How a NAT gateway is different from a NAT instance
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Updated at December 17, 2025
Case description
You need to understand how a NAT gateway is different from a NAT instance.
Solution
A NAT gateway allows you to provide internet access to all resources located in your subnet without creating additional VMs. Thus, this is one of the Yandex Cloud resources you can enjoy free of charge. At the same time, NAT gateways use random public IP addresses from certain ranges, making it impossible to add the address of a cloud resource located behind a specific NAT gateway to the whitelist of any other solution.
A NAT instance addresses these shortcomings by means of more flexible NAT configuration and traffic management. However, these advantages involve paid resources: a VM and a public IP address.