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Residential Proxy Pricing Comparison 2026: Every Provider Ranked

Written by

Xavier Fok

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Residential Proxy Pricing Comparison 2026: Every Provider Ranked

Residential proxy pricing varies dramatically across providers, from under $3/GB on budget services to over $15/GB on premium platforms. The cheapest option is not always the best value — pool size, success rates, geo-coverage, and support quality all affect the true cost per successful request.

This comparison covers every major residential proxy provider, ranked by price-to-value ratio, to help you choose the right service for your budget and requirements.

Complete Residential Proxy Pricing Table 2026

Provider Price/GB (Entry) Price/GB (Volume) Min Plan Pool Size Geo-Coverage
Geonode $4.00 $2.50 $47/mo 10M+ 195 countries
Webshare $4.50 $2.80 $30/mo 30M+ 50+ countries
IPRoyal $5.50 $3.50 Pay-as-go 32M+ 195 countries
Proxy-Cheap $5.00 $3.00 $5/mo 7M+ 127 countries
NetNut $6.00 $3.50 $300/mo 85M+ 200+ countries
SOAX $6.60 $4.00 $99/mo 191M+ 195 countries
Smartproxy $7.00 $4.00 $80/mo 55M+ 195 countries
Oxylabs $8.00 $5.00 $300/mo 100M+ 195 countries
Bright Data $8.40 $5.20 $500/mo 72M+ 195 countries
ProxyEmpire $9.00 $5.50 $30/mo 9M+ 170+ countries
Nimbleway $10.00 $6.00 Custom 10M+ 195 countries
PacketStream $3.00 $3.00 $1/mo Peer-based Limited
Shifter $5.00 $3.50 $75/mo 30M+ 130 countries

Pricing Tier Breakdown

Budget Tier ($2.50-$5.00/GB)

Best for: High-volume scraping, budget-conscious teams, testing and prototyping

Providers: Geonode, Webshare, IPRoyal, Proxy-Cheap, PacketStream

Budget residential proxies work well for scraping targets with moderate anti-bot protection. Expect lower success rates on heavily protected sites like Amazon, LinkedIn, and Google compared to premium providers.

Typical success rates: 70-85% on standard websites, 50-70% on protected targets

Mid-Range Tier ($5.00-$8.00/GB)

Best for: Production scraping, e-commerce monitoring, SEO tracking

Providers: NetNut, SOAX, Smartproxy

Mid-range providers offer a strong balance of pool size, geographic coverage, and reliability. Most include session control features, city-level targeting, and decent API documentation.

Typical success rates: 80-90% on standard websites, 65-80% on protected targets

Premium Tier ($8.00-$15.00/GB)

Best for: Enterprise data collection, mission-critical monitoring, compliance-sensitive projects

Providers: Oxylabs, Bright Data, Nimbleway

Premium providers deliver the largest IP pools, highest success rates, most geographic coverage options, and dedicated account management. They also offer advanced features like web unblockers, SERP APIs, and built-in browser rendering.

Typical success rates: 90-98% on standard websites, 80-95% on protected targets

What Affects Residential Proxy Pricing

Pool Size and Quality

Larger pools with diverse subnet distribution command higher prices. Bright Data’s 72M+ IP pool and Oxylabs’ 100M+ pool provide broader geographic distribution and reduce IP reuse.

Geographic Targeting

Country-level targeting is standard at base prices. City-level and ASN-level targeting costs 10-30% more on most providers. Rare locations (Africa, Middle East, Central Asia) may carry surcharges.

Session Duration

Sticky sessions (maintaining the same IP) typically cost more than rotating sessions. Extended sticky sessions (30+ minutes) may carry a 20-50% premium on some platforms.

Concurrency Limits

Entry plans often limit concurrent connections to 100-500. Higher concurrency requires upgraded plans, increasing the effective per-GB cost.

Cost Per Successful Request Analysis

Raw per-GB pricing does not tell the full story. A provider charging $8/GB with 95% success rate delivers better value than one charging $4/GB with 70% success rate.

Provider Price/GB Success Rate Effective Cost/1K Pages
Bright Data $8.40 95% $4.42
Oxylabs $8.00 93% $4.30
Smartproxy $7.00 88% $3.98
SOAX $6.60 85% $3.88
Geonode $4.00 78% $2.56
Webshare $4.50 75% $3.00
IPRoyal $5.50 80% $3.44

Based on average page size of 0.5 MB and typical success rates for e-commerce scraping

Volume Discount Structures

Most providers offer tiered pricing that decreases as usage increases.

Bright Data Volume Tiers

  • 0-50 GB: $8.40/GB
  • 50-250 GB: $7.00/GB
  • 250-1000 GB: $5.80/GB
  • 1000+ GB: Custom pricing

Oxylabs Volume Tiers

  • Starter (20 GB): $15.00/GB
  • Business (50 GB): $10.00/GB
  • Corporate (100 GB): $8.00/GB
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Smartproxy Volume Tiers

  • Micro (2 GB): $14.00/GB
  • Starter (8 GB): $10.00/GB
  • Regular (25 GB): $8.00/GB
  • Advanced (50 GB): $7.00/GB
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

How to Choose: Decision Framework

Your Priority Recommended Tier Best Provider
Lowest possible cost Budget Geonode, PacketStream
Best value overall Mid-Range Smartproxy, SOAX
Maximum reliability Premium Bright Data, Oxylabs
Pay-as-you-go flexibility Budget IPRoyal
Largest IP pool Premium Oxylabs (100M+)
Best free trial Mid-Range SOAX ($1.99 trial)
Easiest to start Budget Webshare (free tier)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cheapest residential proxy provider?

PacketStream offers the lowest per-GB rate at $3.00/GB with no minimum commitment. For providers with larger pools and better reliability, Geonode at $4.00/GB and Webshare at $4.50/GB are strong budget options.

How much bandwidth do I need for residential proxies?

A typical web page is 0.5-2 MB. If you scrape 10,000 text-heavy pages per month, expect to use 5-20 GB. Block images and scripts to reduce this by 60-80%. Start with a small plan and scale up based on actual usage.

Do residential proxies get cheaper with annual contracts?

Yes, most providers offer 10-30% discounts on annual commitments. Bright Data and Oxylabs both provide significant per-GB reductions for yearly plans. Ask your account manager for custom pricing.

Are cheap residential proxies safe to use?

Budget residential proxies from established providers like Geonode and IPRoyal are safe. Avoid unknown providers with suspiciously low prices (under $1/GB), as they may use unethically sourced IPs or inject malicious content.

Should I choose per-GB or per-request pricing?

Per-GB pricing works best when you control bandwidth consumption through optimization. Per-request pricing (via scraping APIs) is better when you want predictable costs regardless of page size. Calculate your average cost per page under both models to compare.

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