Proxy pricing is difficult to compare because the displayed unit is rarely the whole purchase. One provider may charge per gigabyte, another per proxy each month, and a scraping API per successful request or credit. Minimum payments, traffic expiry, targeting multipliers, promotions, and unused allowances can change what the buyer actually pays.
This index compares the public pricing models and purchase conditions that matter in 2026. It does not claim that the lowest advertised unit price produces the lowest cost for every workload.
Quick Answer
Proxy prices can be charged per GB, per IP, per request, or through credits and monthly commitments. Residential and shared mobile pools commonly use bandwidth pricing, while dedicated proxies often use a per-IP monthly fee and managed scraping products use requests or credits. To compare providers accurately, check the minimum payment, traffic received, targeting fees, expiry, renewal price, and cost per valid result—not only the advertised unit rate.
Key Takeaways
- The unit price is not always the amount charged at checkout. A $1/GB rate attached to a 25GB package still requires a $25 payment.
- Introductory and promotional rates need their own labels. DataImpulse's $5 introductory purchase, Bright Data's displayed coupon, and other promotions should not be treated as guaranteed repeat-purchase prices.
- Unused traffic changes the effective cost. Non-expiring or rollover bandwidth can suit irregular workloads; expiring monthly allowance can still suit predictable consumption.
- Targeting can be included, restricted by plan, or billed differently. DataImpulse documents a 2× billing rate for advanced filters, while SOAX changes usage rates by country tier.
- Per-GB, per-IP, and per-request products solve different problems. Compare raw proxy access with similar raw access before comparing it with managed rendering or extraction.
- The most useful outcome metric is cost per valid result. Traffic price alone excludes failed responses, retries, browser compute, parsing, validation, and engineering.
- No pricing table proves network quality. Test the required locations and permitted targets with identical validation rules before committing meaningful spend.
Methodology and Disclosure
Proxidize publishes this research and is included in it. We reviewed first-party pricing pages, product pages, and relevant billing documentation on September 30, 2026. Public prices are shown in US dollars before tax unless stated otherwise.
The comparison follows four rules:
- Show the payment, not only the unit rate. Where possible, the tables show the smallest public purchase that covers a stated workload.
- Separate regular, promotional, and introductory prices. A coupon or one-time new-user offer is not treated as the renewal price.
- State what happens to unused value. Rollover, non-expiring traffic, monthly reset, and credit expiry are different commercial outcomes.
- Say when the public answer is incomplete. “Not confirmed in the public documentation reviewed” is more accurate than inferring a rule from silence.
We did not run one shared performance test across every provider. Pricing does not establish latency, location accuracy, session stability, usable-result rate, or access to a specific website. Provider-published pool sizes and performance claims are not used to declare a pricing winner.
What Does “Proxy Price” Mean?
A proxy price is the amount charged for access to a proxy network or related retrieval service. The billing unit tells you what consumes the balance, while the purchase structure tells you how much money must be committed.
| Billing model | What the buyer pays for | Common use | Main question to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per GB | Data transferred through the proxy | Rotating residential and shared mobile pools | Do uploads and downloads count, and does unused traffic expire? |
| Per proxy or IP | Access to an individual endpoint for a billing period | Dedicated mobile, ISP, or datacenter proxies | Is traffic unlimited, prioritized, or subject to fair-use terms? |
| Per request | Each request, successful response, or API operation | Scraping APIs and some unblockers | What counts as billable, and do retries or premium targets use a multiplier? |
| Credits | Credits consumed by traffic, requests, countries, or features | Mixed proxy and data platforms | What does one credit buy, when does it expire, and is there a plan fee? |
| Monthly commitment | A recurring allowance or account tier | Predictable recurring usage | Does allowance roll over, and what is the renewal or overage rate? |
Two offers advertised at $1/GB can still create different bills. One may allow a $1 purchase with non-expiring traffic; another may require a 1TB commitment; a third may multiply usage when city or ASN targeting is enabled.
2026 Proxy Pricing at a Glance
This table is a purchasing map, not a performance leaderboard. “Starting path” means the smallest or clearest public residential purchase found during the review; it is not always the provider's lowest price across every product.
| Provider | Public residential starting path reviewed | Other pricing model noted | Traffic or credit treatment reviewed | Best reason to inspect it further |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proxidize | $25/month for 25GB ($1/GB) | Mobile from $2/GB; dedicated mobile from $59/proxy/month | Residential paid bandwidth rolls over and does not expire | Simple raw-proxy pricing with included city/ISP targeting and customer-operated collection |
| Decodo | 3GB for $11.25/month + VAT; PAYG at $4/GB through Wallet | Managed scraping products use separate meters | Residential PAYG has a 12-month window after deactivation; monthly terms differ | Small monthly plan, detailed selectors, and raw plus managed products |
| DataImpulse | One-time $5 intro for 5GB; later purchases have a $50 minimum | Mobile starts at a $2/GB standard rate | Paid traffic remains until used; advanced targeting bills at 2× | Low first test and non-expiring traffic |
| IPRoyal | $7 subscription or $7.35 PAYG for 1GB | Dedicated products use per-proxy pricing | Purchased residential traffic remains until used | One-gigabyte purchase and long requested sticky sessions |
| Webshare | 1GB displayed at $3.50/month promotion; $7 list | Datacenter and static residential products use separate plans | Monthly residential bandwidth does not roll over | Small self-service monthly plans |
| Bright Data | Residential PAYG is $8/GB list; $4/GB coupon displayed | Monthly commitments, managed APIs, browser infrastructure, and datasets | Commitment bandwidth does not roll over | Broad raw and managed data platform |
| Oxylabs | $30/month for 5GB; larger residential plans reduce the unit rate | PAYG and managed retrieval are priced separately | Monthly residential bandwidth does not roll over | Enterprise proxy and managed retrieval procurement |
| SOAX | Sandbox has no subscription fee or included credits; Tier 1 traffic starts at $5/GB | Paid account tiers start at $200/month plus usage beyond included credits | Sandbox/monthly credits generally expire after 60 days | Location-tiered residential and mobile usage under one credit system |
| ProxyEmpire | 1GB is $7 list; $3.50 promotion displayed; $1.97 paid trial displayed | Mobile and datacenter products are separate | Rollover applies to eligible plans | Multiple rotation modes and eligible rollover |
| Evomi | Core Residential is $49/month for 100GB; PAYG starts at $0.99/GB from 15GB | Premium residential, mobile, datacenter, ISP, scraper, and browser products are separate | PAYG is advertised without expiry or commitment | Low published raw rates with several clearly separated network tiers |
| Proxy-Seller | Residential test option is $3.50/GB for 30 days | Volume pricing and other proxy types use separate terms | Validity depends on the selected package | Short test option and volume-based residential pricing |
| Massive | Residential Starter is $80/month for 10GB | Larger monthly packages reduce the unit rate | Unused residential bandwidth rolls over | Monthly packages with rollover |
| Infatica | Residential PAYG is $4/GB; 25GB is $96/month | Mobile and other products are priced separately | Plan-specific terms require checking | Straightforward public PAYG and package ladder |
| Rayobyte | Public residential pages showed conflicting entry rates during review | Datacenter and ISP products use different billing | Purchased PAYG residential traffic is described as non-expiring | Buyers willing to confirm the current dashboard or checkout rate before comparison |
For provider-specific terms and calculations, use the dedicated breakdowns for Bright Data pricing, Oxylabs pricing, Decodo pricing, SOAX pricing, DataImpulse pricing, IPRoyal pricing, and Webshare pricing.
What Residential Proxy Traffic Actually Costs
The table below calculates the minimum public purchase identified for four requirements. It compares payment and included traffic—not network performance. “1,000GB” is used instead of “1TB” to avoid ambiguity between decimal GB and binary GiB.
| Provider and price basis | Need 5GB | Need 25GB | Need 100GB | Need 1,000GB | Important condition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proxidize monthly packages | Pay $25; receive 25GB; 20GB remains | Pay $25; receive 25GB | Pay $100; receive 100GB | Pay $1,000; receive 1,000GB | Unused paid residential bandwidth rolls over; KYC is required |
| Bright Data PAYG coupon displayed | Pay $20 for 5GB | Pay $100 for 25GB | Pay $400 for 100GB | Pay $4,000 for 1,000GB | Calculation uses the displayed $4/GB coupon; the reviewed list rate is $8/GB, and commitments are separate |
| Oxylabs public residential options | Pay $30; receive 5GB | Pay $200 through the documented $8/GB PAYG path | Pay $500; receive 125GB; 25GB remains | Pay $2,500; receive 1,000GB | Monthly package allowance does not roll over; confirm whether PAYG or a package is active |
| Decodo public residential options | Pay $20 through $4/GB PAYG | Pay $81.25; receive 25GB | Pay $275; receive 100GB | Pay $2,000; receive 1,000GB | VAT may apply; PAYG uses Wallet, whose funding minimum was not established in the public documentation reviewed |
| DataImpulse repeat-purchase basis | Pay $50; receive 50GB; 45GB remains | Pay $50; receive 50GB; 25GB remains | Pay $100; receive 100GB | Pay $800; receive 1,000GB | A new user may buy 5GB once for $5; later minimum purchase is $50; country-only rate shown |
| IPRoyal public pricing | Exact 5GB checkout not confirmed | Exact 25GB checkout not confirmed | Exact 100GB checkout not confirmed | Exact 1,000GB checkout not confirmed | Public page shows selected examples, including 1GB and 10GB; verify dashboard volume pricing before calculating other amounts |
The full residential proxy pricing comparison includes source-by-source notes, renewal distinctions, unused-balance treatment, and recommendations for occasional, monthly, and high-volume usage.
Why the minimum purchase matters
Suppose a provider advertises $1/GB but sells only a 25GB monthly package. A buyer needing 5GB still pays $25. If the other 20GB expires, the effective cost for the consumed traffic is $5/GB. If the balance rolls over and is later used, the final effective rate can remain $1/GB.
That formula is useful only when the unused balance has no future value. If traffic rolls over, record it as remaining prepaid value rather than immediately treating it as waste.
Mobile Proxy Pricing per GB
Shared mobile pools are commonly billed by traffic, but the same volume can cost differently once location tiers or targeting multipliers apply.
| Provider and scenario | 25GB of actual traffic | 50GB of actual traffic | 100GB of actual traffic | Important condition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proxidize Mobile Per GB | $50/month | $100/month | $200/month | Uses the public $2/GB rate; city and carrier targeting are included; mobile allowance follows the plan period |
| DataImpulse, country-only | $50 | $100 | $200 | Uses the standard $2/GB rate; paid traffic does not expire |
| DataImpulse, advanced targeting | $100 | $200 | $400 | Calculation applies the documented 2× billable-traffic rule to supported advanced filters |
| Decodo displayed mobile packages | $81.30 | $150 | $275 | Public promotional/package terms must be rechecked at purchase and renewal |
| SOAX, US traffic model | $125 on Sandbox | $200 Builder account payment | $300 Builder total in the public calculator | Tier 1 Sandbox rate is $5/GB; Builder has a $200 plan fee and included credits |
| IPRoyal public packages | Exact 25GB price not confirmed | $280 | $520 | Only publicly displayed package amounts are shown; verify current checkout for other volumes |
| Oxylabs public package | Exact 25GB price not confirmed | Exact 50GB price not confirmed | $500 | The reviewed public package contains 100GB; do not divide it into a fictitious smaller purchase |
These are purchase calculations, not a claim that equal traffic produces equal results. See Affordable Mobile Proxies in 2026 for provider fit, minimum purchases, targeting, expiry, and evidence limitations.
Per GB vs Per IP vs Per Request
The correct billing model depends on what needs to stay stable and which part of the workflow the buyer wants the vendor to operate.
| Model | Usually fits | Cost advantage | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per GB | Rotating residential/mobile access and variable jobs | Pay tracks transferred data rather than endpoint count | Asset-heavy pages, retries, uploads, and targeting multipliers can consume the balance quickly |
| Per IP | Stable dedicated identities and predictable endpoint counts | Easy to budget when the same proxies are used heavily | Paying for idle proxies; fair-use or traffic-priority terms may still apply |
| Per request or credit | Managed fetching, rendering, unlocking, or extraction | Vendor can replace significant retrieval engineering | Multipliers and definitions of a billable or successful request vary |
For example, Proxidize's public dedicated Mobile Per Proxy plan starts at $59 per proxy per month. Its public copy includes 50GB of prioritized mobile data per proxy, after which traffic may be deprioritized under fair-use terms while the connection remains active. That is a different purchase from Mobile Per GB at $2/GB: one buys a dedicated SIM-based exit, while the other buys traffic through a shared mobile pool.
The pay-per-GB versus pay-per-proxy guide explains how to choose between these models. If the vendor handles rendering, retries, browser behavior, or extraction, compare it separately using the raw proxies versus scraping APIs guide.
Introductory Prices, Promotions, and Renewal Terms
Pricing pages often contain several valid numbers that apply under different conditions:
- Introductory purchase: available once to a new account, such as DataImpulse's $5 package.
- Promotional price: displayed for a limited time or with a coupon, such as Bright Data's reviewed $4/GB offer against an $8/GB list rate.
- Volume price: unlocked only by buying the qualifying package, not merely by expecting to use that much eventually.
- Renewal price: the amount charged when a monthly plan continues.
- Overage price: the rate applied after an included allowance is consumed.
- Enterprise quote: negotiated rather than publicly purchasable at the displayed amount.
Record each value separately. “From $0.80/GB” is not a truthful 25GB budget when the rate requires a 1,000GB package.
How Targeting Changes Proxy Cost
Location and network targeting can affect price in three ways:
- Included control: the provider includes country, city, ISP, ASN, or carrier selection in the plan price.
- Plan restriction: a selector becomes available only on a higher account tier.
- Usage multiplier or country tier: the same transferred bytes deduct more balance, or the per-GB rate changes with the requested location.
DataImpulse documents a 2× billing rate for advanced supported-US-state, city, ZIP, and ASN filters. If 20GB is transferred through one of those filters, 40GB is deducted from the balance. The actual network transfer remains 20GB; the billing rule creates 40GB of billable usage.
SOAX uses country tiers. US traffic appears in Tier 1 in the reviewed calculator, so its rate differs from countries in lower-priced tiers. Proxidize includes country, city, and ISP selection in residential plans and city/carrier selection in Mobile Per GB plans. Availability within a selected location can still vary; included targeting is not a guarantee that every city, ISP, or carrier has an exit at every moment.
What Happens to Unused Bandwidth?
Unused traffic can have one of several outcomes:
| Treatment | What it means for the buyer | Providers with a reviewed example |
|---|---|---|
| Non-expiring paid balance | The traffic remains available until consumed, subject to account/product terms | DataImpulse and IPRoyal residential PAYG |
| Rollover | Unused allowance carries forward under stated conditions | Proxidize residential; eligible ProxyEmpire plans; Massive residential |
| Fixed validity window | The buyer must use the balance before a documented date | Decodo PAYG after deactivation; SOAX credits on standard plans |
| Monthly reset | Unused monthly allowance is lost at the next cycle | Webshare, Bright Data commitments, and Oxylabs monthly residential plans reviewed |
Cancellation, downgrade, deactivation, or switching products can change these rules. Check the exact plan documentation rather than assuming one rule applies to every product sold by the provider.
How to Calculate the Real Proxy Cost
Start with the billable unit, then include the rest of the collection system.
An “accepted result” should meet the workload's content and location checks. A status code of 200 is not enough if the response is a consent page, empty shell, wrong country, login screen, or incomplete render.
Example
A collector pays $100 for traffic and $50 for browser compute. It schedules 10,000 jobs, receives 9,000 HTTP responses, and validates 8,000 records.
If another route costs $80 but produces only 6,000 accepted records with the same $50 compute cost, its result is $21.67 per 1,000 accepted records. The lower proxy bill did not produce the lower usable-data cost.
Which Pricing Model Fits Your Workload?
| Buyer situation | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Small one-time residential test | A verified one-time or one-gigabyte purchase | Keeps the first payment low; do not confuse an intro offer with repeat pricing |
| Irregular collection over several months | Non-expiring traffic or documented rollover | Reduces the risk of losing unused prepaid value |
| Predictable monthly bandwidth | A monthly package sized near normal usage | A commitment discount can be useful when consumption is stable |
| Large recurring residential workload | Published high-volume package plus a negotiated quote | Compare commitment, overage, location coverage, support, and accepted-result cost |
| Stable dedicated identity | Per-proxy or per-IP plan | Pays for endpoint continuity rather than rotating pool bandwidth |
| Team owns the scraper and parser | Raw proxy endpoint | Keeps browser, retry, extraction, and validation decisions inside the team |
| Team wants to outsource retrieval | Scraping API or managed browser product | May reduce engineering work, but request/credit meters need separate modeling |
| City, ISP, ASN, or carrier is mandatory | A plan with documented selector access | Confirm whether the selector is included, tier-gated, or multiplied |
Provider Pricing Notes
Proxidize
Proxidize's public residential ladder starts at $25 per month for 25GB and includes country, city, and ISP targeting. Paid residential bandwidth rolls over and does not expire, including after cancellation under the published terms. Mobile Per GB starts at $2/GB, while dedicated Mobile Per Proxy starts at $59 per proxy per month. Proxidize supplies raw proxy infrastructure; the customer operates retrieval, rendering, extraction, and validation. Review residential pricing and mobile pricing for current plans. KYC is required.
Decodo
Decodo offers Wallet-based residential PAYG at $4/GB plus VAT and monthly plans from 3GB. It also sells separate scraping and unlocking products. That makes it relevant to buyers comparing both raw access and managed retrieval, but the meters should not be combined as though a request and a gigabyte are interchangeable. Read the Decodo pricing breakdown or compare Decodo alternatives.
DataImpulse
DataImpulse's one-time $5 residential intro, $50 subsequent minimum, non-expiring traffic, and 2× advanced-targeting rule can produce very different totals for two buyers transferring the same number of bytes. Country-only and advanced-targeted scenarios should be modeled separately. The DataImpulse pricing guide contains worked mobile examples.
Bright Data and Oxylabs
Both vendors sell raw networks and separate managed collection products. Their raw residential rates should be compared with other raw rates; their APIs should be compared by request, credit, rendering options, retry behavior, and accepted output. Bright Data's reviewed PAYG list and coupon rates differ materially. Oxylabs has a visible monthly package ladder and a separately documented PAYG path.
SOAX
SOAX combines account tiers, credits, country-based network rates, and expiry rules. A zero-fee Sandbox account does not mean free traffic because credits still need to be purchased. The SOAX pricing breakdown shows US examples at 25GB, 100GB, and 500GB.
IPRoyal, Webshare, and ProxyEmpire
IPRoyal is notable for a one-gigabyte purchase and traffic that remains until used. Webshare sells small monthly plans but does not roll unused monthly bandwidth forward. ProxyEmpire advertises rollover on eligible plans and several rotation modes. Compare checkout amount, renewal, and traffic treatment rather than relying on the smallest displayed promotional number.
Evomi, Proxy-Seller, Massive, Infatica, and Rayobyte
These providers broaden the public pricing range but require the same discipline. Evomi separates Core, premium, mobile, datacenter, ISP, scraper, and browser pricing. Proxy-Seller ties rates and validity to package size. Massive combines monthly packages with rollover. Infatica publishes PAYG and monthly residential options. Rayobyte's reviewed public pages showed inconsistent residential entry rates, so buyers should confirm the current dashboard or checkout amount before using it in a budget.
What the Pricing Index Cannot Tell You
The index cannot establish which network will work best for a target. It does not measure:
- valid-result rate;
- target-specific block or challenge rate;
- median or p95 completion time;
- city, ISP, ASN, or carrier accuracy;
- sticky-session survival;
- support response quality;
- billed bytes versus dashboard deductions;
- procurement, tax, or negotiated enterprise terms.
Run a controlled test with the same permitted URLs, locations, headers, browser behavior, concurrency, timeout, retry budget, and validation rules. Record failures as well as successes. The proxy data-usage troubleshooting guide explains how assets, background requests, retries, workers, and billing multipliers can consume more balance than expected.
Final Takeaway
A useful proxy-pricing comparison answers six questions: what is billed, what must be paid now, what traffic or service is received, what happens to unused value, which targeting changes the price, and what renewal costs. Once those are clear, test the shortlisted products on the real permitted workload and calculate cost per valid result.
For a raw residential option, view Proxidize Residential Proxy pricing. For mobile network access, compare Mobile Per GB and Mobile Per Proxy pricing. Proxidize is built for lawful business use; customers remain responsible for complying with applicable laws and third-party terms.