Rising Prices of IPv4 Addresses Due to Shortage

IPv4 addresses have quietly turned into one of the most expensive building blocks of the internet. Over the last few years, we’ve watched their cost climb from a background line item on hosting invoices to a strategic topic in budget meetings. If you manage websites, SaaS products, email infrastructure or customer hosting plans, you are almost certainly paying more today for IPv4 than you did a few years ago – even if the rest of your server specs stayed the same.

In this article, we’ll unpack why IPv4 prices are rising, how the global shortage really works, and what that means for your hosting, VPS, dedicated servers and colocation setups. We’ll also look at concrete strategies we apply at dchost.com to reduce the number of IPv4 addresses you need, make better use of the ones you have, and gradually lean on IPv6 without breaking compatibility or SEO. The goal is simple: help you understand where your IP money is going and how to keep this cost under control over the next 3–5 years.

Why IPv4 Prices Are Rising So Fast

The hard limit: only ~4.3 billion IPv4 addresses exist

IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses, which means there are about 4.3 billion unique IPs in the entire protocol (2³²). That sounded huge in the early days of the internet. It is very small when you consider billions of users, billions of devices, data centers, VPNs, mobile networks, IoT and hosting providers all fighting for the same pool.

Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) like RIPE NCC (Europe), ARIN (North America), APNIC (Asia-Pacific), LACNIC (Latin America) and AFRINIC (Africa) have now effectively exhausted their free IPv4 pools. New allocations are tiny and heavily restricted. If you want more IPv4, you usually have to buy or lease it on the secondary market – and that is where prices have exploded.

From allocation to a resale market

Originally, IPv4 space was allocated almost for free to ISPs, universities, enterprises and hosting providers. Over time, many of these organizations ended up with more addresses than they actually used. Once RIRs ran out of fresh space, those legacy holders suddenly owned a scarce asset that everyone else needed.

That shift created an active secondary market for IPv4 blocks. Addresses are now traded under RIR transfer policies, often via brokers. Each transfer has:

• Legal overhead (contracts, due diligence, compliance)
• Administrative overhead (RIR transfer fees, documentation)
• Technical overhead (renumbering, routing changes, abuse history cleanup)

All of that overhead gets baked into the final cost per IP – and passed down the chain to ISPs, hosting providers and ultimately customers.

Speculation and consolidation

As with any scarce asset, speculation plays a role. Some organizations acquired large IPv4 blocks early, then held onto them while prices rose. At the same time, the hosting and connectivity world keeps consolidating. When networks merge, they rationalize IP space, move customers, and sometimes lock in higher per-IP pricing to cover their acquisition costs.

We’ve broken down this dynamic in more detail in our article on why IPv4 address prices are hitting record highs and what you can do about it, but the key takeaway is simple: IPv4 is now a traded commodity, not a near-free technical resource.

Regulation, compliance and abuse history

Another factor that quietly adds cost is the quality and history of an IPv4 block. Clean address space – not listed on spam/abuse blocklists, not associated with previous malicious activity – is more valuable. Cleaning up abused ranges takes time and expertise, especially for IPs that will be used for email or transactional traffic. This is one reason hosting providers like us invest heavily in abuse handling, monitoring and reputation management: to keep address space clean and useful.

How the IPv4 Shortage Impacts Hosting and Servers

1. Higher per‑IP cost on VPS and dedicated servers

On the hosting side, the most visible effect is straightforward: every dedicated IPv4 address now costs more. That shows up as:

• Higher monthly fees for additional IPv4 addresses on VPS and dedicated servers
• Separate line items for “IPv4 rental” or “IPv4 add‑ons” where they used to be bundled
• Stricter limits on how many IPv4 addresses each server can have

From our side at dchost.com, this means we have to think carefully before assigning /29 or /28 blocks to a single customer without a clear technical justification. We spend more time reviewing requests, making sure each address is needed for a real use case (SSL termination, email isolation, IP-based routing, etc.).

2. Shared IPs are becoming the default, not the exception

Because individual IPv4 addresses are so expensive, name-based virtual hosting is now the default everywhere. Hundreds of websites often share a single IPv4 address on a web server, distinguished by domain name and HTTP Host headers. That can raise questions like:

• “Will sharing an IP hurt my SEO?” – No, search engines handle this perfectly.
• “Can I still use HTTPS on a shared IP?” – Yes, thanks to SNI (Server Name Indication).

We covered this in detail in our guide on hosting multiple HTTPS websites on a single IP with SNI. For most websites, dedicated IPv4 is no longer technically necessary.

3. Email infrastructure needs smarter IP use

Email is one of the few areas where IP reputation is still critical. Many businesses want:

• Separate IPs for transactional and marketing email
• Separate IPs for different brands or customers
• Warm‑up plans and reputation isolation

Doing all of that purely with IPv4 is increasingly expensive. Providers have to balance:

• Deliverability and reputation isolation
• Strict IPv4 budgets
• Abuse handling (spam complaints, bounces, blacklists)

That’s why we pair careful IP allocation with strong email best practices (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, rate limiting, and abuse monitoring). If you need to understand the reputation side better, our guide to getting removed from Google Safe Browsing and email blacklists explains how IP history and sender behavior interact.

4. Colocation customers feel it in planning and contracts

If you colocate your own servers, IPv4 shortage hits you on two levels:

• Per‑IP monthly cost charged by your data center or ISP
• Difficulty acquiring your own portable address space from an RIR if you don’t already have it

We now see colocation customers planning IP usage as carefully as they plan rack space and power. NAT, private VLANs and dual‑stack IPv4+IPv6 designs are becoming standard even in relatively small deployments.

Real‑World IPv4 Price Trends: What We See Day to Day

Secondary market ranges keep creeping up

On the wholesale side (between networks), per‑IP prices are usually discussed for /24 or larger blocks. While we won’t quote exact numbers here because they change frequently and vary by region, the multi‑year pattern is clear:

• Per‑IP prices have often more than doubled over a 3–5 year period in many RIR regions.
• Clean, well‑documented blocks trade at a noticeable premium.
• Smaller blocks (/24) cost more per IP than larger ones (/20, /19) because routing table pressure and fragmentation matter.

Every time a hosting or connectivity provider renews an upstream IP lease or buys a new block, those higher acquisition costs cascade down to end‑customers as updated per‑IP pricing.

Retail hosting: small monthly numbers, large long‑term impact

At the retail level, the pattern is subtler – an extra dollar or two per month here and there. But when you multiply that across tens or hundreds of IPs, and across years, the impact becomes substantial. A few examples of how that plays out:

• Agencies that once asked for a dedicated IPv4 per client site now rethink that strategy entirely.
• SaaS providers that used to hand out dedicated IPs for white‑label email or custom domains now offer them only on higher‑tier plans.
• Enterprises delay or optimize projects that require large numbers of public IPs (e.g., IoT gateways, VPN hubs).

When we help customers analyze hosting costs, IPv4 has moved from a footnote to a line item that deserves its own slide in the cost analysis deck.

IPv6 adoption is rising, but dual‑stack is the reality

The obvious answer to IPv4 shortage is IPv6, and adoption really is accelerating. Many networks, ISPs and content platforms already serve a large portion of their traffic over IPv6. We’ve written about this in our guides on accelerating IPv6 adoption in your network and the broader trends around IPv6.

However, we’re still in a long dual‑stack transition. Realistically, you will need some IPv4 for years to come to reach all users and services. That’s why the best strategy today is not “throw everything into IPv6 and forget IPv4”, but “treat IPv4 as a premium scarce resource and IPv6 as your scalable foundation”.

Technical Strategies to Use Fewer IPv4 Addresses

1. Default to shared IPv4 for websites (with SNI for HTTPS)

For most websites, a dedicated IPv4 address is no longer necessary. Instead, you can:

• Host many domains on a single IP using name‑based virtual hosts.
• Use SNI so multiple SSL/TLS certificates can coexist on that IP.
• Keep your SEO safe and your visitors on HTTPS without extra IP cost.

On our shared hosting and many VPS setups at dchost.com, this is the default architecture. You only really need dedicated IPv4 for special cases such as certain legacy integrations, unusual SSL requirements, or strict IP‑based access lists that can’t be modernized.

2. Use private address space and NAT internally

Your internal infrastructure doesn’t need globally routable IPv4 for every component. Use RFC1918 private ranges (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16) for:

• Application servers behind a reverse proxy or load balancer
• Database clusters, caches, message brokers
• Internal admin panels and monitoring systems

Then expose only a small number of public IPv4 addresses for:

• Reverse proxies (Nginx, HAProxy, etc.)
• VPN gateways and bastion hosts
• Email servers that must send/receive over IPv4

We see many infrastructures where 10–20 public IPs can support dozens of internal services if the network is designed with NAT and proper segmentation.

3. Design email with limited, high‑value IPv4s

For email, you can limit IPv4 usage while still keeping clean reputation by:

• Using one or a few dedicated IPv4 addresses per sending profile (e.g. transactional vs marketing), not per domain.
• Implementing strong authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) so domains support reputation alongside IPs.
• Keeping bounce handling and abuse complaints tight so those IPs stay clean.

If you separate high‑risk and low‑risk traffic smartly, you can often cut the number of IPv4s used for email without sacrificing deliverability. Our articles about SPF, DKIM and DMARC on cPanel and VPS and advanced DMARC/report analysis go deeper into this.

4. Go dual‑stack everywhere you can

The best long‑term answer is to make every public‑facing service dual‑stack (IPv4 + IPv6). This doesn’t remove the need for IPv4 immediately, but it:

• Gradually shifts more of your traffic to IPv6 as user networks support it.
• Makes migrations and renumbering easier in the future.
• Future‑proofs your architecture for new regions and providers.

On VPS and dedicated servers, enabling IPv6 is usually straightforward: request an IPv6 range, configure it on your interfaces, update your firewall, then add AAAA DNS records. Our step‑by‑step guide on IPv6 setup and configuration on a VPS server walks through the practical details.

5. Avoid “IP per microservice” and similar anti‑patterns

In modern architectures, it’s tempting to give every microservice, container or feature its own public IP address. With IPv4 scarcity, that design becomes very expensive very quickly. Instead:

• Use internal load balancers and service discovery on private networks.
• Expose a small number of public endpoints and route traffic internally.
• Consolidate TLS termination and inbound access wherever sensible.

We often see projects slash their public IPv4 usage by 50–80% just by redesigning ingress and consolidating edge endpoints.

Planning Your IPv4 Budget for the Next 3–5 Years

1. Inventory and categorize your current IPv4 usage

Start with a simple, honest inventory. For each IPv4 address (or range) you control, ask:

• What service is this IP used for?
• Is a dedicated IP technically required, or just “nice to have”?
• Could this service move behind a shared IP or load balancer?
• Is there a plan to add IPv6 alongside it?

We recommend grouping IPs into buckets like “hard requirement”, “optimizable soon”, and “legacy/cleanup candidate”. This lets you attack quick wins without touching mission‑critical services first.

2. Forecast based on real growth, not wishful thinking

Once you know what you have, think about where you’re going:

• How many new customer projects, sites or tenants do you realistically onboard per year?
• How many of those actually need dedicated IPv4, and for what (typically email or VPN)?
• Which existing uses can be consolidated or migrated to dual‑stack in the same timeframe?

When we work with agencies and SaaS teams, we often map a 3‑year IP forecast: expected new IP demand minus planned savings from consolidation and IPv6. That gives a much clearer picture of whether you’ll stay flat, need a moderate increase, or face a significant jump in IPv4 usage.

3. Treat IPv4 like a premium resource in your product pricing

If you resell hosting or run a SaaS platform, IPv4 scarcity should be visible in your own pricing model:

• Include only shared IPv4 in entry‑level plans; offer dedicated IPv4 as a clear paid add‑on.
• Limit the number of free dedicated IPs per tenant or per node.
• Explain to customers (in simple language) why IPv4 is priced separately and how you use it efficiently.

This is similar to how we recommend agencies think about CPU, RAM and disk in our hosting pricing and packaging strategies for web agencies. IPv4 has moved into the same “carefully budgeted” category as NVMe storage and bandwidth.

4. Bake IPv6 and DNS planning into new projects

Every new project is an opportunity to reduce future IPv4 pain:

• Always request AAAA records for new domains alongside A records.
• Design DNS and SSL/TLS from day one with dual‑stack in mind.
• Document IP usage and the reasoning for each dedicated IPv4 you assign.

That way, you avoid having to “retrofit” IPv6 or consolidate IPs in a rush when prices jump again or when a provider tightens allocation policies.

How dchost.com Helps You Navigate the IPv4 Crunch

1. Right‑sized IPv4 allocation on hosting, VPS and dedicated servers

As a hosting provider, we sit in the middle of the IPv4 supply chain. We pay market prices for address space and RIR fees, then allocate those addresses carefully across our shared hosting, VPS, dedicated server and colocation services. Our goal is to:

• Give each customer the IPv4 they genuinely need.
• Prevent waste (e.g. unused blocks sitting idle on a single low‑traffic server).
• Keep per‑IP pricing transparent and predictable.

When customers come to us asking “how many IPs do we really need for this project?”, we almost always find ways to meet their goals with fewer addresses than they originally expected, simply by adjusting architecture.

2. Dual‑stack infrastructure and IPv6‑ready designs

We design our infrastructure so that every new deployment can be dual‑stack from the outset. On VPS and dedicated servers, we can provide IPv6 ranges alongside IPv4, and we test configurations to ensure both protocols behave consistently. If you’re not sure how to make your own stack IPv6‑aware, our articles on accelerating IPv6 adoption and how rising IPv6 adoption rates affect network strategy are a good starting point.

3. Clean IP reputation and abuse management

Paying for IPv4 is one thing; keeping those addresses valuable is another. We invest heavily in:

• Abuse detection and rate limiting on outbound email and web traffic
• Blocklist monitoring and remediation workflows
• Guidance to customers on safe email practices and security hardening

This protects not only our own network reputation but also your ability to send email and handle traffic reliably. If you build your own email stack on our VPS or dedicated servers, our guides on optimizing Postfix and Dovecot for high‑volume transactional email and bounce/error handling are especially useful.

4. Architecture advice so IPv4 doesn’t dominate your budget

When we discuss new deployments with customers – whether it’s an e‑commerce cluster, a SaaS platform, or a multi‑tenant agency stack – IPv4 is now part of the architectural conversation from the start. We routinely help with:

• Designing reverse proxy and load balancing layers that minimize public IPv4 use.
• Choosing between shared hosting, VPS and dedicated servers based on realistic resource needs and IP requirements.
• Planning secure DNS, SSL/TLS and email so that each dedicated IPv4 genuinely earns its keep.

We’ve written extensively on topics like choosing between dedicated servers and VPS and comparing web hosting types without the drama; those same principles apply when you’re trying to keep IPv4 usage efficient.

Conclusion: IPv4 Is Expensive, but You’re Not Powerless

The rising price of IPv4 addresses is not a temporary glitch; it’s the natural outcome of a hard technical limit meeting decades of growth, uneven allocations and slow protocol migration. As providers, we feel it when we acquire new ranges or renew leases. As customers, you feel it in the form of higher per‑IP charges, stricter allocation policies and more questions when you ask for “just a few more IPs”.

The good news is that you have real levers to pull. By treating IPv4 as a premium resource, defaulting to shared IPs where possible, designing internal networks with private addressing and NAT, and rolling out IPv6 systematically, you can keep your IP budget under control even as market prices climb. At dchost.com, we build our hosting, VPS, dedicated server and colocation offerings around exactly this mindset: efficient use of IPv4 today, paired with solid IPv6 foundations for tomorrow.

If you’re planning a new project or reviewing an existing setup and you’re not sure how many IPs you truly need – or how to restructure to use fewer – we’re happy to talk through your architecture, not just sell you another block. The sooner IPv4 and IPv6 become part of your design discussions, the easier it will be to keep performance, security and costs in a healthy balance over the next several years.