The default gateway is the address your device sends traffic to when the destination is not on the local network — on a home network, that is the router. It is also the address of the router's admin panel, which is why "what is my router's IP?" and "what is my default gateway?" are the same question. Your own device already knows the answer; here is how to read it on every major system.
Open a command prompt (press the Windows key, type cmd, press Enter) and run ipconfig. Under your active adapter — "Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi" or "Ethernet adapter" — read the "Default Gateway" line. If several adapters are listed, the one with an IPv4 address and a gateway is the active one. The graphical route: Settings, Network & internet, click the connection's properties, and read "IPv4 default gateway".
System Settings, Network, select the active connection, Details, TCP/IP — the gateway is the "Router" field. In a terminal the same value comes from: route -n get default (read the "gateway" line), or netstat -rn and the "default" row.
Run: ip route. The first line reads "default via 192.168.x.x dev ..." — the address after "via" is the gateway. On systems without the ip tool, route -n prints the same table; the gateway is the row with destination 0.0.0.0.
iPhone: Settings, Wi-Fi, tap the info button next to the connected network — the gateway is the "Router" field. Android: Settings, Network & internet (or Connections), tap the connected Wi-Fi network, expand Advanced — the field is called "Gateway" or "Router". Vendors move these menus around, but the value is always in the connected network's details, and it only exists while you are on Wi-Fi: on mobile data there is no local gateway to show.
Every manufacturer picks its own factory address, an installer or a previous owner may have changed it, and some setups move it entirely: a mesh kit or a router in access-point mode hands the gateway role to the device in front of it, and on some fibre installations the gateway your laptop sees is the ISP's own equipment rather than your Wi-Fi router. That is why reading the value from your own device beats guessing from a list — though the usual factory values are worth knowing:
All of these live inside the private address ranges — the same address exists on millions of networks at once, which is why it can only be read from inside your own. How private addressing works.
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