---
title: "Reserved and Floating IPs"
description: "How a reserved IP and a Floating IP are the same address in two modes, and when to use each."
content_type: "concept"
product: "reserved-ip"
platform: "MyAccount"
url: "/myaccount/reserved-ip/concepts/reserved-and-floating-ips/"
---

# Reserved and Floating IPs

A reserved IP and a Floating IP are the same thing underneath: a public IPv4 address that
belongs to your account. What differs is how many resources hold it at once, and so what you
use it for.

## A reserved IP moves between resources

Once you reserve an address, it is no longer tied to one resource. You can attach it to a node
as its primary public IP, or to a node or a firewall as an Add-on IP next to the address it
already has. Detach it and it is still yours, ready for the next resource, until you delete it.

That makes a reserved IP the right choice for anything that remembers your address: a DNS
record, an allow list at a partner, a client set up with a fixed IP. You can replace the node
behind the address and none of them need to change.

## A Floating IP is shared by several nodes

A Floating IP is a reserved IP switched into a mode where up to four nodes on the same network
hold it at the same time. The address answers on one of them at a time. Software on the nodes,
such as Keepalived, decides which, and moves the address to another node when that one fails,
so clients keep using the same IP.

Use a reserved IP when one resource at a time needs the address. Use a Floating IP when two or
more nodes run the same service and it must stay reachable when one of them fails.

## Switching to a Floating IP

You turn an **Available** reserved IP into a Floating IP with **Use as Floating IP**. The switch
is one way: the address stays a Floating IP until you delete it, and you attach and detach
nodes as often as you like in the meantime. See
[Use a reserved IP as a Floating IP](/myaccount/reserved-ip/how-to/use-a-reserved-ip-as-a-floating-ip/).

## What each status means

- **Available**: reserved to you and attached to nothing. Only an available address can be
  attached as an Add-on IP, converted, or moved.
- **Attached**: in use as a primary IP, an Add-on IP, or a Floating IP. Detach it before you
  delete it.
- **Unavailable**: you reserved the public IP of a resource that is still running and still
  uses it. It becomes **Available** once that resource is deleted.

For how these addresses sit alongside a node's own public and private IPs, see
[Public and private IPs on a node](/myaccount/node/concepts/public-and-private-ips/).