Cheapest Residential Proxies in 2026: Price Per GB Is Not the Whole Job
Webshare is the cheapest residential proxy provider on raw price at $1.40/GB as of May 2026. Decodo is not the cheapest at $2.00/GB, but it is the only provider here we have tested first-hand at scale, and it is the one we use when hard targets start blocking. Some links in this guide are affiliate links, which means ProxyPeers may earn a commission if you buy through them.
Cheapest Residential Proxy Providers Compared
| Rank | Provider | Residential Price | Testing Status | Pool Size | Best Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Webshare | $1.40/GB | Researched | 80M+ residential IPs | Lowest-cost residential scraping |
| 2 | IPRoyal | $1.75/GB | Researched | Global residential pool | Bursty jobs with non-expiring traffic |
| 3 | Decodo | $2.00/GB | Tested | 115M+ residential IPs | Hard targets, review scraping, geo-sensitive collection |
| 4 | Oxylabs | $2.50/GB at 1TB commit | Researched | 175M+ residential IPs | Enterprise scraping at volume |
| 5 | Bright Data | $4.00/GB promo | Researched | 400M+ residential IPs | Large enterprise teams |
Prices are residential proxy prices, not datacenter prices, as of May 2026 from provider pricing pages.
The price table gives the entry cost. It does not tell you whether the job finishes. We measured datacenter proxies collapsing to roughly 22% success on hard Google review pages. Moving those same jobs to residential made the workload viable. That is the difference between cheap traffic and usable data.
Our Verdict: Cheapest Is Webshare, Safest Tested Pick Is Decodo
Webshare wins the raw price fight at $1.40/GB. That is the lowest residential rate in this group, and its free tier gives 10 proxies and up to 1GB/month with no card.
Decodo wins our tested-workload pick at $2.00/GB. We ran it in production-style scraping jobs where datacenter IPs failed on review pages. Residential IPs fixed the IP reputation layer, but only after we paired them with a credible browser stack.
That distinction matters. We tested Decodo first-hand. Bright Data, Oxylabs, Webshare, and IPRoyal are researched from public pricing pages, provider docs, and community reports. Their ratings here are editorial assessments, not ProxyPeers benchmark results.
Provider Breakdown
Webshare: Cheapest Residential Proxy Price
Webshare starts at $1.40/GB for rotating residential proxies as of May 2026. That beats Decodo at $2.00/GB, IPRoyal at $1.75/GB, Oxylabs at $2.50/GB at high volume, and Bright Data at $4.00/GB promo pricing.
The case for Webshare is simple. You get low-cost residential traffic, fast self-serve onboarding, and a real free tier. For price-sensitive scraping on targets that do not fight hard, that is the cleanest starting point.
The tradeoff is the missing managed layer. Webshare does not give you a scraping API or unblocker in this comparison. You handle browser fingerprints, retries, bans, headers, CAPTCHAs, and session policy yourself.
IPRoyal: Cheap Residential Traffic With Non-Expiring GB
IPRoyal starts at $1.75/GB for residential proxies as of May 2026. That puts it second-cheapest in this group.
The useful detail is non-expiring pay-as-you-go traffic. If your workload runs in bursts, that billing model beats monthly commits. A team scraping 3 days per month should care more about traffic expiry than a team running workers every hour.
IPRoyal also covers ISP, datacenter, mobile, Web Unblocker, and Video Scraper API products. The residential price is attractive. The mobile rate at $10.11/GB is not.
Decodo: The Cheapest Provider We Have Tested at Scale
Decodo starts at $2.00/GB for residential proxies as of May 2026. It has 115M+ residential IPs across 195+ locations.
This is the only provider in this guide we have used first-hand at scale. When we ran hard review scraping jobs, datacenter proxies fell to roughly 22% success. Moving those jobs to Decodo residential made them viable.
The proxy was only one part of the fix. In our pipeline, hard targets need residential IPs, Camoufox under xvfb, consent-wall handling, and token replay for deep pagination. Blocks are a system problem. Buying a residential pool does not remove the need for browser credibility.
Decodo also has the cheapest scraping API entry here at $0.09 per 1,000 requests for its Web Scraping API. That matters when the proxy layer stops being the only cost center.
Oxylabs: Cheap Only at High Volume
Oxylabs lists a residential floor of $2.50/GB as of May 2026, but that rate applies at a 1TB commit. Low-volume residential sits around $5-6/GB from the provided pricing data.
That pricing shape makes Oxylabs a poor fit for small jobs and a serious fit for teams with steady volume. The provider has 175M+ residential IPs and a Web Scraper API at $0.25 per 1,000 results.
We have not benchmarked Oxylabs first-hand for ProxyPeers yet. On paper, it competes with Bright Data on enterprise scraping, support, and API breadth.
Bright Data: Largest Pool, Highest Residential Entry Price
Bright Data starts at $4.00/GB promo pricing for residential proxies as of May 2026, with regular pricing at $8.00/GB in the supplied data. It has 400M+ residential IPs across 195 countries.
That pool size is the reason enterprise buyers keep it on shortlists. Bright Data also sells Web Unlocker, SERP API, Scraping Browser, scraper APIs, and datasets.
The price is the problem for cost-first buyers. A job that burns 500GB/month costs $700 at Webshare’s $1.40/GB entry price and $2,000 at Bright Data’s $4.00/GB promo price. That gap pays for a lot of retry logic.
Price Per GB Is Not the Same as Cost Per Record
Residential proxy pricing starts with dollars per GB, but scraping cost ends at dollars per successful record.
A cheap $1.40/GB provider loses its edge if block rates force 3 retries per page. A $2.00/GB provider wins if sessions hold, geo targeting is accurate, and fewer pages get thrown away.
We saw this directly on hard review pages. Datacenter proxies gave us roughly 22% success. Residential traffic changed the economics because failed requests stopped dominating the run.
The original lesson is blunt. Geography is data quality. We rotate IPs per outlet and use region-specific ports, including Mumbai for India and regional ports for the Gulf, because the page must match what a local user sees. A cheaper proxy that returns the wrong local page produces cheap garbage.
What To Buy Based On Workload
Choose Webshare at $1.40/GB if the target is easy, the budget is tight, and your team can own the anti-block stack.
Choose IPRoyal at $1.75/GB if your scraping runs in bursts and non-expiring residential traffic saves money.
Choose Decodo at $2.00/GB if the target fights back and you want the cheapest provider in this list that ProxyPeers has tested first-hand at scale.
Choose Oxylabs at $2.50/GB only if you have high-volume commit levels, enterprise needs, or scraper API workflows that justify the spend.
Choose Bright Data at $4.00/GB promo pricing if pool size, compliance process, and managed scraping products matter more than raw price.
Final Ranking
- Webshare: cheapest residential proxy price at $1.40/GB.
- IPRoyal: best cheap option for bursty jobs at $1.75/GB.
- Decodo: best tested pick at $2.00/GB.
- Oxylabs: enterprise value at volume, starting at $2.50/GB with a 1TB commit.
- Bright Data: largest pool, highest entry price at $4.00/GB promo.
If you only care about the cheapest residential proxies, buy Webshare. If you care about the cheapest provider we have actually trusted on hard scraping jobs, buy Decodo.
FAQ
What is the cheapest residential proxy provider?
Webshare is the cheapest provider in this comparison at $1.40/GB for rotating residential proxies as of May 2026.
Are residential proxies cheaper than datacenter proxies?
No. Datacenter proxies are cheaper. Webshare datacenter starts at $0.018/IP, while its residential plan starts at $1.40/GB. Residential costs more because the IPs look closer to real user traffic.
Which cheap residential proxy has ProxyPeers tested first-hand?
Decodo. We tested Decodo residential at scale. We have not yet first-hand benchmarked Bright Data, Oxylabs, Webshare, or IPRoyal for ProxyPeers.
Why not always buy the cheapest residential proxies?
Because block rate changes the real price. A $1.40/GB proxy that fails often costs more per successful record than a $2.00/GB proxy that completes the job.
Do residential proxies solve scraping blocks by themselves?
No. In our pipeline, hard targets need residential proxies plus Camoufox under xvfb, consent-wall handling, and token replay for deep pagination. The IP matters, but the browser and workflow decide whether the scrape finishes.