5 Cheapest Residential Proxy Providers for Web Scraping in 2026
I burned through $200 testing cheap residential proxies. DataImpulse at $1/GB delivers 96% success rate — cheapest per successful request. Here are the 5 providers that actually work.
Md. Rony Ahmed
· 10 min read
5 Cheapest Residential Proxy Providers for Web Scraping in 2026
I burned through $200 testing cheap residential proxies over 72 hours. Two providers at $1/GB. One actually works. The other wasted 19% of my requests.
Here's the breakdown.
Why Residential Proxies (Not Datacenter)
Datacenter proxies are cheap. They're also dead easy to detect. Most sites with any anti-bot protection block them within 50 requests.
Residential proxies route through actual home internet connections. ISPs like Comcast, Verizon, BT. Sites see a normal user browsing from home — because that's what it is.
The trade-off? They cost more. Good ones start around $1/GB. Bad ones charge $10/GB and serve you recycled blacklisted IPs that get blocked on the first request.
How I Tested
- Stack: Python + Playwright + rotating proxy pools
- Targets: 6 sites with different anti-bot levels (e-commerce, social, real estate, job boards)
- Requests per provider: 2,000 over 72 hours
- What I measured:
- Connection success rate
- IP uniqueness (was I getting the same IP twice?)
- Average response time
- Block rate after 500 requests
- Support response time
- Cost per 1,000 successful requests
1. [DataImpulse](https://dataimpulse.com/?aff=144694) — $1/GB, Best Value
Type: Residential + Datacenter
Pricing: Starts at $1/GB for residential
Best for: Production scraping, high-volume workloads
DataImpulse is what I run my client projects on. $1/GB with a 96% success rate — that's cheaper per successful request than anything else I tested.
Test results:
- 96% connection success rate (highest in the test)
- 10M+ residential IPs across 150+ countries
- 2.3 second average response time
- Never saw the same IP twice in a 500-request session
- Support replied in 3 hours
What I use it for daily:
- Fiverr scraping gig: 5,000+ pages/day, zero blocks
- Real estate monitoring: 20+ city-level geo-targets
- Price tracking: rotating every request, 99.2% uptime
The dashboard shows real-time success rates per country so you know which IP pools are performing. At $1/GB, it undercuts most competitors by 70% while matching or beating their success rates.
→ [DataImpulse — $1/GB Residential Proxies](https://dataimpulse.com/?aff=144694)
2. [PacketStream](https://packetstream.io/) — $1/GB, Cheapest But Risky
Type: Residential (peer-to-peer)
Pricing: ~$1/GB
Best for: Testing, small projects, low-budget experiments
PacketStream is a P2P network where users sell their home bandwidth. Real residential IPs at rock-bottom prices — but you get what you pay for.
Test results:
- 81% connection success rate
- Speed varies wildly (1 Mbps to 100+ Mbps depending on the peer)
- 14% timeout rate on longer sessions
- Smaller IP pool than dedicated providers
The problem: you're relying on random people's home connections. Someone unplugs their router mid-scrape? Your proxy dies. Not something I'd bet a client deadline on.
Use it for: Prototyping, learning, projects under 500 requests/day where failure is acceptable.
Skip it for: Client work, time-sensitive scraping, anything that can't handle a 19% failure rate.
3. [IPRoyal](https://iproyal.com/) — $3/GB, Best Geo-Targeting
Type: Residential + ISP + Datacenter
Pricing: Residential ~$3/GB, ISP proxies $2.40/day
Best for: City-level targeting, location-specific scraping
IPRoyal's standout: granular geo-targeting. Need residential IPs from a specific ZIP code in Chicago? They've got it.
Test results:
- 89% connection success rate
- City-level targeting works as advertised
- ISP proxies hold sessions for 6+ hours
- Clean IP reputation on most targets
The ISP proxies are the hidden gem here — $2.40/day for a static residential IP. That's cheaper than most VPNs and gives you a consistent identity for multi-day sessions.
Trade-off: Smaller IP pool. On high-volume targets, you cycle through IPs faster which increases detection risk.
4. [ProxyEmpire](https://proxyempire.io/) — $4/GB, When Nothing Else Works
Type: Residential + Mobile
Pricing: Residential ~$4/GB, mobile ~$12/GB
Best for: Sites that aggressively block residential proxies
Some sites have anti-bot so aggressive that even residential IPs get flagged. That's where mobile proxies come in.
Mobile carriers rotate IPs naturally. Mobile traffic is nearly impossible to fingerprint. Sites won't block mobile IPs because they'd be blocking real smartphone users.
Test results:
- Residential: 90% success rate
- Mobile: 97% success rate (best in the entire test)
- Clean IPs on the hardest targets (social media, sneaker sites)
Mobile at $12/GB is expensive. I only use it when residential fails. Smart play: run residential as primary, fall back to mobile only when you hit blocks.
5. [Webshare](https://www.webshare.io/) — $4.50/GB, Hybrid Option
Type: Residential + Datacenter
Pricing: Residential ~$4.50/GB, datacenter $0.60/GB
Best for: Mixed workloads needing both residential and datacenter
Webshare gives you both proxy types in one account. Datacenter for API scraping (fast, cheap), residential for strict targets.
Test results:
- Residential: 87% success rate
- Datacenter: 91% on API-friendly targets
- Sub-1-second datacenter response times
- Good rotation controls
The convenience of one account for both types saves hassle. Their residential pricing is mid-range, but having datacenter as backup makes up for it.
Head-to-Head
| Provider | Price/GB | Success Rate | Speed | IP Pool | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [DataImpulse](https://dataimpulse.com/?aff=144694) | $1 | 96% | Fast | 10M+ | Production scraping |
| [PacketStream](https://packetstream.io/) | $1 | 81% | Variable | P2P | Testing, small projects |
| [IPRoyal](https://iproyal.com/) | $3 | 89% | Fast | Medium | Geo-targeting |
| [ProxyEmpire](https://proxyempire.io/) | $4 | 90% | Fast | Large | Hard targets |
| [Webshare](https://www.webshare.io/) | $4.50 | 87% | Very Fast | Large | Hybrid workloads |
Cost per 1,000 successful requests:
1. [DataImpulse](https://dataimpulse.com/?aff=144694) — $1.04 (winner)
2. [PacketStream](https://packetstream.io/) — $1.23 (but 19% failure rate)
3. [IPRoyal](https://iproyal.com/) — $3.37
4. [ProxyEmpire](https://proxyempire.io/) — $4.44
5. [Webshare](https://www.webshare.io/) — $5.17
Which One Should You Pick?
Cheapest reliable residential proxy → [DataImpulse](https://dataimpulse.com/?aff=144694)
$1/GB, 96% success rate, cheapest per successful request. My daily driver for client projects.
Testing a new scraper → [PacketStream](https://packetstream.io/)
Same $1/GB price but 19% of requests fail. Use it to validate scraping logic before spending on reliable proxies.
City-level precision → [IPRoyal](https://iproyal.com/)
Geo-targeting actually works. ISP proxies at $2.40/day are a steal for long-session scraping.
Nothing else works → [ProxyEmpire Mobile](https://proxyempire.io/)
When residential gets blocked, mobile is the nuclear option. Expensive but nearly unblockable.
Need both proxy types → [Webshare](https://www.webshare.io/)
One account, residential + datacenter. Less hassle than managing two providers.
Lessons From 2 Years of Proxy Scraping
1. "Cheapest per GB" is a trap.
PacketStream is $1/GB but 19% of requests fail. DataImpulse is also $1/GB with 96% success. Same price. Very different value.
2. Same proxy pool, different results by target.
98% success on e-commerce, 70% on social media — from the same provider. Test your specific target before buying bulk bandwidth.
3. Run a backup provider.
DataImpulse as primary, PacketStream as cheap backup. If one pool gets throttled, the other kicks in. Total cost stays under $2/GB with near-100% uptime.
4. Support matters at 2 AM.
3-hour response vs. 3-day response is the difference between keeping and losing a $500 client project when your proxy pool burns before a deadline.
5. Test before you scale.
Run 500 requests before buying 50GB. IP quality changes over time — what worked last month might not work today.