# How often should you update an IP database?

We compared each IP database with its own copy from a day, a week, a month and three months before. A month-old VPN IP copy lacks 15.6% of the list.

A team that downloads IP data has to decide how often to pull it: daily, weekly or monthly. The advice that ranks for the question is to [update at least monthly, and weekly or daily for security](https://inventivehq.com/blog/how-often-should-ip-geolocation-databases-be-updated), and IPinfo lets database customers [choose daily, weekly or monthly updates](https://support.ipinfo.io/hc/en-us/articles/30792535122706-How-Often-Is-IPinfo-s-Data-Updated). Neither says what a slower schedule misses.

We measured it. [VPN IP](https://internetdata.io/databases/vpn-ip), [Tor IP](https://internetdata.io/databases/tor-ip), [Hosting IP](https://internetdata.io/databases/hosting-ip), [Relay IP](https://internetdata.io/databases/relay-ip) and [CDN IP](https://internetdata.io/databases/cdn-ip) are each rebuilt daily, so we compared each one as built on October 6, 2026 with the copy we published 1, 7, 30 and 90 days before, address by address, over IPv4. A month-old VPN IP copy lacks 15.6% of the current list, a month-old Hosting IP copy 2.9%, and a month-old CDN IP copy 35 of its 13,070,178 addresses.

## What an old copy misses

The share of each database's October 6 list that a copy of a given age lacks:

| Database | 1 day old | 1 week old | 1 month old | 3 months old |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPN IP | 0.7% | 4.3% | 15.6% | 50.0% |
| Tor IP | 0.0% | 5.0% | 8.7% | 13.3% |
| Hosting IP | 0.1% | 0.8% | 2.9% | 9.0% |
| Relay IP | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.4% | 1.6% |
| CDN IP | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |

The same measure over the first month, with copies 3 and 14 days old added:

![Line chart of the share of each database's October 6, 2026 list missing from a copy 1 to 30 days old: VPN IP climbs to 15.6% at a month, Tor IP levels off at 8.7%, Hosting IP reaches 2.9%, Relay IP 0.4% and CDN IP stays at 0.0%.](/blog/media/ip-database-copy-age.2x.png)

## What an old copy still flags

An old copy also keeps addresses that have since left the list, and flags whoever uses them now. The share of each copy that the October 6 list no longer has:

| Database | 1 day old | 1 week old | 1 month old | 3 months old |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPN IP | 0.5% | 4.1% | 14.1% | 22.9% |
| Tor IP | 1.2% | 5.3% | 13.0% | 17.5% |
| Hosting IP | 0.1% | 0.7% | 2.4% | 3.0% |
| Relay IP | 0.0% | 0.0% | 7.6% | 8.0% |
| CDN IP | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |

## VPN and proxy data: daily

VPN IP held 21,507,346 IPv4 addresses on October 6. On each day from October 1 to 6 it gained 0.5% to 0.9% of them and lost 0.5% to 0.7%. A copy three days old, about the average age of a weekly pull, already lacks 2.3% of the list, and a month-old copy still lists 2,969,990 addresses that have left it.

Most of the three-month gap is growth: VPN IP holds 7,562,547 more IPv4 addresses than it did on July 8, as our coverage grew.

Proxy addresses move faster still. Of the 79,163 IPv4 addresses seen in datacenter proxy networks on October 7, the 90-day [Datacenter Proxy IP](https://internetdata.io/databases/datacenter-proxy-ip) list from the day before already held 94.3%, and the one from a week before 88.7%. For residential proxies, the 90-day list from the day before held 91.4% of the IPv4 seen on September 27, and the one from three months before 63.0% ([How fast does a residential proxy IP blocklist go stale?](https://internetdata.io/blog/residential-proxy-ip-blocklist-staleness)).

## Hosting IP: weekly

From October 1 to 6, Hosting IP gained 0.09% to 0.14% of its addresses a day and lost 0.05% to 0.14%. A weekly pull is plenty, and a monthly one holds up where a hosting hit is one signal among several.

## CDN, Relay and Tor IP

CDN IP barely moves: a three-month-old copy lacks 605 of its addresses and still has 68 that left. Monthly is enough, as long as the job that pulls it keeps running.

Relay IP changes when an operator republishes its ranges. The 7.6% a month-old copy still has is 23,588 addresses of Google's two VPNs that Relay IP no longer lists. Apple's Private Relay list gained 1,029 IPv4 addresses and lost 158 between April 19 and October 6 ([Should you block iCloud Private Relay?](https://internetdata.io/blog/block-icloud-private-relay)). A weekly pull keeps up.

Tor exits come and go by the day. Between October 1 and 6, Tor IP gained up to 2.2% of its addresses from one day to the next and lost up to 1.3%. Pull it daily.

## A schedule to copy

- Daily: VPN IP, Tor IP and the proxy databases.
- Weekly: Hosting IP and Relay IP.
- Monthly: CDN IP.

Each database's [metadata](https://docs.internetdata.io/api/database-v2/databaseMetadataV2) gives the date of its current build (`updated`) without downloading anything, so a job can check it before it pulls. Verify the file against its [checksums](https://docs.internetdata.io/api/database-v2/databaseChecksumV2), then rename it over the old one, so a lookup never reads half a download.

## How we measured

An address is missing from an old copy when the October 6 list has it and the copy doesn't, counted as a share of the October 6 list. It's stale when the copy has it and the October 6 list doesn't, counted as a share of the copy. We compared IPv4 addresses in each database as published against its own copies of October 5, September 29, September 6 and July 8, and for the chart October 3 and September 22. The day-to-day ranges compare each day from October 1 to 6 with the day before. Each database's docs page, [VPN IP's](https://docs.internetdata.io/database/vpn-ip/vpn-ip) for one, gives its update frequency and the date of its current build.

Datacenter Proxy IP is measured the way the residential post measured its lists: the addresses seen in datacenter proxy networks on October 7, checked against the [90-day list](https://docs.internetdata.io/database/dcproxy-ip/dcproxy-ip-90d) as it stood a day and a week before.

Tor IP and Relay IP are open: sign up on the [Tor IP](https://internetdata.io/databases/tor-ip) or [Relay IP](https://internetdata.io/databases/relay-ip) page to download them. To license the rest, see [pricing](https://internetdata.io/pricing) or [talk to us](https://internetdata.io/contact).