Mobile proxies, also known as 4G proxies, are a popular choice among people who are active in web scraping and online automation spaces. As opposed to residential proxies, which source their IPs from those assigned to private homes by ISPs, and datacenter proxies, which source their IPs from cloud hosting platforms, mobile proxies source their IPs from those assigned by mobile carriers. This makes it appear as though the user is using a mobile device like a mobile phone, tablet, or dongle.
This comprehensive guide will explore what 4G/LTE/5G mobile proxies are, how they work, what differentiates them from other types of proxies, and what unique benefits they offer. Whether you are a casual scraper, a social media advertiser, or a business owner, understanding what sets mobile proxies apart can help you make informed decisions in your online automation.
What Are Mobile Proxies?
As we covered in a previous article, a proxy server is an intermediary server or middleman between your device and the internet. Rather than sending a network request directly to the web, the proxy sends that request on your behalf. This way you borrow the proxy’s location and IP.
A mobile proxy, as we said in the introduction, is a proxy that sources its IP from a mobile carrier to its users. This means that your internet connection is routed through a cellular network, giving you access to IP addresses that are associated with mobile devices like mobile phones, tablets, and dongles.
This brings with it a number of features unique to mobile proxies that are not shared by their residential and data center counterparts.
How Does a Mobile Proxy Work?
To be able to effectively explain how mobile proxies work, it’s important to take a moment to explain how mobile network infrastructure works. In this way, we can better understand how mobile proxies effectively leverage the inherent characteristics of mobile infrastructure.
Mobile Network Infrastructure
Mobile network IPs are much more dynamic than other types of IP, due largely to the fact that mobile devices move between cell towers so often. The network is arguably defined by its need to seamlessly assign and reassign IP addresses to devices in a resource-efficient way.
Residential IPs, by comparison, can be both static and dynamic. Even when they are dynamic they usually rotate IPs much less frequently — over the course of weeks, for example. Data center IPs are generally static.
As a consequence of this dynamic IP allocation — and the relatively high number of mobile devices on the network at any given time — mobile carriers need to make the most use of the finite, albeit large, pool of IP addresses they have assigned to them. Enter CGNAT, or carrier-grade network address translation.
With CGNAT, carriers are able to bundle multiple mobile devices onto a single public-facing IP address. Each device has a private IP for internal use within the network and is assigned a public IP that is shared among several devices when interacting with the internet. The experience for the user remains the same. By organizing the network this way, the carrier is able to maximize their use of IP addresses they have available to them (and combat IPv4 address exhaustion). If you want to know more about this topic, check out our article on public and private IP addresses.
Leveraging These Characteristics
Using a proxy server that routes its traffic through a mobile device gives it the characteristics unique to mobile IPs. By using a mobile network, a proxy is able to co-opt these factors, which makes them appear more authentic than their residential and data center counterparts.
This makes mobile proxies unique in several ways:
- Dynamic IP Addresses
Mobile IPs are more likely to change, which makes IP rotation by a mobile proxy inherently less suspicious; a website cannot be sure the IP change is due to a device changing from one cell tower to the next. This makes a mobile IP much less likely to be banned.
- CGNAT
The shared public IPs of mobile devices make a website much less likely to ban or rate-limit a user based solely on their IP, as they may inadvertently affect real users in the process. This also affords the proxy user an enhanced level of anonymity, as several other devices are using the same IP address.
- Large IP Pool
Mobile carriers’ large IP pool is designed to handle frequent IP changes, which makes mobile proxies more reliable when rotating between IPs. Additionally, the frequent IP rotations mimic the behavior of legitimate users. This contributes to the proxy’s authenticity.
- Perceived Authenticity
Unlike data center IPs, for example, mobile IPs are generally perceived to be more authentic and less likely to be used in automation, especially when using social media or browsing the internet. This makes a mobile proxy less likely to be flagged as suspicious.
Common Mobile Proxy Protocols
Mobile proxies in general commonly use either HTTP or SOCKS protocols.
HTTP is the most common protocol, designed to handle any kind of web traffic, like web pages and resources. It works via TCP/IP in a request-response model, where a request is forwarded to a server, and the server sends a response back. The receiver and recipient are only connected for the duration of the request or response, disconnecting in between (stateless connection). By using an HTTP mobile proxy, you introduce that proxy server as an intermediary between your device and the end destination. Your request is forwarded to the proxy who sends it to the server on your behalf, receives the response on your behalf, and then sends it back.
An HTTPS mobile proxy does all the things an HTTP proxy does with the added benefit that it can encrypt the data between your device and the proxy. This has broad implications that we’ve covered in an article about HTTP proxies.
By comparison, SOCKS is specifically a proxy protocol that can handle any type of network traffic, including HTTP but also FTP, and SMTP as well. SOCKS proxies only relay the data between your device and the destination without modifying the content. They also maintain the connection between your device and the server for the length of the session. Importantly, SOCKS5 mobile proxies handle both TCP and UDP, the latter of which is faster. Finally, SOCKS proxies support ways of securing your proxy via authentication, which lets you control access to them.
In summary, the key difference between an HTTP proxy and a SOCKS proxy is:
- HTTP can handle only web-related traffic while SOCKS can handle any TCP/UDP traffic.
- HTTP is a protocol at the application layer, while SOCKS is a protocol at the transport/session layer.
- HTTP only deals with HTTP requests and responses while SOCKS handles different kinds of traffic.
- HTTP is stateless, handling each request separately, while SOCKS is stateful, maintaining a connection with the server for the whole session.
Types of Mobile Proxies
Mobile proxies come in a variety of types which can be divided into the types of mobile network that they use and which protocols they use. The familiar terms 3G, 4G/LTE, and 5G are different generations of mobile network technology. Each subsequent generation offered improvements in speed, latency, and capacity.
A mobile proxy will naturally be limited to and defined by the specific generation of network technology it’s using. This will have a knock-on effect on what the proxy can be used for.
The same is true of the protocol a mobile proxy uses, i.e. an HTTP mobile proxy will not be able to encrypt the data to and from the client.
Mobile Proxies by Network Technology
3G Proxy
Third generation mobile network technology, or 3G was introduced in the early 2000s, offering speeds we scoff at today — between 200kbps and 3Mbps. That being said, 3G still made basic mobile internet browsing and video calling possible in a way it hadn’t been before.
3G mobile proxies, therefore, are slower than their counterparts, but are more cost effective. 3G technology is also fairly ubiquitous across the world. Best suited for web browsing, sending emails, and accessing social media sites, 3G mobile proxies may struggle with volume. Due to its relatively high latency, 3G proxies will likely struggle with streaming anything but standard definition (with buffering).
4G Proxy
Fourth generation mobile network technology followed 3G in the late 2000s, offering more than double the speeds of its predecessor. Mobile users were suddenly able to browse the internet from their phones at speeds between 10Mbps to 100Mbps. This introduced the ability to stream in HD, video call, and game online. According to a Statista study on the market share of mobile technologies by generation, 4G accounted for 60% of all mobile internet traffic in 2022.
As a result of this higher speed and lower latency, 4G mobile proxies or LTE mobile proxies are significantly more robust in terms of the tasks they can handle. Additionally, 4G networks are common and reliable in most cities internationally.
5G Proxy
Fifth generation was introduced in the early 2010s and represented yet another leap forward. With an exponential increase in speeds — now between 1Gbps and 100 Gbps — mobile internet infrastructure was finally able to keep up with anything the internet has to offer.
5G mobile proxies are the highest performing of their type, able to handle even the most intensive usage. 5G proxies’ exceptionally high speeds and low latency makes them very reliable and facilitates anything from 4K streaming to real-time applications.
One caveat of 5G mobile proxies is that 5G isn’t widespread yet, only accounting for 12% of the market share in 2022, according to the same study. This is projected to grow to 54% by 2030.
Mobile Proxies by Protocol
HTTP Proxy
HTTP mobile proxies, given that they are specifically designed to handle HTTP, are well suited to handle web traffic and web scraping. They should be considered the default choice; they’re straightforward and simple.
HTTPS Proxy
HTTPS mobile proxies are able to do everything an HTTP proxy does with the added benefit of being able to encrypt traffic between your device and the proxy.
SOCKS Proxy
SOCKS mobile proxies are able to handle any type of traffic, whether TCP or UDP, between your device and the server. In general, a SOCKS proxy shouldn’t be the solution you reach for first but is best saved for situations that need it, e.g. an app that doesn’t use HTTP. Some of its applications include online games, VoIP, and large file transfers, and peer-to-peer networking to name a few.
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Proxies?
All proxy servers come with their own distinct advantages and disadvantages inherent to the source of their IPs. Let’s contrast mobile proxies with residential and datacenter proxies and see what makes them stand out.
Mobile Proxy Advantages
- Realistic User Behavior: The perceived authenticity of mobile IPs lends proxies that source them a level of credibility that surpasses their residential and data center counterparts.
- Reduced IP Blocks: The dynamic nature of mobile IPs — together with CGNAT resulting in many mobile users having the same public IP — significantly lowers the chances of a mobile proxy server being blocked by a website.
- High Speeds and Low Latency: With access to 4G and/or 5G networks, your mobile proxy will have the benefit of the high speeds and low latency afforded by both infrastructures. This both increases the volume of data that can be transmitted and expands the range of applications of your proxy.
- Manual or Automatic IP Rotation: Mobile infrastructure is designed to handle frequent IP changes, which makes mobile proxies an ideal candidate for both manual and automatic IP rotations.
- Mobile-Only Content: Mobile proxies can give you access to mobile-only applications. When used together with other technologies, like antidetect browsers or emulators, they can be used for automation like web scraping.
Mobile Proxy Disadvantages
- Cost: A mobile proxy server can cost more than a residential or data center proxy, because you have to buy a SIM card and pay for its data usage. The cost of mobile data can vary wildly from country to country, however, as demonstrated by this graph compiled by Cable.co.uk. The exact definition of “unlimited” data can also vary significantly between countries.
- Signal Strength: How well your proxy performs is directly linked to signal strength. Having it in a place with poor coverage will throttle your bandwidth.
- Network Variability: The generation of mobile network used will naturally be the primary variable in the quality of your proxy. Determining whether 4G or 5G is available in your area is important.
The advantages of mobile proxies speak for themselves and the decision ultimately comes down to how well you can mitigate any disadvantages. If your mobile carrier can’t offer you the mobile data you require, if you don’t have access to a high-signal place to proxy, or your area only has access to 3G infrastructure, a mobile proxy will be a non-starter.
Mobile Proxy Use Cases
Proxies have a wide variety of applications. These include providing anonymity, bypassing geo-restrictions, web scraping, load balancing, ad verification, SEO analysis, price aggregation, content filtering, and social media management.
Mobile proxies can be used for all of these but shine when used in ways that make the most of their unique characteristics, i.e. authenticity, high reliability, and low detectability. Here are some of the most notable use cases for mobile proxies:
1. Web Scraping
Web scraping is arguably the most common way to use proxies. Web scraping is the catch-all term for extracting data from websites through automation. It involves sending requests to a website to collect any piece of information you consider valuable to collect. By using a proxy, you can spread your many requests over several IPs to avoid being flagged as a bot. Many of the other use cases on this list may involve web scraping to some degree.
2. Social Media Management
Social media management can mean many things. In the context of proxies, it is generally related to (bulk) account creation, bypassing the limit on how many social media accounts one person can manage, and social media automation.
Most often used together with an anti-detect browser, a mobile proxy can help you maintain separate digital fingerprints for each account.
3. SEO Monitoring
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an industry in and of itself; one that matters to every business with an online presence. It’s the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a website by making it appear high in the list of results on a search engine.
Every search engine’s algorithm is a closely guarded secret, with countless variables determining which websites are shown. Google, for example, has more than 200 data points that factor into which results are presented, including geographic location and type of device.
Mobile proxies allow you to browse the internet as if you were a mobile user, which gives you ways to monitor your SEO through the eyes of a mobile user. Given that 58% of online searches worldwide were from mobile devices in 2021, according to Forbes, monitoring your SEO is becoming increasingly important. Ensuring your money is well spent is too, as an estimated $218 billion will be spent on SEO in 2030.
4. Ad Verification and Fraud Prevention
Alongside SEO, digital advertising is the lifeblood of almost every company with an online presence. With record amounts of money being poured into online marketing, tracking ad campaigns is increasingly automated. Unfortunately, where there is money to be made, there is fraud, which is also becoming increasingly automated.
Both ad verification and fraud prevention, within the context of automation online, will inevitably require proxies to spread the load of requests. Crawling one’s own campaigns, testing websites hosting ad space, and more all requires reliable, high-quality proxies.
5. Price Monitoring
For most businesses, monitoring the prices of competing products is important. Being able to automate that process, ensure the process can happen without interruption, and accumulating a large amount of data are fundamental to price monitoring. Using proxies enhances your ability to achieve all three. Having proxies from a variety of locations also lets you monitor competitors’ pricing strategies across geographic locations, too.
6. Automation
Automation, which can include most of the points on this list, generally generates a large number of automated requests. From web scraping and data extraction to content monitoring and automated testing, proxies enable a high volume of requests to be distributed across many mobile IP addresses.
7. Ticketing & Sneaker Botting
As more and more finite products — which is to say things like tickets to a concert or a limited edition pair of shoes — are sold online to an ever-growing number of consumers, the drive to automate the process continues to grow.
This increase in demand has sparked entire ticketing and sneaker bot industries, dedicated to automating the process while circumventing the increasingly strict limitations websites put on buying tickets or shoes online.
By appearing authentic, bots that use mobile proxies can lower their chances of being blocked by the target website.
8. Brand Protection
By using mobile proxy servers, businesses can monitor and protect their brand by regularly checking on websites and social media platforms. Any unauthorized use of their brand name, logo, or copyrighted content can be flagged with this proactive approach, which helps to prevent brand dilution and maintains a strong brand image. Especially the automation of this process is where proxies carry their weight, helping to distribute the large number of requests across several IPs.
Mobile Proxy vs. Residential Proxy
A residential proxy sources its IP from an ISP, which provides IP addresses to homes. A mobile proxy sources its IP from a mobile carrier.
Both residential and mobile proxies are perceived to have a high degree of authenticity, but where mobile IPs are more dynamic, residential IPs are static or, if they’re dynamic, less prone to changing than mobile IPs. Where mobile proxies use 3G, 4G/LTE, or 5G, residential proxies use DSL or fiber.
Residential proxies have a much larger IP pool available to them, as there are millions of households that ISPs have to provision with IPs, compared to the highly dynamic nature of mobile IPs together with CGNAT.
How to Get a Mobile Proxy
Setting up your own mobile proxy is surprisingly easy, even for those who aren’t technically talented. There are three straightforward ways: leasing a proxy from a provider, building your own proxy, or creating one from an Android phone. Let’s break down each option.
1. Proxy Provider
The easiest way to get your hands on a mobile proxy is to lease one from a proxy provider. There are many to choose from, each with its own pricing structure. Most offer a pay-as-you-go model that starts at $8 per GB. You can also lease them in bulk, which drops your cost per GB to around $2 — still quite expensive. Alternatively some sellers let you lease a proxy for a set amount of time for a monthly fee, with unlimited data.
By definition, many of the IPs on offer by a seller will have been used by others in the past. This means that some percentage of the IPs will have been flagged by a variety of websites. Depending on what you’re using your proxies for, this may impact you to some degree.
Finally, leasing a proxy from a third party can come with privacy concerns. This can come in a number of forms. Firstly, a proxy seller can monitor and log your activity on their proxies, potentially selling that data on. Secondly, the way a provider assembles their network is often unknown. There has been some evidence to suggest that certain sellers have exploited malware or other software to grow their residential proxy network, without the knowledge or consent of the people whose computers they’re using.
2. Build Your Own
The second way to acquire a mobile proxy network is to build one yourself. This involves acquiring the server, modems, and SIM cards necessary to make mobile proxies, over which you have full control. Assembling your own proxy does have higher initial costs than leasing one, but is significantly more cost-effective over a longer period of time. For example, one can reduce the cost of running a proxy down to as much as $0.8 per GB with none of the monthly commitment a seller would ask for.
There are a variety of ways to build your own proxy network. You can use an old computer or Raspberry Pi, and you can find a step-by-step guide to making your own mobile proxy online. The code is straightforward, and even a non-technical person can get one started fairly easily.
Another option is to purchase the hardware from a company, where the whole kit arrives at your door and can be assembled in under 30 minutes. Software to manage your new proxies also exists. Some even offer freemium versions that let you conveniently rotate your proxies’ IPs.
The advantage of in-house proxy infrastructure is a guarantee of quality and privacy. You are the only one who uses them, you have direct access to them if something goes wrong, and you can maximize network strength and connection speeds.
3. Android Mobile Proxy Network
The third way to create a mobile proxy is by using mobile devices. This involves setting up the phone to forward traffic for other devices. Doing so can be straightforward with the use of a proxy maker app like Proxidize Android.
The phone will become a dedicated mobile proxy and you won’t be able to use it for its original purpose.
Are Mobile Proxies Legal?
Yes, mobile proxies are legal in most countries. However, just as with any digital tool, committing a crime while using them is illegal.
If a proxy server is used for illegal activities such as hacking, fraud, or any form of malicious activity, then it becomes illegal. In many jurisdictions, attempting to hide your identity when committing such crimes is an aggravating circumstance. Some activities, such as violating or circumventing copyright laws can also have legal implications.
Conclusion
In this article we’ve introduced you to mobile proxies, what they are, how they work, and what makes them different from other proxies.
In brief, what makes mobile proxies unique:
- Dynamic IP addresses
- Leverages CGNAT
- Large IP pool
- Perceived authenticity
- Higher level of anonymity
- More reliable rotation
- Realistic user behavior
- High speed and low latency
- Mobile-only content
We’ve discussed the infrastructural reasons for this difference from their counterparts and what implications this has on proxy applications. This guide also went over the protocols a mobile proxy can use and how to get proxies or build them yourself. We have more articles, including an introduction to web scraping and a general breakdown of the many use cases for mobile proxies if you’re interested in learning more.
