- Category
- Mobile 4G/5G proxies
- Typical pricing
- $30–$120 per dedicated port per month, or $4–$9 per GB on shared pools
- Measured latency
- 1.4–3.2 s time-to-first-byte, spiking on tower congestion
- Success rate
- 98–99.5% on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook actions
Mobile 4G/5G proxies explained
This page was originally published as "Mobile Proxies" and has been rebuilt from scratch for 2026. Mobile 4G/5G proxies are carrier-assigned IPs routed through real SIM hardware, where a single address is shared by thousands of subscribers behind CGNAT. In 2026 the category prices at $30–$120 per dedicated port per month, or $4–$9 per GB on shared pools, delivers 1.4–3.2 s time-to-first-byte, spiking on tower congestion and lands 98–99.5% on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook actions on the targets it was designed for: Instagram and Threads, TikTok, Facebook and Meta Ads, Telegram, affiliate and arbitrage funnels.
There is no best proxy — there is only the exit class that matches the defence sitting in front of your target. That is why this page leads with measurements rather than descriptions. If a vendor cannot answer where its addresses come from, treat that as a compliance risk rather than a technical detail.
- CGNAT means a ban on your IP would take out thousands of real subscribers, so platforms rate-limit instead of blocking
- Rotation on demand gives you a fresh carrier IP in seconds without buying a new plan
- Unmetered dedicated ports make heavy upload work (video, stories, reels) predictable to budget
Providers that compete in this category
The names below are the ones that survive our benchmark rounds consistently. Scores move between rounds — treat them as a shortlist to test, not a leaderboard to copy. A pilot that runs for a week beats a pilot that runs for an hour, because most quality problems are time-of-day dependent.
| Provider | Best for | Entry pricing | Benchmark score |
|---|---|---|---|
| MobileHop | long-lived accounts and sticky sessions | $30–$120 per dedicated port per month | 8.7 / 10 |
| SOAX | small projects and quick pilots | from 2.35 per unit | 9.7 / 10 |
| Proxy-Cheap | geo-precise data collection | from 3.60 per unit | 8.5 / 10 |
| IPRoyal | teams that need a real account manager | from 2.12 per unit | 8.6 / 10 |
| Smartproxy | high-volume crawling on a budget | from 3.92 per unit | 8.5 / 10 |
| Bright Data | hard targets and enterprise compliance | from 4.32 per unit | 8.3 / 10 |
How to choose without guessing
Choice in this market is a filtering exercise, not a search for a winner. Filter by exit class, then by geo coverage where you actually operate, then by billing model, and only then by price. Most buyers reverse that order and pay for it later. Concurrency is where marketing and reality diverge fastest; a gateway that shines at 20 threads can fold at 300.
- Confirm the carrier and ASN, not just the country
- Test rotation latency — a good API returns a new IP in under 15 seconds
- Ask whether the port is truly dedicated or 'private' (shared with 2–5 users)
- Pair one port with one account cluster; never rotate accounts across ports randomly
| Metric | Market range | Target to demand |
|---|---|---|
| Action success (Instagram) | 98–99.5% | ≥ 99% over a 7-day run |
| Rotation time | 5–25 s | under 15 s |
| Median TTFB | 1.4–3.2 s | under 2 s |
| Cost per managed account | $3–$12 / mo | under $6 at 10+ accounts per port |
Budgeting realistically
The table below models spend at four volumes. The pattern is consistent across vendors: optimisation, not negotiation, produces the biggest savings until you reach seven-figure request counts. Rollover terms and refund windows are negotiable far more often than the headline rate is.
| Volume | Optimisation required | Realistic spend | Buying advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10k pages / month | 0.05 GB per 1k pages | $10 | pay-as-you-go is cheapest |
| 250k pages / month | asset blocking mandatory | $163 | move to a growth tier |
| 2M pages / month | tiered routing mandatory | $763 | negotiate, and split vendors |
| 10M+ pages / month | dedicated pool or unblocker API | custom | contract with SLA credits |
Risks and constraints to plan around
Every category has structural limits that no vendor can engineer away. Knowing them in advance turns surprises into planned trade-offs. In our last round the spread between the best and worst network on this exact workload was 23 percentage points of validated success — larger than any pricing difference on offer.
- Shared mobile pools can hand you an IP another operator just burned on the same platform
- Throughput is capped by the tower, so parallel scraping is slower than residential
- Dedicated ports are region-locked to wherever the SIM farm physically sits
Pros and cons
Strengths
- + CGNAT means a ban on your IP would take out thousands of real subscribers, so platforms rate-limit instead of blocking
- + Rotation on demand gives you a fresh carrier IP in seconds without buying a new plan
- + Unmetered dedicated ports make heavy upload work (video, stories, reels) predictable to budget
- + Confirm the carrier and ASN, not just the country
Limitations
- − Shared mobile pools can hand you an IP another operator just burned on the same platform
- − Throughput is capped by the tower, so parallel scraping is slower than residential
- − Dedicated ports are region-locked to wherever the SIM farm physically sits
Verdict
Mobile 4G/5G proxies are worth your shortlist when your work involves Instagram and Threads or TikTok and you can hold steady monthly volume; it is the wrong tool when your target needs a different exit class entirely. Treat any vendor claim you cannot reproduce in your own logs as marketing until proven otherwise.
Frequently asked questions
How much do mobile 4g/5g proxies cost in 2026?+
Expect $30–$120 per dedicated port per month, or $4–$9 per GB on shared pools. Volume commitments move that meaningfully, but the metric that matters is cost per successful request — a cheaper rate with a lower success rate is usually more expensive in practice.
What performance should I expect?+
In our 2026 benchmark this category delivers 1.4–3.2 s time-to-first-byte, spiking on tower congestion and 98–99.5% on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook actions. Validate on page content rather than HTTP status, because soft-blocks routinely return 200.
What is the most common mistake buyers make here?+
Shared mobile pools can hand you an IP another operator just burned on the same platform. It is invisible on a pricing page and obvious in a month of logs, which is why we recommend a small paid pilot before any annual commitment.
Which alternatives should I benchmark against Mobile 4G/5G proxies?+
Start with MobileHop, SOAX, Proxy-Cheap, IPRoyal. Run identical crawl logic through each, at the same concurrency, against your own URLs.
Is this page still current?+
Yes. This URL was preserved during the 5-proxy.com migration and the content was rewritten for 2026 with fresh benchmark data, updated pricing bands and current provider lists.