If you manage infrastructure, deploy services, or work with cloud providers, IPv4 pricing directly affects your budget. Here's a data-driven breakdown of where the market stands in mid-2026, based on IPv4Center.com's market reports.
The TL;DR
- Average IPv4 price: ~$19.57/IP (May 2026)
- Down 32-40% year-over-year
- A /24 block (256 IPs) costs $5,000-$11,500 to buy, or $97-128/month to lease
- Prices are expected to decline further to $16-18/IP by year-end
- RIPE (Europe) blocks cost $2-3 more per IP than ARIN (North America)
Why Prices Are Falling
The single biggest factor: AWS started charging $0.005/hour per public IPv4 address in February 2024.
This had cascading effects:
- Cloud customers optimized their IP usage, returning unused Elastic IPs
- The freed-up addresses flowed back into the secondary market
- Other hyperscalers (Microsoft, Google) hold 100M+ addresses collectively and are becoming net sellers
- Supply increased while demand shifted to leasing over buying
Price by Block Size — What You'll Actually Pay
Block IPs Buy (per IP) Lease (per IP/month)
/24 256 $35-45 $0.38-0.50
/23 512 $19-25 $0.35-0.45
/22 1,024 $28-38 $0.33-0.45
/20 4,096 $22-32 $0.30-0.40
/18 16,384 $20-30 $0.30-0.38
/16 65,536 $18-28 $0.30-0.35
The small block premium is significant. A /24 costs 2-3x per IP compared to a /16. If you need exactly 256 IPs, you're paying a premium for the convenience.
RIR Regional Pricing
Not all IPv4 addresses are priced equally. Where they're registered matters:
RIR Region Avg $/IP Transfer Ease
RIPE NCC Europe/Middle East $19-21 Easy (no justification needed)
ARIN North America $16-19 Moderate (needs-based justification)
APNIC Asia-Pacific $17-25 Moderate (varies by economy)
LACNIC Latin America $21-26 Difficult (limited transfers)
AFRINIC Africa N/A Very limited (intra-RIR only)
Why RIPE costs more: RIPE NCC has a 24-month holding rule — you can't re-transfer a block for 2 years after acquisition. This limits short-term speculation but also constrains supply, keeping prices higher.
Why ARIN is cheapest for big blocks: No holding restriction + large block liquidations from US-based companies = more supply and lower unit prices.
Buy vs. Lease: The Engineering Budget Decision
Here's a simple framework:
/24 purchase price: ~$5,000
/24 monthly lease: ~$150
Payback period: 33 months (2.75 years)
Decision:
Usage < 2 years → LEASE
Usage 2-3 years → DEPENDS (prices are falling)
Usage > 3 years → BUY
For dev/staging environments: lease. You'll probably tear them down.
For production infrastructure: buy if the addresses will be in use for 3+ years.
For short-term projects: definitely lease.
Transfer Process: What Actually Happens
When you buy IPv4 blocks, here's the typical workflow:
- Due diligence — Blacklist check (300+ databases), BGP history review, WHOIS verification
- Agreement — Transfer contract between buyer and seller
- Payment — Typically via escrow (Escrow.com is common for IPv4 deals)
- RIR submission — Both parties submit transfer request to the RIR
- RIR approval — RIPE: 1-2 weeks, ARIN: 2-4 weeks (needs justification), APNIC: 2-3 weeks
- WHOIS update — Block registration updated to buyer
- ROA/LOA — Route Origin Authorization created, Letter of Authorization for routing
Total timeline: 2-6 weeks depending on the RIR.
What's Driving Demand in 2026
Three major forces:
1. AI Infrastructure
AI training clusters and inference endpoints need public IPv4 addresses. Every GPU cluster with external API access needs routable addresses. But most of this demand is served through hyperscaler cloud pools, so the secondary market impact is indirect.
2. US BEAD Broadband Program
The $42.45B federal program is funding hundreds of new rural ISPs. Each needs /22 to /18 blocks. This demand wave hits in H2 2026 through 2027.
3. Continued IPv4/IPv6 Dual-Stack Reality
Global IPv6 adoption is ~45% (Google's measurement). But enterprise networks, legacy systems, and many hosting configurations still require IPv4. Full transition is 5-10+ years away.
Historical Context
Year Avg $/IP What Happened
2011 $7-12 IANA free pool exhausted
2012 $8-12 RIPE hit last /8
2015 $8-15 ARIN free pool exhausted
2019 $18-24 RIPE free pool exhausted
2021-22 $50-60+ Peak (pandemic + hyperscaler hoarding)
2024 $35-52 AWS pricing trigger, correction begins
2025 $23-33 Continued decline
2026 $18-20 Current levels (2019-2020 range)
RIR Transfer Statistics
From IPv4Center.com's tracking data:
- 33,702 total RIR transfers recorded over 41 months
- RIPE: 60% of all transfers
- ARIN: 40% of all transfers
- Peak month: December 2024 (AWS effect wave)
- APNIC/LACNIC/AFRINIC: negligible transfer volumes
Key Takeaways for Engineers
IPv4 is cheaper than it's been since 2019. If you've been putting off acquiring addresses, now is a reasonable entry point.
Lease for flexibility, buy for long-term. The 33-month payback makes buying a clear win for permanent infrastructure.
Check block reputation before acquiring. Blacklisted IPs cause deliverability and connectivity issues. Always verify against multiple blacklist databases.
ARIN offers the best value for large blocks. If you can justify the need, ARIN blocks at $16-18/IP are significantly cheaper than RIPE.
IPv6 migration doesn't eliminate IPv4 need. Plan for dual-stack for at least the next 5-7 years.
Resources
- IPv4 Market Reports — Monthly, quarterly, and annual market data
- IPv4 Price Calculator — Estimate costs by block size and region
- IP Blacklist Checker — Free tool, 300+ databases
- BGP Lookup — Check routing status and visibility
- Subnet Calculator — CIDR math made easy
Data source: IPv4Center.com marketplace transactions and RIR transfer statistics (Jan-May 2026). Full methodology available in the individual reports.
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