IPv4 Address Exhaustion and Price Surge: What It Means for Your Hosting

IPv4 addresses have quietly turned into one of the scarcest resources in the hosting world. If you are planning a new project, sizing a VPS cluster, or reviewing your server invoices, you have probably noticed a line item that keeps creeping up: IPv4. The pool of free IPv4 addresses is essentially gone, regional internet registries (RIRs) are strict about new allocations, and the secondary transfer market has pushed prices to levels that would have sounded absurd a decade ago. In this article, we will unpack what IPv4 address exhaustion really means, why prices are surging, and how you can design your hosting and network strategy so you are not held hostage by rising costs. We will walk through real-world patterns we see at dchost.com across shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers and colocation, and share practical tactics for using fewer IPv4 addresses without sacrificing performance, uptime or email deliverability.

What Is IPv4 and Why Did It Run Out?

A quick refresher on IPv4

IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) is the addressing system that has powered the internet since the early days. An IPv4 address is a 32-bit number, usually written in dotted decimal format like 203.0.113.45. With 32 bits, you get about 4.3 billion theoretical addresses. That sounds huge, until you consider that we now connect billions of smartphones, laptops, servers, IoT devices, routers and virtual machines.

Those 4.3 billion addresses are not all usable as public internet addresses. Large ranges are reserved for private networks (like 10.0.0.0/8 or 192.168.0.0/16) and special purposes (multicast, loopback, documentation, etc.). The remaining public pool is what hosting providers, ISPs and enterprises fight over.

How IPv4 addresses are allocated

To keep things organised, IPv4 addresses are managed by five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs): RIPE NCC (Europe, Middle East), ARIN (North America), APNIC (Asia-Pacific), LACNIC (Latin America) and AFRINIC (Africa). These RIRs receive large blocks from IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) and then allocate smaller blocks to ISPs, hosting providers and organisations that meet specific justification criteria.

For years, allocations were relatively generous. Enterprises could receive /16 or even larger blocks (tens of thousands of IPs) when the internet was much smaller. Many of those early allocations are still in place today, even if the organisations do not use every address. That historical reality is a big reason why we now have a supply problem.

The exhaustion timeline in practice

Globally, the last unallocated IPv4 blocks were handed out by IANA in 2011. Each RIR then steadily burned through its remaining pool. Today, all RIRs are effectively in a run-out or post-run-out phase. They still manage IPv4, but they no longer have large, fresh blocks to hand out on demand. New requests are handled under strict policies that prioritise small allocations and encourage IPv6 adoption.

Once the RIR pools dried up, the only way to obtain sizable IPv4 space became:

• Reclaiming and reusing underutilised internal space
• Transferring addresses between organisations on the secondary market
• Leasing addresses short- or medium-term from holders with surplus space

This is where prices started to climb – and why your hosting invoice today looks different from five years ago.

Why IPv4 Address Prices Are Surging

Basic economics: fixed supply, growing demand

Once RIR free pools dried up, IPv4 essentially became a fixed-supply market. We can shuffle blocks around, but we cannot create new IPv4 space. At the same time, demand keeps growing: more data centers, more SaaS platforms, more microservices, and more individual VPS and dedicated servers.

The result is simple economics. When a resource is finite but demand keeps increasing, the price rises. Organisations that hold large legacy IPv4 blocks now have a valuable asset. Many are selling unused space, but they are doing so at market prices – not at the near-zero cost of historic allocations.

Secondary markets and broker-driven pricing

Today, a big share of IPv4 transactions happens via brokers and marketplaces. Blocks are listed, vetted for regulatory compliance and reputation (for example, spam history), and then sold or leased. This process adds overhead:

• Broker fees and legal costs for contracts and due diligence
• Engineering time for renumbering, RPKI, routing and security checks
• Transfer fees charged by RIRs for updating records

All those costs are baked into the final price per IP. When you see a rising monthly surcharge for additional IPv4 addresses on your VPS or dedicated server, that is a reflection of these deeper market mechanics, not just a random markup.

Reputation, abuse and the “clean IP” premium

Not all IPv4 addresses are equal. For web and email hosting, reputation matters a lot. An IP that has been used for spamming, DDoS attacks or malware hosting can be listed on blocklists or carry a bad history with major email providers. Cleaning that up takes time and is not always fully successful.

Because of this, “clean” IPv4 ranges – with minimal abuse history and well-maintained routing/security – command a premium compared to tainted ranges. As a hosting provider, we at dchost.com invest significant effort in monitoring abuse, responding quickly to incidents and protecting the reputation of our address space. That ongoing work is one more factor behind the rising cost of “good” IPv4 addresses.

Data center growth, AI and IoT

The last few years have also brought massive growth in new data halls, AI/ML clusters and edge infrastructure. Many of these environments still require public IPv4 for management, APIs, VPNs, customer workloads or legacy integrations. Even if that number is optimised with NAT and IPv6, the total global demand keeps ticking upwards.

At the same time, billions of IoT devices and 5G connections still reach IPv4-only services somewhere along the path. Carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) helps mobile and broadband operators stretch addresses, but backend services, APIs, admin portals and customer tenants still often sit on public IPv4. All of this pressure pushes prices up.

How IPv4 Exhaustion Impacts Your Hosting and Network Design

More scrutiny on every new IP request

Ten years ago, it was common to request a block of IPv4 addresses and simply receive it. Today, responsible providers – and the RIRs above them – ask detailed questions:

• What will each IP be used for?
• Can some workloads share an IP via name-based virtual hosting or SNI?
• Are there services that can move to IPv6-only or dual-stack?
• How long will the allocation be needed?

At dchost.com, we go through this type of capacity planning with customers who need multiple IPs for VPS, dedicated servers or colocation. It is not bureaucracy for its own sake; it is how we keep our address space efficient and costs under control for everyone.

Dedicated IPs are now a strategic choice, not a default

In the past, it was normal for every SSL site or small project to request a dedicated IPv4 address. With modern TLS, that is rarely necessary. Thanks to Server Name Indication (SNI), multiple HTTPS websites can safely share a single IPv4 address and port 443 while each serving the correct SSL certificate.

Today, you typically need a dedicated IPv4 address only for specific use cases:

• Outbound email servers where you care about IP reputation and deliverability
• Services requiring legacy clients without SNI support (increasingly rare)
• Custom network setups like VPN endpoints, reverse proxies or special routing
• Regulatory or contractual requirements demanding IP isolation

For most websites on shared hosting or even many VPS deployments, carefully planned IP sharing via virtual hosts is now the norm.

Email deliverability and IPv4 scarcity

Email infrastructure is one area where IPv4 scarcity is felt strongly. Each sending IP builds its own reputation. If many customers share one outbound IPv4 and one of them sends spam, everyone may suffer. On the other hand, dedicating an IP to every small mailbox is not economically realistic anymore.

The compromise we recommend depends on your risk profile and volume. For businesses sending important transactional or marketing email, we often advise:

• A dedicated IPv4 (or a small pool) per application or domain for predictable reputation
• Correct DNS configuration with SPF, DKIM, DMARC and PTR records – see our guide on SPF, DKIM, DMARC and rDNS for practical steps
• Conservative warm-up of new sending IPs to avoid sudden spikes

This kind of planning uses IPv4 addresses where they add real value, not just out of habit.

Budgeting and long-term contracts

Because IPv4 address costs are trending upward, you should treat them as a strategic line item in your infrastructure budget. When you negotiate dedicated servers, colocation space or large VPS clusters, ask explicitly about:

• Per-IP monthly or annual charges
• Included baseline of IPv4 addresses per server
• Discounts or stability on longer-term contracts
• Policies for adding, removing or renumbering IPs later

We encourage customers to model several scenarios during capacity planning. For example, combining right-sized compute resources with fewer IPv4 addresses can often save more overall than choosing the cheapest CPU/RAM and scattering workloads across many IPs. Our article on cutting hosting costs by right‑sizing VPS, bandwidth and storage dives deeper into this optimisation mindset.

Technical Strategies to Reduce Your IPv4 Footprint

Adopt IPv6 wherever possible

IPv6 is the long-term solution to IPv4 exhaustion. With 128-bit addresses, IPv6 provides an effectively unlimited pool. Every device, VM or container can have a globally unique address without NAT. The more traffic you can serve over IPv6, the less pressure you feel from IPv4 scarcity.

In practice, the path is usually dual-stack: you keep IPv4 online while enabling IPv6 alongside it. Over time, an increasing share of user traffic and internal communication shifts to IPv6. That lets you:

• Use fewer public IPv4 addresses overall
• Design cleaner, more scalable network topologies
• Prepare for regions and ISPs where IPv6 adoption is already high

If you are planning a refresh of your servers or network, it is the perfect time to include IPv6 in your roadmap. Our detailed guide on rising IPv6 adoption rates and what they mean for your infrastructure walks through timing and rollout strategies, and our step‑by‑step IPv6 setup guide for your VPS server shows the configuration details on real systems.

Consider IPv6‑first and IPv6‑only segments

For new internal services, microservices or APIs that primarily talk to other modern systems, you can often design them as IPv6‑first or even IPv6‑only from day one. Where IPv4 compatibility is required (for example, for end-users behind older ISPs), you can use translation techniques like NAT64/DNS64 or IPv4/IPv6 proxies at the network edge.

We describe a practical IPv6‑only publishing approach for VPS workloads in our article about running websites on an IPv6‑only VPS with NAT64/DNS64 as a bridge to IPv4. That kind of architecture lets you reserve scarce IPv4 addresses for the edge while keeping the inner network clean and future‑proof.

Use name-based virtual hosting and SNI correctly

For HTTP/HTTPS websites, a single IPv4 address can safely host dozens or even hundreds of domains using name-based virtual hosting. With SNI, the web server can present the right SSL certificate based on the requested hostname.

Key points to do this safely and efficiently:

• Enable SNI in your web server (modern Apache, Nginx and LiteSpeed support this by default)
• Use proper vhost configurations per domain with clean logs and separation
• Automate SSL issuance and renewal – for example with Let’s Encrypt – so certificate management scales

This approach is standard in our shared hosting environment at dchost.com and is also common for VPS customers who manage many small websites on a single server. It keeps IPv4 consumption minimal while still allowing per-domain SSL and logging.

Design NAT and private addressing with care

Network Address Translation (NAT) and private IPv4 ranges are powerful tools for stretching public addresses. Inside your infrastructure, you can safely use RFC1918 space (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16) for internal communication, databases, cache clusters and management interfaces.

A typical pattern we see in VPS and dedicated deployments:

• Assign one or a small pool of public IPv4 addresses per node
• Use private IPv4 or IPv6 addresses for internal communication between containers/VMs
• Expose services to the internet via reverse proxies or load balancers that sit on the public IPs

This structure ensures you are not burning one public IPv4 per container or internal service, while still maintaining flexible routing and security controls.

Clean up unused and underutilised IPs

In almost every environment we review, there are a few IPv4 addresses that no one really needs anymore: old test servers, retired services, legacy SSL migrations that never removed the previous mapping. Over time, these small leaks add up.

We recommend a periodic IP audit:

• List all assigned IPv4 addresses per server, VLAN or customer account
• Document their purpose (production site, staging, mail, VPN, etc.)
• Consolidate services where feasible onto shared IPs
• Release truly unused addresses back to the pool

This is especially important if you manage many client sites as an agency or via reseller hosting. Our guide on managing multiple websites on shared and reseller hosting covers practical patterns for safe consolidation without confusing DNS or breaking SSL.

Planning IPv4 in Real Hosting Scenarios

Scenario 1: A new small business website

For a typical small business brochure site or simple blog, you usually do not need a dedicated IPv4 address. A shared hosting plan or a modest VPS with one IPv4 address is enough, as long as:

• The server supports SNI for HTTPS
• You have valid SSL certificates for your domain
• Email is handled by a provider with good IP reputation or via well‑configured hosting mail

In this scenario, focus on performance and reliability – for example, choosing NVMe storage and correct PHP limits – rather than on accumulating IPs. Our article on how much CPU, RAM and bandwidth a new website needs pairs well with this, helping you size the hosting plan correctly without overpaying.

Scenario 2: WooCommerce or SaaS with critical email

If you run an online store or SaaS product where email confirmations, invoices and password resets must reach inboxes reliably, a dedicated IPv4 address for outbound mail often pays for itself. It isolates your reputation from other tenants and makes troubleshooting easier.

We generally suggest:

• One dedicated IPv4 for the main transactional mail stream (e.g., [email protected])
• Optional separate IP for bulk marketing mail if volume is high
• Shared IPv4 for low‑risk, low‑volume mailbox-style usage

The rest of your stack (web frontend, APIs, admin panel) can often share a single server IP without issue. The real cost driver becomes that dedicated mail IP, which you can treat as a core asset and protect with solid authentication (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), rate limiting and monitoring.

Scenario 3: Agency or hosting reseller with many client sites

Agencies and resellers often manage tens or hundreds of small‑to‑medium websites. Allocating a separate IPv4 per client is no longer realistic – and it is not required for SEO or SSL today. Instead, we recommend:

• Using shared IPv4 addresses with SNI for most client sites
• Reserving dedicated IPs only for customers with special email or compliance needs
• Encouraging IPv6 adoption for forward‑looking clients and integrating dual‑stack from the start

This model keeps your IPv4 footprint tight, especially if you combine it with well‑organised DNS and access management. For DNS best practices in agency setups, see our article on DNS and domain access management for agencies.

Scenario 4: Colocation and custom network designs

When you colocate your own hardware in a data center, IPv4 planning becomes even more important. You may bring your own IP space (if you have it) or lease space from the provider. In both cases, a clean addressing plan will:

• Minimise public IPv4 consumption on uplink-facing interfaces
• Use private IPv4 or IPv6 for internal server-to-server communication
• Centralise ingress/egress through a small set of edge devices

As AI/ML workloads and container orchestration (Kubernetes, Nomad, etc.) become more common in colocation, we see many customers shifting heavily to IPv6 inside the cluster while keeping just enough IPv4 at the edges for compatibility. That hybrid approach is often the sweet spot between cost and future‑proofing.

How dchost.com Approaches IPv4 Scarcity

Responsible IP management and fair policies

At dchost.com, we treat IPv4 as a shared, finite resource. Our internal policies focus on:

• Careful justification for new IPv4 assignments across shared hosting, VPS, dedicated and colocation
• Regular audits to reclaim unused or underutilised addresses
• Abuse monitoring and rapid incident response to protect IP reputation
• Transparent pricing so customers understand what they are paying for

This responsible management lets us keep address space clean and available for customers who truly need dedicated IPv4, while keeping shared IP costs under control.

IPv6‑ready services by default

We are actively expanding IPv6 support across our infrastructure. For many hosting plans, you can already request IPv6 connectivity or run your services dual‑stack. For customers building new projects today – especially APIs, SaaS platforms and modern web apps – we strongly recommend planning for IPv6 from day one.

Global IPv6 deployment is accelerating; in some regions, more than half of user traffic already comes over IPv6. Our article on global IPv6 adoption surpassing 40% and what it means for your infrastructure explains why this shift is happening faster than many people expected. By enabling IPv6 on your hosting with dchost.com, you are aligning with where the internet is going, not where it was.

Guidance on right‑sizing your infrastructure

IPv4 exhaustion and price surge are not isolated issues; they are part of your overall hosting and network cost structure. When we help customers choose between shared hosting, VPS and dedicated servers, we look holistically at:

• CPU, RAM and disk needs for the workload
• Expected traffic and bandwidth
• Number and type of IP addresses truly required
• Security, compliance and growth expectations

If you want a structured way to think through these trade‑offs, our guide to choosing between a dedicated server and a VPS is a good starting point. Combine that with the IPv4 strategies in this article and you can design a platform that is both technically solid and cost‑efficient.

Summary: Turning IPv4 Scarcity Into a Manageable Constraint

IPv4 address exhaustion and price surge are not temporary anomalies; they are the new normal. The free pools are gone, secondary markets and brokers set much of the pricing, and data center growth continues to push demand higher. Yet this does not have to derail your hosting plans. By understanding how IPv4 is allocated and priced, treating dedicated IPs as strategic resources, and adopting IPv6 wherever it makes sense, you can keep your infrastructure lean and future‑ready.

As the dchost.com team, we are already living this reality every day – optimising IP usage across shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers and colocation, while helping customers balance cost, performance and deliverability. If you are planning a new project, consolidating multiple sites, or simply worried about rising IPv4 costs on your invoices, reach out to us. We can review your current setup, suggest realistic IPv4 and IPv6 strategies, and help you build a hosting architecture that will still make sense when IPv4 prices climb again next year.