canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/ipstack.com/ipstack-api

# IPstack API

IPstack is a real-time IP geolocation service that resolves IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to country, region, city, ZIP, latitude/longitude, time zone, currency, connection type, and security signals. The HTTP API exposes three endpoints: /check for the requester's own IP, /{ip} for a single address, and /{ips} for bulk lookups of up to 50 comma-separated IPs. All requests authenticate with an access key passed as a query parameter and return JSON.

## For AI agents

Resolve any IPv4 or IPv6 address - including the caller's own - to country, city, ASN, currency, time zone, and proxy/VPN risk signals. Supports up to 50 IPs in a single bulk lookup.

## Scope

Does not handle reverse DNS, hostname-to-IP resolution, or domain WHOIS - use for IP-address geolocation and risk enrichment only.

## Capabilities

- Geolocate any IPv4 or IPv6 address to city, region, country, and coordinates
- Detect the requester's own IP and its location through the /check endpoint
- Look up up to 50 IPs in a single bulk request with comma-separated input
- Retrieve time zone, currency, and language metadata tied to an IP location
- Identify VPN, proxy, Tor, and crawler traffic through the security module
- Resolve ASN, ISP, and connection type for traffic analysis

## Use cases

### Country-Aware Content and Pricing

Personalize landing pages, currency, and tax calculations from the visitor's IP without prompting for browser geolocation. The /check endpoint resolves the caller's IP server-side, returning country code and currency in one call. Integration is typically a single afternoon for a SaaS or storefront.

Example prompt: Call GET /check with the access_key query parameter and use country_code and currency.code to set the visitor's locale and pricing.

### Checkout Fraud Filtering

Reduce chargebacks by checking each buyer's IP for VPN, proxy, or Tor flags and comparing IP country with billing country. IPstack's security module returns proxy, tor, threat_level, and threat_types fields when enabled, supporting rule-based decline or step-up authentication. Adds milliseconds to checkout latency.

Example prompt: Call GET /{ip} for the buyer's IP with security parameters enabled and decline the order if security.proxy is true or threat_level is high.

### Bulk Log Enrichment

Enrich large batches of IPs from web server logs, application telemetry, or threat feeds in a single network round-trip. The /{ips} bulk endpoint accepts up to 50 comma-separated addresses and returns an array of fully-enriched records, ideal for batched analytics pipelines.

Example prompt: Send GET /{ips} with up to 50 comma-separated IPs from the latest log batch and write each result row to the analytics warehouse.

### Agent IP Lookup via Jentic

An AI agent triaging support tickets or fraud reviews can resolve any IP to country, ISP, and risk signals through Jentic without browsing IPstack docs. Jentic exposes the three endpoints by intent and injects the access key at execution.

Example prompt: Use Jentic to search for 'look up the location of an IP address', load the standard /{ip} operation, and execute it with the IP from the support ticket.

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | /check | Resolve the requester's own IP address |
| GET | /{ip} | Standard lookup for a single IPv4 or IPv6 address |
| GET | /{ips} | Bulk lookup for up to 50 comma-separated IPs |

## Key resources

- **Standard Lookup** — Resolve a single IPv4 or IPv6 address to full geolocation, ASN, and security data
- **Requester Lookup** — Detect and enrich the caller's own IP with no input parameter
- **Bulk Lookup** — Resolve up to 50 comma-separated IPs in a single request

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring IPstack by hand means registering for a key, appending it as the access_key query parameter to api.ipstack.com, and choosing between the single-IP, bulk, and requester-IP paths for each call. Through Jentic you install once, import IPstack from the API Directory, store the key once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** IPstack is a set of read-only geolocation lookups where the IP travels in the URL path or as the requester, so scope the agent to the operations it needs, such as geolocating an IP or resolving a batch of addresses. It stays a lookup client and cannot reach anything beyond the operations you allow.
- **Credential handling:** Your IPstack access_key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected as the access_key query parameter at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'find the country of an IP', and Jentic returns the matching IPstack operation with its input schema, so the agent fills in the IP and executes the call without reading the docs.

## Related APIs

- **ipapi - IP Geolocation API** — Sister product with the same endpoint shape and access_key auth.
- **IPInfoDB API** — Free, lightweight country and city IP lookups.
- **IPGeolocation.io API** — Geolocation plus time-zone, astronomy, and user-agent endpoints.
- **Abstract IP Geolocation API** — IP enrichment alongside Abstract's email, phone, and company validation suite.

## FAQ

### What authentication does the IPstack API use?

IPstack uses an access_key query parameter on every request. Through Jentic, the access key is stored in the encrypted vault and injected at execution time, so the agent never sees the raw secret.

### Can I look up multiple IP addresses in one IPstack call?

Yes. The GET /{ips} endpoint accepts up to 50 comma-separated IPv4 or IPv6 addresses and returns a JSON array of enriched results in a single response.

### Does IPstack detect VPN and proxy traffic?

Yes, when the security module is enabled on your plan. The /{ip} and /{ips} responses include a security object with proxy, tor, threat_level, and threat_types fields suited to fraud scoring.

### What are the rate limits for the IPstack API?

Limits are tied to plan: the free tier allows 100 requests per month, while paid tiers scale from 50,000 to several million requests monthly. The API enforces monthly quotas rather than per-second caps.

### How do I geolocate the caller's own IP through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'detect my own IP location', load the GET /check operation, and execute. Jentic injects access_key and returns the parsed JSON with country, city, and coordinates.

### Does IPstack work with IPv6 addresses?

Yes. Both the standard /{ip} and bulk /{ips} endpoints accept IPv6 inputs and return the same enriched fields, including coordinates, ASN, and time zone.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the IPstack API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which IPstack operations and credentials the agent may use, so you can grant only the read-only lookups it actually needs, such as the standard single-IP lookup, the bulk lookup of up to 50 comma-separated addresses, or the requester-IP check. IPstack is a set of geolocation reads where the IP travels in the URL path or is the caller, so the agent stays a lookup client and cannot reach anything beyond the operations you allow. Scope it to just single-IP geolocation, for example, and batch or requester lookups remain off limits.