Best Shared and Dedicated Datacenter Proxies in 2026

For cheap bulk scraping of lightly protected sites, Decodo and Webshare have the lowest shared per-IP prices. For dedicated IPs at scale, SquidProxies, Oxylabs, and Bright Data fall to between $0.80 and $1.30 per IP at their top tiers. Rayobyte and BuyProxies sell semi-dedicated IPs, and WebScrapingAPI quotes shared or dedicated allocation per workload.

No single provider wins every job, so the table below picks one per job.

A dash in the full comparison means the provider doesn't sell that tier as a datacenter plan.

All prices are in US dollars, before tax, as shown on each provider's own pricing page at the time of writing. Providers change prices often, so confirm the figure at checkout.

A shared datacenter proxy is used by many customers at once, so it is the cheapest option but inherits their bans. Semi-dedicated IPs are split among a small group, which providers such as Rayobyte and BuyProxies cap at three users. Dedicated IPs belong to one customer, so the IP's reputation, speed, and target history are yours alone.

The "bad neighbor" problem is why the tiers exist. If another customer has hit the retailer you plan to scrape through a shared IP, with no delays and a default user agent, the retailer may already answer that IP with CAPTCHAs or 403 errors before you use it. Semi-dedicated plans shrink that risk to two other users and dedicated plans remove it, though a ban on a dedicated IP comes from your own request pattern.

"Datacenter" describes who owns the address. These IPs are registered to hosting and cloud companies under autonomous system numbers assigned by IANA, and anyone can look up a range's owner through public registry data (ARIN RDAP) or its counterparts at RIPE NCC and the other regional registries. So sites can block whole datacenter ranges at once, and many IPs from one /24 subnet (256 consecutive addresses) protect you less than the count suggests. For how residential, ISP, and mobile IPs differ, see our guide to proxy types for web scraping.

Rotating pools billed per gigabyte are a fourth way to buy: you own no address, and the provider assigns a new exit IP per request or session. They suit jobs spread across many sites or countries; see how rotating proxies work for the mechanics.

Per-IP plans charge a monthly fee for each IP and usually include unlimited bandwidth under a fair-use policy. Per-GB plans charge for traffic and give you access to a rotating pool. Per IP wins for heavy, steady traffic through a fixed set of IPs, while per GB wins for light, bursty, or widely spread jobs.

Most shared, semi-dedicated, and dedicated plans bill per IP, and the price per IP drops as the package grows. Bright Data's dedicated IPs, for example, cost $2.20 each at 10 IPs and $1.30 each at 1,000.

That "unlimited" bandwidth almost always comes with fair use, and the wording varies:

• Bright Data's FAQ gives each IP a 100 GB fair-usage allowance per month, pooled across your plan, and says extra charges may apply above it.
• Oxylabs lists per-IP bandwidth as "unlimited (with fair usage)" without a number.
• Rayobyte marks its unlimited bandwidth with an asterisk: fair usage applies.
• Webshare's shared, private, and dedicated plans all fall under its Fair Usage Policy.

If a provider publishes a figure, size your plan against it; if not, ask before pushing hundreds of gigabytes through a handful of IPs.

Per-GB plans charge for traffic instead. Entry prices are $0.60 per GB at Bright Data, Oxylabs, and Decodo, falling with volume to $0.42 on Bright Data's 5 TB plan, $0.40 on Oxylabs' largest tier, and $0.45 on Decodo's 1,000 GB plan. Rayobyte's rotating pool lists pay-as-you-go rates of $0.30 per GB for 3 to 50 GB, down to $0.23 for 351 to 1,000 GB, and monthly plans from $100 for 7,600 GB ($0.0132 per GB) to $5,000 for 625,000 GB ($0.0080 per GB).

Commitment terms change the math too. IPRoyal charges $1.57 per IP for 30 days, $1.48 for 60, and $1.39 for 90. Rayobyte takes a further 5%, 10%, or 15% off when you prepay 3, 6, or 12 months, and Webshare discounts yearly billing.

Eleven providers are worth a look. Bright Data, Oxylabs, and Decodo sell shared, dedicated, and per-GB plans. Webshare and Rayobyte cover shared or semi-dedicated and dedicated tiers. IPRoyal, SquidProxies, HighProxies, BuyProxies, and MyPrivateProxy focus on per-IP plans, and WebScrapingAPI provisions shared or dedicated allocation by quote.

Pick this if you run your own scraper and want datacenter capacity scoped to a production workload. Our datacenter proxies are built for high-throughput collection on sites that accept datacenter traffic. Pricing is custom, scoped by traffic volume, countries, shared or dedicated allocation, and concurrency, rotation, and support needs, and you can evaluate representative targets before sizing production capacity. Endpoint, authentication, protocol, and geography are provisioned per account.

The catch: there's no public per-IP price, so if you want ten IPs on a card within minutes, the providers below are faster.

Bright Data suits teams that want to switch billing models without changing providers:

• Shared: $1.40 per IP at 10 IPs ($14 a month), $1.00 at 100, $0.95 at 500, and $0.90 at 1,000.
• Dedicated: $2.20 per IP at 10 IPs ($22 a month), $1.70 at 100, $1.50 at 500, and $1.30 at 1,000.
• Per GB: $0.60 pay as you go, then $0.51 on the 1 TB plan ($499 a month), $0.45 on 2 TB ($999), and $0.42 on 5 TB ($1,999).
• SOCKS5 works through its proxy manager, and country-level targeting is listed.

The 100 GB fair-use allowance per IP applies, and with a 10-IP entry tier it bites if you push heavy traffic through a small package.

Oxylabs lists dedicated IPs in 188 countries, beyond the usual US and Western Europe, plus 38 for shared per-IP and 44 for per-GB plans, with HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 on all three.

Dedicated IPs cost $2.00 each, falling to $1.75, $1.45, and $1.20 on larger plans. Shared per-IP plans start at $1.00 and fall to $0.90, $0.80, and $0.60. Per-GB rates start at $0.60, falling to $0.55, $0.45, and $0.40.

A single subscription balance spans Oxylabs products: Starter $30 a month, Basic $100, Flexible $500, and Enterprise from $2,500, plus $5 in free credit, with per-unit prices set by plan.

The downside: per-GB plans cap traffic by plan (20 GB to 2 TB), and the lowest per-IP prices require the Enterprise tier.

For bulk scraping of open sites where a low per-IP price matters most, look at Decodo.

Shared IPs cost $0.035 each for 100 IPs ($3.50 a month), down to $0.02 per IP for 15,000 IPs ($300), and pay-per-IP plans include traffic, starting from 10 GB. Dedicated IPs run $1.85 each for 3 IPs ($5.55), then $1.75 (10), $1.65 (25), $1.55 (50), $1.45 (100), and $1.35 (200). Per-GB plans go from $0.60 for 10 GB ($6) down to $0.45 for 1,000 GB ($450).

Shared IPs cover 18 countries and dedicated IPs the US, UK, Germany, and Japan. Plans are billed monthly plus VAT, and both tiers support HTTP(S) and SOCKS5.

Shared pay-per-IP plans start at 100 IPs, though, and dedicated IPs come in only four countries.

Testing and very cheap shared lists are Webshare's strengths.

Its shared "Proxy Server" plans include 10 free proxies, then cost $2.99 a month for 100, $26.91 for 1,000, $119.60 for 5,000, and $1,076.40 for 60,000. "Private" proxies, which Webshare says are shared with only a few users, cost $18.52 a month for 25 proxies, $66.30 for 100, and $551.25 for 1,000. Dedicated plans run $26.60 a month for 20 proxies ($1.33 each), $119 for 100, and $975 for 1,000.

HTTP and SOCKS5 cover 50+ countries, and yearly billing costs less.

Shared lists are crowded by design, and the page doesn't say how many users share a "private" IP.

Rayobyte fits two jobs: fewer neighbors on a budget, and high-volume rotating datacenter traffic. Prices vary by country:

• Dedicated (static datacenter) US IPs cost $2.50 each at 5–99 IPs, $2.13 at 100–999, and $1.88 at 1,000–4,999, with enterprise pricing from $0.85 on a commitment. The UK costs $3 per IP and Canada $2.50.
• Semi-dedicated IPs (up to 3 users) cost $1.00 at 5–99 IPs, $0.85 at 100–999, $0.75 at 1,000–4,999, and enterprise from $0.50. Those prices cover the US and Canada; other countries start at $1.20.
• Rotating datacenter traffic is pay as you go from $0.30 down to $0.23 per GB, or monthly plans from $100 for 7,600 GB.

It lists 29 countries with HTTP(S) and SOCKS.

Because pricing is set per country, the US figures won't hold everywhere.

IPRoyal is the pick when dedicated IPs need a specific US state or city. It sells dedicated IPv4 datacenter proxies only, priced by rental period: $1.57 per proxy for 30 days, $1.48 for 60 days, and $1.39 for 90 days, in more than 50 countries with HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 support, and unlimited threads.

With no shared or per-GB plan, it isn't the cheapest route for disposable bulk traffic.

At a flat, predictable price for a few hundred dedicated IPs, SquidProxies keeps it simple: dedicated datacenter proxies only, unlimited bandwidth on every plan, and $1.50 per IP for 10 ($15 a month), $1.10 for 50 ($55), $1.00 for 100 ($100), and $0.80 for 500 ($400). At 500 IPs, it has the lowest dedicated price per IP in this comparison.

It sells no shared, semi-dedicated, or per-GB plan, and its pricing page lists no protocols or locations, so confirm both first.

Small packs of private IPs with SOCKS5 support are BuyProxies' niche. Both datacenter tiers include unlimited bandwidth and HTTP, SOCKS5, and UDP. Dedicated proxies start at $12.50 a month for 5 ($2.50 each) and reach $1,675 a month for 1,000 (about $1.68 each); semi-dedicated ones, shared by at most three users, start at $12.50 a month for 10 ($1.25 each) and reach $837.50 for 1,000 (about $0.84 each). A 24-hour money-back policy applies.

There's no per-GB plan, and port 25 (outgoing email) is closed.

If you only need one to a few dozen dedicated IPs, HighProxies sells dedicated IPv4 private proxies priced per proxy per month: $1.84 for 1 or 5 proxies, $1.76 for 10, $1.68 for 20, $1.36 for 50, and about $1.32 at 150–200.

Its private proxies are HTTP/HTTPS only (SOCKS5 is sold as a separate product), and there is no shared tier.

Need a single private IP, or a mid-sized shared pack, with a refund window? MyPrivateProxy covers both.

Private (dedicated) proxies cost $2.49 a month for one and $11.75 for five ($2.35 each), less per proxy on larger plans. Shared plans start at $50 a month for 50 ($1.00 each) and fall to $0.62 per proxy on the largest plan.

Plans include a monthly IP randomize option, no bandwidth limits, up to 100 threads per proxy, and a 3-day money-back guarantee.

What the shared plans don't say is how many users share each IP.

Not included: ProxyBonanza (data-capped shared packs) and Shifter (no longer sells datacenter proxies).

Send repeated requests through the proxy to an IP echo service and record the exit IP. A dedicated or sticky proxy returns the same IP every time. Then check how many /24 subnets your IPs span and who the registry lists as the network owner, because IPs that share one subnet tend to get blocked together.

The script below runs those checks, reading your proxy URL from the PROXY_URL environment variable in the format the proxies setting in the Requests library expects, so credentials never appear in your code or output. Set SOCKS_URL too to repeat the test over the SOCKS5 protocol (RFC 1928). HTTPS through an HTTP proxy rides a tunnel opened with the HTTP CONNECT method (RFC 9110), so a plain HTTP proxy URL covers HTTPS targets.

Install the one dependency first:

pip install "requests[socks]"

"""Check what a datacenter proxy really gives you: static or rotating exit,
how many /24 subnets, who owns the network, latency, and SOCKS5 support.

Usage:
    export PROXY_URL="http://user:pass@host:port"     # your proxy
    python dc_proxy_check.py --requests 10
Optional:
    export SOCKS_URL="socks5h://user:pass@host:port"  # same proxy over SOCKS5
Requires: pip install "requests[socks]"
"""
import argparse
import ipaddress
import os
import statistics
import time

import requests

IP_ECHO = "https://httpbin.org/ip"
RDAP_BOOTSTRAP = "https://rdap.org/ip/{ip}"  # redirects to the right regional registry


def exit_ip(session, proxy):
    start = time.perf_counter()
    r = session.get(IP_ECHO, proxies={"http": proxy, "https": proxy} if proxy else None, timeout=20)
    r.raise_for_status()
    elapsed = (time.perf_counter() - start) * 1000
    return r.json()["origin"].split(",")[0].strip(), elapsed


def network_owner(ip):
    """Look up the registered network for an IP over RDAP (RFC 9083 JSON)."""
    try:
        r = requests.get(RDAP_BOOTSTRAP.format(ip=ip), timeout=20,
                         headers={"Accept": "application/rdap+json"})
        r.raise_for_status()
        d = r.json()
        return f"{d.get('name', '?')} ({d.get('startAddress', '?')} - {d.get('endAddress', '?')}, {d.get('country') or 'n/a'})"
    except (requests.RequestException, ValueError) as e:
        return f"lookup failed: {e.__class__.__name__}"


def run(label, proxy, n):
    s = requests.Session()
    ips, times, errors = [], [], 0
    for _ in range(n):
        try:
            ip, ms = exit_ip(s, proxy)
            ips.append(ip)
            times.append(ms)
        except requests.RequestException:
            errors += 1
    print(f"\n== {label} ==")
    if not ips:
        print(f"All {n} requests failed")
        return
    unique = sorted(set(ips))
    subnets = {str(ipaddress.ip_network(f"{ip}/24", strict=False)) for ip in unique if ":" not in ip}
    print(f"Requests ok      : {len(ips)}/{n} ({len(ips) / n:.0%})")
    print(f"Unique exit IPs  : {len(unique)} -> {'static (dedicated or sticky)' if len(unique) == 1 else 'rotating'}")
    print(f"Distinct /24s    : {len(subnets)}")
    print(f"Latency ms       : median {statistics.median(times):.0f}, max {max(times):.0f}")
    for ip in unique[:5]:
        print(f"Owner of {ip:<15}: {network_owner(ip)}")


def main():
    p = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__, formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter)
    p.add_argument("--requests", type=int, default=10)
    p.add_argument("--baseline", action="store_true", help="also run without a proxy for comparison")
    a = p.parse_args()

    proxy = os.environ.get("PROXY_URL")
    socks = os.environ.get("SOCKS_URL")
    if a.baseline or not proxy:
        run("No proxy (your own IP)", None, a.requests)
    if proxy:
        run("HTTP proxy", proxy, a.requests)
    if socks:
        run("SOCKS5 proxy", socks, a.requests)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Run it with your proxy details in the environment:

export PROXY_URL="http://user:pass@host:port"
export SOCKS_URL="socks5h://user:pass@host:port"   # optional
python dc_proxy_check.py --requests 10

Sample output, with a placeholder address and network name from the documentation range:

== HTTP proxy ==
Requests ok      : 10/10 (100%)
Unique exit IPs  : 1 -> static (dedicated or sticky)
Distinct /24s    : 1
Latency ms       : median 36, max 490
Owner of 203.0.113.10   : EXAMPLE-NET (203.0.113.0 - 203.0.113.255, n/a)

== SOCKS5 proxy ==
Requests ok      : 10/10 (100%)
Unique exit IPs  : 1 -> static (dedicated or sticky)
Distinct /24s    : 1
Latency ms       : median 46, max 328
Owner of 203.0.113.10   : EXAMPLE-NET (203.0.113.0 - 203.0.113.255, n/a)

How to read each line:

• Requests ok counts answered requests; failures here are proxy or network errors, not target blocks. If every request fails with a 407, the credentials were rejected (see our list of proxy status errors).
• Unique exit IPs should be one for a static, dedicated or sticky IP; a "dedicated" plan showing several exit IPs on one endpoint is actually rotating.
• Distinct /24s counts subnets, so run the script once per IP in your package and compare. Ten IPs in one /24 can fall to a single firewall rule.
• Latency gives the median and worst response time; a large gap is worth watching on long jobs.
• Owner shows the network name and range from an RDAP lookup; rdap.org redirects each query to the right regional registry, which answers with RDAP JSON responses (RFC 9083). An unexpected hosting company is worth asking the provider about.

The subnet math uses Python's ipaddress module, and --baseline adds a no-proxy run for comparison. For speed, anonymity, and header checks, follow our proxy testing guide.

Estimate traffic first: successful pages, divided by your success rate, times average page size. Multiply that by the per-GB price, and compare it with the IP count times the per-IP price. Per GB is cheaper below the break-even traffic. Above it, per IP wins, as long as you stay within each IP's fair-use allowance.

The calculator below does that arithmetic with only the standard library. Retries count through the success rate: at 90% success you pay for about 11% more traffic than the pages you keep.

"""Compare per-IP and per-GB datacenter proxy billing for one scraping job.

Plug in the prices from the plan you are considering. The script prints the
monthly cost, the cost per 1,000 successful pages, and the break-even
bandwidth where per-GB billing stops being cheaper than per-IP billing.
"""
import argparse
import math


def monthly_traffic_gb(pages, avg_page_kb, success_rate):
    """Total GB moved, counting retries for failed requests."""
    attempts = pages / success_rate
    return attempts * avg_page_kb / 1_000_000  # 1 GB = 1,000,000 KB


def per_ip_cost(ips, price_per_ip, traffic_gb, fair_use_gb_per_ip=None):
    """Cost of an IP plan; warns when traffic exceeds a fair-use allowance."""
    cost = ips * price_per_ip
    over = None
    if fair_use_gb_per_ip:
        allowance = ips * fair_use_gb_per_ip
        if traffic_gb > allowance:
            over = traffic_gb - allowance
    return cost, over


def main():
    p = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__)
    p.add_argument("--pages", type=int, default=500_000, help="successful pages per month")
    p.add_argument("--page-kb", type=float, default=250, help="average transfer per request in KB")
    p.add_argument("--success-rate", type=float, default=0.9, help="share of requests that succeed (0-1)")
    p.add_argument("--ips", type=int, default=100, help="IPs in the per-IP plan")
    p.add_argument("--price-per-ip", type=float, default=1.00, help="USD per IP per month")
    p.add_argument("--fair-use-gb", type=float, default=None, help="fair-use GB per IP per month, if the plan has one")
    p.add_argument("--price-per-gb", type=float, default=0.60, help="USD per GB on the per-GB plan")
    a = p.parse_args()

    if not 0 < a.success_rate <= 1:
        p.error("--success-rate must be between 0 and 1")

    gb = monthly_traffic_gb(a.pages, a.page_kb, a.success_rate)
    ip_cost, over = per_ip_cost(a.ips, a.price_per_ip, gb, a.fair_use_gb)
    gb_cost = gb * a.price_per_gb
    break_even_gb = ip_cost / a.price_per_gb

    print(f"Traffic incl. retries: {gb:,.1f} GB for {a.pages:,} successful pages")
    print(f"Per-IP plan : ${ip_cost:,.2f}/month  (${ip_cost / a.pages * 1000:,.3f} per 1,000 pages)")
    print(f"Per-GB plan : ${gb_cost:,.2f}/month  (${gb_cost / a.pages * 1000:,.3f} per 1,000 pages)")
    print(f"Break-even  : per-GB is cheaper below {break_even_gb:,.1f} GB/month")
    if over:
        print(f"Warning     : {over:,.1f} GB over the fair-use allowance; expect throttling or extra charges")
    cheaper = "per-IP" if ip_cost < gb_cost else "per-GB"
    if over and cheaper == "per-IP":
        cheaper += " on paper, but only if you add IPs or the provider allows the overage"
    print(f"Cheaper for this job: {cheaper}")
    # Rough IP count check: requests per IP per day
    per_ip_day = math.ceil(a.pages / a.success_rate / a.ips / 30)
    print(f"Load per IP : about {per_ip_day:,} requests per IP per day")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

The first example uses the script's defaults, matching Bright Data's shared price at 100 IPs ($1.00 each) and pay-as-you-go rate ($0.60 per GB), with illustrative inputs: 500,000 pages a month at 250 KB each and a 90% success rate.

$ python dc_cost.py --pages 500000 --page-kb 250 --success-rate 0.9 --ips 100 --price-per-ip 1.00 --price-per-gb 0.60
Traffic incl. retries: 138.9 GB for 500,000 successful pages
Per-IP plan : $100.00/month  ($0.200 per 1,000 pages)
Per-GB plan : $83.33/month  ($0.167 per 1,000 pages)
Break-even  : per-GB is cheaper below 166.7 GB/month
Cheaper for this job: per-GB
Load per IP : about 186 requests per IP per day

At 138.9 GB a month, the job sits below the 166.7 GB break-even, so per-GB wins even though 100 IPs at $1 each sounds cheap.

The second example quadruples the volume with larger 400 KB pages and prices 100 dedicated IPs at $1.70 each, with a 100 GB fair-use allowance per IP:

$ python dc_cost.py --pages 2000000 --page-kb 400 --ips 100 --price-per-ip 1.70 --fair-use-gb 100 --price-per-gb 0.60
Traffic incl. retries: 888.9 GB for 2,000,000 successful pages
Per-IP plan : $170.00/month  ($0.085 per 1,000 pages)
Per-GB plan : $533.33/month  ($0.267 per 1,000 pages)
Break-even  : per-GB is cheaper below 283.3 GB/month
Cheaper for this job: per-IP
Load per IP : about 741 requests per IP per day

Here, per-IP billing costs about a third as much as per-GB, and traffic stays well inside the 10,000 GB combined allowance. Rerun it with --ips 5 and the script warns that traffic is 388.9 GB over the fair-use allowance: a tiny per-IP package is only cheap on paper. If the "Load per IP" line climbs into the thousands of requests per day against one site, add IPs or slow down.

Skip datacenter proxies when a target blocks hosting networks outright, when you need to look like a home or mobile user, or when the site serves different content to consumer ISPs. Repeated 403 or 429 responses on fresh dedicated IPs are the signal. At that point, residential, ISP, or a managed scraping API costs less than burning IPs.

Each pattern points to a different replacement:

• If you need datacenter speed with a consumer ISP identity, read about ISP proxies.
• When targets block hosting networks entirely, compare the top residential proxy providers instead.
• Apps and mobile-only pages are a job for mobile proxies.

Before you switch, rule out your own scraper. Repeated blocks on fresh IPs usually mean the site is blocking your IP range, not your code, but aggressive request rates and default headers get clean IPs banned too.

Choose shared IPs for small, lightly protected, or one-off jobs where a ban costs little. Choose semi-dedicated when you want a lower cost with fewer neighbors. Choose dedicated for logins, long sessions, or targets that remember IP history. If you need many countries or bursty traffic, a per-GB rotating pool is often cheaper.

Five questions to answer before you buy:

1. How well protected is the target? Open catalogs and public data sets work on shared IPs; strong bot protection needs dedicated IPs at minimum, or another proxy type.
2. How long are your sessions? Logins, carts, and multi-step flows need the same IP for minutes or hours, which means dedicated or sticky IPs.
3. How much traffic will you move each month? Run the calculator with real page sizes: heavy, steady traffic favors per IP, and light or bursty traffic favors per GB.
4. Which countries do you need? Dedicated country lists are often shorter than shared or per-GB ones, so check the tier you plan to buy.
5. Do you need SOCKS5? Most scraping tools work with HTTP proxies, but if yours needs SOCKS5, rule out providers that don't list it for your tier.

You don't have to pick one setup for everything: many teams run shared IPs or a per-GB pool for bulk crawling and a small dedicated package for stable sessions. Start small, measure the success rate and cost per 1,000 pages for a week, then commit to a larger plan or a longer billing period.

Paid lists beat free ones for steady work, as our premium proxy list comparison shows, and free proxy lists are fine for learning but rarely survive production traffic. Unsure datacenter IPs suit the job? Start with our guide to the best proxies for web scraping by job and cost.

Yes, for small or lightly protected targets. Shared IPs are the cheapest option, under four cents per IP at some providers' entry tiers, but you inherit any bans or rate limits other customers trigger on the same IPs.

It's a datacenter IP split among a small group of customers, which Rayobyte and BuyProxies cap at three users. It costs less than a dedicated IP and carries less neighbor risk than a shared one.

They are when IP history matters: logins, long sessions, account-based tools, or sites that remember abusive ranges. For one-off bulk jobs on open sites, shared or per-GB plans are cheaper.

Roughly $0.80 to $3.00 per IP per month on the providers' own pricing pages. Volume lowers it: SquidProxies charges $0.80 per IP at 500 IPs and Bright Data $1.30 at 1,000. Some providers also charge more for UK IPs than for US ones.

Pay per IP for heavy, steady traffic through a fixed set of IPs that stays within fair use. Pay per GB when traffic is light, bursty, or spread across many countries. Estimate monthly gigabytes, retries included, and compare both totals.

It means "unlimited" bandwidth still has a ceiling. Some providers state it, such as the 100 GB per IP per month in Bright Data's FAQ; others only say fair usage applies. Above it, expect throttling, extra charges, or a request to buy more IPs.

Many do: Oxylabs, Decodo, IPRoyal, Webshare, Rayobyte, and BuyProxies list SOCKS5 on their datacenter plans. SOCKS5 tunnels any TCP traffic, which helps non-HTTP tools, though an HTTP proxy with CONNECT support handles HTTPS sites fine.

Send ten or more requests through it to an IP echo service; a dedicated proxy returns the same exit IP every time. Then check how many /24 subnets your IPs cover and who owns the network. The script in this guide automates all three checks.

Datacenter IPs are publicly registered to hosting and cloud networks, so strict bot protection can block whole ranges, and shared IPs carry other customers' history. Request patterns cause blocks too, so slow down and send realistic headers before blaming the proxy.

Use them when a target blocks hosting networks, shows consumer connections different content, or keeps challenging fresh dedicated IPs. Residential traffic costs more and is usually billed per GB, so move only the stubborn targets to residential or ISP proxies.

If you want shared or dedicated datacenter IPs sized to your traffic, countries, and concurrency, request a datacenter proxy quote, or hand the fetching to Scraper API, which starts with 5,000 free requests and paid plans from $19 a month. When a target blocks datacenter traffic, switch to residential proxies from $8.50 per GB or ISP proxies for long, stable sessions.