Residential Proxy Pricing Index
Residential proxies cost $1.00 to $8.00 per GB pay-as-you-go in this index; the cheapest volume rates, $0.80 to $3.00 per GB, mostly come with monthly plans or terabyte-sized purchases. Every provider mixes pay-as-you-go rates, subscriptions, minimum spends and promotions differently, so we collect each public pricing page with the same extraction infrastructure that powers our Extract API and normalize everything to US dollars per gigabyte. No estimates, no affiliate rankings: only the prices each provider publishes.
| Provider | Pay-as-you-go $/GB | Cheapest tier $/GB | Minimum commitment | Trial / refund |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuantumProxies — Residential Basic | $1.00 | $0.80 | $5 minimum, no subscription | free trial available |
| DataImpulse | $1.00 | $0.80 | $5 (5 GB); $0.8/GB from 1 TB, custom pricing from 5 TB | none shown on page |
| PacketStream | $1.00 | $1.00 | $50 minimum purchase, no subscription, balance never expires (single flat rate) | trial on request (free-trial form) |
| QuantumProxies — Residential Premium | $2.50 | $2.50 | pay per GB | free trial available |
| Webshare | $3.50 | $1.40 | monthly plan, no PAYG top-up (1 GB plan at $3.50/GB); $1.40 tier requires a 3,000 GB/mo plan | free plan: 10 datacenter proxies / 1 GB per month, no card; refund within 2 days if under 0.1 GB used on rotating residential |
| Proxy-Seller | $3.50 | $2.20 | $220/mo (100 GB plan) for $2.20/GB; page advertises 'From $1.30/GB' for custom/enterprise volumes via sales ('save up to 30% on large projects') | none shown |
| Decodo | $4.00 | $2.00 | $11.25/mo (3 GB at $3.75/GB); $2.00 tier requires the 1,000 GB/mo enterprise plan | 3-day free trial (100 MB), 14-day money-back |
| SOAX | $5.00 | $0.85 | none (Sandbox $0/mo at $5.00/GB); $0.85 tier requires the $3,000/mo Enterprise plan | Sandbox plan ($0/mo, pay per GB); no free trial shown |
| NodeMaven | $5.00 | $2.20 | none (PAYG from 2 GB at $5.00/GB); $2.20 tier requires the 1,000 GB monthly plan (PAYG 1,000 GB is $2.45/GB) | paid trial $3.50 / 750MB |
| ProxyEmpire | $7.00 | $3.00 | none (PAYG 1 GB); $3.00/GB list ($1.50 with EMPIRE50) requires the 1,000 GB Enterprise plan at $3,000/mo list ($1,500 promo); custom 5 TB+ 'From $0.75/GB' | $1.97 trial on all plans |
| IPRoyal | $7.35 | $1.75 | none; $1.75/GB only on subscription from 10 TB (PAYG bulk is $1.84/GB from 10 TB) | none ('No free trial available') |
| Bright Data | $8.00 | $2.50 | none (PAYG) / $1,999-mo (798 GB plan) for $2.50 tier | free trial; 50% off for 3 months with code RESIGB50; first deposit matched up to $500 |
| Oxylabs | — | $2.50 | no PAYG; $30/mo (5 GB Starter at $6/GB); $2.50 tier requires $2,500/mo (1 TB Corporate) | free trial, once per client |
Verified 2026-09-08. All prices are advertised list prices in USD per GB for rotating residential proxies, as published on each provider’s public pricing page on the verification date. Promotional coupons are excluded from the pay-as-you-go column. "Cheapest tier" is the lowest advertised per-GB rate at any volume or subscription tier, which may require a large monthly commitment.
Residential Proxy Price Comparison: How to Read the Index
The two headline columns answer different questions. "Pay-as-you-go $/GB" is what you pay to start today with no subscription — the honest entry price. "Cheapest tier $/GB" is the lowest rate the provider advertises anywhere, which usually assumes a large monthly plan: Bright Data’s $2.50 requires a $1,999/month commitment, IPRoyal’s $1.75 starts at 10 TB. If you are testing a project or running irregular workloads, the pay-as-you-go column is the one that matters.
How Much Do Residential Proxies Cost in 2026?
Across the providers in this index, advertised pay-as-you-go rates for rotating residential proxies run from $1.00 to $8.00 per GB, an eightfold spread for what is nominally the same product. Most of the market lists between $3.50 and $7.35 per GB, the premium enterprise network lists $8 before discounts (Bright Data), and the value tier sits at $1.00 per GB, where QuantumProxies Residential Basic is. Volume changes the picture: at committed tiers nearly every provider lands between $0.80 and $3.00 per GB, but often only on plans of $1,999 to $3,000 a month.
Residential Proxy Cost per GB: What Drives the Price
Four factors explain most of the spread. Pool sourcing and quality filtering: networks that screen IPs for fraud scores and blacklists charge for the cleaner pool. Geo-targeting granularity: country-level exit is standard, but city, state, ZIP or ASN targeting is either free (Bright Data, QuantumProxies) or a paid add-on that quietly raises the effective rate. Session control: long sticky sessions and unlimited concurrency cost providers more to maintain. And commitment structure: providers that monetize through big monthly minimums can advertise a low per-GB rate that most users will never actually reach.
Cheapest Residential Proxies: Look Beyond the Sticker Price
The cheapest advertised rate is not always the cheapest project. Check four things before deciding: whether and when unused traffic expires; the minimum first purchase; surcharges for the targeting you actually need; and above all the success rate. A $2/GB pool that fails half of its requests costs $4 per GB of useful traffic, more than a $3/GB pool that succeeds 99% of the time ($3.03). Price per successful request, not price per GB, decides what you really pay.
Provider Pricing Head-to-Head
Bright Data vs Oxylabs: both premium networks bottom out at $2.50/GB, but only on plans of $1,999 and $2,500 a month; Oxylabs has no pay-as-you-go option at all and starts with a $30 monthly subscription. IPRoyal vs Webshare: IPRoyal lists $7.35/GB to start and reaches $1.75 only from 10 TB on a subscription; Webshare sells monthly plans with no pay-as-you-go top-up, and its $1.40 rate needs 3,000 GB a month. DataImpulse vs QuantumProxies Residential Basic: both start at $1.00/GB with a $5 minimum, but DataImpulse shows no free trial on its page, while Residential Basic has one and goes down to $0.80/GB without a subscription.
Methodology: Where These Numbers Come From
Every row is collected from the provider’s public pricing page with the QuantumProxies Extract API (page fetch plus AI extraction), then checked against the page’s own structured data where it exists. We record the advertised pay-as-you-go rate, the lowest per-GB rate at any tier, the minimum commitment and the trial terms, all in USD, and keep the source page and the quoted text behind each number. When a page cannot be read on the check date, the row shows a dash instead of an estimate. QuantumProxies rows use our own published pricing and are highlighted in the table. Found an error? Tell us at [email protected] and we will re-verify within 48 hours.
Prices move: providers reprice tiers, run promotions and change minimums throughout the year, which is why the date of the last check sits above the table. If pay-as-you-go value is what you are optimizing for, QuantumProxies Residential Basic, from $0.80/GB with a $5 minimum, no subscription and a free trial, is the row we would point to first. Every figure on this page comes from the providers’ own pricing pages, so check ours the same way you would check anyone else’s.
Head-to-head against a specific provider
Each of these takes one provider from the table above and compares it with our Residential Basic tier on entry price, minimum spend and what the cheapest advertised rate actually requires.
- Oxylabs Alternative — Oxylabs lists $6.00/GB to start against our $1.00/GB.
- Bright Data Alternative — Bright Data lists $8.00/GB to start against our $1.00/GB.
- Decodo (Smartproxy) Alternative — Decodo lists $3.75/GB to start against our $1.00/GB.
- Webshare Alternative — Webshare lists $7.00/GB to start against our $1.00/GB.
- Proxy Alternatives — every comparison in one table.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do residential proxies cost in 2026?
Advertised pay-as-you-go rates range from $1.00 to $8.00 per GB in 2026. Volume tiers bring most providers down to $0.80–$3.00 per GB, often only on monthly plans worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. QuantumProxies Residential Basic starts at $1.00/GB and goes down to $0.80/GB without a subscription.
What is the cheapest residential proxy per GB?
In this index the lowest pay-as-you-go rate is $1.00/GB, shared by QuantumProxies Residential Basic, DataImpulse and PacketStream; PacketStream asks a $50 minimum against $5 for Residential Basic. With volume, Residential Basic goes down to $0.80/GB without a monthly subscription, while the premium networks stop at $2.50/GB, and only on large monthly plans.
Why do residential proxy prices vary so much between providers?
The spread comes from pool sourcing and IP quality filtering, geo-targeting granularity (city/ZIP/ASN targeting may be free or paid), session and concurrency features, and commitment structure — some providers advertise low per-GB rates that only apply at multi-terabyte monthly plans.
Is the cheapest residential proxy always the best value?
No. The real metric is price per successful request: a cheap pool with a low success rate costs more in practice than a slightly pricier pool that succeeds on 99% of requests. Also check whether traffic expires, what the minimum purchase is, and whether the targeting you need carries a surcharge.
What should I check beyond the per-GB price?
Four things: minimum first purchase, whether unused traffic expires, surcharges for geo-targeting or sticky sessions, and the provider’s measured success rate. A $5/GB plan can effectively become $6–7/GB once targeting surcharges and failed requests are priced in.
How often is this pricing index updated?
The index is re-verified regularly: every provider’s public pricing page is collected again with the QuantumProxies Extract API, and the date above the table changes with each check. Spotted a price that has changed? Tell us at [email protected] and we will re-verify within 48 hours.
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