How Tailscale assigns IP addresses

Tailscale makes it easy to connect to your Tailscale network (known as a tailnet) by providing you with a stable IP address for each node such as a device or a server. These addresses stay the same, no matter where nodes move to in the physical world, making them easy to manage and share with non-technical users.

By default, every device receives an IP address in the 100.x.y.z range. This IP address is auto-assigned based on the device and authorization credentials and cannot be changed by hand.

Finding your Tailscale IP address

Linux

On Tailscale v1.8 or later you can use the tailscale ip command. Use the --4 flag to only return an IPv4 address.

tailscale ip --4

On any version of Tailscale, you can also find the IP address by using the system ip utility:

ip addr show tailscale0
Windows

Open the app menu from the system task bar and look for the IP listed in the dropdown.

macOS

Open the menu bar app and look for the IP listed in the dropdown. You can also locate your IP by running ifconfig and searching for a utun address with a listed 100.x.y.z IP address.

iOS

Log in to your network and look at the IP for the first device in the list. Your iOS device will always display at the top.

Android

Log in to your network and look for the IP listed at the top of the app.

Mapping machine names to IP addresses using DNS

For information on this topic, see How DNS works in Tailscale.

Forcing an IP address to change

Once issued, your node’s IP address will not change for as long as the node remains registered. Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are fixed.

A node will get a new IP address when it rejoins a tailnet if:

  • It is removed from the tailnet, by selecting Remove in the Machines page of the admin console
  • Tailscale is reset and reinstalled on the node
  • The disk is wiped and the node key is lost

In all of these cases, you will need to re-authenticate Tailscale.

You cannot set a desired IP address.

Tailscale IPv6 local address prefix

Tailscale IPv6 addresses are assigned from the unique local address prefix of fd7a:115c:a1e0::/96.

Previously IPv6 addresses were assigned from fd7a:115c:a1e0:ab12::/64.

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