You set a budget, buy the residential plan that fits it and start scraping. A week later, the target starts blocking requests, and you realize the job needs mobile IPs your plan doesn't include. Or the project shrinks, and half your gigabytes expire before you use them.
Both problems come from the same mistake: committing money before you know what the job really needs. Residential proxies vary widely in how they bill, what networks they cover and how cheaply you can test them, so the cheapest plan on paper can turn into the most expensive one in practice.
This guide helps you avoid that. You'll find a comparison table, the features worth checking first, who each type of provider suits, five picks matched to different budgets and scraping needs, and tips for stretching whatever you spend.
Provider |
Best for |
Entry residential price |
How you can test it |
ProxyEmpire |
Low-risk trial of residential and mobile |
$3.50/GB |
$1.97 trial, 100 MB residential and 50 MB mobile |
Webshare |
Starting with a tiny budget |
From $3.50 (1 GB) |
Free plan of 10 datacenter proxies |
Proxy-Seller |
Volume buyers with steady demand |
$3.50/GB test; from $1.45/GB |
"Test it out" option at $3.50/GB |
Oxylabs |
Teams that want scraping APIs too |
$6/GB first tier |
$5 welcome credit |
Bright Data |
Large budgets and compliance needs |
$4/GB with code RESIGB50 |
Free trial, no credit card |
Network coverage. If your targets block residential traffic, you'll want mobile IPs ready. Check whether the provider sells both, and whether you can test both.
Expiry rules. Some providers keep unused traffic forever; others give you 30 days. If your scraping comes in bursts, expiry decides how much of your budget you actually use.
Entry cost. Look at the smallest real purchase, not the lowest advertised rate. Many low per-GB prices only apply at hundreds of gigabytes.
Targeting. City and ZIP filters matter for local scraping. Find out whether they're included or extra.
Refund terms. If refunds are limited, a trial becomes your only safety net, so make sure one exists.
Freelancers and small teams with tight budgets benefit most from low-cost trials and plans that don't expire, because their work arrives unevenly.
Growing scraping operations need volume pricing and steady session control, and they often reach a point where some targets need mobile traffic.
Data teams already using scraping APIs may prefer a provider that bundles proxies with those tools.
Enterprises with procurement and compliance reviews should look for published certifications and formal billing options, even if entry prices are higher. For them, the cost of a failed vendor review usually outweighs a few dollars per gigabyte.
Best for: budget-conscious scrapers who want to test residential and mobile before spending real money.
Some targets accept mobile IPs where they block residential ones, but few budget plans let you try mobile cheaply. ProxyEmpire's $1.97 trial gives you 50 MB of rotating mobile traffic alongside 100 MB of rotating residential, so you can see which network your targets accept before you buy. The trial doesn't roll into a subscription.
When you're ready, you can pay $3.50 per GB for residential or $4.50 per GB for mobile without a contract, or pick a monthly residential tier from 7 GB for $20. Unused GB never expire, so a slow month doesn't waste your budget, and targeting down to city, ZIP and carrier is included.
You also get unlimited concurrent sessions for approved use cases, SOCKS5 support and integration guides for antidetect browsers like Multilogin and GoLogin, which helps if your scraping runs through browser profiles.
Keep in mind that every sale is final. That's exactly why the trial is worth running first.
Verdict: The smartest first purchase on this list if you're not yet sure which network your scraping needs.
Best for: absolute beginners working with a very small budget.
You can start on Webshare's permanent free plan of 10 datacenter proxies to learn how proxies work, then add residential traffic from $3.50 for 1 GB. Rates fall as low as $1.40 per GB once you reach 250 GB.
You choose your exact bandwidth and locations, and targeting covers country, state, city, ZIP and ASN. There's no mobile option, though, so you'll need another provider if your targets demand it.
If you'd like fixed home addresses instead of rotating ones, Webshare also sells static residential IPs from providers such as Comcast and AT&T, starting at $6.00 a month for 20 IPs. Support runs 24/7, and refunds are possible within 2 days of payment if conditions are met.
Verdict: A gentle on-ramp for learning, with room to grow on residential.
Best for: steady scraping operations buying in volume.
Proxy-Seller lets you test residential at $3.50 per GB, then drops to $1.45 per GB on volume plans with no monthly lock-in. Concurrent sessions are unlimited, and HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS5 are supported.
Your residential traffic is valid for 30 days, so buy what you'll use that month. If your demand is predictable, that's rarely a problem.
You can target by country, state, city and ISP, rotate by time or request, and use free tools such as a proxy checker and port scanner. Refunds or replacements need to be requested within 24 hours, so test your setup right after you buy.
Verdict: Strong value per GB for scrapers with consistent monthly volume.
Best for: teams that want proxies and scraping tools on one bill.
Your Oxylabs subscription, from $30 a month, covers proxies, a Web API, an unblocker and an agent browser. Residential costs $6 per GB at the entry tier and falls to $2.50 per GB past 1K GB.
You get unlimited concurrent sessions and free geo targeting, plus a $5 credit to test.
Residential plans allow 3 proxy users and 10 whitelisted IPs, which is plenty for a small team. There's no pay-as-you-go option on the pricing pages, so expect to commit to a monthly subscription.
Verdict: Worth the higher entry rate if you'll use the bundled scraping tools.
Best for: larger budgets that need certifications and enterprise billing.
Bright Data offers a free trial without a credit card and matches your first deposit up to $500. Residential pay as you go costs $4 per GB with the RESIGB50 code, and monthly plans start at $499.
You'll pass a KYC check before using residential IPs, and unused monthly commitments don't roll over.
What you get in return is a very large pool, which the company puts at 400M+ monthly residential IPs, plus free ZIP and ASN targeting, daily spend limits and payment through AWS Marketplace or Azure.
Verdict: The enterprise choice when compliance paperwork matters as much as price.
Run a trial on your real targets first, not a test site. What works on an easy page tells you little about a protected one.
Use rotation per request for bulk page collection and sticky sessions only where you need to stay logged in. Mixing them up wastes traffic.
Switch to mobile only for the targets that need it. Where mobile is sold by the gigabyte on this list, it costs more than residential, so route easy pages through residential.
Pick targeting carefully. If country-level results are good enough, don't pay for city filters you don't need.
Finally, watch your usage dashboard each week. With rollover plans, you can buy ahead; with expiring plans, you'll want to match purchases to real demand.
Start with a trial or a small purchase. ProxyEmpire's $1.97 trial and Webshare's 1 GB plan from $3.50 both let you test without a large commitment.
Use residential for most targets and mobile for sites that block residential IPs. A trial that covers both, such as ProxyEmpire's, helps you decide without buying two separate plans.
Not always. Low rates often require large purchases, and expiring traffic can leave part of your budget unused. Compare the price of the plan you'd actually buy, then check whether leftover gigabytes carry over.
The right residential provider depends on your budget and how sure you are about your scraping needs. ProxyEmpire is the strongest starting point if you want to test residential and mobile for $1.97 and keep unused GB indefinitely. Webshare suits tiny budgets, Proxy-Seller suits steady volume, Oxylabs suits teams using scraping APIs, and Bright Data suits enterprise buyers. Whichever you choose, test on your real targets, match the network to the job and check what happens to leftover traffic before you commit.
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