APNIC: fees, IPv4 delegations and transfer rules

APNIC is the regional internet registry for the Asia Pacific: 56 economies across Asia and Oceania, seven of which have a national internet registry of their own. Unlike the RIPE NCC and ARIN, it still delegates IPv4 from its own pool, up to a /23 per account, so it has no waiting list yet. Its fees follow a formula in Australian dollars: a member holding a /24 pays AUD 1,295 a year in 2026.

Who it is

APNIC Pty Ltd, a not-for-profit membership company in Australia, based in South Brisbane, with its membership agreement under the law of Queensland. Its members elect an Executive Council at the annual meeting in February. The seven national registries are JPNIC, KRNIC, TWNIC, CNNIC, IDNIC, VNNIC and IRINN; their members deal with them rather than with APNIC directly.

What it costs

• Sign-up: AUD 500, once.
• The yearly fee grows with what you hold: a base fee multiplied by a factor for each doubling of the space, worked out for your IPv4 and your IPv6 separately, and the higher of the two applies.

• The base fee is set through 2029: AUD 1,295 in 2026, AUD 1,356 in 2027, AUD 1,420 in 2028 and AUD 1,487 in 2029.
• An associate member, holding no addresses, pays AUD 500 a year.
• AS numbers: the first two are free. From the third, AUD 500 once and AUD 100 a year for each.
• A transfer costs 20% of the yearly fee for the space transferred, paid by the recipient. A first IPv4 transfer into an account with no addresses pays the full yearly fee instead.
• The first /48 of independent IPv6 is left out of the fee.

IPv4: still delegated, up to a /23

APNIC reached its last /8 in April 2011 and has kept delegating from it, and from space it recovers, ever since:

• Up to a /23 in total per account, from a minimum of a /24.
• For a network that needs it: an LIR with a detailed plan to use a /23 within a year, or a network that is multihomed or will be within six months, and critical infrastructure.
• About 0.18 of a /8 was left on 30 June 2026, roughly three million addresses.
• Space from the 103/8 pool cannot be transferred for five years after it was delegated.
• A waiting list starts once the pool is empty. A proposal to raise the limit to a /22 did not reach consensus at APNIC 62 in September 2026.

Transfers within the region

• Between APNIC account holders, from a /24, of space APNIC administers.
• The recipient needs a plan to use the space within 24 months, and one that already holds IPv4 shows how it has used it.
• The process. The source starts the transfer in MyAPNIC and the recipient acknowledges it within 30 days, or it is canceled. The fee is due before APNIC updates its database.
• Pre-approval is valid for 24 months.

Transfers to and from other registries

APNIC exchanges space only with registries whose policy allows it: the RIPE NCC, ARIN and LACNIC. A transfer in starts at the source's registry; APNIC then asks the recipient for its plan. A transfer out starts with a request to APNIC, and APNIC deletes the block's route and reverse DNS objects when it leaves; the source pays the fee. Up to 30 June 2026, 699 transfers had moved 4.2 million addresses from APNIC to the RIPE NCC.

Mergers and historical space

• Mergers and acquisitions move IPv4, IPv6 and AS numbers, with full disclosure, but APNIC membership itself does not transfer. The five-year rule for 103/8 space still applies.
• IPv6 moves only through a merger or acquisition, and independent IPv6 cannot be transferred at all.
• Historical space, APNIC's word for legacy, can be updated only once its holder has an APNIC account, and a recipient of historical space must be a member. While its original holder keeps it, it is left out of the fee.

IPv6

• For LIRs: a /32 at least. An account with an IPv4 allocation qualifies for a /32.
• Independent (PI): a /48 to start, for an applicant that will use and announce it within twelve months.

AS numbers

• Who qualifies: a network that is multihomed, or needs to connect with another autonomous system, now or soon after.
• No sponsoring LIR: an account holder can request an AS number for a customer that qualifies and keep its registration; if the customer leaves, the number goes back, to the new provider, or to the customer's own account.
• APNIC had assigned 31,115 AS numbers by 30 June 2026. More in what is an ASN.

RPKI and the routing registry

ROAs and ASPAs are signed in MyAPNIC, hosted by APNIC (which it recommends) or self-hosted, and it warns when a change would make an announcement invalid. APNIC also publishes AS0 ROAs for the space it has not delegated, under a separate trust anchor that a network has to add on purpose. APNIC recommends using them for alerts, not for filtering. Routing policy lives in the APNIC Whois Database.

What comes next

APNIC is reviewing ten years of IPv4 delegations and transfers by itself and the national registries, with results expected in early 2027. A proposal to align IPv6 allocations on 4-bit boundaries reached consensus at APNIC 62.

Where RTM Networks fits

We buy and sell IPv4 in the APNIC, RIPE NCC and ARIN regions, and take you through the registry's side of a purchase, including a transfer between registries when the space has to move. The space we lease is our own, registered with RIPE NCC.