Residential Proxies

Residential Proxy network is a proxy network that contains real IP addresses provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). These IP addresses are attached to physical locations across the globe at a country or a city level. Requests coming from residential proxies stand out for their legitimacy, allowing you to gather public data efficiently.

To find out more about what is residential proxies we recommend to read our blog.

Oxylabs offers a free trial for clients who want to test our Residential Proxies before committing to buying. During the trial period, you can access our Residential Proxy pool and use our IP addresses for your activities for free. For a free trial, fill in a contact form on our website by clicking "Book a demo" or email us at support@oxylabs.io. Please note that the free trial offer is only available once.

It highly depends on how you use residential proxies. There is no single answer to this question, as before engaging in any activities with proxies, you must make sure if scraping data does not breach any laws.

For more details, head over to our blog post “Is web scraping legal?” where we have this topic covered.

Free proxies can compromise your privacy by sharing your data with third parties. It's best to invest in a reputable residential proxy service. Oxylabs offer a Pay as you go pricing plan that allows you to pay based on the amount of traffic you use, avoiding overpaying for the entire subscription. You can top up with as little as 1 GB, ensuring cost efficiency and flexibility.

Residential proxy servers route the internet traffic through an intermediary server. This server changes the IP address of your connection request. Residential proxies differ from other kinds of proxies because they are connected to real mobile and desktop devices, which are used as the intermediaries for your connections.

Residential IPs are attached to physical locations; thus, they seem more real and legitimate, helping you minimize the number of IP bans and CAPTCHAs. Also, residential proxies cover more geo-locations, so you can easily access geo-specific content at a country or a city-level.

A residential IP can be acquired from a local ISP with a dedicated device, or purchased from a proxy service provider. The latter offers more options regarding IP types, ports, enhanced functionality as well as live support. Free proxy solutions are typically associated with security risks and reliability issues. It is recommended to procure trustworthy services ready to support your tasks every step of the way.

We count this number by multiplying the following values: Oxylabs Residential Proxy pool, unique exit node number per day, and days in quarter. Note that the end result varies on a monthly basis.

While you can manually enter specific proxy parameters, we highly recommend using our Endpoint generator. To access it, first, log in to the dashboard, select Residential Proxies, and click on Endpoint Generator. Then, select the following settings:
1. Region: Hong Kong or Beijing if you're connecting from China or Global for the rest of the world.
2. Authentication method: User authentification or Whitelisted IPs.
3. Endpoint type: Backconnect Entry or Country.
4. Location settings: If you choose a Backconnect Entry, you can specify continent, country, state, or city. But if you select a Country, you can choose only a country.
5. Session type: Sticky or Rotating.
6. Output format: port or HTTP.
Once you retrieve a list of endpoints, you can use them in your script.

Our plans start from $99 per month with a 11GB traffic allowance. We also offer a Pay as you go plan with no monthly commitments. See the Pricing section for more details.

A sticky residential proxy is a reliable online gateway that grants users enduring online security. It operates by establishing the user's internet connection through a residential IP address, making it challenging for malicious entities to trace the user's online activities. The “sticky” part refers to the sticky sessions, meaning you can keep the same IP for up to 10 minutes before it changes.

Residential IPs offer high-speed connections with no speed limitations. However, your monthly plan will define your data transfer limit. Remember, that you can upgrade or top-up your plan at any time and increase your monthly traffic allowance.

Yes! Our Residential Proxies, as well as Dedicated Datacenter Proxies offer connection via SOCKS5 protocol.

Generally, the main difference between a residential proxy and VPN is that residential proxy masks the user’s IP address with one from an Internet Service Provider. On the other hand, a VPN creates an encrypted connection between the user’s device and the internet for privacy and security. However, you should note that residential proxies can also fully encrypt your connection if you choose residential proxies with an HTTPS protocol.

To use residential proxies on an iPhone, you can configure proxy settings within your device's network settings. Here's a simple guide to configure iPhone proxy:
1. Go to your iPhone's "Settings" app.
2. Tap on "Wi-Fi" and select your connected Wi-Fi network.
3. Tap on the "i" icon next to the Wi-Fi network name.
4. Scroll down and locate the "HTTP Proxy" section.
5. Choose the "Manual" option.
6. Enter your proxy server and port information given by your proxy service provider. If your IP isn't whitelisted, you should also turn on the authentication.
7. Tap "Back," and the proxy settings will be saved.

Typically, our Residential Proxies rotate automatically, but if you want to keep the same IP address for a longer period of time, you can do that by selecting a sticky session parameter. By default, this parameter will keep the same session for 10 minutes, but if you need a longer or shorter duration, you must define the session time. It's possible to keep the same IP address for up to 30 minutes.

You're risking using free US proxy servers because your data can be easily shared with third parties by free proxy service providers. Also, free US proxies aren't stable as it's unknown where they came from and how many users are using them simultaneously. It's advisable to invest in a trusted US residential proxy service, such as Oxylabs, and get US proxies effortlessly.

It depends on your specific use case because it can vary depending on the scale of your operations, the number of concurrent connections needed, and the target websites you're accessing. Before purchasing residential proxies, we recommend consulting a reputable proxy service provider.