How to Find Your MAC Address on a Google Chromebook

Tech

The MAC (Media Access Control) address of your Google Chromebook is a unique identifier for your device. It has a variety of uses, the simplest of which may be to enable you to connect some secure Wi-Fi networks.

More complex uses may be, for example, if you want to set up a more secure home network only allowing your Family and close friends to use your Wi-Fi. To do this you would need the MAC address of each device you are choosing to enable. You can also block devices from your network (We’re thinking removing internet privileges until bedrooms have been tidied sort of thing) although there are apps that will do this for you, the more high-tech way is clearly superior.

The good news is that it is very easy to find the MAC address of your Google Chromebook. All you need will be explained below using different methods.

The Easy Way

This is likely to be your go to method when you want to sign into a new network. Follow the steps below to find your IP and MAC addresses:

  1. Log in to your Chromebook
  2. Click on the Time icon in the right-hand corner
  3. Select Wi-Fi marked by a Wi-Fi symbol
  4. A box will appear, at the top select information (denoted by an “i” in a circle)
  5. You will be able to see your IP, MAC and IPv6 addresses immediately
  6. Note that in this box your MAC address is called Wi-Fi

The Middle Way

There are two other ways you can use to find your MAC address. The first is to use the settings screen of your Chromebook and the second, to use the Chrome browser. Below we explain each step by step.

Using Your Settings

  1. Click your profile picture or the time (both in the lower right corner)
  2. Select the cogwheel icon for settings
  3. From there select internet connection and select the Wi-Fi network you are using
  4. You may need to select it again in a list
  5.  A pop-up window will appear with your system information
  6. “Hardware Address” will be a listed item. This is your MAC address

Using Chrome

  1. Open Google Chrome
  2. Type “chrome://system” in the address bar
  3. You will open a window the two columns
  4. In the column on the right-hand side scroll until you see iconfig
  5. Click expand on the left-hand column next to iconfig
  6. You will see a small but substantial wall of text in there. Look in the wlan0 section
  7. Your MAC address is marked by “ether”
  8. If your Chromebook has an ethernet port, the MAC address for this will be called “eth0”

An example of what opening chrome://system may look like. You can see how items are columned.

The Matrix Way


This is not for the faint hearted however it is incredibly cool to use a terminal to interact with your system if you have never done this before. It does really look like the Matrix, we promise! With the new movie on the way it may be time for you to try your hand on some first-class looking computer fiddling.

Firstly, you need a terminal, luckily Chrome OS has recently started featuring a built-in option, however if you want to progress with your developing and programming tools you may also choose to install one from the Google Store.

So here is to find your MAC address the matrix way step by step presuming you are using the built-in terminal:

  1. Go to Chrome OS settings
  2. Navigate to the Linux (Beta) section and toggle Turn on
  3. You will have to go through a series of prompts, select a username and “disk size”
  4. Then click install! You truly are on your way now
  5. Once the installation is complete a terminal window will open
  6. In your terminal press enter to start a new line
  7. This should start a new prompt noted by a $ (dollar sign)
  8. Once you have a prompt type: ifconfig -a (the full line should be: $ ifconfig -a)
  9. Press Enter

Magically a block of text like below will pop up:

 Your MAC address is the numbers (highlighted in green) following ether (highlighted in yellow)

*The numbers you see will not be Xes and eMs, we have masked the information to protect the user’s privacy.

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