Shared IPv4 addresses allow hosting providers to offer virtual private servers for as little as $1.00 per month, an amount lower than the typical rental cost of a dedicated address. Because the global supply of roughly 4.3 billion IPv4 addresses has run out of free allocations, addresses are traded and leased as commodities. By 2026, purchasing an IPv4 address averaged around $20, while wholesale monthly leases ranged from $0.35 to $0.60, and retail hosting providers such as Contabo charged €3.50 monthly for an ad…
Key points
Multiplexing dozens of servers onto one address slashes individual IPv4 operating costs t…: Multiplexing dozens of servers onto one address slashes individual IPv4 operating costs to under 10 cents per user.
Customers using shared IPv4 architectures lose default port assignments like SSH port 22…: Customers using shared IPv4 architectures lose default port assignments like SSH port 22 and face blocked outgoing email ports.
IPv6 avoids shared-address restrictions by giving every server a dedicated /80 subnet of…: IPv6 avoids shared-address restrictions by giving every server a dedicated /80 subnet of 248 addresses with all ports open.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
Blog / IPv4 economics
Why a NAT VPS can cost $1: the economics of an IPv4 address
12 November 2026 · Guide · By Mohammad AlSaraf
Our cheapest plan costs $1.00 a month. That's less than the rent on a single IPv4 address at many providers. So how does it work? The short answer: you don't get an IPv4 address of your own. You share one, and here are the numbers behind that.
IPv4 addresses are scarce, and they cost money
There are only about 4.3 billion IPv4 addresses, and the free pools ran out years ago. Today they are bought, sold and rented like property:
- Buying: broker reports put the average 2026 price at around $20 per address, down from a peak of roughly $45 to $60 in 2021 and 2022 (IPv4Center, IPXO).
- Renting: leases run at roughly $0.35 to $0.60 per address per month on the wholesale market.
- At a hosting provider: the retail price is far higher. Our own provider, Contabo, charges €3.50 a month for one additional IPv4 address on a VPS (Contabo…
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