A Media Access Control (MAC) address is a unique, 12-character physical identifier assigned to the network interfaces (like Wi-Fi cards and Ethernet adapters) inside your computer. While IP addresses change depending on the network you connect to, a MAC address is permanently tied to the hardware.
You might need to find your MAC address if you are setting up router-level MAC filtering, configuring a static IP address assignment on a corporate network, or troubleshooting connectivity issues. While you can dig through the Windows 11 Settings app to find this information, using the getmac command in the Windows Terminal is significantly faster and provides a cleaner output.
Using the Basic getmac Command
The getmac utility is built into Windows 11 and does not require administrator privileges to run.
Step 1: Open the Terminal
Right-click the Start button on your Windows 11 taskbar and select Terminal or Windows PowerShell.
Step 2: Execute the Command
Type the following command and press Enter:
getmac
The output will display a simple, two-column table:
- Physical Address: The actual 12-character MAC address, typically separated by hyphens (e.g.,
00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E). - Transport Name: The internal system identifier for the network adapter that owns the MAC address. If an adapter is disconnected (like an unplugged Ethernet port or disabled Bluetooth adapter), it will simply say “Media disconnected”.
This basic command is perfect if you only have one active network connection (e.g., you are connected to Wi-Fi and not using Ethernet) because the connected adapter will be the only one displaying a long transport name string.
Adding Verbose Output to Identify Adapters
The biggest limitation of the basic getmac command is that the “Transport Name” column (which looks like \Device\Tcpip_{GUID}) is entirely unreadable for humans. If your computer has multiple active network adapters—such as Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and a Virtual Private Network (VPN) adapter—you will see multiple MAC addresses and won’t know which one belongs to which piece of hardware.
To solve this, use the verbose flag /v.
Type the following command and press Enter:
getmac /v
The output will now expand into a much more useful format, adding two new columns:
- Connection Name: The human-readable name of the adapter, just as it appears in your Network Connections panel (e.g., “Wi-Fi”, “Ethernet”, “Local Area Connection”).
- Network Adapter: The actual hardware model name of the adapter (e.g., “Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz”).
This allows you to immediately identify the MAC address specifically tied to your Wi-Fi card versus your wired Ethernet port.
Formatting the Output for Easy Copying
If you need to copy your MAC addresses into a spreadsheet, an IT ticketing system, or a router configuration page, the default table format can sometimes break when pasted.
You can force getmac to output the data in different formats using the /fo (format) flag.
CSV Format
To output the data as comma-separated values, which is ideal for pasting directly into Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, run:
getmac /v /fo csv
List Format
If you prefer a clean, vertical list where each piece of information is on its own line (making it easy to copy just the physical address string), use the list format:
getmac /v /fo list
This will display the Connection Name, Network Adapter, Physical Address, and Transport Name sequentially for each adapter, one after another.
Retrieving MAC Addresses from Remote Computers
For system administrators managing a local network, getmac can query other Windows machines on the same network domain without needing to remotely access their desktops.
Use the /s (system) flag followed by the computer’s name or IP address:
getmac /s 192.168.1.50 /v
If the remote computer requires different credentials, you can provide them using the /u (user) and /p (password) flags:
getmac /s 192.168.1.50 /u Domain\AdminUser /p YourPassword /v
By mastering the getmac command, you can instantly pull vital hardware network identifiers from your own machine or entire fleets of computers directly from the command line.