/22 vs /24 — Subnet Comparison
A /22 subnet is 4× larger than a /24. Every additional bit in the prefix halves the address space — the 2-bit difference between these two means /22 has 22 = 4 times as many addresses.
1K IPs — medium site subnet
Typical Uses
- →Medium office floor VLAN
- →Application tier with ~500 hosts
- →Cloud subnet for a single microservice cluster
254 usable hosts — the industry standard
Typical Uses
- →Home and SOHO LAN (192.168.1.0/24)
- →Standard office VLAN
- →AWS/Azure subnet per AZ
Key Differences
How 4 /24 Subnets Divide a /22
Example using 10.0.0.0/22 as the parent block.
| # | CIDR | Network | First Usable | Last Usable | Broadcast | Hosts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10.0.0.0/24 | 10.0.0.0 | 10.0.0.1 | 10.0.0.254 | 10.0.0.255 | 254 |
| 2 | 10.0.1.0/24 | 10.0.1.0 | 10.0.1.1 | 10.0.1.254 | 10.0.1.255 | 254 |
| 3 | 10.0.2.0/24 | 10.0.2.0 | 10.0.2.1 | 10.0.2.254 | 10.0.2.255 | 254 |
| 4 | 10.0.3.0/24 | 10.0.3.0 | 10.0.3.1 | 10.0.3.254 | 10.0.3.255 | 254 |
FAQ
What is the difference between /22 and /24?
A /22 has 1,022 usable hosts
and a /24 has 254.
The subnet masks differ: /22 uses 255.255.252.0
while /24 uses 255.255.255.0.
Every additional bit in the prefix halves the number of addresses — so the 2-bit gap means
/22 is exactly 4× larger.
How many /24 subnets fit in a /22?
Exactly 4 /24 subnets fit perfectly inside one /22 with no wasted space. To split a /22 into /24s, just increment the last 2 bits of the network address for each new subnet.
Which should I choose?
/22 is typically used for: Medium office/application segment. /24 is better for: Standard subnet — home, office, cloud. Choose the smallest prefix that comfortably fits your host count — over-allocating wastes address space, but under-allocating means painful renumbering later.