---
title: How to create a Private Network
description: Find out how to create a Private Network in a Scaleway VPC, and start building optimized, secure cloud infrastructures away from the public internet
tags: regional-private-network private-network vpc virtual-private-cloud region
dates:
  validation: 2025-10-16
  posted: 2023-03-21
---
import Requirements from '@macros/iam/requirements.mdx'
import PnNaming from '@macros/vpc/pn-naming.mdx'

import image from './assets/scaleway-create-a-pn.webp'
import image2 from './assets/scaleway-pn-advanced-settings.webp'
import image3 from './assets/scaleway-pn-define-custom.webp'


VPC allows you to build your own **V**irtual **P**rivate **C**loud on top of Scaleway's shared public cloud. Within each VPC, you can create multiple **Private Networks** and attach Scaleway resources to them, as long as the resources are in an AZ within the network's region. Attached resources can then communicate between themselves in an isolated and secure layer 2 network, away from the public internet.

Private Networks also have built-in **D**ynamic **H**ost **C**onfiguration **P**rotocol (DHCP), making it easy to manage the private IP addresses of your resources on the network. IPs are statically allocated when resources are attached to a Private Network, and are managed by our internal [IPAM](/vpc/concepts/#ipam). You can find out how to get the most from your Private Networks in our [dedicated guide](/vpc/reference-content/getting-most-private-networks/).

<Message type="note">
While DHCP is built into all new Private Networks, it may not be automatically activated for Private Networks created before July 2023. Check our [migration](/vpc/reference-content/vpc-migration/) documentation for more information.
</Message>

<Requirements />

- A Scaleway account logged into the [console](https://console.scaleway.com)
- [Owner](/iam/concepts/#owner) status or [IAM permissions](/iam/concepts/#permission) allowing you to perform actions in the intended Organization

## How to create a Private Network

1. Click **VPC** in the **Network** section of the [Scaleway console](https://console.scaleway.com/organization) side menu. A listing of your VPCs displays. Each Private Network must be created within a VPC.

2. Use the **region selector** at the top of the page to filter for the region of the VPC in which you want to create the Private Network, then click the VPC in the listing. 

    If you already have existing Private Networks in this VPC, a list of these displays. Otherwise, you see a welcome screen.

3. Click **+ Create Private Network**. The creation screen displays.

    <Lightbox image={image} alt="A screen of the Scaleway console, showing the steps to create a Private Network: Enter a name, check the region, enter tags and (optionally) expand the Advanced Settings section" />

4. Enter a **name** for the network, or leave the randomly generated name in place. Optionally, you can also add **tags** to help organize your Private Networks. Each tag should be separated by a space.

    <PnNaming />

5. **Optional**: Click **Advanced Settings** to edit these settings, otherwise they will be left at default recommended values. The only advanced setting available concerns the creation of an IPv4 CIDR block for the Private Network, from which private IP addresses will be allocated. You cannot change the CIDR block after the Private Network has been created. See the section below on [configuring CIDR](#how-to-configure-cidr) for more help with choosing these settings.

6. Click **Create Private Network** to finish. Your Private Network is created.

<Message type="tip">
See our [Basic VPC use case](/vpc/reference-content/use-case-basic/) documentation for full details of how to create a simple infrastructure that leverages the advantages of Private Networks, including accompanying Terraform/OpenTofu templates.
</Message>

## How to configure CIDR

Private Networks have built-in **D**ynamic **H**ost **C**onfiguration **P**rotocol (DHCP). DHCP manages the allocation of private IP addresses to resources attached to the network. For this purpose, a **C**lassless **I**nter-**D**omain **R**outing (CIDR) block is defined for each Private Network, from which IP addresses will be assigned. In fact, both an IPv4 and an IPv6 CIDR block are defined.

### IPv6 CIDR block

The IPv6 CIDR block is defined automatically and "invisibly" by default at the time of creating the Private Network. It cannot be modified either at the time of creation, or afterward.

It is a `/64` block, guaranteed to be unique within the VPC and not overlapping with any of your other Private Networks.

### IPv4 CIDR block

The IPv4 CIDR block is defined at the time of creating the Private Network. You can choose to automatically generate a default IPv4 CIDR block, or define a custom block. However, in either case, the IPv4 CIDR block cannot be modified after creation.

#### Automatically generating a CIDR block

Automatically generating a CIDR block is the default (and recommended) setting when creating a Private Network. Simply follow the steps [above](#how-to-create-a-private-network) to create a Private Network, leave **Advanced Settings** at default values, and a `/22` CIDR block will be automatically generated for the Private Network.

This block is guaranteed to be unique within the VPC, and will not overlap with any of your other Private Networks. It gives 1024 private IPv4 addresses, of which 1020 are available to be allocated to resources attached to the Private Network. The first two and last two addresses in the block are not available.

#### Defining a custom CIDR block

If you prefer, you can define your own custom IPv4 CIDR block when creating your Private Network. This is only recommended for advanced users.

1. Follow the steps [above](#how-to-create-a-private-network) to create a Private Network, and at step 5, click **Advanced Settings**.

    <Lightbox image={image2} alt="The Advanced Settings section of the Create a Private Network screen in the Scaleway console. It shows the options to automatically generate a CIDR block for the subnet, or define your own." />

2. Click **Define custom**. The following screen displays:

    <Lightbox image={image3} alt="The Advanced Settings section of the Create a Private Network screen in the Scaleway console. The user is prompted to enter a prefix and a network size." />

3. Enter a network **prefix**. This should typically be in the following ranges normally used for private networks:
    - `192.168.0.0` - `192.168.255.255`
    - `172.16.0.0` - `172.31.255.255`
    - `10.0.0.0` - `10.255.255.255`

    <Message type="note">
    Some IP ranges are reserved by Scaleway and cannot be used as prefixes. Refer to the [dedicated documentation](/vpc/reference-content/private-networks-reserved-prefixes/) for more information.
    </Message>

4. Choose your **network size** from the options available. The range of options begins at `/20`, with 4094 addresses available for resources on the Private Network, and ends at `/28`, with 14 addresses available for resources on the Private Network.

5. Click **Create Private Network** to finish.

### Viewing IP addresses of attached resources

When you attach resources to the Private Network, they will be assigned IP addresses from the CIDR block you defined. See [how to attach a resource to a Private Network](/vpc/how-to/attach-resources-to-pn/#how-to-attach-a-resource-to-a-private-network) and [how to view the resource's IP address](/vpc/how-to/attach-resources-to-pn/#how-to-view-the-resources-ip-address) for more information.