Quick answer
Your IP can show the wrong city because geolocation is an estimate, not a GPS reading. The most common causes are ISP routing, mobile carrier gateways, CGNAT, VPNs, proxies, and databases that have not been updated yet.
Why different websites show different cities
Sites do not measure your physical location from the IP itself. They look up the IP in geolocation databases, then guess the likely city or region from network records, routing data, and historical corrections.
That means the result is usually good enough for rough context, but not precise enough to identify a home address or current street-level position.
Common reasons this happens
ISP regional routing
Your ISP may register IP ranges in a hub city even when customers live elsewhere.
Mobile carrier gateways
Cellular traffic often exits through a regional gateway that is far from your actual location.
CGNAT
Many users can share one public IP, so the location may reflect the carrier infrastructure instead of your device.
VPNs and proxies
If you are connected to a VPN or proxy, the visible city will often match the exit server, not your home connection.
Why this is common on mobile data or VPNs
Mobile networks often route traffic through regional gateways, and VPNs intentionally replace your public IP with the VPN server's address. In both cases, the city shown online may reflect the network path instead of your physical location.
That is normal behavior. A wrong city result does not automatically mean something is broken.
What to check next
Start with the live IP result, then compare it after disconnecting or reconnecting your VPN. If the city still looks wrong without a VPN, the mismatch is probably just geolocation drift or ISP routing.
Next step
Use the IP tool to see your current public address and the approximate location databases assign to it.
Open What Is My IPFrequently asked questions
Can my IP show the wrong country too?
Yes. It is less common than a wrong city, but VPNs, proxies, stale records, and carrier routing can point an IP to another country.
Can I fix the geolocation myself?
Sometimes you can submit a correction to the database provider, but updates can take time and not every provider accepts the same kind of correction.
Why does one website show a different city than another?
Different websites may use different geolocation databases, update at different times, or apply extra signals on top of IP data. That is why the city can vary from site to site.