The last large blocks of unallocated IPv4 addresses ran out at the regional registry level years ago. ARIN — the registry responsible for North America has been operating on a waiting list since 2015. If you're building or growing a network today and you need IP space, you can't just fill out a form and get a fresh /16 the way operators did in the early 2000s. The addresses are gone.
That reality lands differently depending on where you are in your infrastructure journey. If you're a WISP that just crossed a few hundred subscribers, or a hosting provider adding a new point of presence, or a startup that just got an ASN and needs something to announce, the question isn't "how do I get IPv4 from ARIN?" anymore. It's "what are my actual options, and which one makes sense for my situation?"
This post answers that question without the hand-waving.
Why IPv4 Still Matters When IPv6 Exists
The honest answer is that IPv6 adoption, while real and growing, is uneven. Most modern operating systems and applications handle IPv6 just fine. But a meaningful slice of the global internet, legacy enterprise gear, certain CDN configurations, older customer-premises equipment is still IPv4-only or dual-stack in ways that make dropping IPv4 coverage a customer-experience risk.
For a hosting provider, running IPv6-only means a portion of the internet literally cannot reach your customers' services. For a WISP or FISP, subscriber devices that don't handle IPv6 properly will generate support tickets. IPv4 isn't going away on a timeline that's useful for planning purposes. You still need it, you just have to work harder to get it.
Three Ways to Get IPv4 Space Today
Option 1: Buy it on the transfer market
IPv4 addresses are property that can be transferred between organizations, and a secondary market exists for exactly this purpose. Blocks trade in real money, pricing has fluctuated over the years but has generally settled in the range of $30–$50 per address for a clean /24, meaning a single 256-address block can run $8,000–$13,000 or more.
The process involves finding a seller (through brokers or registries), agreeing on a price, and completing an ARIN-approved transfer. ARIN charges a transfer fee and reviews the transaction. The whole process takes weeks, not days.
Buying makes sense if you have the capital, need the space long-term, and want full control over your allocation. It is the most expensive upfront but cheapest operationally over time, you own the addresses and can announce them however you like.
Option 2: Lease it
IPv4 leasing has grown into a real market. You pay a monthly fee per address to use space that someone else owns. Pricing varies but typically runs $0.50–$1.50 per address per month, which means a /24 costs roughly $125–$385/month depending on the lessor and block quality.
The advantage is lower upfront cost and flexibility, you can scale up or down, and you're not betting thousands of dollars on address space before you know your actual needs. The disadvantage is ongoing cost that adds up over time, plus dependency on your lessor. If they have routing or reputation issues with their block, that becomes your problem.
Option 3: Get a direct ARIN allocation
ARIN still issues addresses, just not from free pool, they work from a waitlist of returned or recovered space. Qualifying for a direct allocation requires demonstrating you are a network operator with a genuine, documented need. You'll need a registered ASN, a network plan, and evidence of existing infrastructure or customer relationships.
This path produces addresses you own outright at registry cost (far below market), but the waitlist can take a year or more, and smaller organizations sometimes struggle to satisfy ARIN's justification requirements.
Comparing the Three Paths
| Buy (Transfer Market) | Lease | ARIN Allocation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | High ($30–50/address) | Low | Low (registry fees only) |
| Ongoing cost | None | $0.50–1.50/address/month | None |
| Time to addresses | Weeks | Days to weeks | 6–18+ months |
| Ownership | Full | None | Full |
| Flexibility | High | High | Moderate |
| Best for | Long-term, stable needs | Testing, short runway, early stage | Patient operators with existing infra |
The Block Quality Problem Nobody Talks About
Not all IPv4 addresses are created equal. Blocks that have been used for spam campaigns, bulletproof hosting, or other abuse end up on industry blocklists, Spamhaus, various RBLs, and reputation databases that email providers and security tools consult.
If you buy or lease a dirty block, your customers' outbound email gets rejected, certain services flag traffic from your range, and you spend a disproportionate amount of time filing delisting requests that may or may not work.
Before completing any transfer or lease, check the block against major reputation databases. Ask the seller for history. If a price looks unusually low for a /24, reputation problems are often why.
Where IPv6 Fits Into This
Getting IPv6 space from ARIN is straightforward, fast, and inexpensive compared to IPv4. There's no shortage and no secondary market premium. If you're building out now and haven't done this yet, it should be near the top of your list, not because you can drop IPv4, but because dual-stack is operationally cleaner than constantly scrambling for v4 capacity.
Running IPv6-only for internal infrastructure and using IPv6 with customers wherever possible reduces your dependence on the IPv4 market over time. Every subscriber or tenant you can serve over v6 is one less /32 you need to carve out of precious v4 space.
What a Good IP Transit Provider Can Help With
Getting addresses is only half the work. Once you have a block, whether purchased, leased, or allocated you need to announce it to the internet through BGP. That means having an ASN, transit providers that will accept your prefix, and routing configured to actually send traffic where it needs to go.
This is where your transit relationship matters. A provider that gives you clean paths, accepts your prefixes without arbitrary filtering, and has real peering at IXPs means your newly acquired address space actually performs well once it's announced. Address space on a poorly connected upstream is address space that's still slow.
ShiftHosting provides IP transit across multiple North American points of presence, with BGP sessions built for operators who manage their own address space. Whether you've just secured a /24 from the transfer market or you're planning a larger buildout, having a transit provider that treats BGP as a first-class service not an afterthought makes the operational side of address management significantly less painful.
If you're working through what IPv4 strategy makes sense for your network, or you want to talk through how your address space would perform on a better upstream, reach out to sales@shifthosting.com with a quick description of where you are and what you're building.
