MAC Address Examples and Format

A MAC (Media Access Control) address identifies a network interface on a local network. A common MAC address has six pairs of hexadecimal digits, such as 02:00:5e:10:00:00.

Examples at a glance

02:00:5e:10:00:00

One value, three spellings

Colon-separated: 02:00:5e:10:00:00
Six pairs of hex digits.
Hyphen-separated: 02-00-5E-10-00-00
Different separators and letter case, same value.
Grouped notation: 0200.5e10.0000
The same 48 bits in three groups.

Read the first pair

First octet: 02
Locally administered and unicast; not a vendor assignment.

Read the first octet

In 02, the locally administered bit is set and the group bit is clear. This is an illustrative local unicast value, not a vendor assignment or a globally unique hardware identity.

Addresses can change

Devices may use locally administered or randomized addresses for a network connection. Do not assume a displayed MAC is an immutable factory serial number or infer a vendor from an arbitrary local address.

MAC versus IP

A MAC participates in local-link delivery; an IP is used for network addressing and routing. Not all link technologies use a 48-bit MAC, and EUI-64 is a different identifier length.