Move an external IPv4 address to a different project

Static external IPv4 addresses are associated with a Google Cloud project and can be used only within that project. However, you can move a static external IPv4 address from one project to another.

IAM roles and permissions

To move a regional IP address, you must have the following permissions:

compute.addresses.delete in the source project
compute.addresses.create in the destination project

To move a global IP address, you must have the following permissions:

compute.globalAddresses.delete in the source project
compute.globalAddresses.create in the destination project

Example roles that include these permissions:

Compute Admin (roles/compute.admin)
Compute Network Admin (roles/compute.networkAdmin)
Compute Public IP Admin (roles/compute.publicIpAdmin)

Before you begin

Verify that the project that you want to move the IP address to exists. If not, create a project.
Enable the Compute Engine API in the target project.
Verify that the target project has enough available capacity in the appropriate quotas for the IP addresses that you're moving:
- For regional external IP addresses, check the static IP addresses quota.
- For global external IP addresses, check the static IP addresses global quota.
- For all IP addresses, check the address move request quotas.
Verify that the IP address that you want to move has the following attributes:
- The access type is external.
- The IP version is IPv4.
- The IP address is reserved (static), not ephemeral.
  
  To reserve an IP address, see Reserve a new static external IP address.
- The IP address is not in use by any resource, for example, a VM instance or a forwarding rule.
  
  To unassign an IP address, see Unassign a static external IP address.
- The IP address was not reserved by Cloud Support as part of a contiguous IP address range. For more information, see Moving an external IPv4 address fails.

Limitations

If you unassign an IP address, you must wait some time before you move it:
- For global IP addresses, wait 10 minutes.
- For regional IP addresses, wait 20 minutes.
You can't change the region of a regional IP address.
You can't convert a global IP address to regional or a regional IP address to global.

Quotas

There is a limit for how many addresses you can move per minute. For more information, see the following per-project quotas in the VPC documentation:

Move an external IPv4 address to a different project

You can move a regional or global external IPv4 address from one project to another. When you move the IP address, by default the IP address resource is assigned the same name and description. However, you can choose to assign a new name or description. After the external IPv4 address is moved to a new project, you can assign it to eligible resources in that project.

Console

In the Google Cloud console, go to IP addresses.

Go to IP addresses
In the More actions menu () of the IP address that you want to move, select Move to another project.
Click Select project, and then select the project that you want to move the IP address to.
Optional: Enter a new Name for the IP address.
Optional: Enter a new Description for the IP address.
Click Move.

gcloud

The command options vary depending on whether you're moving a regional or global IP address, and whether you're keeping or replacing the address name or description. The following examples describe some of these combinations.

Move a regional external IPv4 address to a different project:

gcloud compute addresses move ADDRESS_NAME \
    --target-project=TARGET_PROJECT \
    --region=REGION

Move a regional external IPv4 address to a different project and assign it a new name and description in the new project:

gcloud compute addresses move ADDRESS_NAME \
    --target-project=TARGET_PROJECT \
    --new-name=NEW_NAME \
    --description=NEW_DESCRIPTION \
    --region=REGION

Move a global external IPv4 address to a different project:

gcloud compute addresses move ADDRESS_NAME \
    --target-project=TARGET_PROJECT \
    --global

Replace the following:

ADDRESS_NAME: the name of the IP address resource that you want to move.
TARGET_PROJECT: the name or ID of the project that you want to move the IP address to.
REGION: the region of the IP address.
NEW_NAME: a new name for the IP address resource in the new project.
NEW_DESCRIPTION: a new name for the IP address resource in the new project. If omitted, the existing description, if any, is used for the resource.

For more information, see the gcloud compute addresses move reference documentation.

API

The request details vary depending on whether you're moving a regional or global IP address, and whether you're keeping or replacing the address name or description. The following examples describe some of these combinations.

Move a regional external IPv4 address to a different project:

POST https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/SOURCE_PROJECT/regions/REGION/addresses/ADDRESS_NAME/move
{
  "destination_address": "projects/TARGET_PROJECT/global/addresses/ADDRESS_NAME",
}

Move a regional external IPv4 address to a different project and assign it a new name and description in the new project:

POST https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/SOURCE_PROJECT/regions/REGION/addresses/ADDRESS_NAME/move
{
  "destination_address": "projects/TARGET_PROJECT/global/addresses/NEW_NAME",
  "description": "NEW_DESCRIPTION",
}

Move a global external IPv4 address to a different project:

POST https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/SOURCE_PROJECT/global/addresses/ADDRESS_NAME/move
{
  "destination_address": "projects/TARGET_PROJECT/global/addresses/ADDRESS_NAME",
}

Replace the following:

ADDRESS_NAME: the name of the IP address resource that you want to move.
SOURCE_PROJECT: the name or ID of the project that you want to move the IP address to.
TARGET_PROJECT: the name or ID of the project that you want to move the IP address to.
REGION: the region of the IP address.
NEW_NAME: a new name for the IP address resource in the new project.
NEW_DESCRIPTION: a new name for the IP address resource in the new project. If omitted, the existing description, if any, is used for the resource.

Troubleshooting

Moving an external IPv4 address fails

You might see the following error message when you try to move an external IPv4 address:

Invalid resource usage: 'Cannot move address that belongs to a reserved address range. Address range must be disassembled first.'

If you see this message, it means that the IP address was reserved by Cloud Support as part of a contiguous IP address range. To move an IP address of this type, contact Cloud Support. Cloud Support can move the entire IP address range to another project. Moving only part of the range is not supported.

To check if an IP address is part of a range that was reserved by Cloud Support, do the following:

List static external IP addresses, and then find the IP address that you want to check.
Check the name of the IP address. If the IP address was reserved by Cloud Support, its name is made up of a string followed by the four bytes of the IP address, separated by hyphens. For example, if an IP address is 198.51.100.2, and it was reserved by Cloud Support, the name has the following form: STRING-198-51-100-2. Other IP addresses that were reserved as part of the same range share the same string, followed by their IP addresses.