Generate Random IP Address: Full Guide

There are billions of connected devices over the internet, with 20 billion IoT devices in 2025 forming only a part of it. But how do they communicate accurately in this enormous space of smartphones, laptops, and smart gadgets?

IP address is the answer. An IP address is a unique numerical (IPv4) string that helps identify the correct online data routing. However, it can also be used to track people online or launch cyberattacks like distributed denial-of-services.

In this article, we will explain how to use a random IP generator to generate a random IP address and what you could do with it.

Understanding IP Addresses

Imagine an IP address as your internet 'home' address. Each device is assigned a unique IP address by which other devices can locate it online. Just like you write down a person's home address to send a letter to, devices use an IP address to route data to the correct recipient.

Currently, IPv4 is the most widespread type of IP address. It consists of four octets or groups made of numbers from 0 to 255 or 8 bits in binary. Here's how a random IPv4 address looks.

113.142.68.76

The numbers in each group represent the network that the device is located on and its place on said network. To learn more, visit our Subnet ID explained article that explains how exactly devices derive the correct data routing using a subnet ID and an IP address.

Because each group is limited to 8 bits and the whole IP address to 4 octets, the maximum number of IPv4 IPs is 4,294,967,296 or 2^32. The issue is that with rapidly expanding IoT and other smart devices, this pool has been exhausted.

That's why, in 2008, DNS systems started supporting IPv6 addresses. This type uses 128-bit IP addresses in 8 hexadecimal groups of 16-bit. Hexadecimal means it includes numbers from 0 to 9 and letters a to f. The maximum number is 340 undecillion IPv6 addresses, but all we can say is it's like counting stars in the universe; the number is nearly endless. Here's how a random IPv6 address looks like:

1e9a:587c:702d:9030:23cb:e052:8800:e3f4

However, we will stay with IPv4 for this article as this type is still the most widely used. So, IPv4 addresses range from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255, but there are also reservations. Some IPv4 addresses are reserved for specific purposes, so using them as an alternative IP address is not a good idea.

For example, addresses that range from 127.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255 are called loopback addresses used for testing network applications on a local environment without sending traffic to other networks. The range from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255 is for multicast addresses that send data to multiple recipients at the same time.

Knowing these details lets you create random IPs within suitable ranges to prevent incorrect data routing.

Methods to Generate Random IP Addresses

There are a few ways to get random IPs. The easiest way is to use a free online random IP generator. Here's how to do it.

Online Random IP Generators

You will notice that there are dozens of free online IP generators. They are also similar to each other because a random IP address generator has a single and relatively simple purpose: to generate a random IP. Let's take IPVOID as an example.

Once on its website, notice the RANDOM section in the top middle of the screen. Hover over it, and you will see a random IP generator and a random IPv6 generator.

Let's choose the IPv4 option. Now, IPVOID only asks to specify how many IPs to produce. Let's choose 10, and this is what we get:

As simple as that: you have used an online random IP generator to get 10 IPs. However it is essential to remember that such IPs are nothing more but random strings and cannot be used as a substitute for your original IP without additional steps.

Even if you configure your operating system network settings to use random IPs, your device will still use the original public-issued ISP address or fail to connect to the internet. That's because you need a genuine device, like a residential proxy server, for an alternative public IP. With residential proxies online servers see only the proxy device IP address, and your original IP is obfuscated.

How to Generate Random IP Addresses in Python

For this article, understand random IPs simply as number strings divided into four 8 bit sections. Python is one of the most popular programming languages, and its popularity is growing, so let's see how to generate a random IP using it.

Step 1: write a function to produce random IPs

Python is relatively easy to learn and has a beginner-friendly syntax, so using it to produce IPs is a good way to practice your skills. Try generating a random IP address using the following code:

def generate_random_ipv4():

return f"{random.randint(0, 255)}.{random.randint(0, 255)}.{random.randint(0, 255)}.{random.randint(0, 255)}"

Python IPv4 generator code

This function returns a random number from 0 to 255 four times using the x.y.z.a format. Remember to import random from the Python library and you have an easy way of getting IP numbers.

Filtering Reserved and Private IP Ranges

Now whatever you use alternative IPs for, filtering the reserved and private IP ranges is a good idea to avoid possible errors. For this, you will have to import the Python ipaddress library and then use the is_reserved attribute. Here's a code example:

while True:

ip = f"{random.randint(0, 255)}.{random.randint(0, 255)}.{random.randint(0, 255)}.{random.randint(0, 255)}"

if not ipaddress.IPv4Address(ip).is_reserved:

return ip

Python IP filtering code

After adding this chunk of code, your random IP generator will also verify whether the result is reserved and only return the IP address if it is available.

Uses for Random IP Address Generation

Keep in mind that a random IP generator does not obfuscate your ISP-issued public IP address and cannot be used for online privacy protection without additional tools. Here are 3 use cases widely used in the networking industry.

Network Testing

Front-end developers and networking specialists use alternative IPs to simulate real-world scenarios for website testing. During load testing, random IPs help test website performance under the pressure of virtual visitors to identify performance issues. Launching fake traffic also tests cybersecurity features like DDoS protection.

Web Scraping and Data Collection

More often than not, alternative IP addresses are used with additional tools like web scrapers, proxies, anti-detect browsers, and similar. Web scraping and data collection require a large pool of alternative IPs to avoid website anti-scraping protection.

For example, you can use ParseHub scraper to send data requests at set time intervals using different residential proxy IPs. ParseHub will make it look like genuine user traffic, increasing scraping success rates.

Cybersecurity

Alternative IPs enable many real-world cybersecurity threat scenarios. Cybercriminals use alternative IPs to evade detection, so testing protection software against attacks from multiple IPs shows how well it defends against such threats.

Websites are also protected by rate limiting to prevent DDoS threats. Once again, alternative IPs allow simulating real traffic to try and overload the test server to see how well IP blocking works.

Conclusion

Getting a random IP is easy whatever method you choose. An online random IP address generator takes no more than a few clicks. However, you can put your Python skills to use and filter out reserved IPs or select required ranges.

Be sure to remember that a random IP generator does not obfuscate ISP-issued public IP addresses. You will have to rely on proxies, VPNs, and anti-detect browsers to ensure private browsing or web scraping without risking IP bans.