How Is IP Geolocation Determined, and How Accurate Is It?
How IP Geolocation Works
IP geolocation is not real-time positioning. It queries offline databases that map IP ranges to locations and operators; the result is the registered location of the IP block.
Data Sources Used by This Site
- ip2region: a popular Chinese offline database with province, city and ISP data.
- GeoLite2 (MaxMind): international database with country, city, coordinates, timezone and ASN.
- All data is stored locally; lookups never call third-party APIs and return in milliseconds.
How Accurate Is It
IP geolocation is usually accurate to city or ISP level, not street level. Mobile users may see the registration city of the operator. Coordinates represent the registered reference point, not the device's physical location.
When Results Can Be Wrong
- Proxies and VPNs show the proxy server's location.
- Some corporate or cloud IPs are registered far from their actual data centers.
- Databases can lag behind newly allocated IP ranges.
- ISP IP pools may rotate across regions.