MikroTik RouterOS IP Address Commands

What It Does

The /ip/address menu manages IPv4 addresses assigned to interfaces — physical Ethernet ports, wireless interfaces, bridges, VLANs, or virtual interfaces like PPPoE. An address here is what makes an interface reachable on an IP network; without one, the interface can still pass traffic (e.g. as part of a bridge) but can’t itself be pinged, managed, or used as a routing next-hop.

Basic Syntax

/ip/address/print

This lists every IPv4 address currently configured, which interface it’s bound to, and its network. It’s usually the first command to run when you’re not sure what’s already assigned.

/ip/address/add address=192.168.1.1/24 interface=bridge

This assigns 192.168.1.1 with a /24 subnet mask (255.255.255.0) to the interface named bridge. RouterOS automatically works out the network address (192.168.1.0/24) from the address and mask you give it.

Example Output

Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic
 #   ADDRESS            NETWORK         INTERFACE
 0   192.168.1.1/24     192.168.1.0     bridge
 1   10.0.0.2/30        10.0.0.0        ether1-wan

Each row is one address. The # column is the internal index RouterOS assigns — use it (or a more specific filter) when removing an entry.

Common Options

• address — the IP address and CIDR mask, e.g. 192.168.1.1/24. Required.
• interface — which interface to bind the address to. Required.
• network — normally left for RouterOS to calculate automatically; only set this explicitly for unusual subnetting scenarios.
• disabled — set to yes to keep the address configured but inactive, useful for staging a change without applying it yet.
• comment — a free-text label, genuinely useful once a router has more than a handful of addresses.

Practical Example: LAN and WAN

A typical small-router setup with a LAN bridge and a WAN uplink:

/ip/address/add address=192.168.88.1/24 interface=bridge comment="LAN"
/ip/address/add address=203.0.113.10/29 interface=ether1-wan comment="WAN static IP"

The LAN address becomes the gateway your local devices point to; the WAN address is whatever your upstream provider assigned. If your WAN connection uses DHCP or PPPoE instead of a static IP, the address on that interface is assigned automatically rather than via /ip/address/add — see our PPPoE reference if you’re the one running the PPPoE server side.

Troubleshooting

• “failure: address already in use” — another interface (or a dynamic address, like one assigned by a DHCP client) already holds that exact address. Run /ip/address/print to find the conflict.
• Address added but device isn’t reachable — check the interface itself is up (/interface/print) and, if it’s a bridge port, that the physical link is actually a member of that bridge.
• Removed the wrong address — addresses are removed by their # index from print, which can shift after other changes. Always re-run print immediately before a remove to confirm the index.

RouterOS v6/v7 Differences

The /ip/address menu itself is essentially unchanged between v6 and v7 — this is one of the more stable parts of the CLI. The main syntax difference across versions is cosmetic: v7 accepts the slash-separated path form shown throughout this page (/ip/address/add), while v6 more commonly used space-separated console navigation (/ip address add). Both forms work in current RouterOS regardless of version.