How "Near Austin, TX" Works (And Why It's Approximate)
Updated
TL;DR
IP geolocation estimates a visitor's location by matching their network address to a database of where that address range is used, so it gives a nearby city, not a street, and it is sometimes wrong. whoisbrowsing shows only an approximate city such as "near Austin, TX", never an identity, and we never store or show IP addresses.
How the guess is made
Every request from a browser reaches a server from some network address. Address ranges are assigned to internet providers, companies and mobile carriers. Databases map ranges to places, built from registry data, network measurements and other signals. A lookup turns an address into "probably around this city".
This is a statistical guess about a network, not a measurement of a person. It does not know the visitor's name, device owner or home.
Where it is accurate and where it is not
Accuracy varies a lot, and we will not give you a percentage, because the honest answer depends on the database and the network. The patterns are well understood:
| Situation | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Home broadband in a city | Often the right metro area, sometimes a neighbouring town |
| Mobile networks | Often the carrier's regional hub, which can be far from the phone |
| Office or campus network | The location of the network's exit, not the desk |
| VPN or privacy relay | The VPN's exit location, not the visitor's |
| Companies with several sites | One site stands in for all |
| New or reassigned address ranges | Can be out of date |
So "near Austin, TX" means "this connection appears to be routed near Austin". It might be a person in Round Rock, or someone on a VPN, or a phone using a hub in Austin.
Why we say "near"
The word is deliberate. We show a nearby city and not a street, a postcode or coordinates, because the data cannot support more and a precise-looking answer would mislead you. The city exists to answer broad questions: is the launch traffic from the US or from India, is the local newspaper mention working, are my visitors in the time zone I think they are in.
What whoisbrowsing shows and does not
- Shown to the owner: an approximate city, next to the page, source, device, browser, operating system, time on site and pages this visit.
- Not shown: a name, an email, an address, an IP address or any identity.
- Not stored: we never store or show IPs. Nothing about your visitors is stored on our servers.
- Not captured: Your visitors' browsers send the page, pointer position, clicks, scroll, device type, source, browser and operating system, and time on site. Never keystrokes, form values or page text.
Visitors from the EU/EEA, UK and Switzerland, and browsers with Global Privacy Control, are never shown, so the city of such a visitor never appears either. See Is live visitor tracking GDPR-safe? for the rules in plain language, and the privacy page.
Using the city well
A few sensible habits:
- Treat it as a hint. Do not act on a single visitor's city.
- Look at patterns across several visitors, such as where the busiest page's visitors are.
- Expect mobile and VPN visitors to be off.
- Never try to work out who someone is from a city. There is no identity in the data, and a city is shared by many people.
Try it on yourself
The quickest way to build intuition is to watch your own line. Open your site in a Chrome Incognito or Safari private window while you watch, and note the city it shows for your connection. Then switch your phone to mobile data and open the site there: the city may jump to the carrier's regional hub. If you use a VPN, its exit location takes over. One caution: an exit in the EU/EEA, UK or Switzerland means you will not appear at all, because visitors from those regions are never shown.
Can I turn it off or make it more precise?
We do not offer a more precise location, on purpose. If you need exact location for a feature on your own site, that is a separate permission your visitor grants in their own browser, and it has nothing to do with this live view.
When whoisbrowsing is NOT the right tool
If you need reliable location data for decisions, such as tax, delivery or compliance, IP geolocation is the wrong source and so is any live visitor tool built on it. Ask for the address from the person.
Learn more
See how the live view fits together in How it works, and how a visit's source is labelled in Referrers, direct traffic and AI assistants. It is free, and you can try it without signing in.