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IPv4 is not going to stop working within a year. What is nearly exhausted is the supply of unallocated IPv4 addresses that regional internet registries can distribute under their policies. ARIN counted 3.9 million addresses in RIR available pools at the end of 2025; most were in APNIC and AFRINIC. That small, uneven remainder is a very different thing from all IPv4 addresses in use around the world.
What does “IPv4 exhaustion” mean?
IPv4 exhaustion describes dwindling registry supply, not a date when the internet loses IPv4 connectivity. The system has a fixed pool of IPv4 addresses. Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) distribute address blocks to organizations under regional policies, while already allocated addresses can remain in use, be transferred to another holder, or be returned to a registry.
Registry status matters: available addresses are in a registry pool and potentially allocatable under its rules; allocated addresses have been assigned to an organization; and reserved addresses are held by a registry but are not currently available for allocation. A reserved address is not extra supply a network can request today.
How many IPv4 addresses are left in registry pools?
In its report published January 22, 2026, ARIN counted 3.9 million IPv4 addresses in RIR available pools at the end of 2025. ARIN said the remaining available supply at the start of 2026 was held mainly in APNIC and AFRINIC. Its figures distinguish available from reserved addresses:
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| Registry pool | IPv4 addresses | What the figure means |
|---|---|---|
| RIR available pools | 3.9 million at the end of 2025 | Addresses counted as available across RIR pools; this is not the total number of IPv4 addresses still operating. |
| APNIC available pool | 3.095 million at the start of 2026 | Available registry supply in APNIC’s region. |
| AFRINIC available pool | 0.765 million at the start of 2026 | Available registry supply in AFRINIC’s region. |
| RIR reserved pools | 11.169 million at the start of 2026 | Addresses held by registries and not currently available for allocation. |
These figures come from ARIN’s “IP Addresses Through 2025”. They are snapshots of registry categories at stated dates, not a count of every address that exists, is routed, or can be obtained through a transfer. Regional rules and pool status affect what organizations can request.
Why do sources give different exhaustion dates?
APNIC’s January 20, 2026 account says exhaustion of the unallocated pools under the old registry allocation model had effectively occurred by the end of 2021. ARIN’s later annual figures nevertheless show a small amount still counted as available at the start of 2026. These statements refer to different measures: the end of the old, ordinary allocation model does not mean every regional registry pool reached zero, or that no address allocation or transfer could occur afterward.
APNIC describes residual allocation and transfer transactions continuing after the old model’s depletion. Its account, “IP addresses through 2025”, should be read alongside ARIN’s pool snapshot rather than as a conflicting claim that IPv4 addresses stopped being issued everywhere on one global date.
What happens to IPv4 addresses after the free pools shrink?
Organizations keep using addresses already allocated to them
Exhaustion of a registry’s ordinary free pool does not revoke addresses already allocated to organizations. Existing networks and services can continue using IPv4 addresses; scarcity chiefly affects access to additional supply.
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Transfers redistribute existing addresses
Address holders may transfer IPv4 resources under applicable registry policies. A transfer changes who holds or registers an existing address block; it does not create new IPv4 addresses. Returned or recovered addresses may also be held in a reserved pool before a registry considers releasing them.
Regional policies shape access
There is no single worldwide queue with one identical allocation rule. Which addresses are available, how an organization can qualify, and what happens to returned resources depend on the registry and its policies. A global available-pool total therefore cannot tell an organization how many addresses it can obtain locally.
Is IPv6 the answer to IPv4 exhaustion?
IPv6 is the long-term protocol response because it provides a vastly larger address space than IPv4. Deploying IPv6 is a network-planning and implementation task, however—not an automatic consequence of registry pool depletion. IPv4 and IPv6 allocation totals measure registry resources, while adoption and live deployment measure whether networks, services, and users can communicate over IPv6. One statistic cannot stand in for the other.
For network operators, the practical implication is to assess IPv6 readiness and plan deployment alongside continued IPv4 operations where needed. ARIN meeting materials have discussed capacity-building and training for IPv6 deployment, including in a 2009 public-policy meeting; that historical reference indicates training activity, not proof that networks have completed a transition. See the ARIN XXIII meeting materials.
When will IPv4 run out?
If “run out” means the end of large, routinely available registry pools, that process is already far advanced: APNIC says the old allocation model’s unallocated pools were effectively depleted by the end of 2021, while ARIN’s January 2026 report still counted a small residual available pool at the beginning of that year. If it means IPv4 addresses will stop working, there is no such one-year deadline in these figures. Existing allocations, regional residual pools, policy-controlled returns, and transfers make a simple worldwide countdown misleading.
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