How to Find a Device's MAC Address: Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, Router

Why You'd Want to Find a MAC Address

A MAC address is the unique hardware identifier of a device's network card. You might need it to add a device to a router allowlist, troubleshoot networking, take a hardware inventory, or spot an unknown device on your Wi-Fi. Here's how to find it on each platform.

Windows

Method 1 (command line, fastest):

1. Press Win + R, type cmd, press Enter
2. Type ipconfig /all and press Enter
3. Under the right adapter, find the Physical Address, e.g. 40-6C-8F-18-2C-03

Method 2 (Settings): Settings → Network & Internet → Properties, look for "Physical address (MAC)".

macOS

1. Hold the Option key and click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar — the address is shown
2. Or: System Settings → Network → Details → Hardware, see "MAC Address"

iPhone / iPad

1. Settings → Wi-Fi
2. Tap the ⓘ next to the connected network
3. Read the Wi-Fi Address

⚠️ Note: iOS enables "Private Wi-Fi Address" by default, so this shows a randomized address, not the device's real hardware address. For the real one, check General → About → Wi-Fi Address, or temporarily turn off "Private Address" for that network.

Android

Settings → About phone → Status (or "Device status") → Wi-Fi MAC address. Note that Android may also use a randomized MAC by default.

Router: See Which Devices Are Connected

To see what's on your Wi-Fi (for example, to spot a freeloader):

1. Open your router's admin page in a browser (usually 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1)
2. Log in and find "Device management / Connected devices / DHCP client list"
3. The list shows each device's MAC address

After You Have the MAC: Identify the Vendor

Once you have a real MAC address, its first three bytes (the OUI) reveal the device's manufacturer. Enter it in our MAC address lookup to find the vendor — a quick way to figure out what an unknown device in your DHCP list actually is.

To understand the full structure of a MAC address, read What Is a MAC Address; to learn why randomized addresses can still be tracked, see Machine Learning Defeats MAC Randomization.

Summary

Finding a MAC address takes only a few steps on any platform. The one thing to watch for is the randomized address modern phones use by default — it belongs to no vendor, so use the device's real hardware address when looking up the manufacturer.