What Are Residential Proxies?
Residential proxies are IP addresses assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to actual homes and devices. When you connect through a residential proxy, your traffic exits from a real household network, not a cloud server. This makes your requests indistinguishable from genuine consumer traffic to websites and their anti-bot systems.
The key technical difference from datacenter proxies is the ASN (Autonomous System Number). Residential IPs belong to consumer ISPs like Comcast, Verizon, BT, or Deutsche Telekom. When a target site performs an IP lookup, it sees a legitimate residential ISP, not a hosting provider like AWS, DigitalOcean, or OVH that would immediately flag the connection as suspicious.
Modern residential proxy networks operate through SDK partnerships where app developers integrate monetization code. Users opt-in to share idle bandwidth in exchange for ad-free experiences or premium features. This creates ethically-sourced pools of millions of residential IPs spanning every country and major city. Top providers like Bright Data, Oxylabs, and Smartproxy maintain 50M+ IP pools with coverage in 195+ countries.
How Residential Proxy Pricing Works
Residential proxy pricing is bandwidth-based: you pay per gigabyte (GB) of data transferred through the proxy network. This is fundamentally different from datacenter proxies that often charge per IP address or connection port. Understanding these pricing models is crucial for optimizing your costs.
Pay-per-GB pricing is the standard model. In 2026, market rates range from $2-4/GB for budget providers to $8-15/GB for premium networks with better success rates. Enterprise customers purchasing 10+ TB monthly can negotiate rates as low as $0.50-2/GB. Volume discounts are significant, often 50-70% off starter rates.
Subscription plans bundle a set amount of bandwidth per month at a discounted rate. A typical plan might offer 50GB for $250/month ($5/GB effective rate) versus $8/GB pay-as-you-go. Watch for rollover policies; some providers expire unused bandwidth while others allow 30-90 day carryover.
Additional cost factors include geo-targeting precision (country-level is standard, city/state targeting costs 10-30% more), session type (sticky sessions for account work may cost more), concurrent connection limits, and protocol support. SOCKS5 is usually included; HTTP/HTTPS is standard. API access and dedicated account management are typically enterprise-tier features.
Best Use Cases for Residential Proxies
Residential proxies excel in scenarios where appearing as a genuine user is critical. Their authentic IP addresses bypass sophisticated anti-bot measures that would block datacenter traffic.
- Web scraping at scale: Extract product data, pricing intelligence, and market research from e-commerce sites, search engines, and social platforms that actively block scrapers.
- Ad verification: Verify that digital advertisements display correctly across different geographic regions and detect ad fraud or unauthorized placements.
- SEO monitoring: Track search engine rankings from multiple locations without triggering Google's bot detection or receiving skewed results.
- Sneaker and ticket bots: Access limited-release products and event tickets from retail sites that implement strict anti-bot measures.
- Social media management: Manage multiple accounts across platforms while avoiding detection and IP-based restrictions.
- Price comparison: Collect competitor pricing data across regions to inform dynamic pricing strategies.
- Market research: Access geo-restricted content and localized search results for competitive analysis.
Residential vs Datacenter Proxies
Choosing between residential and datacenter proxies depends on your specific requirements for anonymity, speed, and budget. Each type has distinct advantages for different use cases.
Anonymity and Detection
Residential proxies offer superior anonymity because they use real ISP-assigned IPs. Websites struggle to differentiate residential proxy traffic from regular visitors. Datacenter IPs are easier to identify and block since they originate from known hosting ranges.
Residential wins for stealth
Speed and Performance
Datacenter proxies typically deliver faster connection speeds and lower latency because they run on dedicated server infrastructure. Residential proxies route through consumer networks, which can introduce variable performance depending on the end user's connection quality.
Datacenter wins for speed
Cost Efficiency
Datacenter proxies are significantly cheaper, often 10-20x less expensive than residential options. For high-volume tasks where detection is not a concern, datacenter proxies provide better cost efficiency. Residential proxies justify their premium for tasks requiring authentic user appearances.
Datacenter wins for budget
Pool Size and Coverage
Leading residential providers maintain pools of 50+ million IPs across every country. Datacenter providers offer smaller pools but with more predictable availability. Residential IPs rotate frequently as users connect and disconnect, while datacenter IPs remain stable.
Residential wins for coverage
How to choose residential proxies
- Bandwidth pricing: Prefer providers with clear $/GB tiers so you can compare fairly.
- Geo coverage: Match your target regions and ASN requirements.
- Rotation vs sticky: Choose based on scraping vs session-based workflows.
Need a quick estimate? Try the Price Calculator. See Methodology for how we compute $/GB.
Looking for a short list? See Best Residential Proxies.