How to Check If an IP Is Native, Residential, ISP or Datacenter and Where It Geolocates

For cross-border e-commerce, ad accounts or AI and streaming access, you will often be asked whether you have a native IP. This guide shows how to check if an IP is native, how to tell residential, ISP and datacenter IPs apart, and where major databases geolocate it. Commands work on Debian/Ubuntu and CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux; Windows users can use the web tools mentioned.

Step 1: Understand Native, Residential, ISP and Datacenter IPs

• Native IP: the registered country in whois, the location of the announcing ASN and the server's real location all match, and databases agree. The opposite is a "broadcast" IP — registered in one country and used in another.
• Residential IP: assigned to home broadband customers; databases usually tag it residential or ISP.
• ISP IP: static addresses registered to an ISP but hosted in a data center, combining a residential-like profile with datacenter stability.
• Datacenter IP: registered under a hosting or cloud ASN; usually tagged hosting or datacenter.

Step 2: Look Up IP Geolocation and ASN with ipinfo.io

ipinfo.io returns the country, city and an org field ("AS number + organisation"). Run it on the server to see its public IP:

# Show this server's public IPv4 / IPv6 and location
curl -4 ipinfo.io
curl -6 ipinfo.io

# Look up a specific IP
curl ipinfo.io/203.0.113.10

Check that country is your target country and whether the organisation in org is an ISP or a hosting company.

Step 3: Detect Hosting and Proxy Flags with ip-api

The free ip-api endpoint (HTTP only, rate-limited) returns hosting, proxy and mobile flags:

curl "http://ip-api.com/json/203.0.113.10?fields=status,country,countryCode,regionName,city,isp,org,as,mobile,proxy,hosting"

"hosting":true means the database classifies it as a datacenter IP; "mobile":true means a mobile network. Each database uses its own logic, so treat it as a hint.

Step 4: Use whois for Country, Netname and ASN Type

whois data comes from the regional internet registries (RIPE NCC, APNIC, ARIN, AFRINIC) and is the most authoritative source for "native":

# Install the whois client
apt install -y whois        # Debian/Ubuntu
yum install -y whois        # CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux

# Registered country, netname and organisation
whois 203.0.113.10 | grep -Ei '^(country|netname|descr|org-name|orgname|origin):'

# ASN, BGP prefix, country code and AS name in one query
whois -h whois.cymru.com " -v 203.0.113.10"

With the AS number, check bgp.tools, PeeringDB or bgp.he.net to see the ASN type (ISP, hosting, business) and the prefixes it announces. Addresses under an ASN classified as ISP are more likely to be seen as residential/ISP IPs.

Step 5: Cross-Check MaxMind and Other Databases

Platforms use different IP databases, so compare the MaxMind GeoIP online demo, ipinfo, ip-api and aggregator sites in the style of ping0 that summarise type, risk score and native status. If most sources agree on the country and the type is ISP or residential, the IP is a good native IP.

Step 6: What to Do If a Database Shows the Wrong Country

New or recently moved ranges may still show an old country in some databases. First confirm that the whois country is correct. Then publish a Geofeed (RFC 8805) for the range — see the "Geofeed" tutorial — and submit correction requests on sites such as MaxMind and ipinfo. Updates usually take days to a few weeks. For IMIDC IPs, open a ticket and we can help update the Geofeed.

FAQ

whois says Hong Kong but one site says US. Is the IP not native?

Not necessarily. That site's database may simply be outdated. Trust whois and the majority of databases, and correct the outlier via Geofeed.

Can a datacenter IP become a residential IP?

No server setting changes it; the type depends on the registrant and ASN. If you need residential or ISP IPs, contact us — additional IPs are a paid service.

Why do IPv4 and IPv6 results differ?

They are separate addresses, each with its own location and type. Test them separately with curl -4 and curl -6.

If you still need help, open a support ticket with the IP and screenshots of the lookups and the IMIDC 24/7 team will assist.