Category: Data & Statistics

  • Proxy Pricing Comparison 2026: Every Provider Ranked

    Proxy Pricing Comparison 2026: Every Provider Ranked

    Proxy pricing varies dramatically across providers, proxy types, and billing models. A single gigabyte of residential proxy traffic can cost anywhere from $1 to $25 depending on the provider and plan. This comprehensive comparison ranks every major proxy provider by price, value, and features to help you find the best deal for your use case.

    Quick Pricing Summary

    Proxy Type Price Range Avg Price Best For
    Datacenter (Shared) $0.50-$3/GB $1.20/GB High-volume, low-sensitivity
    Datacenter (Dedicated) $1-$5/IP/month $2.50/IP Static sessions, accounts
    Residential (Rotating) $1-$15/GB $5.50/GB Web scraping, general use
    Residential (Static/ISP) $2-$8/IP/month $4/IP Long sessions, accounts
    Mobile (4G/5G) $3-$50/GB $18/GB Social media, high trust
    Scraping API $1-$10/1K requests $3.50/1K Managed scraping

    Residential Proxy Pricing Comparison

    Pay-Per-GB Plans

    Provider Starter Price Mid-Tier Enterprise IP Pool Size Free Trial
    Bright Data $8.40/GB $6.80/GB Custom 72M+ Yes (free)
    Oxylabs $8.00/GB $6.00/GB Custom 100M+ 7-day trial
    Smartproxy $4.20/GB $3.60/GB Custom 55M+ 3-day refund
    SOAX $3.99/GB $3.30/GB Custom 155M+ $1.99 trial
    IPRoyal $1.75/GB $1.50/GB Custom 32M+ No
    Webshare $2.50/GB $2.00/GB Custom 30M+ 1GB free
    NetNut $6.00/GB $4.50/GB Custom 52M+ 7-day trial
    PacketStream $1.00/GB $1.00/GB $1.00/GB 7M+ No
    Shifter $5.00/GB $4.00/GB Custom 30M+ No
    Storm Proxies $3.50/GB $2.80/GB Custom 2M+ No

    Monthly Subscription Plans

    Provider Basic Plan Price/Month GB Included Extra GB Cost
    Smartproxy Pay As You Go $12.50 1GB $12.50/GB
    Smartproxy Micro $30 2GB $12/GB
    Bright Data Pay As You Go $8.40/GB — $8.40/GB
    Oxylabs Micro $49 1GB $8/GB
    SOAX Starter $99 3GB $3.99/GB
    IPRoyal Pay As You Go $1.75/GB — $1.75/GB
    Webshare Free $0 1GB $2.50/GB
    NetNut Starter $300 20GB $6/GB

    Datacenter Proxy Pricing Comparison

    Shared Datacenter Proxies

    Provider Monthly Price IPs Included Extra IP Cost Bandwidth
    Webshare $5.49/mo 10 IPs $0.55/IP Unlimited
    Bright Data $0.066/IP/day Pay per use Same Per GB
    IPRoyal $1.39/proxy Per proxy $1.39 Unlimited
    Smartproxy $1.30/GB Per GB Same Per GB
    Proxy-Seller $0.98/proxy Per proxy Same Unlimited
    Storm Proxies $50/mo 10 ports $5/port Unlimited

    Dedicated Datacenter Proxies

    Provider Per IP/Month Minimum Order Bandwidth Locations
    Bright Data $0.90/IP 20 IPs Unlimited 95+ countries
    Smartproxy $2.20/IP 3 IPs Unlimited 35+ locations
    Oxylabs $1.80/IP 100 IPs Unlimited 86+ locations
    Proxy-Seller $1.50/IP 1 IP Unlimited 20+ countries
    Webshare $3.18/IP 10 IPs Unlimited 10+ countries
    MyPrivateProxy $2.49/IP 1 IP Unlimited 8 US cities
    BuyProxies $2.00/IP 5 IPs Unlimited 15+ locations

    Mobile Proxy Pricing Comparison

    4G/5G Mobile Proxies

    Provider Price Model Starting Price Speed Locations
    Bright Data Per GB $24/GB 4G/5G 130+ countries
    Oxylabs Per GB $18/GB 4G/5G 100+ countries
    Smartproxy Per GB $8.50/GB 4G 130+ countries
    SOAX Per GB $5.50/GB 4G/5G 120+ countries
    IPRoyal Per GB $6.00/GB 4G 35+ countries
    NetNut Per GB $12/GB 4G/5G 50+ countries
    Proxy-IPv4 Per IP $85/IP/month 4G 15+ countries
    AirProxy Per IP $99/IP/month 4G/5G Italy-focused
    ProxyLTE Per IP $75/IP/month 4G US-focused

    Mobile Proxy Cost Analysis

    For 100GB monthly usage:

    Provider Monthly Cost Cost/GB Best For
    SOAX $550 $5.50 Budget mobile scraping
    IPRoyal $600 $6.00 Affordable mobile
    Smartproxy $850 $8.50 Balanced price/quality
    NetNut $1,200 $12.00 Enterprise reliability
    Oxylabs $1,800 $18.00 Premium enterprise
    Bright Data $2,400 $24.00 Maximum pool size

    ISP (Static Residential) Proxy Pricing

    Provider Per IP/Month Pool Size Speed Locations
    Bright Data $5.00/IP 1.6M+ Fast 25+ countries
    Oxylabs $3.50/IP 500K+ Fast 28+ countries
    Smartproxy $2.40/IP 400K+ Fast 8+ countries
    NetNut $2.00/IP 1M+ Fast 50+ countries
    IPRoyal $1.75/IP 100K+ Fast 10+ countries
    SOAX $3.00/IP 200K+ Fast 15+ countries

    Scraping API Pricing Comparison

    Provider Price/1K Requests Success Rate JS Rendering Free Tier
    Bright Data (SERP API) $2.70 99.9% Yes 100 free
    ScraperAPI $2.50 99% Yes 5K free/mo
    Oxylabs (Web Scraper) $3.00 99.7% Yes 5K free
    ScrapingBee $3.30 99% Yes 1K free
    Zyte (Smart Proxy) $2.80 99% Yes 500 free
    Apify $2.50 98% Yes $5/mo free
    Crawlbase $1.30 98% Yes 1K free
    Zenrows $2.90 98.5% Yes 1K free

    Cost Comparison by Use Case

    E-Commerce Price Monitoring (1M products/day)

    Solution Est. Monthly Cost Success Rate
    DIY + Datacenter Proxies $800-$1,500 70-80%
    DIY + Residential Proxies $2,000-$5,000 92-98%
    DIY + Mobile Proxies $5,000-$12,000 96-99%
    Scraping API $3,000-$8,000 98-99%
    Data-as-a-Service $5,000-$15,000 99%+

    Social Media Monitoring (100K profiles/day)

    Solution Est. Monthly Cost Success Rate
    DIY + Residential $1,500-$3,000 85-92%
    DIY + Mobile $3,000-$8,000 95-99%
    Social Media API (official) $500-$5,000 100% (limited)
    Scraping API $2,000-$5,000 90-96%

    SERP Tracking (50K keywords/day)

    Solution Est. Monthly Cost Success Rate
    DIY + Datacenter $200-$500 60-75%
    DIY + Residential $500-$1,500 90-95%
    SERP API $400-$1,200 98-99%
    SEO Tool (Ahrefs, SEMrush) $100-$500 99%

    Value Rankings: Best Price-to-Performance

    Best Overall Value

    Rank Provider Why
    1 Smartproxy Best balance of price ($4.20/GB), pool size (55M), and features
    2 IPRoyal Lowest residential price ($1.75/GB) with decent pool
    3 SOAX Affordable mobile proxies ($5.50/GB) with 155M pool
    4 Bright Data Most features and largest network, premium pricing
    5 Oxylabs Enterprise-grade with comprehensive tools

    Best Budget Options

    Category Provider Price
    Cheapest Residential PacketStream $1.00/GB
    Cheapest Datacenter Webshare $0.55/IP (10 free)
    Cheapest Mobile SOAX $5.50/GB
    Cheapest ISP IPRoyal $1.75/IP
    Cheapest Scraping API Crawlbase $1.30/1K requests

    Best Enterprise Options

    Category Provider Why
    Largest IP Pool SOAX/Oxylabs 100M-155M+ IPs
    Most Features Bright Data Full data platform
    Best Support Oxylabs Dedicated account managers
    Best Compliance Bright Data KYC, ethical sourcing
    Best API Oxylabs/Zyte Developer-friendly tools

    Hidden Costs to Watch For

    Hidden Cost Providers Affected Impact
    Minimum commitment Most enterprise plans $300-$5,000 minimum
    Bandwidth overage Pay-per-GB plans 10-50% price increase
    Failed request billing Some providers Charged for 403/timeout
    Session time limits Some rotating plans Forced reconnection
    Geo-targeting surcharge 3-4 providers 20-50% premium
    API access tier Several providers Extra $50-200/mo
    Concurrent limit Most plans Throttling or upgrade

    FAQ

    What is the cheapest residential proxy?

    PacketStream offers the cheapest residential proxies at $1.00/GB, though with a smaller IP pool (7M). For better balance of price and quality, IPRoyal at $1.75/GB with 32M IPs is recommended.

    How much should I budget for web scraping proxies?

    For a typical web scraping project, budget $500-$5,000/month for residential proxies depending on volume. Small projects (under 50GB/month) can use budget providers at $1-3/GB. Enterprise operations typically spend $5,000-$50,000/month.

    Are expensive proxies worth it?

    Premium proxies from providers like Bright Data and Oxylabs offer higher success rates (98-99% vs 85-92%), larger IP pools, better support, and compliance features. For mission-critical data collection, the higher cost is typically justified by the 30-40% higher success rate and reduced development time.

    Should I use proxies or a scraping API?

    Use proxies if you need full control, have engineering resources, and want to optimize costs at scale. Use a scraping API if you want a managed solution, need JavaScript rendering, and prefer paying per successful request. Scraping APIs typically cost 2-3x more but save significant development time.

    How do I avoid overpaying for proxies?

    1. Start with a free trial to test success rates before committing
    2. Calculate your actual GB usage before choosing a plan
    3. Consider annual plans for 20-40% discounts
    4. Match proxy type to your use case (don’t use mobile for SERP tracking)
    5. Monitor failed request billing policies

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    Prices verified as of early 2026. Pricing changes frequently; check provider websites for current rates. Some providers offer custom enterprise pricing not reflected here.

    Internal links: Residential Proxy Pricing Guide | Mobile Proxy Pricing Guide | Proxy Cost Calculator