What Is a MAC Address? How to Find Yours on Any Device

Every network interface — every Wi-Fi card, Ethernet port, Bluetooth adapter — has a MAC address burned into its hardware. It's a 48-bit identifier, usually written as six pairs of hexadecimal digits: 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E or 00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E depending on the platform.

MAC stands for Media Access Control. It operates at Layer 2 of the OSI model — the data link layer — and it's how devices on the same local network segment identify each other. Unlike IP addresses, MAC addresses don't change based on the network you're on. They're tied to the hardware itself.

MAC vs. IP: What's the Difference?

This confuses a lot of people, so it's worth being precise.

IP addresses are logical addresses assigned by your router or ISP. They can change — when you connect to a different network, you get a different IP. IP addressing works across networks, across the internet.

MAC addresses are physical addresses embedded in the hardware. They're used for communication on your local network segment — between your laptop and your router, for example. MAC addresses don't travel past your router onto the internet.

When your laptop sends data to a website, it uses the MAC address to reach the router on your local network. From there, the router strips out the MAC layer and forwards the IP packet outward. By the time your request reaches a web server, your MAC address is long gone.

This is why websites can't see your MAC address, and why MAC address "privacy" is about your local network exposure (to your router, and potentially to Wi-Fi access points nearby), not internet exposure.

What a MAC Address Looks Like

A MAC address is 48 bits, typically written as 6 bytes in hexadecimal:

00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E

The first three bytes (00:1A:2B) are the OUI — Organizationally Unique Identifier. This is assigned to the manufacturer by the IEEE. Look up the OUI of any MAC address and you can tell who made the network card.

The last three bytes (3C:4D:5E) are assigned by the manufacturer to uniquely identify that specific device. Combined with the OUI, the full 48 bits should be globally unique for any given hardware.

To look up who manufactured a device from its MAC address, use the MAC Address Lookup tool — enter the first six characters and it returns the manufacturer.

How to Find Your MAC Address

Windows

Method 1 — Settings: Settings → Network & Internet → your connection → Properties → scroll to "Physical address (MAC)"

Method 2 — Command Prompt:

ipconfig /all

Look for "Physical Address" under each adapter. You'll see entries for Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and any virtual adapters.

Method 3 — PowerShell:

Get-NetAdapter | Select-Object Name, MacAddress

This gives you a clean list of all adapters with their MAC addresses.

macOS

Method 1 — System Settings: System Settings → Network → your connection → Details → Hardware tab — MAC address is listed here.

Method 2 — Terminal:

ifconfig

Look for the ether line under en0 (Wi-Fi) or en1 (Ethernet):

en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether 00:1a:2b:3c:4d:5e

Or more specifically:

ifconfig en0 | grep ether

Linux

ip link show

Look for the link/ether line under each interface:

2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500
    link/ether 00:1a:2b:3c:4d:5e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Or to see just a specific interface:

cat /sys/class/net/eth0/address

Android

Settings → About phone → Status → Wi-Fi MAC address

(Location varies slightly by manufacturer and Android version.)

iPhone / iPad

Settings → General → About → Wi-Fi Address

MAC Address Randomisation

Modern operating systems randomise MAC addresses for Wi-Fi networks by default. Instead of broadcasting your real hardware MAC, your device uses a randomly generated address that changes per network (and sometimes periodically on the same network).

This was introduced to prevent tracking. Wi-Fi access points can log which MAC addresses they see and when — historically this was used by retail analytics companies to track how often individual devices visited a location. Randomisation breaks this.

On iPhone: Enabled by default per network. Settings → Wi-Fi → [your network] → Private Wi-Fi Address shows if it's on.

On Android: Enabled by default in recent versions. Per-network toggle in Wi-Fi settings.

On Windows 11: Settings → Network & Internet → Wi-Fi → Random hardware addresses — can be set globally or per-network.

The trade-off: some networks use MAC filtering for access control (only allowing known MAC addresses to connect). If your device is randomising, you may need to either disable randomisation for that specific network or add the randomised MAC to the allowlist. Most home and corporate networks don't use MAC filtering, so this is rarely an issue.

MAC Filtering: What It Is and Why It's Not Real Security

Many router admin panels offer "MAC filtering" or "MAC access control" — the ability to create an allowlist of MAC addresses that can connect to the network.

It sounds like security, but it isn't. MAC addresses are transmitted in plaintext with every packet and can be trivially read and cloned by anyone with a wireless adapter in monitor mode. Spoofing a MAC address takes seconds and requires no special tools:

Linux:

ip link set eth0 down
ip link set eth0 address 00:1a:2b:3c:4d:5e
ip link set eth0 up

macOS:

sudo ifconfig en0 ether 00:1a:2b:3c:4d:5e

MAC filtering creates administrative overhead with no meaningful security benefit against anyone who knows what they're doing. Use WPA3 (or WPA2 with a strong password) — that's actual network security.

DHCP and MAC Addresses

Your router's DHCP server assigns IP addresses based on requests from devices. Many routers let you create a DHCP reservation (sometimes called a static lease) — you tie a specific MAC address to a specific IP address so that device always gets the same local IP.

This is useful for:

• Port forwarding (which requires a fixed local IP to forward to)
• Network printers and servers you want at a predictable address
• Monitoring specific devices

Find your device's MAC address, go to your router's DHCP settings, and create a reservation. The device will always be assigned the same local IP as long as it presents that MAC address.

The Bottom Line

A MAC address is the hardware-level identity of a network interface. It's how devices talk to each other locally, before IP routing takes over. It never leaves your local network under normal circumstances.

To find yours: ipconfig /all on Windows, ifconfig on macOS/Linux, or dig through Settings → About on mobile. To look up the manufacturer from a MAC address, use the MAC Address Lookup tool.

If you're setting up port forwarding or DHCP reservations, the MAC address is what you'll need — it's the only reliable identifier for a device on your local network.