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Mobile proxies reduce the risk of IP bans with IPs that mimic genuine mobile users.
Seamless IP rotation that ensures consistent performance and uninterrupted access to your target sites.
More authentic and credible, reducing detection and facilitating automation.
Benefit from 4G LTE/5G infrastructure with high speeds and low latency. Ideal for time-sensitive tasks.
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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.
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:
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.
Mobile proxies in general commonly use either HTTP or SOCKS protocols.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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Mobile Proxies Release Event & 2025 Roadmap Reveal
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