Residential Proxy: Borrowing Someone's Wi-Fi

What is a residential proxy?

A residential proxy is a type of proxy that is being hosted on a real user device, it can be PC, laptop, Wi-Fi router or even a smart toaster. Such a proxy has a residential IP - an address that internet provider assigned to a real home connection, which is why websites treat it like a normal visitor.

What are residential proxies used for?

Residential proxies are used when a task needs real home IPs in many locations. Datacenter proxies get blocked on such tasks, while ISP proxies have far fewer locations and mostly don't rotate. Common uses:

• Web scraping and data collection - gathering data where datacenter proxies are getting blocked.
• Price and product monitoring - checking prices as real users in a specific location see them.
• Ad verification - checking how ads and landing pages look from different locations.
• SEO and search tracking - checking search results as they appear in a specific location.

Mobile vs residential proxies

There are key differences between residential and mobile proxies. Mobile proxies are being hosted on devices with mobile carrier SIM-cards, which means the speed is usually lower than with home (residential) internet and the ASN strictly belongs to a mobile carrier. Get residential proxies if speed and user ASN are your main concerns and mobile if you want to maximize chances of avoiding a block.

How do I choose a residential proxy provider?

Residential proxies are very similar across providers. Even the best proxy seller can serve you the worst proxy imaginable just by the nature of this type of proxy. Here's what depends on provider and not on proxy itself:

• Pool size and overlap - providers often share or resell the same IPs. Use our pool overlap tool to avoid the same pool if you previously used other proxies.
• Locations - country and city coverage for your targets.
• Pricing model - per GB, per port or unlimited.
• Features availability - sticky sessions, rotation options, protocols, UDP, IPv6 support etc.
• Allowed use cases - some providers block certain targets.
• Free Trial - see providers with a free trial and test on your own targets.

You can filter all of these on the residential proxies list. For example, take a look at our top-rated providers: Proxy-Seller, Proxyon, Mars Proxies.

How much do residential proxies cost?

Most residential providers charge per gigabyte of traffic, and the price per GB drops a lot with volume. Based on our data, the median price is about $3.00/GB on the smallest plan, $2.12/GB at 100 GB and $1.45/GB at 1 TB. Moving from 1 GB to 100 GB cuts the price per GB by about a third, and 1 TB by around 60%.

The common payment models:

• Pay per GB - the most common model (about 7 in 10 plans). Most providers let you start with 1 GB or less, and prices range from under $1/GB to over $4/GB depending on the provider and the volume.
• Unlimited bandwidth - flat price for a period of time, with no traffic limit. Plans are usually sold by the day or month, and the price depends on how many threads (parallel connections) you get. Unlimited threads typically cost $100-260/day, and plans with a thread cap start from around $20-40/day.
• Pay per IP - you buy specific IPs and keep them until they go offline. It's a rare plan type, and most plans cost under $0.50 per IP.

Are residential proxies legal?

Yes, buying and using them are totally legal. You still have to follow laws in whatever you are doing though. Keep in mind that something can be legal and still be against proxy provider ToS, for example - scraping data behind a login, so check this on the provider's page before doing it.

Where the IPs come from usually doesn't affect you legally, however, using a proxy from someone's hacked computer is not only unethical but, more importantly, can break your workflow if the provider gets arrested. There's no reliable way to check it outside of trusting the provider's claims, but some disclose their ways to obtain proxies, which is a good signal.

Can residential proxies be detected?

For sure, especially if it was intensively used (old proxy located in shared pool). Sites use IP reputation databases, behavior (many requests from one IP, identical browser fingerprints) and checks for known proxy networks. Residential proxies pass IP-type checks that block datacenter ranges, but a flagged or overused IP can still be blocked. This is why tools like Scamalytics and IPQualityScore exist - they allow you to check proxy IP against their databases to determine whether it's worth using this particular proxy.

How do residential proxies work?

When you're connecting to a website with a residential proxy - your request goes to the proxy provider, which routes it to the targeted website, so for the target it looks like the request was made from a normal household. Unlike datacenter and ISP proxy types - residential proxies usually support rotation by default, meaning you can configure it in a way that your requests will route through new device on each request or change devices after selected time period.

How do I use a residential proxy?

After you buy a plan, the provider gives you gateway host, port and either username and password or IP whitelist. Put these into your browser, anti-detect browser, scraper or script and try to reach your target. You can also confirm its location and type by using our free IP checker.

Is there a free residential proxy?

Sure, somewhere on the internet, but it's a blacklist and slow connection fiesta, so try to avoid it. For testing, try providers with a free trial instead. There are plenty of them and you can even do some small one-time tasks without a need to ever switch to a paid plan.

How are residential proxies sourced?

A residential proxy network (or pool) is the set of home devices a provider can route traffic through. Bigger networks mean more IPs and locations, but size claims are hard to verify, and providers often share or resell the same IPs. There are a few main ways that providers get their proxies:

• Opt-in apps and SDKs - users install an app (free VPN, games, utility apps) and agree to share their connection, often without reading the app's terms.
• Bandwidth-sharing apps - people run an app that works as a proxy server and receive rewards for it.
• Compromised devices - proxies are running on user devices without the user's knowledge.

The last one is bad not only from a legal and ethical perspective: your whole workflow can die if the network is shut down.

What are rotating residential proxies?

Rotating proxies give you a new IP either on each request or after a set time (sticky session). This is the default behavior for most residential proxies with a per-GB payment model. Rotating the IP on each request is helpful when sending individual requests, while sticky sessions are great for multiple actions in the same browser session.

What are sticky sessions?

Sticky sessions keep the same IP for a period you choose, then switch. A session can end early if the device goes offline. Among plans that publish a session length, the median maximum length is 2 hours and the most common maximum lengths are 24 hours and 2 hours. The range goes from 10 minutes to 7 days, so check this parameter in the review before committing.

What is a static residential proxy?

Static "residential" proxies are usually ISP proxies - IPs registered to a residential ISP but hosted on servers. They have the same IP for the whole rental period, are faster (median 18.7 Mb/s against 5.0 for residential in our tests) and more stable, but you get far fewer locations. Most ISP plans are sold per month and only some rotate automatically.

What are unlimited residential proxies?

Unlimited (or unmetered) residential proxies mean that you are not restricted by traffic amount, but rather by the number of available ports and time. Some providers also apply a fair-use policy or restrict speed after a certain limit. You can check available unlimited residential plans and learn more here: unlimited bandwidth proxies.

Are residential proxies dedicated or shared?

Most residential plans give you access to a shared pool, so the same IPs are used by other customers and a past customer's activity can affect an IP's reputation. Private (dedicated) proxies are often available in pay-per-IP plans, although it still can't be verified. Read more and check out private proxies here: private proxies.

Do residential proxies support SOCKS5?

Mostly yes, only some providers serve just HTTP(S) proxies, for infrastructure reasons. If you need SOCKS for your software - check this feature in the review, we're testing both protocols independently. You can see the list of proxy plans that support SOCKS here: SOCKS5 proxies.