> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.ipcheck.ing/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.ipcheck.ing/knowledge-base/diagnose/why-is-my-ip-location-wrong.md).

# Why Is My IP Location Wrong?

A site says you are in a city three hundred kilometres away. Or in the right country but the wrong state. Or, occasionally, in the wrong country entirely. Almost always, nothing is broken.

{% hint style="success" %}
**Quick answer.** An IP address does not contain a location. Geolocation companies *estimate* one from registration records and network measurements. Country is usually right. City is an educated guess. If your city is wrong there is essentially nothing you can do — and it rarely matters. If your **country** is wrong, that is worth reporting to the database vendors.
{% endhint %}

## Where the location actually comes from

There is no GPS in an IP address. Every "your location" you see online is the output of a database, and those databases are built from a handful of imperfect ingredients:

* **Registry records.** Regional internet registries publish which blocks of addresses were allocated to which organisation, in which country. This is why country accuracy is high.
* **What the operator declares.** ISPs can publish hints about where they use each block. Some do this carefully. Some do not update it for years.
* **Measurement.** Vendors time network responses from many known locations and infer roughly where an address must sit. Clever, but approximate.
* **Inference from user data.** Some vendors correlate addresses with signals from apps and devices that already know their own position.

The result is a best guess. Different vendors weigh the ingredients differently, which is why they disagree.

Longer explanation: [GeoIP: How IP Geolocation Works](/knowledge-base/concepts/geoip-explained.md)

## How accurate should you expect it to be?

| Level           | Realistic expectation                                                     |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Country         | Usually correct                                                           |
| Region or state | Often correct, but far from guaranteed                                    |
| City            | An estimate — commonly the location of your ISP's regional hub, not yours |
| Coordinates     | Usually the centre of a city or region, never your address                |

{% hint style="warning" %}
The coordinates a geolocation database returns are not where you are. They are the centre point of a whole area. Many databases fall back to a country's geographic centre when they have nothing better — which is how random buildings end up receiving angry visitors.
{% endhint %}

## Check it across several sources

This is the useful thing MyIP does here. It does not have one opinion; it has several.

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

#### Switch the geolocation database

Open **Preferences → IP Geolocation Database**. MyIP can query IPCheck.ing, IPinfo.io, IP-API.com, IPAPI.is, IP2Location.io, IP.sb, and MaxMind. Pick a different one and the cards re-query immediately.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Compare the answers

Run through three or four vendors and note what each says.

* **They all agree and they are all wrong** — the address genuinely is registered or measured that way. There is nothing to fix at your end.
* **They disagree** — some vendors simply have staler data for your block. The majority answer is your best estimate.
  {% endstep %}

{% step %}

#### Look up the address on its own

Use the search button (the magnifying glass) to look up any address directly, or open **Advanced Tools → Whois Search**. Whois shows who the block is registered to and in which country — the raw registration behind the estimate.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

## Why yours is probably wrong

| Situation                                 | What happens                                                                                                                                                |
| ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| You use a VPN or proxy                    | You are located wherever the exit server is. That is the whole point.                                                                                       |
| You are on mobile data                    | Carriers route large regions through a few central gateways. Your address often reports the gateway city.                                                   |
| You are behind carrier-grade NAT          | You share one public address with many households, sometimes across a whole region. See [Am I Behind CGNAT?](/knowledge-base/diagnose/am-i-behind-cgnat.md) |
| Your ISP recently re-allocated the block  | Databases can lag by weeks or months behind a re-assignment                                                                                                 |
| You are on satellite or business internet | Addresses are often registered at a corporate headquarters far from you                                                                                     |
| Small or new ISP                          | Less measurement data exists, so estimates are coarser                                                                                                      |

## What you can actually do

**If the city is wrong:** in practice, nothing — and it usually does not matter. City-level data is used for rough ad targeting and weather defaults, not for anything that depends on precision.

**If the country is wrong:** this is worth acting on, because it affects which version of a site you get, whether payments succeed, and whether streaming works at all.

* Contact your ISP first. If they publish incorrect registration data for the block, only they can correct it at the source.
* Submit a correction to the individual database vendors. Most of the major ones publish a correction form. Each vendor is separate — fixing one does not fix the others.
* Expect it to take weeks. Sites also cache their own copies of these databases.

**If one specific site has you in the wrong place:** the site may not be using an IP database at all. It might be using your account's saved address, your browser's language setting, your timezone, or a CDN edge location. Check that site's own settings before blaming the address.

<details>

<summary>The location is right but the ISP name is wrong</summary>

Common, and harmless. Address blocks get sold, leased, and sub-allocated. The name attached to a block is whoever holds the registration, which may be a wholesale carrier rather than the retail brand you pay. **Advanced Tools → Whois Search** shows the registration chain, and the ASN details on each IP card show which network actually announces the address. See [What Is an ASN?](/knowledge-base/concepts/what-is-an-asn.md)

</details>

<details>

<summary>My VPN says one country, MyIP says another</summary>

Providers move server capacity between locations, and databases take time to catch up. It is also common for providers to advertise a "virtual location" while the hardware sits elsewhere. Try a different geolocation database in Preferences before assuming your provider is lying — and if every vendor agrees the exit is somewhere other than advertised, ask the provider.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Can I make sites see a different location?</summary>

Only by changing where your traffic exits — that is, using a VPN or proxy with a server in the location you want. You cannot edit what a database says about your own address. Beware of anything claiming otherwise.

</details>

## Still stuck?

* [GeoIP: How IP Geolocation Works](/knowledge-base/concepts/geoip-explained.md) — the concept in full
* [Reading Your IP Cards](/knowledge-base/getting-started/reading-your-ip-cards.md) — what each field on a card means
* [Whois Search](/knowledge-base/lookup-privacy/whois-search.md) — see the raw registration data for any address


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