# IP lookup

A web-based tool to look up the geo, ASN, carrier, and reputation of any IPv4 / IPv6 address. Useful for confirming what a third party would see about an IP — especially for evaluating exit IPs returned by helodata or comparing against MaxMind / IPinfo.

Location: **Dashboard → Resources → IP lookup**, or the public version at [helodata.com/tools/ip-lookup](https://helodata.com/tools/ip-lookup).

## What it shows

Enter an IP, get:

* **Country, state, city** — from MaxMind, IPinfo, and helodata's own DB (three columns side by side)
* **ASN and carrier name**
* **IP type** — residential / mobile / datacenter / ISP / VPN-flagged
* **Reverse DNS** — PTR record, if any
* **Blocklists** — presence in major reputation lists (Spamhaus, AbuseIPDB, etc.)
* **Reachability** — TCP probe to ports 80, 443, 22 (we *do not* probe other ports)

\[screenshot: IP lookup result for a single address]

## Why three geo databases?

Different targets use different geo data. If you're seeing geo-restriction errors, the **target's** geo database is what matters — not ours. Side-by-side comparison helps you understand why your exit IP looks one way to helodata and another way to the target.

If all three disagree on a single IP, that IP probably moved recently and the databases haven't all caught up.

## Bulk lookup

For up to 100 IPs at once:

```bash
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer API_KEY" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
       "ips": ["198.51.100.42", "198.51.100.43", "203.0.113.5"]
     }' \
     https://api.helodata.com/v1/tools/ip-lookup
```

Response is a JSON array of the same shape as the UI.

For larger batches, page in 100-IP chunks. The lookup API is rate-limited like the regular API — see [Rate limits](/api-reference/rate-limits.md).

## Use cases

* **Confirm an ISP IP's metadata** before adding it to your scraper config
* **Audit a batch's geo distribution** — pull the list, run lookups, group by city
* **Investigate a 403 from a target** — does the target's IPinfo data flag this IP as VPN?
* **Verify a replacement IP** — when you request an IP replacement, lookup the new one to confirm it's residential before deploying

## Limits

* Free tier: 100 lookups/day (UI), 100 lookups/day (API)
* Pro+ plans: 10,000/day on both
* Enterprise: custom
* Bulk endpoint always counts as one lookup per IP

Exceeded? `429 too_many_requests` with `Retry-After` header.

## Privacy

Looking up an IP doesn't reveal your identity to that IP's owner. The tool queries the same third-party databases anyone can query for a fee — we're just consolidating them.

## Common pitfalls

* **IPs change frequently** — a lookup is a snapshot. An IP that's "residential" today might be "datacenter" next week if a hosting provider acquired the range.
* **VPN flag false-positives** — many residential IPs occasionally appear on VPN lists (the user installed a personal VPN once, the list never cleaned up). One flag isn't a definitive bad IP.
* **No internal IPs** — `10.0.0.0/8`, `192.168.0.0/16`, etc. always return "private range, no public data."


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.helodata.com/resources/ip-lookup.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.