An IPv4 address looks like 203.0.113.7. There are about four billion of them and they ran out years ago, so each one has a price. An IPv6 address looks like 2001:db8::1, and there are so many that networks hand them out in huge blocks.
The catch is on the website's side. A site must be reachable over IPv6 for an IPv6 proxy to open it. Most large platforms are; many small sites are not. You do not need IPv6 on your own connection: you reach the proxy as usual and only the exit uses IPv6.
Questions about IPv4 and IPv6
Do all websites support IPv6?
No. Most large platforms do, and many smaller sites still answer over IPv4 only. Check for an AAAA record in the site's DNS before choosing an IPv6 proxy for it.
Is an IPv6 address trusted less than an IPv4 one?
Not by nature. Sites that filter visitors judge the network an address belongs to, whichever version it is. Some do treat a whole IPv6 block as one visitor, so many addresses from one block count together.
Related terms
- IPv6 proxy
- An IPv6 proxy sends your requests out from an IPv6 address. It costs far less per gigabyte and works only on sites that support IPv6.
- Subnet
- A subnet is a block of neighbouring IP addresses that belong together. Websites often limit or block a whole block instead of one address.
- Exit IP
- The exit IP is the address your request leaves the proxy network from. It is the address the website sees and logs as its visitor.
Read next: IPv6 proxies explained