Where possible, our geolocation data is based on the location of the end-users of the IP address or networks. In certain cases we may additionally provide geolocation data related to the country where the IP address is registered. Learn more about registered country data.
Depending on your product or service, our data includes a number of data points about the geolocation of IP addresses, including:
- names of continents, countries, cities, and subdivisions,
- our confidence that we have accurately located the IP address to a specific country, city, or subdivision,
- a geographic area which can be mapped, within which the IP address is likely to be located,
- codes for the continent, country, subdivision, postal area, and metro area,
- GeoName IDs,
- time zones,
- a flag for countries that are in the European Union,
- and a flag to identify Anycast networks.
Geolocation names
Our geolocation name data includes the names of the continent, country, city, and subdivisions of the location of the IP address. We include the country names in English, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, French, and German.
If you need to get the name of your location in another language, you can use the GeoName ID to look it up. Learn more about GeoNames IDs below.
Geolocation name data is included in the following products and services. Click the link in the table to go to the product page for the products or service on our main website:
| Name Data | GeoIP2 Databases | GeoIP2 Web Services |
|---|---|---|
| For Continents and Countries | ||
| For Cities and Subdivisions |
Our developer portal has specifications for our geolocation name data:
- Read the database specifications for our geolocation name data in our developer portal.
- Read the API specification for geolocation name data outputs for our web services:
Confidence factors
Confidence factors are our confidence, expressed as a percent, that our geolocation values are correct. We provide confidence factors for the country, city, subdivisions, and postal code values that we return. Confidence factors can help you determine how much trust to put in the specific values being returned for the geolocation of an IP address.
Confidence factors are included in the following products and services. Click the link in the table to go to the product page for the products or service on our main website:
| Confidence Factors | |
|---|---|
| GeoIP2 Databases | GeoIP2 Web Services |
Our developer portal has specifications for our confidence factors:
- Read the database specifications for our confidence factors data in our developer portal.
- Read the API specification for confidence factor outputs for our web services:
Geolocation area
In addition to providing the continent, country, city, and subdivision of the geolocation for an IP address, our products also return data that can be used to define the mappable area within which the IP address is likely to be located. This area is defined by a circle with its center at a particular latitude and longitude, and an accuracy radius.
In the example above, MaxMind returns the coordinates 42.1293, -72.7522 with an accuracy radius of 100km. The actual geolocation of the IP address is likely within the 100km-radius circle shown above.
IP geolocation is inherently imprecise, and should never be used to locate individuals or specific households. We are able to geolocate IP addresses with differing levels of precision, ranging from 5 km to hundreds of km, but you should not assume that the IP address is located at or near the center of this geographic area. Learn more about how to use our mappable geolocation areas on our blog.
The geolocation area is only included in products and services that also contain city-level geolocation data. These products and services are listed in the table below. Click the link in the table to go to the product page for the products or service on our main website:
| GeoIP2 Databases | GeoIP2 Web Services | |
|---|---|---|
| Geolocation Area |
Our developer portal has specifications for our geolocation area data:
- Read the database specifications for our geolocation area data on our developer portal.
- Read the API specification for our geolocation area for our web services:
Geolocation codes
Our data includes codes that can be used to identify the continent, country, subdivision, and postal or metro code area of the geolocation of the IP address. The codes follow these conventions:
| continent |
a two-character continent code, as follows:
|
| country | the two-character ISO 3166-1 country code |
| subdivision | the region-portion of the ISO 3166-2 code for the region |
| postal | the region-specific postal code near the IP address |
| metro | MaxMind provides the same metro codes as used by Google Marketing Platform. Returned only for IP addresses located in the United States. |
Geolocation codes are included in the following products and services. Click the link in the table to go to the product page for the products or service on our main website:
| Geolocation Codes | GeoIP2 Databases | GeoIP2 Web Services |
|---|---|---|
| For Continents and Countries | ||
| For Subdivisions, Postal, and Metro Areas |
Our developer portal has specifications for our geolocation codes:
- Read the database specifications for our geolocation codes in our developer portal.
- Read the API specification for geolocation code outputs for our web services:
GeoNames IDs
GeoNames develops a geographical database released under a creative commons attribution license. GeoNames IDs can be used to look up locations and access a variety of data about those locations. You can use GeoNames IDs to look up additional information about a location, including the name of the location in various languages. You can also use the GeoNames ID as a unique identifier for locations. Learn more about GeoNames on their website.
GeoNames IDs are included in the following products and services. Click the link in the table to go to the product page for the products or service on our main website:
| GeoNames IDs | GeoIP2 Databases | GeoIP2 Web Services |
|---|---|---|
| For Continents and Countries | ||
| For Cities and Subdivisions |
Our developer portal has specifications for GeoNames IDs:
- Read the database specifications for our geolocation codes in our developer portal.
- Read the API specification for geolocation name data outputs for our web services:
Time Zone
Our products and services with city-level geolocation data also include the time zone for the location of the IP address.
The time zone is only included in products and services that also contain city-level geolocation data.
In our products with city-level geolocation data, when we are able to geolocate a network to the country level, but we're unable to geolocate the network to any finer-grained geolocation (for example, there is no subdivision, city, or postal data for the network), we will return the default time zone for the country that the network is located to.
The following products and services contain time zone data. Click the link in the table to go to the product page for the products or service on our main website:
| GeoIP2 Databases | GeoIP2 Web Services | |
|---|---|---|
| Geolocation Area |
Our developer portal has specifications for our time zone data:
- Read the database specifications for our time zone data in our developer portal.
- Read the API specification for our time zone outputs for our web services:
European Union flag
Our data contains a flag to indicate whether the IP address is located in a country that is part of the European Union. This flag is included in all of our geolocation products and services:
| GeoIP2 Databases | GeoIP2 Web Services | |
|---|---|---|
| European Union Flag |
Our developer portal has specifications for our European Union flag:
- Read the database specifications for our European Union flag in our developer portal.
- Read the API specification for European Union data outputs for our web services:
Anycast flag
Our data contains a flag to indicate whether a network is an Anycast network. Anycast routing allows multiple servers to share the same IP address. The Anycast flag helps identify instances where geolocation for a particular IP address might not be provided due to Anycast routing.
| GeoIP2 Databases | GeoIP2 Web Services | |
|---|---|---|
| Anycast Flag |
Our developer portal has specifications for our Anycast flag:
- Read the database specifications for our Anycast flag in our developer portal.
- Read the API specification for Anycast data outputs for our web services:
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