AWS Charges for Public IPv4 Addresses: How This Changes the Economics

AWS and other providers now bill for public IPv4 addresses, so the cost of address space is visible for many organizations. When that happens, the economics of buying your own space vs paying ongoing fees change. This post covers what AWS charges mean, how cloud IP costs have shifted, and when buying IPv4 makes sense.

What AWS IPv4 Charges Mean

AWS bills for public IPv4 addresses you attach to EC2 instances, Elastic IPs, and other resources. Beyond a small free tier, you pay per address per hour. For workloads that need many addresses, that cost becomes a real expense.

That makes the tradeoff explicit. Before, the cost of IPv4 was often buried in provider pricing. Now, AWS and similar charges put a clear price on each address. Organizations can compare that to the cost of buying or leasing IPv4 and using BYOIP (Bring Your Own IP).

So AWS charges don’t remove the need for IPv4; they make the cost visible and create an incentive to optimize. Buying or leasing and bringing your own block can reduce or replace ongoing cloud fees.

How Cloud IPv4 Costs Have Changed

Cloud IP pricing has shifted from implicit to explicit. Providers that used to bundle public IPv4 in instance or service pricing now often charge separately. AWS is one example; others have followed or may follow.

Demand stays high. IPv4 exhaustion means no new space from RIRs. Cloud providers get IPv4 from the secondary market (buy, lease) or from their existing holdings. Cloud charges reflect that scarcity and pass part of the cost to customers who use many addresses.

BYOIP changes the math. When you buy or lease and bring your own block to AWS, GCP, or Azure, you may avoid or reduce per-address fees. You still need the block; the question is whether you pay the provider per address or acquire space yourself and use BYOIP.

So cloud costs have made the buy vs pay-as-you-go decision clearer. AWS and similar charges are a reason to model total cost over your timeline and consider buying or leasing.

How Organizations Responded

When AWS charges went live, organizations took several approaches:

Audit and remove. Many customers audited their Elastic IPs and removed unused addresses. This reduced costs without changing architecture—low-hanging fruit that many organizations had neglected when addresses were effectively free.

BYOIP adoption. Customers with owned or leased IPv4 brought blocks to AWS via BYOIP and cut or eliminated per-address charges. Those without existing blocks explored acquisition options.

Lease for BYOIP. Organizations that didn’t own blocks explored leasing and bringing them to AWS. Leasing offers medium-term use without a large upfront purchase, and the leased block can be used with BYOIP.

Architecture changes. Some organizations accelerated NAT gateway consolidation, IPv6 adoption for internal traffic, or reduced their public IP footprint through reverse proxy and load balancer optimization.

The organizations that adapted fastest were those that already had clear visibility into their public IP usage and established relationships with IPv4 suppliers.

Buy vs Lease vs Rent Under New Economics

Buy. You acquire ownership through an RIR transfer. You own the block and can use it with BYOIP, reducing or eliminating ongoing cloud fees. Upfront cost is higher; no per-address cloud charge once you bring your own. Best when you need public IPv4 long-term and have budget for an upfront purchase. Our how to buy IPv4 guide walks through the process.

Lease. You get use rights for a period (e.g. 1–3 years) under a contract. Lower upfront than buy; you can still use the block with BYOIP where supported and avoid per-address fees. Good when you need medium-term capacity without a large upfront purchase.

Rent. Short-term or flexible use. Fits burst capacity, testing, or projects where you don’t want a long commitment. Cloud charges may still apply if you use provider-assigned addresses; rent gives you an alternative source of public IPv4 when you want it off the cloud bill.

So under the new pricing, the choice is: pay the provider per address, or buy/lease/rent and bring your own. Buying gives the strongest long-term cost control when you need many addresses for years.

What to Do Next

If AWS or cloud charges are affecting your budget:

1. Count your addresses. How many public IPv4 addresses do you use in AWS (or other clouds), and what are you paying per month or year?
2. Model buy and lease. Get quotes for IPv4 blocks in your region and size. Compare upfront (buy) or periodic (lease) cost to your projected cloud spend over 2–5 years.
3. Check BYOIP support. AWS, GCP, and Azure support BYOIP in many regions. If you buy or lease, you can bring the block and reduce per-address fees.
4. If buying fits: Follow the steps in our buying IPv4 guide—find a block, do due diligence, sign LOA and agreement, complete the RIR transfer.

AWS charges have made cloud IP cost visible. When the numbers favor ownership, buying and BYOIP can cut ongoing fees and give you a lasting asset.