What Is IPv4 Leasing, and How Does It Work?

IPv4 leasing is an arrangement that lets an organization use IPv4 addresses for an agreed period in exchange for a recurring fee. The customer gains permission to use the specified addresses under the lease terms. A lease does not automatically make the customer their permanent registered holder.

A business might lease addresses for hosting, outbound connections, or a service that still needs public IPv4 connectivity. The arrangement only becomes useful once the addresses can be routed to the intended infrastructure.

Why do businesses lease IPv4 addresses?

Public IPv4 supply is limited. A growing business cannot assume it can obtain any quantity directly from a registry whenever it needs it. Our guide to why IPv4 addresses are running out explains the shortage.

Leasing can suit a project with uncertain demand or a limited lifespan. For example, a hosting company launching a new service may want to establish customer demand before committing to a registry transfer and a larger upfront payment.

The tradeoff is dependency on the lease. ARIN explains that leasing does not grant permanent registration rights or ensure network autonomy, and that use must end when the right to use the addresses ends. See ARIN’s explanation of IPv4 leasing.

What are you actually renting?

The agreement should identify an exact address or address block, usually written as a CIDR prefix. A /24 IPv4 block contains 256 address values. How those values can be assigned depends on the network and service using them; the block size alone is not a promise of 256 usable server interfaces.

A lease may come from the registered holder, a provider, or a marketplace acting between parties. Confirm who grants the rights and who performs the technical work.

For help reading block sizes, see What Is CIDR Notation?

How does IPv4 leasing work?

1. Start with the destination network. Ask the hosting or cloud provider what it accepts before selecting a block. Check supported registries, prefix sizes, evidence of control, routing requirements, and the specific product in which the addresses will be used.

For example, Amazon EC2’s BYOIP requirements include registration and control checks, prefix-size limits, and address-history requirements. A lease agreement alone does not satisfy every technical onboarding condition.

2. Check the holder and the address history. Compare the proposed prefix with its registry records. If an intermediary supplies it, establish the chain of authorization back to the legitimate holder and who can make required registry changes.

Review the intended use with the supplier. Check relevant reputation services and ask how existing problems will be resolved. A promise of a “clean block” should have a defined meaning, rather than an unexplained score. Read What Is IP Address Reputation? for the limits of these checks.

3. Agree on the complete service and price. Request a quote covering the block, term, technical services, and likely changes during the lease. Include setup, renewal, cancellation, and any charges for moving the announcement to another network.

Pricing structures differ. For example, IPXO’s pricing page separates platform plans and usage-based actions from its address-leasing offering. Compare the total cost of your intended setup, rather than treating every advertised amount as an inclusive monthly bill.

4. Arrange the necessary authorizations. Several documents or records may be involved, and they serve different purposes:

These are not interchangeable. Follow the destination provider’s workflow, including which records it creates itself. A ROA also does not make traffic start flowing. Our RPKI and ROA guide explains origin authorization in more detail.

5. Onboard and test before moving production traffic. Coordinate with the destination provider to provision and advertise the range. Check reachability from outside the destination network, expected source addresses for outbound traffic, and any application dependencies.

Provisioning and advertising can be separate steps. The AWS BYOIP onboarding guide, for example, treats bringing a range into the account and advertising it as distinct operations.

What happens when the lease ends?

Plan the transition while you still have permission to use the addresses. Inventory dependencies such as DNS records, customer allowlists, mail systems, and external integrations.

Agree on when traffic moves, who withdraws the old announcement, and how obsolete authorizations and reverse DNS records will be handled. Coordinate these changes so an early record removal does not interrupt a still-authorized service.

Moving an application can take longer than changing a billing subscription. The relevant question is how long customers and partner systems need to adopt replacement addresses.

Is leasing the right option?

Leasing is worth evaluating when flexibility and a smaller initial commitment matter. A long-running service with predictable address needs may also benefit from comparing a transfer-based purchase. Use our leasing vs buying IPv4 comparison to work through that decision.

First confirm that you need an independent block at all. Provider-assigned addresses, shared outbound access, or IPv6 may already meet the application’s requirements.

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