residential proxy pricing 2026: what every major provider charges per gb
residential proxy prices in 2026 land between $1.40 per gb and $15 per gb depending on entry tier, commit volume, and country mix. bright data, oxylabs, and smartproxy still anchor the high end at $8 to $15 per gb on starter plans. iproyal, soax, and rayobyte come in mid-tier between $4 and $7. budget players like proxy-cheap and packetstream sit under $3 per gb but trade away pool size and target country control.
this guide pulls live 2026 prices direct from each provider’s pricing page, calculates the real per-gb cost after the most common volume discount, and flags every hidden fee we found in checkout flows.
how we calculated 2026 per-gb prices
we pulled prices from each provider’s public pricing page in may 2026, signed up for the lowest paid tier where possible, and screenshotted the cart total. for tiered providers we listed both the entry price and the cheapest commit tier under $1,000 per month.
we ignored “starting from” marketing prices that require a sales call. every number below is what a self-serve buyer can pay today by entering a credit card.
bandwidth-only is the comparison unit. some providers bundle features like sticky sessions, geo targeting, or static residential ips at the same per-gb rate, others charge extra. we noted those splits in the table.
2026 residential proxy pricing per gb (entry tier)
| provider | entry plan | gb included | price | per gb | volume tier (per gb) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bright data | pay-as-you-go | 1 | $15.00 | $15.00 | $5.04 at 1 tb commit |
| oxylabs | starter | 8 | $80.00 | $10.00 | $4.00 at 1 tb commit |
| smartproxy (decodo) | micro | 2 | $14.00 | $7.00 | $2.85 at 200 gb commit |
| soax | regular | 8 | $72.00 | $9.00 | $3.60 at 1 tb commit |
| iproyal | royal residential | 1 | $7.00 | $7.00 | $4.50 at 50 gb commit |
| rayobyte | residential | 25 | $112.50 | $4.50 | $3.50 at 100 gb commit |
| netnut | starter | 20 | $300.00 | $15.00 | $5.00 at 1 tb commit |
| proxy-cheap | residential pay-as-you-go | 1 | $4.99 | $4.99 | $2.99 at 100 gb commit |
| massive | regular | 50 | $325.00 | $6.50 | $4.00 at 500 gb commit |
| packetstream | pay-as-you-go | 1 | $1.00 | $1.00 | flat (peer-to-peer) |
prices verified on each provider’s pricing page in may 2026. always re-check because residential pricing moves quarterly.
bright data: still the premium tier
bright data charges $15 per gb on pay-as-you-go and drops to roughly $5.04 per gb at the $5,000 monthly commit. their pricing page lists nine separate tiers. the smallest committed plan is $499 for 67 gb, which works out to $7.45 per gb.
the catch is the platform fee. some account types add a flat monthly platform fee on top of bandwidth. their dashboard discloses this at checkout, but it surprises first-time buyers used to flat per-gb pricing.
what you get for the premium: the largest residential pool in the industry (150m+ ips claimed), full country and city targeting, and the deepest geo coverage in africa and southeast asia. for use cases that need exotic locations, bright data is often the only option.
oxylabs: enterprise-grade with fewer surprises
oxylabs starter is $80 for 8 gb at $10 per gb. their next tier drops to $8 per gb, then $6, then $4 at the 1 tb commit. they publish all tiers openly with no platform fee.
oxylabs supports per-request rotation and 30-minute sticky sessions on the same per-gb rate. country-level targeting is included. city-level requires an enterprise plan.
if you want a head-to-head on these two giants, see our oxylabs vs bright data comparison.
smartproxy (now decodo): the mid-market sweet spot
smartproxy rebranded to decodo in late 2025 but the pricing structure stayed similar. micro plan is $14 for 2 gb ($7 per gb), with the cheapest committed tier hitting $2.85 per gb at 200 gb monthly.
decodo includes free trial credit (typically 100 mb to 1 gb) and unlimited concurrent connections at every tier. that is unusual. most providers cap concurrent threads on the cheapest plans.
the trade-off is the residential pool size sits at roughly 65m ips, smaller than bright data or oxylabs. for general scraping it is enough. for ultra-niche geo work it can come up short.
soax: pay-per-port plus pay-per-gb
soax sells regular plans by gb but also runs a pay-per-port model where you rent a static residential channel for a flat monthly fee. the regular tier starts at $72 for 8 gb and drops to roughly $3.60 per gb at the 1 tb commit.
soax owns one of the largest mobile pools in the market alongside residential. if you need both in one account, it is one of the few providers that bundles them at a unified rate.
iproyal: aggressive entry pricing, smaller pool
iproyal royal residential is $7 per gb on pay-as-you-go with no expiry on traffic, which is rare. most providers expire unused gb after 30 days. iproyal lets you keep paid traffic for the lifetime of the account.
their pool size is smaller (around 32m ips) and country targeting is included at every tier. for low-volume scrapers and resellers who need bandwidth that does not vanish, iproyal is competitive.
the budget tier: rayobyte, proxy-cheap, packetstream
rayobyte residential starts at $4.50 per gb and drops to $3.50 at 100 gb. they own 1 gbps unmetered datacenter pools too, which is useful for mixed workloads.
proxy-cheap lives up to its name with $4.99 entry and $2.99 per gb at 100 gb. ip pool quality is mid-tier, suitable for low-stakes scraping but not for hard targets like ticketing or sneaker sites.
packetstream runs a peer-to-peer model. you pay $1 per gb flat with no tiers. the catch is you have zero geo control beyond country and the pool is built from consumer devices that opt in for cashback. quality varies by hour.
for the full landscape see our proxy pricing comparison.
hidden fees to watch for in 2026
four cost traps catch buyers who only compare the headline per-gb number.
bandwidth expiry. most providers expire unused gb after 30 days. iproyal and a few smaller players let it roll over indefinitely. if your scraping is bursty, this matters more than the headline price.
minimum monthly spend. soax, oxylabs, and bright data committed plans require a 30-day commit. cancel mid-month and you still pay the full tier.
api request fees. some providers (notably brightdata’s web scraper api product) charge per request on top of bandwidth. read the cart line items, not just the plan name.
failed request billing. residential providers bill bandwidth on every request, including the ones that return 4xx or 5xx errors. a poorly configured scraper can burn through 10 gb in an hour without a single useful response.
per-gb price benchmark by use case
| use case | recommended tier | typical per-gb |
|---|---|---|
| ad verification | bright data, oxylabs | $4 to $5 |
| price scraping at scale | smartproxy, soax | $3 to $4 |
| serp scraping | rayobyte, proxy-cheap | $3 to $4.50 |
| social media automation | iproyal, smartproxy | $5 to $7 |
| sneakers and tickets | bright data, oxylabs | $5 to $8 |
| general web scraping | rayobyte, smartproxy | $3 to $4.50 |
for the picks behind these recommendations, see our best residential proxies guide.
faq
what is the cheapest residential proxy provider per gb in 2026?
packetstream is the cheapest at $1 per gb flat, but it is peer-to-peer with limited control. for traditional residential proxies, proxy-cheap and rayobyte sit near the bottom at around $3 per gb on commit tiers.
do residential proxy prices drop with volume in 2026?
yes. every major provider offers volume tiers. typical drops are 50 to 70 percent between the entry tier and a 1 tb commit. bright data, oxylabs, and soax publish their tier ladder openly. you can read them on each provider’s pricing page.
what makes residential proxies more expensive than datacenter?
residential proxies route through real consumer ips, which providers source by paying isps, building peer-to-peer apps, or licensing sdk traffic. that supply cost is structurally higher than a rack of datacenter ips. official details on residential ip sourcing are published in the oxylabs ethical sourcing policy.
are there hidden fees on residential proxy plans?
bandwidth expiry, monthly commit minimums, and per-request fees on api products are the three to watch. always read the cart total before paying, not the headline per-gb number on the marketing page.
which provider has the largest residential pool in 2026?
bright data publishes the largest claimed pool at 150 million ips. oxylabs is second at over 100 million. these numbers are self-reported and not independently audited.
is per-gb pricing fair for low-volume scrapers?
for under 5 gb per month, per-gb pricing is the right model. above 50 gb, look at committed tiers or pay-per-port models, which are cheaper at scale.
the bottom line
per-gb pricing in 2026 ranges from $1 to $15 depending on tier, pool size, and feature mix. the cheapest provider is rarely the right answer because failed requests, geo gaps, and bandwidth expiry can wipe out the savings.
for most buyers under 100 gb per month, smartproxy or rayobyte at $3 to $5 per gb is the value sweet spot. above 1 tb, bright data and oxylabs committed tiers come down to comparable per-gb rates while keeping the largest pools and best geo coverage.
re-check pricing every quarter. residential proxy pricing has moved at least three times in 2026 already and the next move is likely down.