Unexpected plugin_dir_path Output

Question

I am developing locally and have a problem with this code:

plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'ben/'

If I echo this out it is: C:\xampp\htdocs\plugintest\wp-content\plugins\my-plugin\admin/ben/

If I try to use it in a function:

function my_acf_settings_path( $path ) {
    $path = plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'ben/';
    return $path;
}

The output is: http://localhost/plugintestC:xampphtdocsplugintestwp-contentpluginsmy-pluginadmin/ben/

Why?

Answer 1

This was fixed by using plugin_dir_url.