Summary

  • For an ARIN NRPM 8.3 or 8.4 specified-recipient transfer, the source pays a $500 non-refundable request fee before ARIN starts evaluating it. Payment buys review, not approval.
  • Once a transfer is approved, the ARIN recipient pays a separate processing fee based on aggregate IPv4 size before allocation. The current table sets $187.50 for a /24 tier and $375 for larger than /24 through /22.

The first invoice arrives before the first verdict

An address block has a buyer and a source, but ARIN has not yet judged whether the registration rights may move. That is already a billable moment. The current fee schedule assigns the source of an NRPM 8.3 transfer within the ARIN region, or an 8.4 outbound inter-RIR transfer, a $500 transfer request fee. It is non-refundable and payable before evaluation. ARIN says plainly that paying it does not guarantee approval. A seller who assumes the registry will invoice only at closing has put the first cash obligation on the wrong date.

The second invoice waits for a different verdict. Once the request is approved, an ARIN recipient must pay a Recipient Transfer Processing Fee before ARIN allocates the resources. The table measures the aggregate size of the IPv4 transfer. A /24, or smaller where policy allows, sits at $187.50. More than a /24 and no more than a /22 sits at $375. The fee is a band for the transfer size, not a price attached to each address. Larger transfers climb through further bands; the invoice belongs to the approved recipient side, not to the source's earlier request.

Take a simple intra-ARIN /24 case. On the public schedule, the source's request fee is $500 and the recipient's post-approval fee is $187.50: $687.50 in these two ARIN transaction charges across the parties. That illustration excludes any negotiated consideration, annual registry fees and other applicable costs. Its purpose is timing, not valuation. The source can spend $500 and still receive a refusal. The recipient can win approval and still wait for its own payment to clear before registration moves.

Annual balances create another practical gate. ARIN requires both source and recipient to clear outstanding annual fees before evaluation, and fees that become outstanding during evaluation before completion. The official transfer guide then places completion after approval, all applicable fees and any required inter-RIR coordination. A signed purchase agreement cannot make an unpaid registry balance disappear.

These are distinct dates with distinct owners: submission, source payment, evaluation, approval, recipient payment and completion. A transaction calendar that collapses them into a single “ARIN approved” milestone may promise a cutover before the registry is ready to register the new holder. ARIN's schedule specifies who the registry charges and when; a private sale agreement can allocate commercial risk, but it cannot alter ARIN's processing order.

The clean market question is not whether $500 is large beside a block price. It is who is authorized to spend it on a request that can fail, and who will make sure the buyer's later size-band invoice does not sit unopened after approval. The block enters the buyer's registered holdings only when ARIN completes the transfer, not when either side celebrates the first receipt.

Sources