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Guides / Find your MAC address

How to find your MAC address on an iPhone or iPad

The hardware address is in About. The address your Wi-Fi network sees is usually a different one, and that is on purpose.

Short answer

Open Settings, tap General, tap About, and scroll down to Wi-Fi Address. The steps are the same on iOS 27 and iOS 26, and on iPad.

The hardware Wi-Fi address

Settings

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Tap About.
  4. Scroll down. The MAC address is listed as Wi-Fi Address. The Bluetooth address is right below it.
Tip: Touch and hold the address until Copy appears, then paste it wherever you need it.

The address your network actually sees

Since iOS 14 an iPhone makes up a private Wi-Fi address for each network it joins and uses that instead of the hardware one. Since iOS 18 the setting has three options:

  • Off: the phone uses its hardware address, the one shown in About.
  • Fixed: a made-up address that stays the same on this network but is different on every other network. This is the default for networks protected with WPA2 or better.
  • Rotating: a made-up address that changes every two weeks. This is the default for open networks and ones with weak security.

So if you are adding the phone to a router's allow-list, parental controls or a captive portal, the address in About is probably not the one you need.

To check or change it for a network

  1. Open Settings and tap Wi-Fi.
  2. Tap the (i) button next to the network. If you are not connected to it, tap Edit in the top-right corner first.
  3. Tap Private Wi-Fi Address and choose Off, Fixed or Rotating.
Note: The same screen shows the Wi-Fi Address the phone is using on that network. Apple's documentation does not mention it, but it has been there since iOS 14. Forgetting a network throws its private address away, and resetting network settings gives every network a new one.

Looking up an iPhone's vendor

A private address has its locally administered bit set and was never registered with the IEEE, so a lookup on our home page will say "locally administered" rather than "Apple". Look up the hardware address from About if you want to see the vendor. If a device on your network shows up as locally administered and you do not recognise it, there is a good chance it is a phone or tablet doing exactly this.

Note: Apple's full description of the setting is in its article on private Wi-Fi addresses .

These steps follow Apple's documentation .