Can You Trace Someone’s IP Address On Instagram?

No, it is impossible to find out someone's IP address simply by checking their Instagram account. There’s no button to click on Instagram to grab someone’s IP address. 

While it is possible to find someone on Instagram through other ways, tracing their IP address on the platform can be difficult. 

If your goal is to find the person behind the Instagram account, the apps we will discuss in this article have incredible background check services. 

In this article, we’ll discuss IP addresses, how it works, and what it reveals about you. You can also discover how to hide your IP address and find the person behind an Instagram account.

What Is an IP Address and How Does It Work?

Internet Protocol addresses, or IP addresses, are numbers separated by periods assigned to your computer, phone, or any device connected to the internet.

IP addresses function like phone numbers. Like each phone has a unique number so people can communicate with it; an IP address is a unique identifier of a device. 

Similar to how there are ways to track a person using their phone number, IP addresses can point to your geolocation. However, they cannot reveal your exact address. 

A phone number can also reveal its owner using reverse phone lookup tools but IP addresses can’t. 

An IP Address is essential for sending and receiving information online. If it didn’t exist, data wouldn’t end up where it’s supposed to. 

If an IP address is blocked, it is restricted from connecting to a server, computer, or application.

What an IP Address Can Reveal About You

IP addresses make it possible to access a lot of user information. However, Instagram, like other social media sites, does not reveal IP addresses between users. 

The ones that can see your IP address are social media site administrators who use it for tracking and analysis purposes. 

It’s the same if you click on any ad or link to a site using any web browser. Whether you're logged in or not, websites can sniff out your IP address.

An IP address may not give out your exact home and street address. It only shows a general location like your city or town, but once the wrong person gets ahold of it, they can use it for cyber attacks or some form of scam. 

Why You May Want to Hide Your IP Address

Access to your IP address also means access to your online activities. If you want to protect your privacy and stay anonymous online, hiding your IP address may be helpful. 

Using your IP address, a scammer can put together a picture of who you are, making it possible for them to spy, hack, and impersonate you.

Hackers may also force a connection to your device to take over and steal valuable information like your ID number and bank details.

In April this year, Sysdig’s research team reported that hackers have been making money from stealing IP addresses and selling them to proxyware services, a tool which, when installed on a device, makes its internet connection accessible to an outside party. 

The result? An incredibly slow internet connection. Hackers make 10 USD a month for every compromised device.

How to Hide Your IP Address

Hiding your IP address means masking it with a borrowed one, which means using a VPN. A VPN or Virtual Private Network can mask your actual IP address to make it look like you're using the internet from a different location. VPNs basically fake your location.

VPNs provide an added layer of protection from cyberattacks involving access to your IP address. Plus, VPNs let you see content not made available in your current location and hide your activity even from your ISP. 

Surfshark is one of the hottest among the VPNs we have reviewed. The best VPN server locations privacy-wise are Iceland, Estonia, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

How to Find Out Who Owns an Instagram Account

Instead of just running an investigation alone, a people search engine is the next most sensible thing to find out who owns an Instagram account. 

Find out who the owner of the Instagram account is with Been Verified, one of the best background check sites out there.

Been Verified has detailed records on millions of people from publicly available information like criminal history information, property records, social media accounts, and more. 

You can choose between two BeenVerified pricing tiers: A one-month subscription plan for $26.89 and a three-month subscription plan for only $17.48 each month. Each program includes 100 searches per month.

If you have a tight budget, don't fret, Been Verified has a 1 USD offer for a whole week of access as a free trial. Remember to cancel it before the seven days are over, or else you'll automatically be charged a month's worth of subscription.

Here's a step-by-step guide to using Been Verified:

Step 1: Go to https://www.beenverified.com/ and Click “SIGN UP.”

Step 2: Review the terms and click "I Agree". 

Step 3: Choose a subscription plan.

Step 4: Select a payment method and check the boxes to agree with the terms and conditions and privacy policy.

Step 5: After you have paid, go back to the dashboard. Now enter the person’s username into the search bar. 

Not too long, BeenVerified will create reports. Pick the best match and click “view person report.” 

For a narrower search, you can enter other information, like the person’s age. 

Other than the name/username, you can also run a name, phone, email, address, and vehicle search on Been Verified.

Bottom Line

You may not possibly obtain an Instagram user's IP directly through the app itself but you can find more about them if you have their username, photo, or any other credential. 

Instead of a basic Google search, you can run the information you have on hand on beenverified.com. To be fair, Google is quicker in bringing back results but Been Verified is worth the try as it offers a more comprehensive report of the specific account or person you’re trying to find.