls how you look to the Wi-Fi radio and the network operator. A VPN controls what the network, and everyone between you and the website, can read about your traffic. On a hotel or airport network you want both. If you're setting one up for the first time, our guide to setting up a VPN covers it, and what a VPN tunnel is explains where the protection starts.
Travellers sometimes meet the opposite problem. A hotel Wi-Fi that registered your laptop's MAC address won't let your phone on. A travel router can copy a registered device's address so everything behind it passes through: we cover that in What Is a Travel Router?.
If you want to see what a network learns about you, Atomic VPN shows your exposure on its homepage: IP, city, provider, browser and DNS. Your MAC address isn't on that list, and that's the point: websites don't get to see it.
Your device can look different to the Wi-Fi radio, but the hotel or airport network still reads what you send unless it's encrypted. A VPN covers that half.
FAQ
What is a MAC address in simple terms?
It's the unique ID of a network adapter, like a serial number for your Wi-Fi or Ethernet chip. Devices on the same network use it to find each other.
What does MAC stand for?
Media access control. It has no connection to Apple's Mac computers, and every Windows PC, phone and printer has MAC addresses too.
Is a MAC address the same as an IP address?
No. A MAC address identifies the adapter and only works on the local network. An IP address identifies a connection and is used across the internet.
Can two devices have the same MAC address?
Not by design, because manufacturers get their own blocks. It can happen if someone copies an address by hand, and then both devices on that network will have trouble connecting.
Is a MAC address permanent?
The hardware address is. The one your phone shows a network may not be, because private addresses are generated by software and can rotate or reset.
Can someone find my location from my MAC address?
Only if they are close enough to pick up your Wi-Fi signal, or if they run a network that you joined, like a shopping centre's. Someone online can't find you from it. Phone location services do use the MAC addresses of nearby routers to place you, but that's the router's address, not yours.
Can I find a MAC address of another device on my network?
Yes. Check your router's list of connected devices, or run arp -a on your computer.
How do I find the MAC address on my phone?
On iPhone: Settings, General, About, Wi-Fi Address. On Android: Settings, About phone, Status information, Wi-Fi MAC address. Both can differ from the address a given network sees if private addresses are on.
Does a factory reset change my MAC address?
The hardware address stays the same. On Apple devices, resetting network settings or erasing the device makes the private Wi-Fi address change the next time you join a network.
Should I turn off private Wi-Fi addresses?
Leave them on for public Wi-Fi. Turn them off or set them to Fixed for a network you manage if something depends on knowing your device, like IP reservations or parental controls.
Does a VPN change my MAC address?
No. A VPN changes your public IP address and encrypts your traffic. Your MAC address only matters on the local network.
