Free MAC Address Lookup Tool
Paste any MAC address or just the OUI prefix to find the manufacturer, country, device type and any virtualization or randomization flags. Works for the same lookup whether you call it a MAC vendor lookup, MAC OUI lookup, MAC manufacturer lookup or OUI lookup. Reverse lookup by company name also supported. Free, no signup.
Database coverage
Refreshed weeklyWhat a MAC Address Lookup Tells You About the Device
A single MAC address lookup returns the same set of fields whether you call it a MAC vendor lookup, OUI lookup or MAC manufacturer lookup. Each result includes:
- Vendor / manufacturer name with website link and favicon
- Country of registration with flag
- Device category: phone, router, IP camera, printer, smart TV, IoT module, server NIC, etc.
- Interface type: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth or cellular hardware
- OUI block info: assignment type (MA-L, MA-M, MA-S or CID), block size, address range
- Virtual machine detection: VMware, Hyper-V, VirtualBox, KVM, Docker, Parallels, Xen
- Randomization alert for iOS / Android / Windows random MACs
- Multicast / broadcast / locally-administered bit flags
What a MAC Address Lookup Cannot Tell You
The MAC only identifies the hardware vendor and a few device-level flags. It does not identify a person or a location. The lookup will never return:
- The geographic location of the device
- The owner's name, address or phone number
- The IP address the device uses on the internet
- The exact model (MAC tells you the maker, not the SKU)
- Any vendor info for randomized MACs (the address is generated, not registered)
MAC addresses operate at OSI Layer 2 and never leave the local network. They cannot be looked up "from the internet" and they carry zero geographic information. For IP-based location, use the IP address lookup instead.
How to Look Up a MAC Address You Already Have
Paste the MAC into the box above in any common format and press the magnifier. The tool strips formatting, takes the first 6 hex characters as the OUI prefix and queries our database. The result page shows the manufacturer, country, device type and any flags within milliseconds.
Accepted formats:
- Colons:
00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E - Hyphens:
00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E - Cisco dots:
001A.2B3C.4D5E - Plain hex:
001A2B3C4D5E - OUI only:
00:1A:2Bor001A2B
For a reverse vendor search, type a company name (Apple, Cisco, Samsung) and the tool returns every OUI block registered to that organisation.
How a MAC Address Is Built: OUI Plus NIC
A MAC (Media Access Control) address is 48 bits, written as six pairs of hexadecimal digits, for example 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E. The first three bytes are the OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier), assigned by the standards body to a specific manufacturer. The last three bytes are the NIC portion (sometimes called the device-specific or "extension identifier"), assigned by the manufacturer to each individual device they ship.
00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E breaks down: three OUI bytes (vendor prefix) and three NIC bytes (device-specific serial). Together they form a 48-bit hardware identifier.There are three OUI assignment sizes from the standards body: MA-L (large, 24-bit OUI, gives the vendor 16 million addresses per block), MA-M (medium, 28-bit, 1 million per block) and MA-S (small, 36-bit, 4,096 per block). Large vendors like Apple, Samsung and Intel hold dozens of MA-L blocks. Smaller hardware shops typically buy a single MA-S.
When a MAC Address Lookup Is Actually Useful
Identifying unknown devices on your network. Your router shows a connected client you do not recognize. Look up the MAC and you immediately know whether it is a phone, a smart plug, a printer or something that should not be there.
Security audits and incident response. Compare the MACs visible on the network against your inventory of expected devices. Anything with an unrecognized vendor, a randomized address or a virtualization OUI deserves a closer look. Forensic tools include MAC fields in DHCP logs, ARP tables and packet captures, so vendor identification often narrows down which physical device was involved.
IoT inventory management. When you have dozens of smart sensors, cameras and switches on a corporate or home network, the vendor and device-type fields let you tag and group them without logging into each one individually.
Hardware procurement validation. Got a batch of network cards or IoT modules from a reseller? A quick OUI lookup on a sample confirms the original manufacturer. Mismatches can indicate counterfeit or rebadged hardware.
Reverse vendor search. Need every OUI block assigned to a specific manufacturer for asset tracking or whitelisting? Type the company name in the box and the tool returns every block the standards body assigned to that organisation.
Network access control (NAC). When configuring captive portals or 802.1X bypass for legacy devices that cannot run a supplicant, vendor-based MAC filtering is a common fallback. Knowing the OUI lets you write the right ACL.
Why Your MAC Address Looks Random Now
Starting with iOS 14, Android 10 and Windows 10 build 1903, operating systems generate a random MAC address each time the device joins a Wi-Fi network. The real hardware MAC stays burned in the chipset but is no longer broadcast. This makes it harder for advertisers and Wi-Fi analytics providers to track a phone across stores, airports and conference venues.
Randomized MACs always have the locally-administered bit set (bit 1 of the first byte). When that bit is on, the address was not assigned by a manufacturer and an OUI lookup will not return any vendor. Our tool detects this automatically and shows a "randomized" flag instead of a wrong vendor guess.
To find the real, hardware-burned MAC of a modern phone, you usually have to dig into developer or system settings. iPhone: Settings → Wi-Fi → (i) next to network → Private Wi-Fi Address (off). Android: Settings → Network → saved network → MAC type → Use device MAC.
How to Find the MAC Address on Any Device
Windows 10 / 11
Open Command Prompt or PowerShell and run ipconfig /all. Find your active adapter and read the Physical Address field. It looks like 00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E. Alternatively: Settings → Network & Internet → Properties → Physical address (MAC).
macOS
Hold the Option key and click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar to see the MAC inline. Or: System Settings → Network → (active connection) → Details → Hardware. For Ethernet, the MAC is on the same Hardware tab.
iPhone / iPad
For the randomized per-network MAC: Settings → Wi-Fi → (i) next to network → Wi-Fi Address. For the real hardware address: Settings → General → About → Wi-Fi Address (with Private Wi-Fi Address turned off in step one).
Android
Most builds: Settings → About phone → Status → Wi-Fi MAC address. Some skins put it under Settings → Connections → Wi-Fi → (gear icon) → advanced. To toggle randomization: long-press the saved network → MAC address type.
Linux
From a terminal: ip link show or ifconfig -a. Look for the ether field (modern iproute2) or HWaddr (legacy net-tools).
Router
The MAC is usually printed on the underside of the router and listed in the admin UI under Status or WAN. The Wi-Fi MAC and the LAN MAC are typically different.
More About MAC Addresses, OUIs and Device Identification
The questions and details below come up often after a MAC lookup. Skim what is interesting, skip the rest.
Where the OUI prefix actually comes from
The standards body that runs OUI assignments sells these blocks to companies. A standard MA-L block costs around $3,000 once and gives the buyer 16,777,216 unique MAC addresses to ship across products forever. Smaller MA-S blocks (4,096 addresses) are cheaper and aimed at startups or low-volume hardware. Each registration becomes a public record.
Why some lookups show a different vendor than the box
Hardware is rebranded constantly. A router sold under brand X may use a Wi-Fi chipset whose MAC traces back to brand Y, the actual chipset maker (Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom, Realtek). The OUI is registered to the silicon vendor, not the brand on the box.
What is a CID block?
CID stands for Company Identifier. It looks like an OUI but is for protocols where the MAC-like identifier is private to the company (not used as a real MAC on Ethernet). They are listed in our database for completeness but are not actual hardware addresses.
Locally-administered vs universally-administered MACs
The second bit of the first byte (in transmission order) marks whether a MAC is universally-administered (assigned by the standards body through an OUI) or locally-administered (set by the user, software or randomization). All randomized MACs have this bit set. Hypervisors that auto-generate MACs also set it for new VMs.
Multicast vs unicast bit
The least-significant bit of the first byte indicates multicast (1) or unicast (0). All real network interfaces use unicast addresses. Multicast MACs are used for protocols like IGMP snooping and IPv6 neighbor discovery and never appear as device source addresses.
How VMware, Hyper-V and other hypervisors pick MACs
Each hypervisor has its own reserved OUI for auto-generated VM NICs: VMware uses 00:50:56, 00:0C:29 and 00:05:69; Hyper-V uses 00:15:5D; VirtualBox uses 08:00:27; Parallels uses 00:1C:42; Xen uses 00:16:3E. Spotting any of these on a network where you do not run virtualization is worth investigating.
How many MAC addresses are there?
2^48 = 281,474,976,710,656. Subtract the multicast half (the U/L bit space) and the locally-administered ranges and you still get over 70 trillion globally-unique manufacturer-assignable addresses. Exhaustion is not a real concern for many decades.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi often share the same MAC
On most laptops and phones, the Bluetooth radio and the Wi-Fi radio sit on the same combo chip and share a MAC base. The Bluetooth MAC is usually the Wi-Fi MAC plus 1 or 2. Vendor lookup of either resolves to the same chipset maker.
When a MAC address can change
Three cases: (1) modern OS Wi-Fi randomization, which changes the address per network or per connection; (2) intentional spoofing via OS settings or tools like macchanger; (3) rare hardware glitches or firmware updates that re-flash the burned MAC. Outside of these, a hardware MAC stays the same for the life of the device.
Why MAC addresses do not work for tracking across the internet
Routers strip MAC addresses when forwarding traffic between subnets. Only the MAC of the next hop appears on each segment. By the time a packet reaches a public website, the only Layer-2 address it carries is the MAC of the website's own border router. The original device MAC stayed inside the local network.
What happens if a device clones another device's MAC
If two devices on the same Layer-2 segment use the same MAC, switches get confused, packets go to the wrong port and connectivity gets unstable. ARP tables flap. Modern enterprise switches detect duplicate MACs and disable the offending port. On home networks the symptom is usually random Wi-Fi drops.
MAC vendor lookup vs MAC manufacturer lookup vs OUI lookup
All three names describe the same operation: take a MAC address, return the registered owner of its OUI prefix. The result is identical regardless of which name you searched for. Some tools also call this MAC vendor decoder, MAC ID lookup, MAC address vendor lookup or just OUI decoder.
Can I look up a MAC address from a screenshot or photo?
Not directly through this tool. Type or paste the address. If you only have an image, run any OCR app first (your phone camera, Google Lens, macOS Live Text), copy the text and paste it into the box.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a MAC address lookup?
A MAC address lookup takes the OUI prefix (first 6 hex characters) of a hardware address and identifies the manufacturer that registered it with the standards body. The result includes vendor name, country, device type and any randomization or VM flags.
What is the difference between MAC lookup and IP lookup?
MAC lookup identifies the hardware vendor of a device on a local network. IP lookup identifies the network and geographic location behind an internet address. They answer different questions: who made the device vs. where on the internet a connection comes from.
Why does my MAC lookup show no vendor?
The address is randomized. iOS, Android and Windows 10+ generate a random MAC for each Wi-Fi network. Randomized MACs have the locally-administered bit set and our tool flags them automatically.
What MAC formats does the tool accept?
All four common formats: colons, hyphens, Cisco dots and plain hex. You can also enter just the OUI prefix (6 characters) for a vendor-only lookup.
Can I find a device's location from its MAC?
No. MAC addresses operate at OSI Layer 2 and never leave the local network segment. They have zero geographic information.
How do I look up the MAC on my iPhone or Android?
iPhone: Settings → General → About → Wi-Fi Address. Android: Settings → About phone → Status → Wi-Fi MAC address. Note that both may show a randomized MAC for the current network.
Is the MAC address lookup tool free?
Yes. Free, no signup, no rate limit on the website. There is also a paid MAC Lookup API on RapidAPI for programmatic access.
What is a reverse MAC lookup?
A reverse MAC lookup (also called vendor search) finds every OUI block assigned to a given company. Type a name like Apple or Cisco in the search box to see all their registered prefixes.
How often is the MAC vendor database updated?
Weekly. New vendor registrations typically appear in our database within a few days of being published.
Page last reviewed: April 2026 · Vendor database refreshed weekly