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How many bits long is an IPv4 address?

An IPv4 address is 32 bits long.

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  1. 32 bits ✔
  2. 48 bits
  3. 128 bits

Why: IPv4 uses four octets, and each octet contains eight bits. Multiplying four by eight gives a 32-bit address.

Huh, didn't know that: A 32-bit field has 4,294,967,296 possible bit patterns.

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IPv4 counted to 32 bits and called it an address.
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References

Answer: 32 bits. IPv4 uses four octets, and each octet contains eight bits. Multiplying four by eight gives a 32-bit address.

  1. RFC 791: Internet Protocol www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc791.html
    Addresses are fixed length of four octets (32 bits).
    Checked 2026-10-10.

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