bright data pricing 2026: residential, isp, mobile – what each plan actually costs
bright data’s 2026 residential proxies start at $5.04 per gb on the pay-as-you-go tier, dropping to $3.50/gb on the $499 growth plan and around $2.00/gb at enterprise scale. isp proxies are $1.50 per ip per month on a static-pricing model. mobile proxies are $9.00 per gb. datacenter proxies are $0.066 per ip per ip-day or $0.50 per gb on the shared pool. there is no truly unlimited plan in 2026, the closest is the enterprise commit which negotiates a fixed monthly rate.
bright data’s pricing page lists rates that look reasonable until you realize most users overshoot their gb estimate by 30-50%. this guide unpacks what each plan actually costs in real-world scraping, where the volume discounts kick in, and how the bright data structure compares to oxylabs, smartproxy, and the cheaper rotating-pool providers.
all numbers below come from the bright data pricing page accessed in may 2026 plus my own enterprise quote conversations earlier this year.
the short version
| network | starting price | mid-tier (~$500/mo) | enterprise (~$2k+/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| residential | $5.04/gb | $3.50/gb | $2.00/gb |
| isp (static residential) | $1.50/ip/month | $1.20/ip | $0.80-1.00/ip |
| mobile | $9.00/gb | $7.50/gb | $5.00-6.00/gb |
| datacenter (shared) | $0.50/gb | $0.40/gb | $0.25/gb |
| datacenter (dedicated) | $0.066/ip/day | $0.05/ip/day | custom |
residential is the volume product. mobile is the premium product. isp is the static-ip product. datacenter is the cheap-and-fast product. each has a different unit (gb vs ip-month vs ip-day) which makes apples-to-apples comparisons hard until you do the conversion.
residential proxies in 2026
bright data’s residential pool is the largest in the industry: 150m+ ips across 195 countries. pricing is per-gb of traffic.
| plan | monthly minimum | per-gb rate | volume threshold |
|---|---|---|---|
| pay-as-you-go | $0 | $5.04 | n/a |
| starter | $499/mo | $3.50 | 142 gb included |
| growth | $999/mo | $3.20 | 312 gb included |
| business | $1,999/mo | $2.60 | 769 gb included |
| enterprise | $5,000+/mo | $2.00-2.40 | negotiated |
the $5.04 retail rate is the sticker price. effectively no one running production scraping pays that. the $3.50/gb tier kicks in at $499 monthly commit. the $2.00/gb tier requires a sales conversation and a 12-month commit.
what eats your gb budget. each browser-based scrape (playwright, selenium) consumes 1-3mb per page including images, css, and ads. so 1gb runs you 300-1000 pages depending on site weight. raw http scraping (requests, httpx) is much lighter, maybe 50kb per page including json apis. so 1gb runs you 20,000+ light pages.
practical estimate for a typical scraper: budget for 2x what you think you’ll use the first month. real consumption almost always overshoots the model.
isp proxies (static residential)
isp proxies are residential ips that don’t rotate. you rent a fixed ip for a month. these are the right answer for any scraping that needs session continuity (logged-in scraping, account management, ad verification).
| plan | per-ip cost | minimum commit | included bandwidth |
|---|---|---|---|
| pay-as-you-go | $1.50/ip/month | 1 ip | unlimited |
| volume (100+) | $1.20/ip | 100 ips | unlimited |
| volume (1000+) | $1.00/ip | 1000 ips | unlimited |
| enterprise | $0.80-1.00/ip | negotiated | unlimited |
bandwidth on isp proxies is unlimited at all tiers, which makes the unit economics very different from rotating residential. for use cases that need 100 stable ips and process tons of bandwidth (account management, e-commerce automation), isp at $150/month for 100 ips and unlimited gb is dramatically cheaper than residential at any equivalent gb level.
geo coverage is narrower than rotating residential. isp ips are mostly us, uk, germany, france, india, australia. countries outside the major commercial hubs are limited.
mobile proxies (3g/4g/5g)
mobile is bright data’s premium tier. ips come from real cell carriers, share carrier-grade nat with thousands of legitimate users, and almost never get blocked by anti-bot systems.
| plan | per-gb rate | monthly minimum |
|---|---|---|
| pay-as-you-go | $9.00/gb | $0 |
| starter | $7.50/gb | $499/mo |
| growth | $6.50/gb | $999/mo |
| business | $5.00-6.00/gb | $1,999/mo |
| enterprise | $4.00-5.00/gb | negotiated |
mobile at $9/gb is roughly 2x the residential rate. for tough targets (tiktok, instagram, kasada-protected ecommerce, datadome-protected travel sites) the higher pass-rate justifies the cost. for easy targets, residential is the right pick and you don’t need mobile at all.
dedicated mobile providers like singapore mobile proxy and other smaller specialists often beat bright data’s mobile pricing at the lower-tier commit levels because they specialize in carrier-grade networks. for a 5-10gb/month mobile workload, the smaller providers are usually cheaper.
datacenter proxies
cheap and fast, but easily blocked. datacenter ips come from cloud providers (aws, azure, digitalocean, ovh) and any decent anti-bot system blocklists their ranges.
bright data has two pricing models for datacenter:
shared pool (rotating).
– $0.50 per gb on starter
– $0.40 per gb on growth
– $0.25 per gb at enterprise scale
dedicated ips (you own the ip for the month).
– $0.066 per ip-day ($1.98 per ip per month, full month)
– $0.05 per ip-day at volume
for any scraping target that doesn’t use sophisticated anti-bot, datacenter at $0.40/gb is hard to beat on cost. for anything that does (ecommerce, social, finance), datacenter pass rates are too low to be worth the savings.
unlimited bandwidth plans
bright data does not offer a true unlimited residential plan in 2026. the closest is the enterprise commit which negotiates a fixed monthly rate at high volume.
isp proxies and mobile proxies have unlimited bandwidth at all tiers, but you pay per ip not per gb.
if you specifically need unlimited residential, smaller providers like ipfoxy, livinatic, and proxyempire offer “unlimited” plans starting around $79/month with usage caps that effectively limit you to 200-500gb depending on the provider. the unlimited bandwidth rotating proxies guide covers which of those are real and which are theatrically limited.
bright data add-ons
a few non-proxy services that bundle into the platform:
- web unlocker: $5 per 1,000 successful requests. handles cloudflare, kasada, akamai automatically. cheap for low volume, expensive at scale.
- scraping browser: $8.40 per gb for cloud-hosted playwright with built-in anti-bot bypass. niche but useful.
- serp api: $1.50 per 1,000 google searches. competitive with serpapi and dataforseo.
- dataset marketplace: pre-collected datasets (linkedin, amazon, indeed) at custom pricing.
these all share the same wallet so you can mix proxy bandwidth with web unlocker calls in one bill.
how bright data pricing compares
| provider | residential / gb (entry) | mobile / gb (entry) |
|---|---|---|
| bright data | $5.04 | $9.00 |
| oxylabs | $4.00 | $8.00 |
| smartproxy / decodo | $3.50 | $7.50 |
| nimbleway | $4.50 | $8.50 |
| proxyempire | $3.00 | $6.00 |
| iproyal | $3.00 | $5.00 |
| livinatic | $2.50 | n/a |
bright data is the most expensive at sticker rates among the major providers. the value differentiator is pool size, geo coverage, and reliability. if you need 195-country coverage, no one else in this list comes close.
for a fuller competitive picture see the proxy provider comparison and the proxy pricing comparison.
hidden costs and gotchas
things that don’t appear on the pricing page but matter for your real bill.
bandwidth multiplier on rendered pages. browser scraping uses 30-50x more bandwidth than raw http. budget accordingly.
failed requests still count. bright data charges for traffic, not for successful scrapes. if your target blocks you and you retry, both attempts count.
geo-targeting premiums. some country/city targets cost a small premium (5-15% over base rate). especially common for hard-to-source geos like china, russia, indonesia.
zone setup time. new zones (custom configurations) sometimes take 24 hours to provision. plan ahead for production launches.
24/7 support is included in $499+ tiers. pay-as-you-go users get email support only, with 24-48 hour response times. on a tight production schedule this matters.
who should pick bright data vs alternatives
pick bright data if you need the largest pool, the broadest geo coverage, the most polished dashboard, or you’re at enterprise scale and need spp-style negotiation. for compliance-sensitive use cases (financial services scraping, regulated industries), bright data’s compliance posture is the strongest in the market.
pick oxylabs if you want a slightly cheaper alternative with comparable polish. oxylabs and bright data are functionally close enough that the choice is usually about pricing on your specific volume.
pick smartproxy or proxyempire if you’re in the $50-500/month sweet spot and you want the best price-per-gb at smaller scales. these are excellent for solo developers and small teams.
pick a specialist mobile provider if mobile is your main need and bright data’s mobile gb cost feels expensive at your volume.
faq
what is the cheapest bright data plan in 2026?
the pay-as-you-go residential at $5.04/gb has no monthly minimum. effective entry cost is $0 if you only scrape occasionally. for serious volume, the $499/month starter at $3.50/gb is the first real tier.
does bright data offer a free trial?
yes. 7-day free trial with $5 in credits for new accounts. enough to test the platform but not enough for any real production work.
how much does bright data cost per month?
depends entirely on volume. typical small scraper bill: $50-200/mo on pay-as-you-go residential. typical mid-sized: $499-2000/mo on growth or business tiers. enterprise: $5000-50000/mo.
is bright data unlimited?
no, on residential and mobile. yes, on isp and on dedicated datacenter ips (per-ip pricing with no bandwidth cap).
can i get a refund from bright data?
yes. unused balance on prepaid plans is refundable for 30 days after the last activity. enterprise contracts have specific refund clauses negotiated case-by-case.
how does bright data compare to oxylabs?
both are tier-1 enterprise providers. oxylabs is roughly 10-15% cheaper at most tiers. bright data has the larger pool. for a deep dive see the oxylabs vs bright data comparison.
conclusion
bright data’s pricing in 2026 is premium. you pay 10-30% above the closest competitor in exchange for the biggest pool, the most polished tooling, and enterprise-grade compliance.
for occasional scraping, pay-as-you-go residential at $5.04/gb is fine. for any serious workload, the math forces you toward the $499+ tiers where the real per-gb rates kick in. for unlimited bandwidth, isp proxies are the right answer at $1.50/ip/month with no gb cap.
map your real volume estimate (and double it for safety) before committing. the difference between the $499 and $999 tiers can be more than the difference between bright data and a smaller competitor for the same workload.