Buyer’s guide · October 2026
Best residential proxies (2026): the right pick for each use case
Nine use cases, nine picks, every one justified by a price, a term or a dated third-party test.
There is no single best residential proxy. A $1-a-gigabyte flat rate, a 49-cent plan with traffic multipliers and a $6 enterprise pool are all good buys for somebody, and a league table hides exactly the trade-offs that decide which. So this guide doesn’t rank. It names a pick for each common job and says why in numbers.
All prices were checked on the vendors’ own pages on 17 October 2026 and are quoted “as of October 2026”. Performance figures come from cited third-party tests, mostly Proxyway’s April 2026 round, with their dates.
How to read this page
Picks are by use case. The section numbers are for navigation only. Budget picks come first because that’s where most readers start. Where no provider clearly wins a job, we don’t invent a winner.
On this page
The picks at a glance
If you already know what you need, start here. Each row links to its section, which has the evidence.
Not a ranking. Prices as of October 2026.
Part one
If price and billing terms matter most
Most readers start here. These four picks are about what you pay and how you pay it: per-GB rates, minimums, expiry and trials.
Budget pick · Simplest flat-rate pricing
Simplest flat-rate pricing: PacketStream
One number — $1 per GB — for every gigabyte, rotating or sticky, in every country it serves. That simplicity is the product.
PacketStream charges $1.00/GB for all residential traffic. There are no volume tiers, no country surcharges, no feature multipliers and no subscription; rotating and sticky traffic cost the same, and the prepaid balance never expires1,2. The rate has been unchanged since at least 2021.
Every other provider here makes you read a rate card: tiers by volume (Rayobyte, IPRoyal, Webshare), by exit country (SOAX), by feature (Evomi’s multipliers) or by monthly plan (Oxylabs). If your traffic is irregular or spread across many countries, a single rate is the easiest thing to budget and to check against an invoice. At PacketStream, a gigabyte costs the same whatever you switch on.
Sticky sessions cost the same as rotating traffic, HTTPS, SOCKS5 and HTTP run on one gateway, and country targeting is a suffix on the auth key3,4,5. The same prepaid balance also pays for PacketStream’s Search, Fetch and MCP APIs, at $2.50 per 1,000 successful calls with failed calls free6,7; its Search API is the runner-up in section 9.
- Entry
- $1.00/GB; $50 minimum purchase
- Volume
- $1.00/GB at every volume
- Expiry
- Never
Read the full PacketStream review · PacketStream pricing page
Budget pick · Lowest price per GB
Lowest price per GB: Evomi Core
The lowest confirmed entry rate per GB, and the lowest of all on its monthly plan — on a pool Proxyway measured as small.
Evomi’s Core residential traffic costs $0.99/GB pay-as-you-go from 15 GB, falling to $0.79/GB from 1,000 GB, and pay-as-you-go data doesn’t expire. Country, region, city and ISP targeting are included at that rate. On a monthly plan, $49 buys 100 GB ($0.49/GB) and extra gigabytes cost the same $0.498.
At entry, the next-lowest rate is PacketStream’s flat $1.00/GB1. Above a terabyte, Rayobyte’s pay-as-you-go $0.70 undercuts Evomi’s $0.79, and Evomi’s $0.49 plan undercuts both. Evomi also tested well: Proxyway’s July 2026 run against the Core pool logged 99.91% success and a 0.70 s global average response9.
- Entry
- $0.99/GB, 15 GB minimum (about $14.85)
- Volume
- $0.79/GB pay-as-you-go from 1 TB; $0.49/GB on the $49, 100 GB plan
- Expiry
- Pay-as-you-go: never
Main caveats
- Small pool: Proxyway counted 1,499,867 unique IPs in 21 days and called it “tiny compared to most alternatives”9.
- Multipliers: “more IPs” mode burns traffic 6× faster and ASN targeting 4×, up to 15× with everything on9. At 6×, $0.99/GB is effectively $5.94/GB.
- No IP whitelisting or sub-users9. The free trial continues at $49/month unless you cancel inside the trial window8.
- Founded in 2024; we found no independent rating of its sourcing.
Runner-up: PacketStream — $1.00/GB, a cent above Evomi’s entry rate, and the same $1.00 at every volume for rotating and sticky traffic, with no multipliers and a prepaid balance that never expires1,2.
Budget pick · Testing on a small budget
Testing on a small budget: Rayobyte
A free trial with no card, then $3.50 for a single gigabyte that, per Proxyway, doesn’t expire.
Rayobyte offers a free trial on its self-serve products without asking for a card, and sells Premium residential traffic pay-as-you-go from one gigabyte at $3.50, with city, ZIP, ASN and OS targeting and SOCKS5 from the start10. Proxyway reports that the traffic never expires11.
Compare what some others need before your first real request: Evomi about $15 for its 15 GB minimum8, Oxylabs a $30 monthly plan12. Decodo sells single gigabytes too, at $4.0013; Webshare has a $3.50, 1 GB monthly plan, but its free tier covers datacenter proxies only14.
- Entry
- $3.50/GB from 1 GB; free trial without a card
- Volume
- $2.00 (50 GB), $1.50 (250 GB), $0.70 (1–5 TB)
- Expiry
- Never, per Proxyway; not stated on the pricing page
Main caveats
Runner-up: Decodo — a 3-day, 100 MB trial, then pay-as-you-go from 1 GB at $4.00; the first purchase is refundable within 14 days if you’ve used under 20% of it13. Its pay-as-you-go traffic lasts 12 months.
Budget pick · Terabyte volumes without a subscription
Terabyte volumes without a subscription: Rayobyte
$0.70/GB at 1–5 TB, pay-as-you-go — the lowest confirmed rate at that scale that doesn’t tie you to a monthly plan.
Rayobyte’s Premium residential rate drops to $0.70/GB for purchases of 1–5 TB, with no subscription; Enterprise quotes start at $0.50/GB10. A terabyte costs $700. The same terabyte is $790 on Evomi’s pay-as-you-go8, $1,000 at PacketStream1, $1,500 on Webshare’s 1 TB plan14 or SOAX’s Scale plan16, and $2,500 on Oxylabs Enterprise12.
If a subscription is acceptable, Evomi’s Core plan is cheaper still: $49 for 100 GB plus $0.49 per extra gigabyte, about $490 a terabyte8. Proxyway’s unique-IP counts come from fixed request samples, so treat them as a rough guide, but they don’t favour Evomi at this scale: 1.5 million for Evomi Core (July 2026) against 1.89 million for Rayobyte (April 2026)9,11.
- 1 TB
- $700 ($0.70/GB)
- 5 TB
- $3,500 ($0.70/GB)
- Above 5 TB
- Enterprise, from $0.50/GB by quote
Main caveats
Runner-up: Evomi Core plan — about $0.49/GB if you commit to a monthly subscription — with the small measured pool and feature multipliers noted in section 28,9.
Part two
If performance, sessions, scale or compliance matter more
These picks cost more per gigabyte. Each one wins on something a budget pick can’t offer — measured speed, long sessions, pool size or vetting.
Specialist pick · Best performance below enterprise pricing
Best performance below enterprise pricing: Decodo
The fastest average response in Proxyway’s April 2026 round, with near-perfect success, sold by the gigabyte.
In Proxyway’s April 2026 tests, Decodo’s residential gateway succeeded 99.92% of the time with a 0.53 s average response — the fastest average of the providers here in that round — and returned 2,853,543 unique IPs in 21 days15. Oxylabs matched it on success (99.93%) with a larger pool, at 0.60 s, but only by subscription from $30 a month at $6/GB17,12.
Decodo sells pay-as-you-go at $4.00/GB, one gigabyte at a time, and monthly plans from $3.75/GB (3 GB) down to $2.75 (100 GB); Enterprise runs from $2.50 to $2.0013. Targeting goes down to state, city, ZIP and ASN, and sticky sessions can be set anywhere from 1 minute to 24 hours13,18.
- Entry
- $4.00/GB pay-as-you-go; $3.75/GB on the 3 GB plan
- Volume
- $2.75/GB (100 GB plan); $2.00/GB Enterprise at 1 TB
- Expiry
- Plans don’t roll over; pay-as-you-go lasts 12 months
Main caveats
- Three to four times PacketStream’s or Evomi’s per-GB price.
- Subscription traffic doesn’t roll over, and pay-as-you-go traffic expires after 12 months.
- Refund only on the first purchase, within 14 days, if under 20% is used13.
Runner-up: Evomi Core — 99.91% success and a 0.70 s average in Proxyway’s July 2026 test, at about a quarter of the price — on roughly half as many unique IPs (1,499,867)9.
Specialist pick · Long sticky sessions on traffic that never expires
Long sticky sessions on traffic that never expires: IPRoyal
Hold one residential IP for up to a week, on traffic you can buy once and use whenever.
IPRoyal lets you set sticky sessions of up to seven days, and the traffic you buy never expires19. For multi-step work that should look like one household — long checkout flows, sessions behind a login, slow crawls — that pairing is uncommon. Decodo and Oxylabs cap sessions at 24 hours18,17, Evomi at 120 minutes9, and PacketStream’s sessions run on a rolling 60-minute idle timeout3.
Proxyway reports that SOAX also allows sessions of up to a week, but SOAX credits expire 60 days after purchase20,16.
- Entry
- $7.35 for 1 GB; $5.51/GB at 10 GB
- Volume
- $1.84/GB pay-as-you-go at 10 TB+; subscriptions about 5% less
- Expiry
- Never
Main caveats
- Expensive at low volume: $7.35 for 1 GB is well above the $4.00 market median entry price19,21.
- Success fell to 96.11%, with a 4.13 s 95th-percentile response, in April 202622. A long session is only as good as the peer behind it.
- KYC needed to unlock more ports, PayPal and some domains; SOCKS5 is TCP only22,19.
- Trustpilot shows its rating as unavailable after a guideline breach23.
Runner-up: Decodo — 24-hour sessions with faster, more reliable results in the same April 2026 round — if a day is long enough18,15.
Specialist pick · Largest measured pool for steady high-volume work
Largest measured pool for steady, high-volume work: Oxylabs
The biggest pool measured among the providers here, with success to match — packaged for buyers who spend every month.
Proxyway’s April 2026 test saw 3,241,404 unique Oxylabs IPs in 21 days, the most of any provider in this guide, with 99.93% success and a 0.60 s average17. Targeting reaches city, ZIP, coordinates and ASN; sessions can be held for up to 24 hours; SOCKS5 and HTTP/3 are supported12,17.
The catch is the packaging. Oxylabs sells by monthly subscription only: $6/GB on the $30 Starter plan, $5 up to 20 GB, $4 up to 125 GB and $2.50 from 1 TB. Plans expire monthly and self-service purchases are non-refundable12. That suits a team with a steady monthly volume; for anyone else it’s poor value.
- Entry
- $6.00/GB (Starter, $30/month)
- Volume
- $2.50/GB from 1 TB (Enterprise, $2,500+/month)
- Expiry
- Monthly
Main caveats
Runner-up: Decodo — 2,853,543 unique IPs in the same round, with pay-as-you-go15.
Specialist pick · Strict customer vetting and the deepest targeting
Strict compliance and the deepest targeting: Bright Data
If your legal team wants a vendor that vets every residential customer, this is the one — and you’ll pay list prices for it.
Bright Data only gives residential access to verified companies after a human-reviewed KYC check. It requires a corporate email (Gmail and Outlook addresses are rejected), may ask for ID and a video call, and says decisions come “within 48 hours”24. For buyers who must show due diligence on their suppliers, that strictness is the point.
Targeting goes further than anyone else here — country, city, ZIP, ASN and mobile carrier — over a claimed 400 million monthly IPs in 195 countries25. Its last published residential infrastructure test, by Proxyway in March 2024, found 98.96% success and a 1.12 s average26.
- Entry
- $8.00/GB list, pay-as-you-go ($4.00 for three months with the vendor’s RESIGB50 code)
- Volume
- $5.00/GB list on the $1,999/month Scale plan; custom from 1 TB
- Trial
- Free, no card (company KYC still applies)
Main caveats
Runner-up: Infatica — mandatory ID-and-selfie verification (via Veriff) before any purchase, at $4.00/GB pay-as-you-go or $2.60/GB on its 1 TB plan27,28.
Part three
If you need search results rather than raw proxies
One pick for a job that residential proxies handle badly on their own.
Adjacent pick · Google results, pay-per-call, no subscription
Google results without a subscription: Bright Data’s SERP API
$1.50 per 1,000 successful Google requests, pay-as-you-go, with 5,000 free records a month to start.
Scraping Google through raw residential proxies is hard: the 2026 market median success rate across Amazon, Google and Instagram was 74.43%21. A search-results API is usually the better tool. You send a query, get parsed results back, and the provider deals with blocks and retries.
Bright Data’s SERP API charges $1.50 per 1,000 requests pay-as-you-go and bills only successful ones. Every month includes 5,000 free records with no card required, and the first deposit is matched up to $500. At volume, its $499 Scale plan covers 380,000 requests, then $1.30 per 1,00029.
Oxylabs’ Web API is cheaper per call — $1.00 per 1,000 Google results, falling to $0.50 — but only on a subscription from $30 a month30. Without a plan, Bright Data’s is the lowest confirmed price among the providers in this guide.
- Pay-as-you-go
- $1.50 per 1,000 successful requests
- Free tier
- 5,000 records a month, no card
- Volume
- Scale plan: $499/month for 380,000 requests, then $1.30 per 1,000
Main caveats
- We found no independent test of the SERP API itself.
- We didn’t confirm what verification the SERP API requires; Bright Data’s residential proxies are restricted to verified companies24.
- This pick is about the search API, not the proxies: Bright Data’s residential traffic is the most expensive here at $8.00/GB list25.
Runner-up: PacketStream Search API — $2.50 per 1,000 successful searches with failed calls free, across seven Google result types — web, news, shopping, places, autocomplete, Scholar and AI Mode — drawn from the same prepaid, non-expiring balance as its proxies, with no up-front ID check described in its terms6,2.
Providers without a pick
Four of the eleven providers we cover don’t win a use case on the evidence we have. That isn’t a verdict that they’re bad — two of them tested very well — only that another provider does each job better or cheaper.
- Webshare
- Tidy monthly plans from 1 GB to 3 TB and over 99% success in Proxyway’s April 2026 test14,31, but subscription-only, and undercut by Evomi below a terabyte and Rayobyte above one.
- SOAX
- Strong April 2026 results (99.78%, 0.89 s)20, but country-tier credits that expire after 60 days, no free trial and weekday-only support16,20.
- Infatica
- Verifies every customer and offers 24/7 chat27, but a 1.64 s average and 7.80 s P95 response, and a pool skewed to Russia, Brazil and China27. Bright Data is stricter; Decodo is faster.
- Proxy-Cheap
- Very low headline rates ($0.78/GB from 51 GB), shown as discounts of unclear duration, with no current independent test and a 2.7 Trustpilot score built on refund and IP-quality complaints32,33.
Full comparison table
The facts behind the picks, for all eleven providers. Entry is the lowest per-GB price you can pay on the smallest purchase; volume is the lowest confirmed per-GB price at any size.
Residential traffic, prices as of October 2026, from each vendor’s pricing page. PacketStream first, then alphabetical; with JavaScript on, click a column heading to re-sort. “Not confirmed” means we couldn’t verify it.
| Provider | Entry $/GB | Volume $/GB | Minimum | PAYG | Expiry | SOCKS5 | Sticky max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PacketStream Our pick: simplest flat-rate pricing pricing page | $1.00 | $1.00 (no tiers) | $50 | Yes | Never | Yes | Rolling 60-min idle timeout |
| Bright Data pricing page | $8.00 list ($4.00 promo, 3 months) | $5.00 list (Scale, $1,999/mo) | None on PAYG; KYC first | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Decodo pricing page | $4.00 PAYG; $3.75 (3 GB plan) | $2.75 (100 GB plan); $2.00 Enterprise 1 TB | 1 GB ($4.00) | Yes | PAYG 12 months; plans don’t roll over | Yes | 24 h |
| Evomi pricing page | $0.99 (from 15 GB) | $0.79 PAYG at 1 TB+; $0.49 on plan | 15 GB (~$14.85) | Yes | Never (PAYG) | Yes | 120 min (Proxyway) |
| Infatica pricing page | $4.00 PAYG | $2.60 (1 TB plan) | Not confirmed | Yes | Monthly plans renew | Yes | 60 min |
| IPRoyal pricing page | $7.35 (1 GB) | $1.84 PAYG (10 TB+) | 1 GB ($7.35) | Yes | Never | Yes (TCP only) | 7 days |
| Oxylabs pricing page | $6.00 (Starter, $30/mo) | $2.50 (1 TB+) | $30 / month | No | Monthly | Yes (+HTTP/3) | 24 h |
| Proxy-Cheap pricing page | $1.50 (3 GB+; shown as a discount) | $0.78 (51 GB+) | 1–3 GB (sources conflict) | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Rayobyte pricing page | $3.50 (1–49 GB) | $0.70 (1–5 TB) | 1 GB ($3.50) | Yes | Never (per Proxyway) | Yes (+UDP) | 120 min (Proxyway: 60) |
| SOAX pricing page | $5.00 (US, Sandbox) | From $0.85 (Enterprise, $3,000/mo) | None stated (Sandbox) | Credits | Credits: 60 days | Yes | Up to 1 week (Proxyway) |
| Webshare pricing page | $3.50 (1 GB/mo) | $1.40 (3 TB/mo) | 1 GB plan ($3.50/mo) | No | Monthly plan; rollover not confirmed | Yes | No set maximum (Proxyway) |
For what you’d actually spend at 1, 10, 50, 100 and 1,000 GB, see the cheapest residential proxies, by volume, or use the price calculator. Session limits are explained in rotating vs sticky proxies.
How we chose
Each use case has a published decision rule — for example, “lowest confirmed per-GB price on the smallest purchase” — and the pick is whichever provider the facts put on top. Prices and terms come from vendors’ pages, checked on 17 October 2026. Performance comes from third-party tests, cited with their dates: Proxyway tested most of these networks in April 2026 and Evomi’s in July 2026; its latest published residential test of Bright Data dates from March 2024.
Third-party figures are snapshots from their test dates, on the tester’s own targets. The full rules, evidence and caveats are on the methodology page.
Frequently asked questions
Which residential proxy is cheapest in 2026?
On confirmed prices, Evomi’s Core traffic: $0.99/GB pay-as-you-go from 15 GB, or $0.49/GB on its $49, 100 GB monthly plan, with city targeting included8. At 1–5 TB without a subscription, Rayobyte is lower at $0.70/GB10. PacketStream charges one flat $1.00/GB at every volume, from a balance that never expires1,2. See the full price-per-GB tables.
What is PacketStream good for?
Simple, predictable billing. It charges one flat $1/GB for rotating and sticky traffic, with no tiers, multipliers or subscription, and the prepaid balance never expires1,2. It supports HTTPS, SOCKS5 and HTTP, includes sticky sessions at no extra cost, and the same balance pays for its Search, Fetch and MCP APIs4,3,6. It is our pick for simplest flat-rate pricing and runner-up for the lowest price per GB and for Google results without a subscription; our PacketStream review covers it in detail.
Why no overall ranking or scores?
Because the right answer depends on the job. A flat $1/GB, a $0.49/GB plan with feature multipliers and a $6/GB enterprise pool suit different buyers, and a single score hides exactly those trade-offs. Each pick here names the use case it wins and the facts behind it.
Do I need to verify my identity to buy residential proxies?
It depends on the provider. Bright Data sells residential access only to verified companies; Infatica asks for ID and a selfie before the first purchase; Rayobyte uses SumSub24,27,11. Decodo, Webshare and Evomi don’t ask upfront but may later. Our sourcing guide compares policies.
Sources
- a b c d e f PacketStream, Pricing. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c d e PacketStream, Terms of Service (updated 6 Oct 2026). Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c PacketStream, Docs: Rotation and sticky sessions. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b PacketStream, Docs: Endpoints and authentication. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- ↑ PacketStream, Docs: Country targeting. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c PacketStream, Docs: Search API. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- ↑ PacketStream, Docs: Fetch API. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c d e f g Evomi, Pricing. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c d e f g h Proxyway, Evomi review (Core residential tested July 2026). Third-party test.
- a b c d Rayobyte, Pricing. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c d e f g h Proxyway, Rayobyte review (residential tested April 2026). Third-party test.
- a b c d e f Oxylabs, Residential proxy pool pricing. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c d e Decodo, Residential proxy pricing. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c Webshare, Residential proxy plans. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c d Proxyway, Decodo review (residential tested April 2026). Third-party test.
- a b c SOAX, Pricing. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c d e Proxyway, Oxylabs review (residential tested April 2026). Third-party test.
- a b c Decodo, Help: Residential proxy session types. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c IPRoyal, Residential proxy pricing. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c Proxyway, SOAX review (residential tested April 2026). Third-party test.
- a b Proxyway, Proxy Market Research 2026 (data collected March–April 2026). Third-party test.
- a b Proxyway, IPRoyal review (residential tested April 2026). Third-party test.
- ↑ Trustpilot, IPRoyal reviews. Rating shown as unavailable “due to a breach of our guidelines”.
- a b c d Bright Data, Docs: Residential network access (KYC). Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b c Bright Data, Residential proxy pricing. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- a b Proxyway, Bright Data review (review updated May 2026; residential tested March 2024). Third-party test.
- a b c d Proxyway, Infatica review (residential tested April 2026). Third-party test.
- ↑ Infatica, Pricing. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- ↑ Bright Data, SERP API pricing. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- ↑ Oxylabs, Web API pricing. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- ↑ Proxyway, Webshare review (residential tested April 2026). Third-party test.
- ↑ Proxy-Cheap, Rotating residential proxies. Vendor page, checked 17 Oct 2026.
- ↑ Trustpilot, Proxy-Cheap reviews. User reviews; self-selected sample.