Cover image for Importing a leased /24 into OVHcloud with BYOIP (and skipping the $612/mo IP bill)

Artem Kohanevich

I run IPbnb, so IPv4 economics are kind of my whole day. But this one still catches teams off guard, so let me walk through it like an engineer, not a marketer.

OVHcloud bills Additional IPs at $2.39 per IP per month. Fine for a couple of addresses. Now do a /24:

256 addresses × $2.39 = ~$612 / month, forever

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And you own none of it. The addresses are OVH's, the reputation you build on them can't leave with you, and the meter never stops. There's a cleaner way, and it's called BYOIP.

What BYOIP actually does

Bring Your Own IP means OVHcloud announces a block you control instead of renting you theirs. No per-IP rental on imported space - OVH advertises it for free. So the only real question is where the block comes from: rent, buy, or lease.

You don't need to own a /24 to do this. Lease a clean one (we do this at IPbnb from ~$79/mo), import it via BYOIP, and you're paying roughly 85% less than renting OVH's 256 addresses - with a block whose reputation is yours and portable.

Requirements (the short list)

  • RIR: ARIN, RIPE, or APNIC. NIRs are experimental; AFRINIC/LACNIC not supported yet.
  • Size: /24 minimum, /19 max. It's delivered to you as one or more /24 blocks.
  • Clean + unannounced: don't have it advertised elsewhere when it goes live, or you'll get routing conflicts.
  • WHOIS status must be a real allocation/assignment (e.g. RIPE ALLOCATED PA / ASSIGNED PA), matching the exact prefix.

The setup

1. Publish a route object at your RIR with OVH's ASN as origin:

route:    203.0.113.0/24
origin:   AS16276
source:   RIPE

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2. Prove control by dropping the token OVH gives you into the descr field of the inetnum (its own line):

inetnum:  203.0.113.0 - 203.0.113.255
descr:    -----BEGIN TOKEN-----
descr:    <your-ovh-token>
descr:    -----END TOKEN-----

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3. Order it in the Control Panel: Network > IP > + Bring Your Own IP. Pick the RIR, the region, the range, and OVH's AS (or your own via BYOAS). Delivery takes a few weeks.

4. Go live by assigning a /24 to an eligible service. Announcement is assignment-driven - nothing is advertised until you attach the block to a Bare Metal box, Public Cloud instance, or a vRack-connected service.

Need smaller blocks? Slice via the API:

POST /ip/{ip}/bringYourOwnIp/slice
{ "slicingSize": 25 }   // splits a /24 into /25s

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Gotchas worth knowing before you commit

  • Region lock-in is gone. OVH dropped the old ARIN→US / RIPE→EU rule. A RIPE block now works in any OVH region. You still choose one region per import, and you can't move a range across regions without releasing and re-ordering it.
  • No WHOIS edits from the panel. OVH doesn't own the block, so reverse DNS runs through delegated ARPA zones instead. PTRs work; WHOIS stays with the holder.
  • Kill the old announcement fast. If the block was advertised elsewhere, withdraw that the moment OVH delivery completes, or you're multihoming into packet loss.
  • Anti-DDoS is included on BYOIP ranges at no extra cost, which is a nice freebie.

The leased-block angle

BYOIP isn't owner-only. OVH just needs proof you're authorised to route the prefix. With a leased block, that's a Letter of Authorisation from the holder plus correct route/ROA objects - which, if your provider actually supports BYOIP, is already done for you before you place the order. That's the difference between leasing from someone who preps the block and someone who just emails you a range.

TL;DR

If you need address space for years, buy it. For hosting, SaaS, and migrations, paying ~$612/mo to rent IPs you'll never own is hard to justify when ~$79 gets you the same /24 with your reputation intact.

Full step-by-step, requirements, and the honest cost math here:
Bring a Leased /24 to OVHcloud: BYOIP Guide →