Guide · Proxy basics
How to choose a proxy provider: a buyer's checklist
Choose a proxy provider by checking, in this order: how its IP addresses are sourced and with what consent; whether its billing model fits the shape of your workload; whether unused bandwidth expires; whether it can target the countries and cities you need; which protocols and session controls it supports; and whether its invoices will satisfy your finance team. Then run your own workload on it before committing, because no published figure predicts how a specific target will respond to a specific pool.
Reviewed 30 Oct 2026
The short answer
- Ask about sourcing first. A 2019 IEEE Security & Privacy study of residential proxy services found many proxy hosts that appeared to be compromised devices, despite providers' claims of willing participation.
- Match the billing model to the workload: per gigabyte suits many small requests, per IP suits a few long-lived identities, and a monthly plan only suits steady use.
- Find out what happens to unused bandwidth at the end of the month. Expiry turns a bursty workload into waste.
- Check targeting granularity, HTTP and SOCKS5 support, how sessions are controlled and how long they can hold.
- For EU business purchases, an invoice needs the supplier's and — where you are liable for the VAT — your VAT number and the words “reverse charge”.
- Trial with your own targets and measure cost per successful page, not price per gigabyte.
The checklist at a glance
| Criterion | Question to ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| IP sourcing | How are residential and mobile exits obtained, and how is consent recorded and withdrawn? | Ethics, legal exposure and the reputation of the addresses you share |
| Acceptable use | What may customers do, and how is it enforced? | Other customers' behaviour on shared IPs affects your results |
| Billing model | Per GB, per IP, per port or subscription? Minimum purchase? | Decides whether light or heavy pages are cheap |
| Expiry | Does unused bandwidth expire, and when? | Bursty or seasonal work loses value on expiring plans |
| Targeting | Countries, cities, regions or networks — and how is it selected? | Determines whether you can collect the market you need |
| Protocols | HTTP(S) and SOCKS5? Same credentials for both? | Some tools only speak one |
| Sessions | Rotating and sticky? Maximum hold time? What happens when an exit drops? | Multi-step flows break without stable sessions |
| Authentication | Username and password, IP allowlist, or both? | Cloud workers often change IPs |
| Usage and API | Per-subuser usage, an API to create credentials, usage export? | Cost allocation and automation |
| Invoices and tax | Correct VAT treatment, VAT IDs, legal entity on the invoice? | Procurement and bookkeeping |
| Trial | Free trial, small paid starter, or refund terms? | How cheaply you can test with real targets |
IP sourcing and consent
Residential and mobile exits are other people's connections, so how a provider obtains them is the first question, not the last. The 2019 study by Mi and colleagues, presented at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, examined residential proxy services and found many hosts that appeared to be compromised machines, including IoT devices, although the providers said hosts joined willingly.
Ask any provider how exit devices are recruited, what the participant is told and paid, how consent is recorded, and how a participant can leave. Ask what the provider's acceptable-use policy forbids and how it is enforced — on shared pools, what other customers do shows up in the reputation of the addresses you use. Ours is published as our acceptable use policy.
Billing model, expiry and what a gigabyte buys
- Per gigabyte. You pay for traffic, not addresses. Good for HTML fetching and APIs where pages are small; expensive for full browser rendering. See per-GB pricing.
- Per IP per month. You pay for dedicated addresses regardless of traffic. Good for a few long-lived identities with heavy traffic each.
- Subscription with a monthly allowance. Predictable for steady load; unused allowance often expires at the end of the period.
- Volume tiers and minimums. Check the price at the volume you will actually buy, and whether a minimum purchase forces you above it.
Expiry is the term buyers overlook most. If your work is seasonal or bursty, bandwidth that lapses monthly costs more than its headline price suggests. On ours, bandwidth is bought once and does not expire; static ISP addresses are the monthly exception. To turn a workload into gigabytes, see how to calculate proxy costs.
Targeting, protocols and sessions
- Granularity. Country targeting is standard; city or region targeting is not universal. Check that the specific cities you need are offered, and test that exits geolocate there — see testing a proxy's location.
- How targeting is expressed. Parameters in the username, separate ports or an API. Username parameters make it easy to vary country and session per request from code.
- Protocols. HTTP proxies with
CONNECTcover most tools; SOCKS5 covers clients that only speak it. Check that both use the same credentials. - Sessions. Rotating exits for independent requests; sticky sessions for multi-step flows that need one IP throughout. Ask the maximum hold and what happens when an exit goes offline mid-session.
- Authentication. Username and password works from anywhere; an IP allowlist is simpler for fixed servers. Errors should arrive as a clear
407— see proxy authentication.
Invoices, VAT and procurement
For EU businesses, the European Commission's VAT invoicing guidance lists what a full invoice contains: date, sequential number, supplier and customer names and addresses, the customer's VAT number where the customer is liable for the tax, a description, unit price, and the VAT rate and amount. Article 226 of the VAT Directive adds that where the customer is liable for the VAT, the invoice must carry the mention “Reverse charge”.
Beyond tax, ask whether purchases are one-off or recurring — a recurring vendor often triggers a different approval process — which currency you are billed in, and which legal entity issues the invoice. This is general information, not tax advice.
Run a trial that tells you something
- Run the same job, on the same targets, at the hours you will run in production, on each candidate.
- Measure the share of requests that return the content you need — not just HTTP 200.
- Measure median and 90th-percentile bytes per successful page and the retry rate.
- Compute cost per 1,000 successful pages: price per GB × GB used ÷ successful pages × 1,000.
- Check location accuracy on a sample of exits, and latency at the 50th and 95th percentile.
If a provider offers no free trial, a small paid starter purchase does the same job. Ours lets you run the same job on all three rotating pools and compare — see pricing. For background on network types, read residential vs datacenter proxies.
FAQ
Questions
Something not covered? Write to contact@arcproxies.io.
What should I look for in a residential proxy provider?
Start with how the residential exits are sourced and how consent works, then check the billing model, bandwidth expiry, country and city targeting, protocol support, session control and invoicing. Finish with a trial on your own targets.
Is per-GB or per-IP pricing better?
Per-GB pricing is usually cheaper for many small requests across many exits, such as HTML or API collection. Per-IP pricing is usually cheaper for a few long-lived identities that each carry a lot of traffic.
Does proxy bandwidth expire?
It depends on the provider. Subscription plans commonly reset or expire unused bandwidth each billing period; some providers sell bandwidth that does not expire. Check before buying, especially for seasonal workloads.
How can I tell whether a provider sources IPs ethically?
Ask how exit devices are recruited, what participants are told and paid, how consent is recorded and how they can withdraw, and whether the provider enforces an acceptable-use policy. Vague answers are a signal in themselves.
Do I need SOCKS5 support?
Only if a tool you use speaks SOCKS5 but not HTTP proxies, or you need to proxy non-HTTP TCP traffic. Most scraping libraries and browsers work with HTTP proxies and the CONNECT method.
How should I compare providers on price?
Compare cost per successful page on your own targets, not the price per gigabyte. A cheaper pool that needs more retries, or that fails on your targets, can cost more per usable result.
Sources & review
Last reviewed by the ARC Proxies team. Prices are read from the live catalog at build time.
- [1]IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2019 (Mi et al.): Resident Evil: Understanding Residential IP Proxy as a Dark Service
- [2]European Commission: VAT invoicing
- [3]Council of the EU (via legislation.gov.uk): Directive 2006/112/EC (VAT Directive), Article 226
- [4]IETF: RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics (407 Proxy Authentication Required)
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