✓ last verified 2026-08-07 · every figure read from the provider’s live pricing page on that date · how we verify
For scraping protected targets, rotating residential proxies are the default; for everything else, datacenter is 3–10× cheaper. The skill is matching proxy type to target difficulty — paying residential rates to scrape a site that doesn’t block datacenter IPs is burning money.
Decision logic
- Target blocks aggressively (major e-commerce, search, social, sneaker): rotating residential — verified from $1.00/GB.
- Target is passive (most B2B sites, feeds, public data): datacenter — verified from $0.50/GB (DataImpulse) or $0.30/GB rotating (Rayobyte).
- Need login sessions at scale: ISP/static residential — dedicated real-ISP IPs, from a verified $0.98/IP (Proxy-Seller).
- Hardest mobile-first targets: mobile proxies — verified from $0.50/GB (Rayobyte) to $10/IP dedicated.
- Don’t want to run proxies at all: a scraping API handles rotation, retries and JS rendering per request — verified from $29/mo.
Verified residential pricing for scraping workloads
| Provider | Best verified rate | Plan | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProxyEmpire | $0.75/GB | rotating from | static resi from $0.75/GB + $2/IP; rotating mobile from $1.25/GB; DC from $0.35/GB; unlimited resi from $1500/ |
| Proxy-Cheap | $0.78/GB | rotating from | shown discounted from $2.60 — promo pricing; static resi (ISP) $2.71/mo; rotating mobile $5.99/GB; DC IPv4 fro |
| DataImpulse | $1/GB | Intro/Basic | PAYG, traffic never expires; 1TB tier $0.80/GB; premium resi $5/GB |
| Proxy-Seller | $1.3/GB | from | STARTING PRICE ONLY; mobile from $10/IP, IPv4 from $0.49/IP, ISP from $0.98/IP, IPv6 from $0.02/IP |
| SOAX | $1.5/GB | Scale $1500/mo | Tier1 geo; 3000 credits; +VAT; Enterprise from $0.85 T1 |
| Webshare | $1.5/GB | 1000GB | 3TB tier at $1.40/GB |
| Rayobyte | $1.5/GB | Professional 250-999GB | Corporate 1-5TB $0.70/GB; Enterprise 5TB+ $0.50/GB |
| IPRoyal | $1.75/GB | Custom 10TB+ | subscription variant $1.84 |
| NodeMaven | $2.2/GB | monthly from | PAYG $4.50/GB (20% off from $5.63); $3.50 trial w/ 750MB; ISP from $2.99/IP |
| Bright Data | $2.5/GB | 798GB | 50% off promo pricing |
| Decodo (ex-Smartproxy) | $2.75/GB | 100GB | +VAT |
| Oxylabs | $6/GB | from | STARTING PRICE ONLY — full tier table not visible; mobile from $7.5, ISP from $16, SOCKS5 from $8 |
Or skip proxies: scraping APIs, verified
| Provider | Best verified rate | Plan | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apify | $29/mo | Starter | $29 platform usage incl; Free $0 w/ $5 usage; Scale $199; Business $999; -10% annual |
| Scrape.do | $29/mo | Hobby | 250k credits ($0.11/1k) |
| ScrapingBee | $49/mo | Freelance | 250k credits; ex VAT |
FAQ
What’s the cheapest proxy setup for web scraping?
If your targets tolerate it: rotating datacenter at a verified $0.30/GB (Rayobyte). If they don’t: DataImpulse residential at a verified $1.00/GB is the current price floor with a real pool.
Residential proxy or scraping API — which is cheaper?
Depends on success rate and page weight. APIs bill per successful request ($0.06–$0.20 per 1k credits verified); proxies bill per GB regardless of outcome. Heavy pages with high success favor per-GB; hostile targets with retries favor per-success billing.
How much bandwidth does a scraping job use?
Rule of thumb: HTML-only pages run 50–300KB; with assets or rendering, 1–3MB. At $3/GB residential, a million lean pages ≈ 100–300GB ≈ $300–900 — why datacenter-first routing matters.