Cheap Residential Proxies: The Shortlist We Would Actually Price
The cheapest residential proxy in this set is Webshare at $1.40/GB, but the cheapest provider we have tested at scale is Decodo at $2.00/GB. In our pipeline, datacenter proxies fell to roughly 22% success on hard Google review pages, and moving those jobs to residential is what made the collection viable. We may earn a commission from links in this article, but the ranking separates our Decodo testing from providers we have only researched.
Cheap Residential Proxies Compared
Cheap residential proxies are not cheap if they burn retries. A $1.40/GB pool that needs 3 retries per usable page loses to a $2.00/GB pool that clears the job cleanly.
Prices below are residential proxy prices only, as of May 2026.
| Rank | Provider | Residential price | Pool size | Testing status | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Webshare | $1.40/GB | 80M+ residential IPs | Researched | Lowest sticker price |
| 2 | IPRoyal | $1.75/GB | 32M+ residential IPs | Researched | Cheap bursty workloads |
| 3 | Decodo | $2.00/GB | 115M+ residential IPs | Tested | Hard targets, real scraping pipelines |
| 4 | Oxylabs | $2.50/GB floor | 175M+ residential IPs | Researched | Enterprise volume |
| 5 | Bright Data | $4.00/GB promo | 400M+ residential IPs | Researched | Enterprise compliance and tooling |
Sources: Decodo, Bright Data, Oxylabs, Webshare, and IPRoyal pricing pages. (decodo.com) (brightdata.com) (oxylabs.io) (webshare.io) (iproyal.com)
Our Verdict On Cheap Residential Proxies
Decodo is the provider we trust from first-hand use. It starts at $2.00/GB for residential proxies, has 115M+ residential IPs across 195+ locations, and has been the workhorse in our scraping stack.
Webshare wins the sticker-price race at $1.40/GB. That matters for easy targets, broad testing, and teams watching every dollar.
IPRoyal sits between them at $1.75/GB. Its non-expiring traffic makes sense for teams that scrape in bursts instead of burning bandwidth every day.
Oxylabs and Bright Data are not the cheapest residential proxy choices for small buyers. Oxylabs reaches $2.50/GB at high volume, while Bright Data starts at $4.00/GB under the listed promo.
What We Tested First-Hand
We tested Decodo first-hand at scale. We have not yet benchmarked Bright Data, Oxylabs, Webshare, or IPRoyal in our own production jobs.
When we ran datacenter proxies against hard Google review pages, success collapsed to roughly 22%. That failure rate made the job unusable because retries inflated cost and slowed the queue.
When we moved the same class of jobs to residential proxies, the work became viable. The lesson was blunt: residential IPs cost more per GB, but failed datacenter requests cost more per usable record.
We measured that the proxy alone was not enough. Our working setup pairs residential proxies with Camoufox, a hardened Firefox build, running under xvfb, plus consent-wall handling and token replay for deep pagination.
Why The Cheapest Proxy Is Not Always The Lowest Cost
A $1.40/GB proxy looks cheaper than a $2.00/GB proxy. That comparison breaks once retries enter the bill.
Take a 100,000-page scrape. If the cheap pool clears 60% and the better pool clears 90%, the cheap pool needs far more attempts to land the same records.
Residential bandwidth also burns faster on browser-heavy jobs. A real browser loads HTML, scripts, images, redirects, and consent flows unless you control request blocking carefully.
In our pipeline, geography also changes data quality. We use region-specific ports, including Mumbai for India and regional ports for the Gulf, because review pages and retail pages change by local IP.
Provider Notes
Decodo
Decodo is our tested pick for cheap residential proxies that still work on hostile targets. Residential pricing starts at $2.00/GB as of May 2026, and the pool is listed at 115M+ residential IPs across 195+ locations. (decodo.com)
The original insight from our work is simple: Decodo did not win because it was the cheapest line item. It won because it kept hard scraping jobs moving after datacenter proxies fell to about 22% success.
Decodo also has scraping APIs starting at $0.09 per 1,000 requests in the supplied provider data. That matters when the team wants proxies and managed collection paths from one vendor.
Webshare
Webshare is the cheapest residential proxy provider in this comparison at $1.40/GB as of May 2026. Its residential pool is listed at 80M+ IPs, and its free tier gives 10 proxies with up to 1GB per month. (webshare.io)
This is the budget pick. Use it for low-risk scraping, proxy testing, and easy targets where your own anti-block stack handles rotation, headers, browser behavior, and retries.
We have not benchmarked Webshare first-hand in our production review scraping pipeline, so we do not present a measured success rate.
IPRoyal
IPRoyal lists residential pricing from $1.75/GB as of May 2026, with 32M+ residential IPs across 195+ countries. (iproyal.com)
Its best pricing feature is non-expiring residential traffic. That is useful for bursty jobs where a team buys bandwidth, pauses, then resumes later.
We researched IPRoyal from public pricing and docs. We have not tested it against our hard Google review workflows yet.
Oxylabs
Oxylabs lists a $2.50/GB residential floor at high volume as of May 2026, with 175M+ residential IPs across 195+ countries. (oxylabs.io)
This is a premium enterprise option, not the first place we would send a small scraper hunting for cheap residential proxies.
The provider data also lists Web Scraper API pricing at $0.25 per 1,000 results. That makes Oxylabs more interesting when the team wants API output, not only raw proxy bandwidth.
Bright Data
Bright Data lists residential proxies at $4.00/GB under the 50% promo rate as of May 2026, with 400M+ residential IPs across 195 countries. (brightdata.com)
That pool size is the largest in this comparison. The price is also the highest residential entry price in this table.
Bright Data fits enterprise buyers who need compliance paperwork, managed tooling, datasets, Web Unlocker, SERP API, and a large vendor contract. It is not the cheap default.
How To Choose A Cheap Residential Proxy
Pick Webshare if the target is easy and price per GB is the main constraint. The $1.40/GB entry price is the lowest in this set.
Pick IPRoyal if traffic expiration matters. The $1.75/GB floor and non-expiring traffic fit uneven scraping schedules.
Pick Decodo if the target fights back. We tested it in real scraping workflows, and the $2.00/GB residential price is low enough for serious jobs.
Pick Oxylabs if the team has enterprise volume and wants scraper APIs. The $2.50/GB residential floor needs scale to make sense.
Pick Bright Data if pool size and managed infrastructure matter more than price. The 400M+ pool is the draw, not the $4.00/GB entry rate.
The Stack Matters More Than The Proxy
Residential IPs solve only the IP-reputation layer. They do not solve browser fingerprinting, consent walls, pagination tokens, request pacing, or local content variance.
In our pipeline, the working pattern is residential proxy plus credible browser plus target-specific state handling. We run Camoufox under xvfb because hard targets detect cheap HTTP clients faster than they detect residential IPs.
We also rotate by outlet and region. A Gulf outlet gets a regional port. An India outlet gets Mumbai. Geography is not decoration, it changes the page you collect.
FAQ
What is the cheapest residential proxy provider here?
Webshare is cheapest by sticker price at $1.40/GB as of May 2026. We have researched it, but we have not tested it first-hand in our production scraping pipeline.
What is the cheapest residential proxy provider ProxyPeers has tested?
Decodo. We tested Decodo first-hand, and its residential pricing starts at $2.00/GB as of May 2026.
Are residential proxies always better than datacenter proxies?
No. Datacenter proxies are cheaper and faster on easy targets. On hard review pages, we measured datacenter success at roughly 22%, so residential became the practical option.
Is price per GB the right way to compare residential proxies?
It is only the first filter. The real metric is cost per usable record after retries, blocked pages, browser overhead, and failed sessions.
Which cheap residential proxy should a scraper start with?
Start with Webshare for price testing, IPRoyal for non-expiring traffic, and Decodo when the target has real anti-bot pressure. For enterprise managed scraping, compare Oxylabs and Bright Data.