Best Residential Proxies 2026: Bright Data, DataImpulse, IPRoyal +2 More
Five residential proxy providers worth shortlisting in 2026:
- Bright Data (enterprise default): 400M+ IPs, $4/GB PAYG with promo, granular targeting
- DataImpulse (cheapest first-party): 90M+ IPs, $1/GB pay-as-you-go, traffic never expires
- IPRoyal (best value subscription): 32M+ IPs, from $1.75/GB, non-expiring traffic
- Proxy-Seller (all proxy types): 20M+ IPs, 220+ countries, from $1.99/500 MB; code AUTOMATE15 for 15% off
- Oxylabs (scale and SLAs): 175M+ IPs, $2.50 to $6/GB tiered
Pick by $/GB, pool fit, and whether you need self-serve or enterprise contracts.
Residential proxies exit through consumer ISP ranges, so requests look like normal home users. That matters when targets block datacenter ASNs (social, travel, sneaker, some SERP stacks). The tradeoff is cost per GB and less predictable latency than bare metal.
This article compares the providers we recommend most often for web scraping and automation, with a decision table, pricing context, and FAQ. Numbers below are vendor-reported rounded figures; use them for orientation, not contracts.
Comparison table
| Provider | Residential pool | Geo targeting | Entry $/GB | Trial / refund | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | 400M+ residential, 195 countries | Country, state, city, ZIP, ASN | PAYG $4/GB with promo; volume tiers ~$2.50/GB | Free trial after business verification | Enterprise scale, compliance-heavy teams, granular targeting |
| DataImpulse | 90M+ first-party residential, 195 countries | Country (included), city, ZIP, ASN | $1/GB PAYG; traffic never expires | 7-day money-back on first purchase (excl. crypto) | Cost-sensitive teams wanting first-party sourcing and no traffic expiry |
| IPRoyal | 32M+ residential, 195+ countries | Country & city | From $1.75/GB; non-expiring | 1 GB starter; bulk discounts | Value, bursty workloads, indie/small teams |
| Proxy-Seller | 20M+ residential, 220+ countries | Country, city (via support) | From $1.99/500MB, $2.20/GB at 100GB | 3-day trial; 24-hour replacement/refund | City and ISP-level targeting on residential without enterprise minimums |
| Oxylabs | 175M+ residential, 195+ countries | Country, city, ASN | $6/GB (5GB) down to $2.50/GB (1TB) | One-time free trial via sales contact | Large crawls, performance-sensitive pipelines |
Also worth a look: Apify Proxy (residential at $8/GB through the Apify platform, datacenter and Google SERP groups in the same account, usable inside Actors and Crawlee or externally via proxy.apify.com:8000); Decodo (formerly Smartproxy), aggressive $/GB for many use cases; NetNut, ISP-style routes for longer sessions.
When residential proxies are the wrong tool
- Fat bandwidth jobs (video, uncompressed images, full browser pages at huge concurrency) burn GBs fast.
- Sub-100 ms latency requirements: consumer routes jitter.
- Targets with weak protection: datacenter IPs or direct HTTP are cheaper.
Start with datacenter proxies. Switch to residential only once you confirm that blocks are ASN-based, not selector or parsing errors.
1. Bright Data: enterprise default
Bright Data is the incumbent enterprise vendor: huge pool, deep targeting, and compliance tooling (KYC-style flows, audit posture). Integrations span scraping stacks, SERP products, and "unlocker" style APIs.
Why teams pick it: ZIP/ASN targeting, mixed product surface (residential + mobile + ISP + unlocker), and policies aimed at large buyers.
Pricing (May 2026): PAYG at $4/GB with the RESIGB50 promo (list $8/GB), dropping toward $2.50/GB on larger monthly commitments. Verify the live promo before budgeting. Bright Data rotates these regularly.
Honest limitations: Per-GB cost stays the highest in this list once promos expire. Onboarding requires business verification, which slows down hobby projects and lean startups. Overkill for unprotected targets where datacenter proxies succeed.
2. DataImpulse: first-party residential at $1/GB
DataImpulse sources its 90M+ residential IPs directly through its own bandwidth-sharing app rather than reselling from third-party aggregators. The practical effect is that the same IPs are not resold across multiple proxy brands, which lowers the chance of arriving at a target with reputation already burned by another buyer. On protected sites, that often translates to better success rates than equivalent-priced resold pools deliver.
Why teams pick it: First-party 90M+ pool across 195 countries at a flat $1/GB pay-as-you-go rate. Traffic never expires, so uneven crawl calendars do not waste prepaid GB. Country targeting is included at no extra cost; city, ZIP, and ASN targeting are available on the residential product.
Pricing (May 2026): Intro at $5 for 5 GB ($1/GB), Basic at $50/50 GB ($1/GB), Advanced at $800/1 TB (≈$0.80/GB, a 20% volume discount with a dedicated account manager), and Custom+ from $4,000 for 5 TB+ with personalized configuration. A 7-day money-back guarantee applies to first purchases (excluding crypto payments).
Honest limitations: The 90M+ pool is mid-tier residential and covers the vast majority of scraping workloads. If you are running the very largest crawls against the most aggressive anti-bot stacks where IP overlap drives block rates, Bright Data's 400M+ or Oxylabs' 175M+ may still edge ahead. No enterprise SLA tier at the $1/GB price point.
import requests
proxy = "http://USER:PASS@gw.dataimpulse.com:823"
proxies = {"http": proxy, "https": proxy}
response = requests.get("https://target.com", proxies=proxies)
3. IPRoyal: best subscription value with non-expiring traffic
IPRoyal is the strongest price/flexibility pick once you commit to a subscription. Residential bandwidth starts at $1.75/GB on subscription, and unused traffic rolls forward indefinitely. That matters when your crawl calendar is uneven and you do not want a monthly reset wiping prepaid GB.
Why teams pick it: Predictable packs, 32M+ IPs across 195+ countries, city targeting without enterprise sales, good fit for growth-stage teams that still need real residential exits.
Pricing (May 2026): PAYG starts around $7/GB at 1 GB, drops to $4.90/GB on standard volume tiers, and reaches $1.75/GB at the 500 GB+ commitment level. Bandwidth never expires across all tiers.
Honest limitations: Lower success rate than Bright Data on the very hardest targets (Amazon strict listings, LinkedIn at scale). 32M IP pool is smaller than DataImpulse (90M+) and Bright Data (400M+); IP overlap can show up on aggressive anti-bot stacks. No managed unblocking layer.
See IPRoyal residential pricing
4. Proxy-Seller: all proxy types, no enterprise minimums
Proxy-Seller covers all five proxy types (datacenter IPv4, IPv6, ISP, residential, and mobile) from one account, at prices that stay competitive against residential-only specialists. The residential pool sits at 20M+ IPs across 220+ countries with per-request or timer-based rotation.
Best for: Teams that need city and ISP-level residential targeting without committing to enterprise pricing tiers. Proxy-Seller's 23-country ISP coverage handles static IP workflows (account warm-up, long-session retail scraping) that pure residential providers handle less well.
Pricing (May 2026): $1.99/500MB at entry scale, dropping to $2.20/GB at 100GB ($25/10GB ≈ $2.50/GB at mid tier). Volume (up to 40%), duration, and auto-renewal (up to 12%) discounts stack. Datacenter IPv6 is available at $0.08/IP for IPv6-compatible targets (Google, Facebook, Reddit).
Honest limitations: Residential pool (20M+ IPs) is smaller than Bright Data's 400M+ and Oxylabs' 175M+. City targeting on residential requires contacting support after purchase, not a self-serve selector. No non-expiring bandwidth model.
Risk: Free replacement or refund within 24 hours if a proxy doesn't work.
Discount: Apply code AUTOMATE15 at checkout for 15% off datacenter, IPv6, ISP, and residential (10% off mobile), stacking on top of the bulk and duration discounts.
5. Oxylabs: scale and speed story
Oxylabs competes head-on with Bright Data on pool size (175M+ residential IPs across 195+ countries) and performance marketing. The 2026 residential pool now ships with HTTP/3 protocol support and tiered pricing: $6/GB on the 5GB Starter down to $2.50/GB on the 1TB Corporate plan. Independent benchmarks fluctuate; what stays true is that both vendors target large commercial crawlers with global coverage.
Why teams pick it: Very large jobs, dedicated account teams, and feature bundles similar to other top-tier providers.
Honest limitations: Starter pricing ($6/GB) is uncompetitive against DataImpulse and IPRoyal for small jobs. Self-serve trial requires sales contact. Pool size is large but not the largest in the category.
Regulatory note (2026)
The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) opened a review of peer-to-peer residential proxy consent practices in early 2026. The investigation targets providers that lease device IPs without sufficiently informed participant consent. Before scaling a P2P residential pool, verify your provider documents how peers opt in and what they're told. Bright Data and IPRoyal publish explicit consent documentation. DataImpulse sources its pool through its own bandwidth-sharing app and describes the network as ethically sourced with participant consent; review their current consent policy before contracting at volume. Check Proxy-Seller's terms if you are subject to EU data-handling obligations.
Managed layer: why some teams skip raw proxies
Raw proxy URLs still leave you with fingerprinting, retries, and parsing. Apify Actors bundle execution and maintenance: you pay in compute units (and sometimes per-result fees) instead of tuning every session yourself.
Apify Proxy ships three proxy groups in one account: RESIDENTIAL at $8/GB, datacenter at $1/IP overage (5 IPs free on the free plan, 30 to 500 included on paid tiers), and GOOGLE_SERP at $2.5/1,000 SERPs on Starter dropping to $1.7/1,000 at Business. You attach a group by username (groups-RESIDENTIAL, groups-GOOGLE_SERP, etc.) and route through proxy.apify.com:8000. Residential sticky sessions default to one minute and can be extended by reusing the session ID; datacenter sticky sessions hold for up to 26 hours. Crawlee and the Apify SDK wire this up automatically, but any HTTP client can connect with the proxy URL.
There is no single best provider. Bright Data and Oxylabs lead for enterprise buyers who need the largest pools, SLAs, and add-on products. DataImpulse is the cheapest first-party residential option at $1/GB pay-as-you-go with non-expiring traffic. IPRoyal is the most efficient subscription choice for bursty mid-volume workloads. Proxy-Seller is the one to pick if you need datacenter, ISP, IPv6, residential, and mobile under a single invoice. If you already run on Apify, start with Apify Proxy and add a third-party pool only when you hit a coverage or pricing limit.
Pay-as-you-go list pricing in May 2026 runs from $1/GB at DataImpulse (cheapest first-party residential) up to $8/GB at Apify Proxy residential. Between those, IPRoyal subscription starts at $1.75/GB, Oxylabs sits at $2.50 to $6/GB on tiered plans, and Bright Data is $4/GB with the RESIGB50 promo (list $8). Large monthly commitments drop the marquee vendors closer to $2.50/GB. Promos rotate, so verify the live pricing page before budgeting.
IPRoyal and DataImpulse both advertise **non-expiring** bandwidth on standard residential plans. With IPRoyal, unused GB on residential packs roll until consumed. With DataImpulse, the pay-as-you-go balance never resets across all four tiers (Intro, Basic, Advanced, Custom+). Product details vary by SKU, so confirm on the checkout page before purchase.
Yes for many jobs. Apify Proxy ships three groups inside the platform: RESIDENTIAL ($8/GB), datacenter ($1/IP overage after the plan quota), and GOOGLE_SERP ($2.5/1,000 SERPs on Starter, $1.7/1,000 at Business). You attach a group through the Crawlee or Apify SDK proxy config, or by username when routing through proxy.apify.com:8000. Bring in Bright Data, DataImpulse, IPRoyal, or another vendor only when a target needs a pool or feature Apify Proxy does not cover (large residential volumes at sub-$8/GB, sub-IP geo targeting, or managed Cloudflare unblocking).
Policies differ. Enterprise vendors may require verification or a sales contact, while self-serve vendors usually sell small trial packs. DataImpulse offers a 7-day money-back guarantee on the first purchase (excluding crypto), which functions like a no-risk trial at the $5 Intro tier. Apify's free plan includes $5 in platform credits plus 5 free datacenter proxy IPs, enough to prototype small runs before committing to a GB plan.
Skip them for bandwidth-heavy downloads, when datacenter IPs already succeed, or when you need ultra-stable long sessions (consider ISP-dedicated products instead). Residential shines when **ASN reputation** is the gating factor.