How to get client IP address in Laravel 5+

Question

Looking at the Laravel API:

Request::ip();

Internally, it uses the getClientIps method from the Symfony Request Object:

public function getClientIps()
{
    $clientIps = array();
    $ip = $this->server->get('REMOTE_ADDR');
    if (!$this->isFromTrustedProxy()) {
        return array($ip);
    }
    if (self::$trustedHeaders[self::HEADER_FORWARDED] && $this->headers->has(self::$trustedHeaders[self::HEADER_FORWARDED])) {
        $forwardedHeader = $this->headers->get(self::$trustedHeaders[self::HEADER_FORWARDED]);
        preg_match_all('{(for)=("?\[?)([a-z0-9\.:_\-/]*)}', $forwardedHeader, $matches);
        $clientIps = $matches[3];
    } elseif (self::$trustedHeaders[self::HEADER_CLIENT_IP] && $this->headers->has(self::$trustedHeaders[self::HEADER_CLIENT_IP])) {
        $clientIps = array_map('trim', explode(',', $this->headers->get(self::$trustedHeaders[self::HEADER_CLIENT_IP])));
    }
    $clientIps[] = $ip; // Complete the IP chain with the IP the request actually came from
    $ip = $clientIps[0]; // Fallback to this when the client IP falls into the range of trusted proxies
    foreach ($clientIps as $key => $clientIp) {
        // Remove port (unfortunately, it does happen)
        if (preg_match('{((?:\d+\.){3}\d+)\:\d+}', $clientIp, $match)) {
            $clientIps[$key] = $clientIp = $match[1];
        }
        if (IpUtils::checkIp($clientIp, self::$trustedProxies)) {
            unset($clientIps[$key]);
        }
    }
    // Now the IP chain contains only untrusted proxies and the client IP
    return $clientIps ? array_reverse($clientIps) : array($ip);
} 

If you are under a load balancer, Laravel's \Request::ip() always returns the balancer's IP:

            echo $request->ip();
            // server ip

            echo \Request::ip();
            // server ip

            echo \request()->ip();
            // server ip

            echo $this->getIp(); //see the method below
            // clent ip

This custom method returns the real client ip:

public function getIp(){
    foreach (array('HTTP_CLIENT_IP', 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR', 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED', 'HTTP_X_CLUSTER_CLIENT_IP', 'HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR', 'HTTP_FORWARDED', 'REMOTE_ADDR') as $key){
        if (array_key_exists($key, $_SERVER) === true){
            foreach (explode(',', $_SERVER[$key]) as $ip){
                $ip = trim($ip); // just to be safe
                if (filter_var($ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE | FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE) !== false){
                    return $ip;
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return request()->ip(); // it will return server ip when no client ip found
}

In addition to this I suggest you to be very careful using Laravel's throttle middleware: It uses Laravel's Request::ip() as well, so all your visitors will be identified as the same user and you will hit the throttle limit very quickly. I experienced this live and this caused big issues.

To fix this:

Illuminate\Http\Request.php

    public function ip()
    {
        //return $this->getClientIp(); //original method
        return $this->getIp(); // the above method
    }

You can now also use Request::ip(), which should return the real IP in production.

Use request()->ip().

From what I understand, since Laravel 5 it's advised/good practice to use the global functions like:

response()->json($v);
view('path.to.blade');
redirect();
route();
cookie();

And, if anything, when using the functions instead of the static notation my IDE doesn't light up like a Christmas tree.

Add namespace

use Request;

Then call the function

Request::ip();

For Laravel 5 you can use the Request object. Just call its ip() method, something like:

$request->ip();

There are two things to take care of:

1. Get a helper function that returns a Illuminate\Http\Request and call the ->ip() method:

   request()->ip();
   

2. Think of your server configuration, it may use a proxy or load-balancer, especially in an AWS ELB configuration.

If this is your case you need to follow "Configuring Trusted Proxies" or maybe even set a "Trusting All Proxies" option.

Why? Because being your server will be getting your proxy/load-balancer IP instead.

If you are on the AWS balance-loader, go to App\Http\Middleware\TrustProxies and make $proxies declaration look like this:

protected $proxies = '*';

Now test it and celebrate because you just saved yourself from having trouble with throttle middleware. It also relies on request()->ip() and without setting "TrustProxies" up, you could have all your users blocked from logging in instead of blocking only the culprit's IP.

And because throttle middleware is not explained properly in the documentation, I recommend watching "laravel 5.2 tutorial for beginner, API Rate Limiting"

Tested in Laravel 5.7

In Laravel 5

public function index(Request $request) {
  $request->ip();
}