IP Address Converter

IP address formats explained

Every IPv4 address is a 32-bit number. The different formats are simply different ways to represent that same number. Network engineers, developers, and security professionals use different formats depending on the context.

Dotted Decimal

The most common format — four octets separated by dots (e.g. 192.168.1.1). Each octet is a decimal number from 0 to 255 representing 8 bits of the address. This is the format used in virtually all network configuration.

Binary

The raw 32-bit representation (e.g. 11000000.10101000.00000001.00000001). Essential for understanding subnetting, since subnet masks work by splitting the address at a specific bit boundary. Useful when calculating network/host portions manually.

Hexadecimal

A compact representation using base-16 (e.g. 0xC0A80101). Common in programming, packet captures, and memory dumps. Each pair of hex digits represents one octet. Frequently seen in Wireshark, firewall logs, and low-level networking code.

Integer / Long

The address as a single unsigned 32-bit integer (e.g. 3232235777). Used in databases for efficient IP storage and comparison, ACL processing, and geolocation lookups. Allows simple range checks with standard comparison operators.

Octal

Base-8 representation with each octet shown in octal (e.g. 0300.0250.0001.0001). Rarely used in practice but important to understand — some systems interpret leading-zero numbers as octal, which can cause subtle configuration bugs.

Private vs public IP ranges

RFC 1918 defines three private address ranges that are not routable on the public internet. These are used inside organizations and behind NAT devices:

• 10.0.0.0/8 — 16.7 million addresses. Used in large enterprise networks.
• 172.16.0.0/12 — 1 million addresses. Common in medium-sized organizations.
• 192.168.0.0/16 — 65,536 addresses. The standard range for home and small office networks.

All other unicast addresses (excluding reserved ranges) are public — globally routable and reachable from anywhere on the internet.

IP classes

The original classful addressing scheme divided the IPv4 space into five classes based on the leading bits of the first octet. While CIDR has replaced classful routing, the terminology is still widely used:

Class A (1–127)

Large networks. Default mask /8. Supports ~16.7 million hosts per network.

Class B (128–191)

Medium networks. Default mask /16. Supports ~65,534 hosts per network.

Class C (192–223)

Small networks. Default mask /24. Supports 254 hosts per network.

Class D (224–239)

Multicast. Not assigned to individual hosts. Used for group communication.

Class E (240–255)

Reserved for experimental use. Not routable.