Public IP addresses allow Internet resources to communicate inbound to Azure resources. Public IP addresses enable Azure resources to communicate to Internet and public-facing Azure services. You dedicate the address to the resource until you unassign it. A resource without an assigned public IP can still communicate outbound. Azure automatically assigns an available dynamic IP address for outbound communication. This address isn't dedicated to the resource and can change over time. For more information about outbound connections in Azure, see Understand outbound connections.
In Azure Resource Manager, a public IP address is a resource that has its own properties.
The following resources can be associated with a public IP address:
The following table shows the property a public IP can be associated to a resource and the allocation methods. Public IPv6 support isn't available for all resource types at this time.
Top-level resource
IP Address association
Dynamic IPv4
Static IPv4
Dynamic IPv6
Static IPv6
Virtual machine
Network interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Public Load balancer
Front-end configuration
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Virtual Network gateway (VPN)
Gateway IP configuration
Yes (non-AZ only)
Yes
No
No
Virtual Network gateway (ER)
Gateway IP configuration
Yes
Yes
Yes (preview)
No
NAT gateway
Gateway IP configuration
No
Yes
No
No
Application Gateway
Front-end configuration
Yes (V1 only)
Yes (V2 only)
No
No
Azure Firewall
Front-end configuration
No
Yes
No
No
Bastion Host
Public IP configuration
No
Yes
No
No
Route Server
Front-end configuration
No
Yes
No
No
API Management
Front-end configuration
No
Yes
No
No
IP address version
Public IP addresses can be created with an IPv4 or IPv6 address. You may be given the option to create a dual-stack deployment with a IPv4 and IPv6 address.
SKU
Σημαντικό
On September 30, 2025, Basic SKU public IPs will be retired. For more information, see the official announcement. If you are currently using Basic SKU public IPs, make sure to upgrade to Standard SKU public IPs prior to the retirement date. For guidance on upgrading, visit Upgrading a basic public IP address to Standard SKU - Guidance.
Public IP addresses are created with a SKU of Standard or Basic. The SKU determines their functionality including allocation method, feature support, and resources they can be associated with.
Full details are listed in the table below:
Public IP address
Standard
Basic
Allocation method
Static
For IPv4: Dynamic or Static; For IPv6: Dynamic.
Idle Timeout
Have an adjustable inbound originated flow idle timeout of 4-30 minutes, with a default of 4 minutes, and fixed outbound originated flow idle timeout of 4 minutes.
Have an adjustable inbound originated flow idle timeout of 4-30 minutes, with a default of 4 minutes, and fixed outbound originated flow idle timeout of 4 minutes.
Security
Secure by default model and be closed to inbound traffic when used as a frontend. Allow traffic with network security group (NSG) is required (for example, on the NIC of a virtual machine with a Standard SKU Public IP attached).
Open by default. Network security groups are recommended but optional for restricting inbound or outbound traffic.
Supported. Standard IPs can be nonzonal, zonal, or zone-redundant. Zone redundant IPs can only be created in regions where 3 availability zones are live. IPs created before availability zones aren't zone redundant.
Virtual machines attached to a backend pool don't need a public IP address to be attached to a public load balancer. But if they do, matching SKUs are required for load balancer and public IP resources. You can't have a mixture of basic SKU resources and standard SKU resources. You can't attach standalone virtual machines, virtual machines in an availability set resource, or a virtual machine scale set resources to both SKUs simultaneously. New designs should consider using Standard SKU resources. For more information about a standard load balancer, see Standard Load Balancer.
IP address assignment
Public IPs have two types of assignments:
Dynamic - The IP address isn't given to the resource at the time of creation when selecting dynamic. The IP is assigned when you associate the public IP address with a resource. The IP address is released when you stop, or delete the resource. Dynamic public IP addresses are commonly used for when there's no dependency on the IP address. For example, a public IP resource is released from a VM upon stop and then start. Any associated IP address is released if the allocation method is dynamic. If you don't want the IP address to change, set the allocation method to static to ensure the IP address remains the same.
Static - The resource is assigned an IP address at the time it's created. The IP address is released when the resource is deleted. When you set the allocation method to static, you can't specify the actual IP address assigned to the public IP address resource. Azure assigns the IP address from a pool of available IP addresses in the Azure location the resource is created in.
Static public IP addresses are commonly used in the following scenarios:
When you must update firewall rules to communicate with your Azure resources.
DNS name resolution, where a change in IP address would require updating A records.
Your Azure resources communicate with other apps or services that use an IP address-based security model.
You use TLS/SSL certificates linked to an IP address.
Resource
Static
Dynamic
Standard public IPv4
✅
x
Standard public IPv6
✅
x
Basic public IPv4
✅
✅
Basic public IPv6
x
✅
Availability Zone
Σημαντικό
We're updating Standard non-zonal IPs to be zone-redundant by default on a region by region basis. This means that in the following regions, all IPs created (except zonal) are zone-redundant.
Region availability: Central Korea, Central Mexico, Central Canada, Central Poland, Central Israel, Central France, Central Qatar, East Asia, East US 2, East Norway, Italy North, Sweden Central, South Africa North, South Brazil, West Central Germany, West US 2, Central Spain
Standard SKU Public IPs can be created as non-zonal, zonal, or zone-redundant in regions that support availability zones. Basic SKU Public IPs don't have any zones and are created as non-zonal. Once created, a public IP address can't change its availability zone.
Value
Behavior
Non-zonal
A non-zonal public IP address is placed into a zone for you by Azure and doesn't give a guarantee of redundancy.
Zonal
A zonal IP is tied to a specific availability zone, and shares fate with the health of the zone.
Zone-redundant
A zone-redundant IP is created in all zones for a region and can survive any single zone failure.
In regions without availability zones, all public IP addresses are created as nonzonal. Public IP addresses created in a region that is later upgraded to have availability zones remain non-zonal.
Domain Name Label
Select this option to specify a DNS label for a public IP resource. This functionality works for both IPv4 addresses (32-bit A records) and IPv6 addresses (128-bit AAAA records). This selection creates a mapping for domainnamelabel.location.cloudapp.azure.com to the public IP in the Azure-managed DNS.
For instance, creation of a public IP with the following settings:
contoso as a domainnamelabel
West US Azure location
The fully qualified domain name (FQDN) contoso.westus.cloudapp.azure.com resolves to the public IP address of the resource. Each domain name label created must be unique within its Azure location.
If a custom domain is desired for services that use a public IP, you can use Azure DNS or an external DNS provider for your DNS Record.
Domain Name Label Scope (preview)
Public IPs also have an optional parameter for Domain Name Label Scope, which defines what domain label an object with the same name uses. This feature can help to prevent "dangling DNS names" which can be reused by malicious actors. When this option is chosen, the public IP address' DNS name has another string in between the domainnamelabel and location fields, for example, contoso.fjdng2acavhkevd8.westus.cloudapp.Azure.com. (This string is a hash generated from input specific to your subscription, resource group, domain name label, and other properties).
The domain name label scope can only be specified at the creation of a public IP address.
Σημαντικό
Domain Name Label Scope is currently in public preview. It's provided without a service-level agreement, and is not recommended for production workloads. For more information, see Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews.
The value of the Domain Name Label Scope must match one of the options below:
Value
Behavior
TenantReuse
Object with the same name in the same tenant receives the same Domain Label
SubscriptionReuse
Object with the same name in the same subscription receives the same Domain Label
ResourceGroupReuse
Object with the same name in the same Resource Group receives the same Domain Label
NoReuse
Object with the same name receives a new Domain Label for each new instance
For example, if SubscriptionReuse is selected as the option, and a customer who has the example domain name label contoso.fjdng2acavhkevd8.westus.cloudapp.Azure.com deletes and redeploys a public IP address using the same template as before, the domain name label remains the same. If the customer deploys a public IP address using this same template under a different subscription, the domain name label would change (for example, contoso.c9ghbqhhbxevhzg9.westus.cloudapp.Azure.com).
Other public IP address features
There are other attributes that can be used for a public IP address (Standard SKU only).
The Global Tier option creates a global anycast IP that can be used with cross-region load balancers.
The Internet Routing Preference option minimizes the time that traffic spends on the Microsoft network, lowering the egress data transfer cost.
Limits
The limits for IP addressing are listed in the full set of limits for networking in Azure. The limits are per region and per subscription.
Contact support to increase above the default limits based on your business needs.
Pricing
Public IPv4 addresses have a nominal charge; Public IPv6 addresses have no charge.
To learn more about IP address pricing in Azure, review the IP address pricing page.
Limitations for IPv6
VPN gateways can't be used in a virtual network with IPv6 enabled, either directly or peered with "UseRemoteGateway".
Azure doesn't support IPv6 communication for containers.
Use of IPv6-only virtual machines or virtual machines scale sets aren't supported. Each NIC must include at least one IPv4 IP configuration (dual-stack).
IPv6 ranges can't be added to a virtual network with existing resource navigation links when adding IPv6 to existing IPv4 deployments.
Forward DNS for IPv6 is supported for Azure public DNS. Reverse DNS isn't supported.