Every proxy network runs on IPv4. You can have the smartest rotation logic, the cleanest code, and the best support — but without the raw IP inventory, there's no product. For proxy operators building datacenter, static ISP, or static residential offerings, the question of lease vs buy is a seven-figure decision that determines your margin for years.
This guide is the 2026 state of the IPv4 market for proxy operators: what addresses cost today, how leasing and buying actually work (brokers, RIRs, LIR status, RPKI), the real ongoing costs nobody mentions, and the breakeven math that tells you which makes sense.
Why IPv4 Still Matters in 2026 (IPv6 Still Hasn't Replaced It)
You've heard "we ran out of IPv4 in 2011" — that's when IANA exhausted its free pool. Regional Internet Registries exhausted shortly after: ARIN in 2015, RIPE in 2019, APNIC and LACNIC earlier. Since then, every new IPv4 address a proxy operator acquires comes from the secondary transfer market or from leasing.
IPv6 was supposed to solve this. It has not, for proxy networks specifically:
- Many target sites (especially mobile apps, financial services, and older e-commerce stacks) don't accept IPv6 at all
- IPv6 addresses are so plentiful that sites ban entire /64 subnets on a single abuse report, making IPv6 proxies low-trust
- Customer tooling (scrapers, bots, account managers) is still overwhelmingly IPv4-first
Net result: IPv4 is scarce, expensive, and not going away. A proxy operator's inventory strategy is an IPv4 strategy.
Current IPv4 Market Prices (Q1 2026)
The secondary market has been volatile since 2020. Pricing approximate ranges as of April 2026:
| Region (RIR) | Buy price per IP | Lease price per IP / month | /24 block minimum |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARIN (North America) | $40 – $52 | $0.50 – $0.70 | $10,200 – $13,300 |
| RIPE (Europe) | $38 – $50 | $0.45 – $0.65 | $9,700 – $12,800 |
| APNIC (Asia-Pacific) | $42 – $55 | $0.55 – $0.75 | $10,800 – $14,000 |
| LACNIC (Latin America) | $36 – $48 | $0.40 – $0.60 | $9,200 – $12,300 |
| AFRINIC (Africa) | $35 – $45 | $0.38 – $0.55 | $8,900 – $11,500 |
Prices from broker quotes (IPv4.Global / Hilco, Prefix Broker, IPXO, IPv4 Brokers) averaged over Q1 2026. Actual quotes vary by block size, seller, routing history, and whether the block ships with a clean RBL / reputation record.
Trends visible in the data:
- Prices are ~15% below the 2022 peak (when /24s touched $60/IP on some transfers) as banks and cloud providers release idle inventory
- APNIC remains the most expensive region due to demand from hyperscalers in China and India
- Africa (AFRINIC) has had legal turmoil in the registry itself; transfer volume is very low
- Blocks with "clean" SWIP and no Spamhaus history command a ~10-20% premium over blocks with mixed reputation
Option 1: Buy IPv4 Addresses Outright
How Buying Works in 2026
You can't just "buy IPs" from a vendor. Every transfer goes through the regional registry:
- Find a seller — typically through a broker (Hilco Streambank, Prefix Broker, IPv4 Brokers, Heficed). Brokers take 2-5% commission. Private sales exist but are rare.
- Verify clean history — you or your legal team checks the block against Spamhaus, SORBS, Project Honey Pot, and abuse databases. A tainted block can be worth half its face value.
- Execute the transfer — file a Transfer Request with the applicable RIR (ARIN STLS, RIPE ERX, APNIC Transfer). Requires a purchase agreement, proof of needs (ARIN requires a 24-month justification; RIPE does not), and registration fees.
- RIR approves — typically 2-6 weeks for ARIN, 1-3 weeks for RIPE. Once done, the block is registered in your name.
- Announce the block — through your LIR / AS, using BGP. Sign a ROA (Route Origin Authorization) via RPKI so upstream providers accept your announcement.
Pros of Buying
- Asset ownership — IPs are balance-sheet assets. Appreciation matters: a /24 bought for $10k in 2018 was worth $15k in 2022.
- Lower long-run cost — after ~6-7 years, buying is usually cheaper than leasing (math below).
- Full control of reputation — you choose who uses your IPs and for what. Keeps your blocks clean over years.
- Independence — no vendor can yank your IPs. You control routing and policy.
- Resale — when you're done, the block has residual value. A clean /24 sells quickly.
Cons of Buying
- Huge upfront capex — a /22 (1,024 IPs) is roughly $40,000 – $55,000 at current prices.
- Annual RIR fees — ARIN membership runs $1,000 – $32,000/year depending on allocation size; RIPE LIR fee is ~€1,550/year as of 2026.
- Slow transfers — you wait weeks for ARIN approval.
- Needs justification — ARIN requires you to show a use plan. If you're a pure proxy network without an actual hosting product, this can be complicated.
- Market risk — prices could fall if IPv6 adoption suddenly accelerates (unlikely near-term, but not zero).
- Reputation is your problem — one bad customer gets your block on Spamhaus, and you now spend months getting it delisted.
Option 2: Lease IPv4 From a Marketplace
How Leasing Works
Leasing platforms match IPv4 owners (banks, old telcos, cloud providers) with IPv4 users (proxy operators, hosting companies, CDN startups). The two biggest in 2026:
- IPXO — the largest lease marketplace, roughly 3 million IPs under management. Handles RPKI automation and abuse reporting.
- Hilco Streambank / IPv4.Global — historically more focused on outright sales but with a growing lease program.
- Heficed — smaller, combined leasing + hosting.
- Interlir / Prefix Broker — secondary marketplaces with fewer automation features.
Leasing mechanics:
- Browse available /24 or larger blocks by region, size, and clean-reputation filter
- Sign Letter of Authorization (LOA) with the owner, or auto-sign through the marketplace
- Marketplace files an RPKI ROA for your AS announcement
- You announce the block via BGP using your own AS or your upstream's
- Pay monthly per-IP (auto-billed through the marketplace)
Pros of Leasing
- Low upfront cost — a /22 at IPXO runs ~$500 – $700/month rather than $40k up front
- Scale up/down fast — need 5k more IPs for a launch? Lease a /19 for 30 days and return it.
- No RIR fees — the owner pays them; you just pay the marketplace
- No justification needed — marketplaces don't ask why you need the IPs
- Fast activation — minutes to hours instead of weeks
- Marketplace handles abuse — they field complaints, you just stop abusive customers
Cons of Leasing
- Higher long-run cost — by year 7, you've paid ~85% of the purchase price and still own nothing
- Vendor lock-in risk — marketplace could raise prices, restrict use cases, or go out of business
- No resale value — rent stops, asset disappears
- Reputation risk from prior tenants — a block you lease this month may be listed on Spamhaus from last month's tenant. Check first.
- Restricted use cases — most marketplaces ban adult content, gambling in some regions, and anything that generates abuse complaints at scale
- Your rotation strategy is constrained — if a lessor pulls a block, you rebuild overnight
Cost Comparison: Buy vs Lease Over 10 Years
Scenario: a proxy operator needs 1,024 IPs (/22) in RIPE region, starting January 2026.
Buy scenario
- Acquisition: 1,024 × $44 = $45,056
- Broker commission (3%): $1,352
- ARIN/RIPE fees (LIR): ~€1,550/year × 10 years ≈ $17,500
- Legal / due diligence: $2,000
- 10-year total: $65,908
- Residual resale value (at ~2030 price trends): ~$30,000 – $40,000
- Net 10-year cost: ~$28,000 – $38,000
Lease scenario
- Monthly: 1,024 × $0.55 = $563/month
- 10-year rent: $563 × 120 months = $67,584
- No residual value
- Net 10-year cost: $67,584
Breakeven analysis
Buying pays off somewhere between year 5 and year 7 for a typical /22 in RIPE, accounting for RIR fees and expected residual value. Inputs that shift the breakeven:
- Lower lease rates (bulk discounts can push lease down to $0.40/IP/mo) → breakeven moves out to year 9
- Higher purchase prices → breakeven pushes out to year 8
- Rising IPv4 prices (positive residual) → breakeven comes in to year 4
- Anticipated IPv6 transition → makes leasing strictly better (no residual to collect)
What Proxy Operators Actually Pick
Patterns across the industry in 2026:
- New proxy operators (under 3 years): almost always lease. Capex is too scary, and flexibility to experiment with block sizes matters.
- Mid-size operators (static residential, ISP, datacenter): hybrid — buy the core inventory, lease for burst capacity.
- Large operators (Bright Data, Oxylabs, iProyal, Decodo, NetNut): predominantly own, with lease supplementing geographic expansion or specific customer needs.
- Residential proxy providers: own almost nothing — their inventory comes from peer-to-peer SDK integrations or ISP-level partnerships, not IPv4 purchases. This is a different model entirely.
The Ongoing Costs Nobody Talks About
Whether you lease or buy, operating IPv4 for a proxy network costs more than the IP itself:
1. LIR Status (if you own)
Running your own Local Internet Registry (RIPE NCC, ARIN) costs money and requires staff time. RIPE LIR: €1,550/year membership + €50 per sub-allocation. ARIN: sliding scale from $250 (nano) to $32,000/year (XXL holder).
2. AS Number
You need an ASN to announce blocks. ARIN charges $550 one-time + annual maintenance. RIPE bundles with LIR. Without your own AS, you announce through an upstream provider — which creates dependency.
3. RPKI / ROA Signing
Modern upstream providers increasingly enforce RPKI-ROV. Every block you announce needs a signed ROA from the registered holder. For owned blocks: you sign. For leased: the marketplace or upstream signs. Incorrect ROAs = invalid announcements = your block goes dark.
4. Abuse Handling
Every IP block gets abuse reports: spam, DDoS, phishing, copyright. An abuse@ mailbox that goes unread ends with Spamhaus listing your whole block. For a proxy network, this is a full-time operations function. Typical cost: $30k – $80k/year for a dedicated abuse desk.
5. Reputation Monitoring
You need real-time monitoring of Spamhaus, Barracuda Reputation, Project Honey Pot, SORBS, and Uceprotect. Standard tools: MXToolbox, Validity (formerly 250ok), IPinfo. Budget $500 – $2,500/month.
6. Delisting Work
When an IP does get listed, someone has to file delisting requests. Some RBLs delist automatically after 24 hours of no further abuse; others need a human request with evidence. Not glamorous, but essential.
7. Transit / Peering
Owning IPs doesn't deliver traffic. You need IP transit from Tier-1 providers ($0.30 – $1.50 per Mbps/month for proxy-relevant volumes) or peering at exchanges (capex on colocation + hardware).
When to Buy, When to Lease — The Decision Matrix
| Situation | Buy | Lease | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| New proxy business, under $500k ARR | — | ✓ | Preserve capex for product and acquisition |
| Core fleet, stable demand, 5+ year horizon | ✓ | — | Breakeven in year 5-7 plus reputation control |
| Experimental geographic expansion | — | ✓ | Lease 30-90 days, buy if demand sticks |
| Burst capacity (short campaigns) | — | ✓ | Monthly lease scales to zero quickly |
| Strict reputation requirements (enterprise customers) | ✓ | — | Control over who uses each IP is non-negotiable |
| Low-risk standardized workloads | — | ✓ | Marketplace abuse policies align with your policy |
| Private equity or acquisition target | ✓ | — | Owned blocks are balance-sheet assets for valuation |
| Uncertain about IPv6 transition timing | — | ✓ | Lease avoids stranded-asset risk |
Special Cases for Proxy Networks
Static Datacenter Proxies
Datacenter proxy operators are the textbook buying case. You need large contiguous blocks, stable routing, and reputation control. Customers pay for reliability. SpyderProxy Static Datacenter at $1.50/proxy/month with unlimited bandwidth is built on owned infrastructure precisely because the margins at that price only work when the underlying IPs are owned, not rented.
Static ISP (Residential) Proxies
ISP proxies are hosted in datacenters but registered with residential ISPs. The IPs themselves are typically either (a) owned and SWIP'd to look like residential ranges, or (b) sub-allocated from ISP partners who lease them to you. Pure secondary-market leasing is uncommon here because the ISP registration is the whole value proposition.
Rotating Residential Proxies
Rotating residential doesn't use the IPv4 market at all. Inventory comes from peer-to-peer SDKs installed in consumer apps (paid integrations) or from ISP-level agreements. The economics are completely different — cost per GB of traffic routed, not cost per IP.
LTE Mobile Proxies
LTE IPs come from physical SIM cards attached to 4G/5G modems. You're not buying IPv4 from RIRs; you're paying mobile carriers for SIM plans. Standard math: $15 – $30/SIM/month for an unlimited-data plan, serving 1-4 customer IPs per SIM via rotation.
What Changes in 2026 and Beyond
Three dynamics shaping near-term IPv4 economics for proxy operators:
- IPv4 supply pressure is easing slightly. AWS, Google Cloud, and large enterprises that hoarded IPs in the 1990s are monetizing unused allocations. Prices softened 10-15% in 2024-2025 and may continue.
- Mandatory RPKI is becoming the norm. Major transit providers (Cogent, Level 3, Arelion) require valid ROAs. Pure leased blocks without RPKI automation become harder to use.
- AFRINIC is still unsettled. The 2024 legal dispute froze the African registry. Some African IPs are effectively unmarketable until the situation resolves. Avoid acquiring AFRINIC-region blocks on the secondary market until the status is clear.
FAQs
How much does it cost to buy an IPv4 address in 2026?
Secondary market prices run approximately $35-$55 per IP depending on region, block size, and reputation. RIPE and LACNIC regions are slightly cheaper; APNIC is most expensive. A /24 (256 IPs) typically costs $9,000-$14,000. Prices have softened ~15% from the 2022 peak.
How much does it cost to lease an IPv4 address?
Leasing ranges from $0.38 to $0.75 per IP per month depending on region and provider. IPXO, the largest marketplace, averages around $0.50/IP/month for clean RIPE blocks. Large commitments (more than 8,192 IPs) qualify for discounts down to ~$0.40/IP/month.
Is it better to lease or buy IPv4?
Depends on time horizon and capex. Under 3 years: lease. Over 5-7 years: buying breaks even and then wins on total cost. For proxy operators with stable long-run demand, buying is usually better for core fleet; leasing for burst or experimental capacity.
Can I buy IPv4 addresses without being an ISP?
Yes. In the RIPE region, anyone can buy and hold IPv4 after becoming an LIR (annual fee ~€1,550). In ARIN, you need to show "needs-based" justification — essentially a usage plan for 50%+ within 24 months. APNIC and LACNIC policies vary. No region prohibits non-ISPs from owning IPv4.
What is RPKI and do I need it?
RPKI (Resource Public Key Infrastructure) cryptographically verifies that a BGP announcement comes from the legitimate holder of the IP block. As of 2026, most Tier-1 transit providers drop announcements without valid ROAs. You absolutely need RPKI for both owned and leased blocks — for leased, the marketplace usually handles it.
What does "clean IP reputation" mean?
An IP or block is "clean" if it's not listed on major spam/abuse RBLs (Spamhaus, SORBS, Barracuda, Project Honey Pot), has no history of being assigned to known abusers, and passes visual inspection of WHOIS and SWIP records. Clean blocks command a 10-20% price premium and are essential for proxy networks serving enterprise customers.
Will IPv6 make IPv4 worthless?
Not in the next 5-10 years. IPv6 adoption is around 45% globally in 2026 but many important services — financial, enterprise VPN, mobile app backends — are still IPv4-only. For proxy operators specifically, customer tooling is IPv4-first and target sites often reject IPv6 traffic as low-trust. IPv4 pricing should stay stable or soften gradually through 2030.
Should a small proxy operator ever buy IPv4 outright?
Only if you have (a) at least $100k of capex you're comfortable committing, (b) a clear multi-year product roadmap, (c) operations staff to handle abuse and RIR membership, and (d) a reason you need reputation control. Otherwise, lease through IPXO or similar and focus capex on product and acquisition.
How long does an IPv4 transfer take?
ARIN transfers: typically 2-6 weeks including documentation, needs justification, and approval. RIPE transfers: 1-3 weeks (no needs justification). APNIC and LACNIC similar to RIPE. Leasing: minutes to hours once account and KYC are done.
Bottom Line
For a new or mid-size proxy operator in 2026, lease your first several thousand IPs through IPXO or a similar marketplace. Preserve capex for product, engineering, and customer acquisition — which is where the real differentiation is. Move to buying for your core long-running fleet once you're 2+ years in, have predictable demand, and can handle abuse operations.
For the exceptional cases where IPv4 isn't the right substrate at all — rotating residential at scale, LTE mobile — the math is completely different and secondary-market IPv4 doesn't enter the picture.
SpyderProxy operates across all four models: owned datacenter IPs for Static DC; leased and partnered ISP blocks for Static Residential; SDK and ISP partnerships for Rotating Residential; and carrier SIM inventory for LTE Mobile. No single acquisition model is correct for a full-range proxy business.