IPv4 Transfer Cost: Everything You Pay Beyond the Price Per IP
The per-IP price is the headline. Broker commission, registry fees, escrow, legal review and post-transfer cleanup are the rest of the invoice.
The headline number is not the invoice
Every conversation about IPv4 starts with the per-IP price — around **$27 for a /24**, **$16 for a /20**, **$14 for a /19** in 2026. That number is real, and it is the largest line. It is not the whole cost. A transfer is a legal change of registration between two organisations under registry policy. Everything that makes that change valid, safe and routable has a cost attached, and buyers who budget only for the block itself end up surprised.
Line 1 — The block
Multiply addresses by the per-IP rate. A /24 is 256 addresses at roughly $27, so about $6,900. A /19 is 8,192 at roughly $14, so about $114,700. Note the direction of the curve: bigger blocks are cheaper per address, so if your requirement sits near a boundary, price both sides before deciding. Historical context helps you judge a quote. The market peaked around **$60 per IP in 2021**, corrected through 2022–24, and has been firming since. A seller anchoring on peak pricing is anchoring on a market that no longer exists.
Line 2 — Broker commission
Brokers charge a percentage of transaction value, typically taken from the seller but ultimately priced into the deal. What you are buying is deal flow, escrow handling and registry paperwork done by people who do it weekly. On a small /24 the commission can feel heavy relative to the block; on a /19 it is usually money well spent. Direct deals avoid this line entirely. The trade-off is that you have to find the counterparty yourself and run the process without a guide.
Line 3 — Registry fees
Each RIR has its own transfer processing and membership structure. The fees are modest against the block price, but two things matter more than the amount: - **Timing.** Registry review takes time. If the block's documentation is thin — common with legacy space — that time expands. - **Eligibility.** Some regions require the recipient to demonstrate need; inter-RIR transfers add conditions on both sides. Verify policy before signing, not after. The **RIPE region — Europe and Türkiye — carries the highest transfer volume in the world**, which means well-worn procedure and predictable timelines relative to thinner markets.
Line 4 — Escrow
An escrow agent holds funds until the registry confirms the transfer. This costs a small fee and removes the largest risk in the transaction. Skipping escrow to save it is the worst trade in the whole process: you are wiring five or six figures against a registration change you cannot yet verify.
Line 5 — Legal and due diligence
Someone has to confirm the seller is the registered holder, review the chain of custody, and check that the block is not encumbered. For legacy blocks with decades of history, this is genuine work. Budget for a review proportional to deal size — a /24 needs a careful hour, a /16 needs a lawyer.
Line 6 — Post-transfer cleanup
The cost nobody quotes. After the block is yours you may need to: - Delist from blocklists carrying entries from a previous user. - Create RPKI ROAs and update registry objects. - Coordinate with upstreams to get the prefix accepted and propagated. - Warm up mail sending gradually if the space will carry email. If the block's reputation is bad, this line can dwarf everything above it in time, even if it is small in cash. Which is why reputation belongs in due diligence rather than in the cleanup phase.
Budgeting sensibly
Take the block price, then add a margin for commission, fees, escrow, review and cleanup. Compare that fully loaded figure against the two alternatives you actually have: leasing at roughly **$0.40 per IP per month**, and cloud IPv4 at roughly **$44 per address per year**. Only against those numbers does a transfer price mean anything. And remember the cheapest transfers usually start with the best information: a block that is dormant, clean and not yet on anyone's listing. --- *Track dormant and unlisted address space on the IPDORM dark space map — [ipdorm.com](https://ipdorm.com).*