- Category
- Residential proxies
- Typical pricing
- $1.80–$5.50 per GB, dropping to $0.90–$1.60 per GB above 1 TB
- Measured latency
- 0.9–2.4 s time-to-first-byte on tier-1 targets
- Success rate
- 96–99% on Amazon, 94–98% on Google SERP
Residential proxies explained
This page was originally published as "Residential Proxies" and has been rebuilt from scratch for 2026. Residential proxies are real consumer IPs leased from opt-in SDK partners and peer networks, rotated per request or held sticky for up to 30 minutes. In 2026 the category prices at $1.80–$5.50 per GB, dropping to $0.90–$1.60 per GB above 1 TB, delivers 0.9–2.4 s time-to-first-byte on tier-1 targets and lands 96–99% on Amazon, 94–98% on Google SERP on the targets it was designed for: Amazon and marketplace catalogues, Google and Bing SERPs, social platforms, ad verification networks, travel and ticketing sites.
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. Keep a burn log. Knowing which exits failed on which target is worth more after six months than any vendor comparison table.
- Highest trust score per dollar for anything that inspects IP reputation
- City, state and ASN targeting that datacenter ranges simply cannot fake
- Sticky sessions long enough to complete a login, cart or checkout flow
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. Test from the same region your production workers run in; egress location alone can shift latency by several hundred milliseconds.
| Provider | Best for | Entry pricing | Benchmark score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | teams that need a real account manager | $1.80–$5.50 per GB | 8.3 / 10 |
| Oxylabs | hard targets and enterprise compliance | from 4.25 per unit | 9.3 / 10 |
| Smartproxy | balanced price and success rate | from 3.99 per unit | 8.4 / 10 |
| Decodo | geo-precise data collection | from 2.39 per unit | 8.6 / 10 |
| IPRoyal | high-volume crawling on a budget | from 3.84 per unit | 9.1 / 10 |
| SOAX | long-lived accounts and sticky sessions | from 2.21 per unit | 8.6 / 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. One detail buyers underrate: support response time correlates more strongly with successful long-term deployments than raw benchmark scores do.
- Ask for the pool refresh rate, not just the headline pool size
- Test sticky duration in practice — many gateways drop sessions before the advertised limit
- Block images, media and analytics beacons to cut GB spend by 40–70%
- Measure cost per successful request, never cost per GB in isolation
| Metric | Market range | Target to demand |
|---|---|---|
| Success rate (Amazon PDP) | 96–99% | ≥ 97% over 10k requests |
| Median TTFB | 0.9–2.4 s | under 1.5 s |
| Sticky session hold | 10–30 min | stable for the full advertised window |
| Effective cost / 1k pages | $0.35–$1.20 | under $0.60 with asset blocking |
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. Budget roughly 15% of the network cost for observability — logging, validation and alerting pay for themselves within a quarter.
| Volume | Optimisation required | Realistic spend | Buying advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10k pages / month | 0.09 GB per 1k pages | $8 | pay-as-you-go is cheapest |
| 250k pages / month | asset blocking mandatory | $129 | move to a growth tier |
| 2M pages / month | tiered routing mandatory | $1154 | 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. Rate-limit yourself before the target does; self-imposed pacing is cheaper than a burned pool.
- Bandwidth pricing punishes unoptimised scrapers that download images and fonts
- Pool overlap between resellers means two 'different' vendors can serve the same IPs
- Unlimited plans usually throttle concurrency instead of billing you for it
Pros and cons
Strengths
- + Highest trust score per dollar for anything that inspects IP reputation
- + City, state and ASN targeting that datacenter ranges simply cannot fake
- + Sticky sessions long enough to complete a login, cart or checkout flow
- + Ask for the pool refresh rate, not just the headline pool size
Limitations
- − Bandwidth pricing punishes unoptimised scrapers that download images and fonts
- − Pool overlap between resellers means two 'different' vendors can serve the same IPs
- − Unlimited plans usually throttle concurrency instead of billing you for it
Verdict
Residential proxies are worth your shortlist when your work involves Amazon and marketplace catalogues or Google and Bing SERPs and you can hold steady monthly volume; it is the wrong tool when your target needs a different exit class entirely. Run a paid pilot on your own URLs before you sign anything annual. Two hours of testing beats two months of guessing.
Frequently asked questions
How much do residential proxies cost in 2026?+
Expect $1.80–$5.50 per GB, dropping to $0.90–$1.60 per GB above 1 TB. 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 0.9–2.4 s time-to-first-byte on tier-1 targets and 96–99% on Amazon, 94–98% on Google SERP. Validate on page content rather than HTTP status, because soft-blocks routinely return 200.
What is the most common mistake buyers make here?+
Bandwidth pricing punishes unoptimised scrapers that download images and fonts. 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 Residential proxies?+
Start with Bright Data, Oxylabs, Smartproxy, Decodo. 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.
