Choosing the best residential proxies comes down to three questions: where the IPs come from, how much control you get over rotation and location, and what you will pay per gigabyte once a project moves from testing into production. Residential proxies route your requests through IP addresses that internet service providers assign to real homes, so target sites see ordinary consumer traffic rather than a server farm. That makes them the default choice when a site serves different content by location, or when datacenter ranges get throttled long before you have collected the public data you need.
The category also carries more risk than any other proxy type. A residential IP belongs to a person, and the industry has a history of networks built from malware or apps that never asked for consent. Law enforcement and Google have taken down several large proxy networks since the start of 2026, and businesses that bought access to those networks were left exposed. For that reason, this ranking of residential proxy providers weighs published sourcing and consent policies, customer vetting and abuse controls as heavily as pool size or price. If you are new to the subject, our beginner’s guide to web scraping covers the fundamentals first.
Every figure below, from pool sizes to success rates, is a vendor claim taken from each provider’s own website in October 2026. Prices move often, so treat them as a starting point for your own trial rather than a quote.
Residential Proxy Providers At A Glance
Company
Headquarters
Best For
Standout Trait or Pricing Model
Oxylabs
Vilnius, Lithuania
Enterprise data teams
175M+ IPs claimed, ZIP, coordinate and ASN targeting
Bright Data
San Francisco, USA
Large compliance-led programs
400M+ monthly IPs claimed, strict KYC, SOC 2 and ISO 27001
Decodo
Vilnius, Lithuania
Mid-market teams wanting low per-GB rates
Monthly plans from $2 to $3.75 per GB, PAYG at $4 per GB
SOAX
London, UK
Teams that need fine rotation rules
Rotate per request, per N requests, per time or on error
Rayobyte
Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
US buyers who want visible abuse controls
Opt-in sourcing, blocked sensitive destinations, PAYG from $3.50 per GB
Massive
Remote-first, US company
Buyers who prioritize consent audits
SDK opt-in with audit trail, SOC 2 Type 1, AppEsteem certified
IPRoyal
Ajman, UAE
Irregular or seasonal workloads
Traffic that never expires, sticky sessions up to 7 days
Evomi
Ermatingen, Switzerland
Cost-sensitive teams that still want audits
From $0.49 per GB on a 100 GB plan, ISO 27001
Webshare
California, USA
Self-serve buyers scaling gradually
Tiered monthly plans from $3.50 down to $1.40 per GB
DataImpulse
St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Pay-as-you-go budgets
From $1 per GB PAYG, non-expiring traffic
Best Residential Proxies In 2026
1. Oxylabs — Enterprise Pool With A Published Acquisition Handbook
Oxylabs is the most complete residential offer we reviewed for teams that run data collection as a core business function. The company claims a pool of more than 175 million IPs spread across 195 countries, and its targeting goes further than most rivals: country, state, city, continent, ZIP code, coordinates and ASN are all available as filters. For price intelligence or localized search monitoring, coordinate and ZIP targeting matter, because results often change from one suburb to the next.
What moves Oxylabs to the top is the paper trail. Its product page states that the pool consists only of consenting, informed users and links to a proxy acquisition handbook and a Trust Center. Advanced filters, such as targeting by operating system, can require a quick KYC check, which is a sensible gate. Oxylabs advertises an average 99.95% success rate, though the page quotes two different response times (0.41 seconds and an average of 0.6 seconds), so test on your own targets.
Pricing is tiered per gigabyte, from $6 per GB at small volumes down to $2.50 per GB above 1,000 GB, with monthly plans starting at $30 and enterprise agreements from $2,500 a month. That makes Oxylabs a premium choice at low volume and a competitive one at scale.
Sticky sessions and flexible rotation options
Coordinate, ZIP and ASN targeting for hyperlocal results
Public sourcing handbook and Trust Center documentation
Best for: enterprise teams running price, search or ad verification programs that need documented sourcing for procurement.
2. Bright Data — The Largest Claimed Network, Gated By Strict KYC
Bright Data claims access to more than 400 million residential IPs per month across 195 countries, the largest figure on this list. Targeting covers country, state, city, ZIP code, carrier and ASN, geo-targeting is included at no extra charge, and the network supports both rotating and sticky sessions with unlimited concurrent sessions. The company quotes a 99.95% success rate, a response time of about 0.7 seconds and 99.99% network uptime on its enterprise tier.
Compliance is the other half of the story. Bright Data describes a strict KYC process for customers, lists GDPR and CCPA compliance, and cites ISO 27001, SOC 2, SOC 3 and CSA STAR Level 1. Its residential peers opt in through an SDK inside partner apps in exchange for an ad-free or upgraded experience, and they can opt out. Security researchers have argued in 2026 that single in-app consent prompts set a low bar across the industry, Bright Data’s included, so legal teams should read the consent documentation rather than rely on the label.
The pricing page lists an $8 per GB pay-as-you-go rate that is frequently discounted, and monthly plans that work out to roughly $3 to $4 per GB, with custom pricing above 1 TB. Expect to go through onboarding before you get full access.
Best for: large organizations that want the widest geographic reach and are comfortable with a formal vetting process.
3. Decodo — Enterprise Features At Mid-Market Per-GB Rates
Decodo, the company formerly known as Smartproxy, sits between the enterprise giants and the budget sellers. It claims more than 115 million IPs in 195+ locations and publishes per-country pool counts, including more than 7.1 million US IPs and 2.3 million in Germany, which helps when you are sizing a localized project. Continent, country, state, city, ZIP and ASN targeting are included at no extra cost, and the network supports HTTP(S) and SOCKS5.
Rotation can happen on every request or on an interval, and sticky sessions hold an IP for anything from minutes to days. Decodo reports a 99.92% success rate, sub-0.5 second average response time and 99.99% uptime. The company states that all residential IPs are ethically sourced through transparent opt-in programs and links to a separate sourcing policy.
Pricing is transparent: monthly plans run from $3.75 per GB on a 3 GB plan down to $2 per GB at 1,000 GB, and pay-as-you-go traffic costs $4 per GB. A three-day, 100 MB trial lets you check speed and block rates before committing.
Per-country pool sizes published on the product page
Full targeting stack included without surcharges
Short paid trial before a monthly commitment
Best for: growing data teams that want most enterprise features without enterprise minimums.
4. SOAX — The Most Granular Rotation Rules We Found
SOAX, based in London, claims a combined pool of more than 191 million residential and mobile IPs across 195+ countries. Its main differentiator is rotation logic. You can rotate on every request, after a set number of requests, after a fixed time, or whenever a request fails, and you can lock a session to a single node when a workflow needs continuity. Few residential proxy providers expose that many rotation triggers without custom engineering.
Targeting covers country, region, city, ISP and ASN, and SOAX says failed requests show the reason they failed, which shortens debugging. The pricing model is credit-based: one credit equals one dollar, and the per-GB rate depends on your plan and the country tier. The page lists US traffic at $3 per GB on its example tier. A free sandbox account lets you explore the dashboard, but real traffic requires a paid plan or credits. Crypto payments require KYC, and the company publishes a KYC and KYB policy.
The product page itself says little about how residential IPs are sourced, beyond linking a CSR policy, so ask for the sourcing documentation during procurement.
Best for: engineering teams that want to tune rotation behavior per target without building their own session manager.
5. Rayobyte — A US Provider That Publishes Its Abuse Controls
Rayobyte, headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, is the most explicit provider on this list about what it will not allow. Banks, government sites, login pages and sites that report abuse are blocked for all customers, unusual usage triggers ID checks, and abuse reports get a response within one business day. Its Scale Residential product is sold only to verified businesses after a compliance review.
On sourcing, Rayobyte says its residential IPs come from more than 50 million opted-in devices each month, on a network it owns. People join by installing a free game or utility, or an app that pays for sharing, and sharing starts only after a clear consent screen with a visible opt-out. The company lists EWDCI certification and GDPR and CCPA compliance.
The Premium Residential product supports country, state, city, ZIP, ASN and device operating system targeting, plus SOCKS5, SOCKS5 UDP, HTTP/3, HTTP and HTTPS. Sticky sessions last up to 120 minutes. Pay-as-you-go pricing starts at $3.50 per GB for small volumes and falls to $0.70 per GB between 1,000 and 4,999 GB, which is very competitive at scale.
Best for: US companies whose legal teams want written abuse policies and a domestic vendor.
6. Massive — Consent-First Network With A Source-To-Request Audit Trail
Massive built its pitch around consent. Every IP joins through the Massive SDK inside partner apps, users see an opt-in screen before any bandwidth is shared, and the company describes a full audit trail from the source device to each request. It also blocks categories of destinations at the network layer. Massive lists a SOC 2 Type 1 audit, GDPR and CCPA compliance, AppEsteem certification and AMTSO membership, which together make one of the stronger compliance stories among younger vendors.
The network spans 195+ countries with country, region and city targeting. Sticky sessions hold the same device for up to 12 minutes, which is shorter than most rivals, so it suits request-level collection better than long logged-out browsing sessions. Massive does not publish a total pool size or a success rate, and promises a 99.9% uptime SLA instead.
Self-serve plans start at $8 per GB on 10 GB and fall to $4.90 per GB on 100 GB, with enterprise residential from $3.20 per GB. Unused bandwidth rolls over on self-serve plans. The company is remote-first, with staff across the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia.
Best for: AI and research teams whose buyers ask detailed questions about how every IP was obtained.
7. IPRoyal — Non-Expiring Traffic And Week-Long Sticky Sessions
IPRoyal solves a problem many buyers do not notice until they waste money: monthly bandwidth that expires. Its residential traffic never expires, so a team that runs quarterly market research or a seasonal travel fare study can buy once and draw down as needed. Sticky sessions can hold an IP for up to seven days, the longest window we found on this list, and IPs can also be changed manually from the dashboard or API.
The company claims more than 64 million residential IPs across 195+ countries and regions, with country, state and city targeting over HTTP(S) or SOCKS5. It reports a 99.4% success rate and roughly 0.5 second response times. IPRoyal publishes a sourcing page explaining that IPs come through its direct partner Pawns.app, where users share bandwidth, as well as through established IP provider partnerships, and it maintains a KYC policy.
Subscription pricing starts at $7 per GB for 1 GB and drops to $5.25 per GB at 10 GB, with pay-as-you-go slightly higher and custom plans from $1.75 per GB at 10 TB. The headquarters is in Ajman, United Arab Emirates.
Best for: teams with irregular workloads that hate losing unused gigabytes.
8. Evomi — Swiss-Operated, Audited And Priced Below A Dollar Per GB
Evomi is the value pick for buyers who still want third-party audits. The Swiss company, based in Ermatingen, lists ISO 27001 certification, a completed SOC 2 Type II audit and EWDCI membership. It claims more than 54 million residential IPs in 195+ countries, sourced from volunteer nodes that opt in to share their connection.
Pricing is where Evomi stands apart. A 100 GB monthly plan costs $49, or $0.49 per GB, and pay-as-you-go traffic costs $0.99 per GB from 15 GB, falling to $0.79 per GB above 1,000 GB, with traffic that never expires. Country, region and city targeting are free on every plan, while ZIP codes and expert filters such as ISP, ASN and fraud score consume extra bandwidth.
Session control is flexible. A standard session holds an IP for 30 minutes by default and up to 24 hours, and a separate hard session keeps the same IP as long as the network allows. Evomi reports a 99.95% connection success rate and sub-0.5 second responses.
Best for: startups and research groups that need low cost per GB with documented security controls.
9. Webshare — Self-Serve Plans That Scale From 1 GB To 3 TB
Webshare, founded in 2018 and based in California, is best known for datacenter proxies, but its residential network has grown into a credible option for self-serve buyers. The company claims more than 80 million residential IPs across 195 countries and over 153,000 subnets, and it publishes per-country counts such as roughly 6.6 million US IPs. Targeting covers country, state, city, ZIP and ASN, set directly in the proxy username.
Plans are simple monthly tiers: $3.50 per GB on 1 GB, $2.25 per GB on 100 GB and $1.40 per GB on 3,000 GB. Webshare states that its residential pool is sourced from carefully selected partners that uphold compliance standards, and that it runs real-time anti-fraud screening to block high-risk users. Some restricted sites can be unlocked after a short KYC check. It advertises 99.97% uptime.
Because Webshare relies on partner supply rather than its own SDK, ask for the partner sourcing terms if your procurement process requires them.
Best for: small teams that want to start on a single gigabyte and scale on a published price ladder.
10. DataImpulse — One-Dollar Pay-As-You-Go With No Expiry
DataImpulse, operated by Softoria LLC in St. Petersburg, Florida, keeps residential pricing simple. Pay-as-you-go traffic starts at $1 per GB, larger plans bring it to $0.80 per GB at 1 TB, and unused gigabytes never expire. Rotating and sticky sessions are included on every plan.
The company claims more than 90 million residential IPs in 195 countries and describes the pool as first-party, with no resold networks and IPs sourced with full user consent. It reports a 99.51% success rate. Country targeting is free, while city, ASN and ZIP targeting cost extra, so budget for that if your project depends on local results.
DataImpulse is a lean offer: fewer compliance certifications than the vendors above, but a low entry price and a clear model for teams that want to test residential traffic before committing to a monthly plan.
Best for: pilots, small research projects and teams that want residential access without a subscription.
How To Choose Residential Proxies
Residential proxies are for organizations that collect publicly available web data at a scale where datacenter IPs stop returning accurate results. Typical legitimate uses include retail price intelligence, localized SEO and SERP monitoring, ad verification, brand protection against counterfeit listings, travel fare aggregation and market research. Teams gathering AI training data use them too, but should confirm each source’s terms of service and copyright position first. If your project is mainly about search data, our guide to web scraping for SEO explains where proxies fit.
Can The Provider Show How Its IPs Were Sourced?
This is the first filter, not the last. Ask for the sourcing policy, how consent is shown to device owners, whether they are compensated, and how they opt out. Networks built on hijacked devices have been seized by authorities in 2026, and customers of those networks faced reputational and compliance fallout. Providers that publish handbooks, audits or certifications give your legal team something concrete to review.
Does The Targeting Match Your Data Question?
Country targeting is enough for many market research projects. Local search monitoring and retail pricing often need city, ZIP or even coordinate targeting, and ad verification may need carrier or ASN filters. Check whether those filters cost extra, as several vendors charge more bandwidth or a higher rate for granular targeting.
How Long Do You Need To Keep The Same IP?
Rotating on every request suits independent page fetches, such as product pages or search results. Multi-step flows, like paging through a category or keeping a localized cart, need sticky sessions. Session limits on this list range from 12 minutes to seven days, so match the window to your workflow and remember that a residential IP can drop early when the device goes offline.
What Will You Really Pay Per Usable Gigabyte?
Headline per-GB prices only tell part of the story. Compare expiry rules, targeting surcharges and success rates on your own targets, because failed requests still consume bandwidth. A trial on a representative sample of pages tells you more than any comparison table. If you would rather not manage proxies at all, a managed service may cost less overall; our list of proxy-backed data extraction services covers that route.
Will The Provider Vet Customers And Enforce Limits?
A provider that knows its customers and blocks sensitive destinations protects the network you depend on. KYC checks, blocked categories such as banking and government login pages, and a fast abuse response are signs of a vendor that will still be operating next year. Whichever vendor you choose, collect responsibly: respect robots.txt and rate limits, cache what you can, and use official APIs where they exist.
Conclusion
The top residential proxy providers in 2026 are separated less by raw pool size than by how openly they explain where their IPs come from and who they sell to. Oxylabs and Bright Data lead for enterprise programs that need wide coverage and audit-ready documentation. Decodo and SOAX give mid-market teams strong targeting and rotation control at lower per-GB rates. Rayobyte and Massive stand out for consent and abuse policies, while IPRoyal, Evomi, Webshare and DataImpulse offer flexible pricing for smaller or irregular workloads.
Anyone searching for the best residential proxy providers 2026 has to offer should shortlist two or three vendors, run the same sample of target pages through each, and compare success rates, speed and cost per usable gigabyte. Pair the winner with clear internal rules on what you collect and why, and residential proxies become a dependable part of your data stack rather than a compliance risk. For teams that would rather buy finished data than run proxies, the best web scraping APIs handle rotation for you.
