Enter any MAC address or OUI prefix to instantly identify the device manufacturer, vendor name and network hardware details.
The first 3 octets form the OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier), assigned by IEEE to the manufacturer — in this case Intel Corporation.
The last 3 octets are the NIC-specific portion assigned by the manufacturer to uniquely identify this individual device interface.
Together, all 6 octets form a globally unique 48-bit hardware address that identifies every network interface card (NIC) on the planet.
A MAC address (Media Access Control address) is a unique 48-bit hardware identifier permanently assigned to a network interface card (NIC) by its manufacturer. Every device that connects to a network — whether via Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or cellular — has at least one MAC address burned into its hardware at the factory. Unlike an IP address, which is assigned dynamically by a network and can change, a MAC address is meant to be a permanent, globally unique identifier tied to the physical hardware itself.
MAC addresses are written as six pairs of hexadecimal digits separated by colons or dashes (e.g. 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E). They operate at Layer 2 of the OSI model — the Data Link layer — and are used by switches and access points to deliver data frames to the correct device within a local network segment. Routers use IP addresses to route traffic between networks, but within any single local network (LAN or Wi-Fi), MAC addresses are what actually direct frames to the right hardware port or wireless client.
The first three octets (24 bits) of every MAC address form the OUI — Organizationally Unique Identifier. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) assigns OUI blocks to hardware manufacturers. When a company like Apple, Intel or Cisco wants to produce network hardware, they pay a registration fee to the IEEE and receive one or more OUI blocks. Every device the company manufactures then gets a MAC address starting with their registered OUI prefix, making the manufacturer immediately identifiable from just the first six hex characters.
This lookup tool takes any MAC address or OUI prefix you enter, extracts the first six hex characters, and queries the live IEEE OUI database to return the registered manufacturer name. This works for any Ethernet card, Wi-Fi adapter, router, smart phone, printer or IoT device — as long as the OUI was publicly registered. Some OUIs are marked private at the manufacturer's request and will not return a vendor name. Use our ASN Lookup to investigate the network-level ownership of any IP address that device is communicating from.
The second-least-significant bit of the first octet (called the U/L bit) indicates whether the MAC address was assigned by the manufacturer or configured locally. A Universally Administered Address (UAA) has this bit set to 0 and means the address was assigned by the IEEE-registered manufacturer — this is what the vast majority of hardware uses. A Locally Administered Address (LAA) has this bit set to 1 and means the address was manually assigned by a network administrator or software, overriding the factory default. Many operating systems and virtual machine platforms assign locally administered MACs to virtual network adapters, VPN interfaces and container bridges.
The least-significant bit of the first octet is the I/G bit (Individual/Group). When set to 0, the frame is addressed to a single device (unicast). When set to 1, the frame is a multicast or broadcast addressed to a group of devices. Standard device MACs are always unicast (0). Special addresses like FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF (Ethernet broadcast) have both bits set.
No — a MAC address alone cannot reveal a device's physical location or geographic position. MAC addresses only function within a local network segment. Once traffic leaves a local network and passes through a router, the original device MAC address is replaced at each hop with the MAC of the next router interface. By the time a packet reaches its destination on the internet, the original sender's MAC is completely absent. What you can determine from a MAC is the manufacturer and hardware vendor. To find geographic information about a network connection, you would need the public IP address associated with that device's internet traffic and use our IP Geolocation tool.
Modern smartphones and laptops increasingly use MAC address randomisation as a privacy feature. When a device scans for Wi-Fi networks or connects to a new network, it generates a random locally administered MAC address instead of broadcasting its permanent hardware MAC. This prevents passive tracking across locations — a shopping centre, for example, cannot use your device's MAC to track your movement between floors just by watching which access points it associates with.
iOS (since version 14), Android (since version 10) and Windows 10/11 all support MAC randomisation by default on Wi-Fi. When you look up a randomly generated MAC address, it will typically show as a locally administered address (U/L bit = 1) and the OUI will often belong to a major OS vendor or return no result at all. If you need to investigate a device's actual hardware, you may need to check the device's network settings directly where the permanent hardware MAC is usually still displayed.
The method varies by operating system. On Windows, open Command Prompt and run ipconfig /all — look for "Physical Address" under each adapter. On macOS, go to System Settings → Network, select your connection, click Details, and look under the Hardware tab. On Linux, run ip link show or ifconfig -a in a terminal. On Android, go to Settings → About Phone → Status → Wi-Fi MAC address. On iPhone / iPad, go to Settings → General → About → Wi-Fi Address. For network printers and routers, the MAC address is usually printed on a label on the device itself or visible in the device's administration web interface.
Once you have your MAC address, paste it into the lookup box above to confirm the manufacturer matches your device's hardware. This is particularly useful for verifying unfamiliar devices appearing on your router's connected-devices list — cross-reference the MAC against the vendor name to identify unknown hardware. You can also use our Reverse DNS tool to investigate the hostname associated with any IP address those devices are communicating with.
Network administrators use MAC address lookups in several practical scenarios. Identifying unknown devices on a local network is the most common — when a new device appears on a router or switch's ARP table or DHCP lease list, looking up the MAC prefix instantly identifies the manufacturer, helping to determine whether it is a legitimate device or an intruder. Troubleshooting DHCP and ARP issues often requires cross-referencing MAC addresses with IP assignments to spot duplicates or conflicts. Access control lists on switches and wireless access points use MAC address filtering to restrict which devices can connect, and OUI lookups help classify devices before adding them to the allowed list.
Security teams use MAC lookups as a first triage step when investigating suspicious network activity — identifying whether an unknown MAC belongs to a reputable hardware vendor or an unusual manufacturer can inform how urgently to investigate further. To complete a network investigation, combine MAC lookup results with WHOIS data, DNS records and IP geolocation to build a complete picture of what a device is and where it is connecting from.
In theory, every universally administered MAC address should be globally unique — the IEEE's OUI system was designed to guarantee this. In practice, uniqueness is not perfectly enforced. Some manufacturers have historically shipped batches of devices with duplicate or incorrectly assigned MACs due to manufacturing errors. More significantly, software can override hardware MACs at any time, and the widespread adoption of MAC randomisation means that the "unique identifier" aspect no longer reliably identifies a specific physical device in many real-world scenarios. Within a traditional enterprise LAN where devices have not randomised their MACs, the combination of OUI vendor + NIC-specific octets is still effectively unique. The IEEE maintains the official OUI registry and regularly publishes updated assignment data, which is the source behind this lookup tool.