Cheap Residential Proxies in 2026 — 7 Providers Compared by Price

TL;DR

Looking for cheap residential proxies that aren't just free-tier traps? We compare 7 verified providers in 2026 by entry price, pool size and unique offerings — GProxy from $0.85/GB pay-as-you-go leads on cost.

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Why they are looking for an alternative

"Cheap residential proxies" is one of the most-searched proxy queries — and one of the most-spammed by content farms selling free-proxy lists. We focus on paid residential proxies with verified pricing, ranked by entry cost. All providers below offer real infrastructure, not free-proxy aggregators.

Skip if: you specifically need 195-country coverage (only Bright Data, Oxylabs, Smartproxy reach that scale) or enterprise SLAs.

Best alternatives

GProxy

Our choice

From $0.85/GB residential PAYG · $0.03/IPv6 proxy / 3 days

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Suitable: SMB and developers: budget residential, IPv6, per-day billing, virgin ISP.

Pros

✓Residential 2-7x cheaper at entry ($0.85/GB PAYG)
✓Standalone IPv6 proxies — only provider that sells them
✓Pay-per-day billing on most products
✓Virgin ISP tier ($6.50/IP) with 0 fraud score
✓Flat unlimited bandwidth from $3/day

Cons

–Mid-size residential pool (10M+ IPs) (10M+ IPs)
–Country coverage 150+ vs
–No Fortune-500 references

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IPRoyal

From $1.75/GB · $1.39/IP DC · $117/mo mobile

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Suitable: Multi-product mid-budget: 'traffic never expires', 5G mobile, Web Unblocker API.

Pros

✓32M+ residential, 4.5M+ mobile 5G
✓60+ datacenter locations
✓Traffic never expires
✓Web Unblocker $1/1000 req

Cons

–$1.75/GB entry
–Mobile $117/month
–No IPv6

NetNut

From $2.92/GB (72GB $210/mo)

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Suitable: Direct ISP partnerships, one-hop low-latency architecture.

Pros

✓85M+ residential
✓Direct ISP partnerships
✓1M+ ISP IPs
✓5G mobile network
✓3/6/12 month plans

Cons

–$210/month minimum
–No PAYG below $2.92/GB
–No IPv6

Smartproxy (Decodo)

From $3.75/GB (3GB $11.25/mo) · $0.035/IP datacenter

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Suitable: Mid-market: cheap datacenter shared, 14-day money-back.

Pros

✓115M+ residential
✓Datacenter $0.035/IP at 100 IPs
✓14-day money-back
✓Rebranded to Decodo 2024

Cons

–Brand rebrand confusion
–No IPv6
–ISP 15 countries

Webshare

From $3.50/GB · 10 datacenter free forever

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Suitable: Free-tier seekers, cheap datacenter at scale. Acquired by Oxylabs 2022.

Pros

✓10 datacenter free forever
✓Datacenter $0.0299/IP at 100 IPs
✓ISP $0.30/IP (AT&T/Sprint/Cox)
✓30-47% annual discount

Cons

–$3.50/GB residential entry
–No IPv6
–US-focused ISPs
–No daily billing

SOAX

From $3.60/GB (25GB $90/mo) · $1.99 trial

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Suitable: Mobile-heavy: 33M+ mobile IPs, unified credit system.

Pros

✓33M+ mobile IPs in 195+ countries
✓Unified credits
✓UDP/QUIC
✓24h sticky sessions

Cons

–$90/month Starter
–No IPv6
–No proxies in Texas (stated policy)

Oxylabs

From $6/GB Starter (5GB $30/mo)

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Suitable: Enterprise data teams, premium ASN ISP (Lumen, Comcast, BT, Orange, Cox).

Pros

✓175M+ residential
✓Proxyway/PCMag 2025 awards
✓HTTP3
✓EU HQ

Cons

–$30/month minimum Starter
–ISP 22 countries
–No IPv6

Comparison table

Query Parameters:	Value
GProxy $0.85/GB · IPRoyal $1.75/GB · NetNut $2.92/GB · Smartproxy $3.75/GB · Webshare $3.50/GB · SOAX $3.60/GB · Oxylabs $6/GB	Entry price (residential PAYG or smallest plan)
GProxy ✓ · IPRoyal ✓ · Others: monthly minimums	PAYG (no monthly minimum)
GProxy $3/day · others $11-$210/month	Smallest plan
Only GProxy	Standalone IPv6
Oxylabs 175M+ > SOAX 155M+ > Smartproxy 115M+ > NetNut 85M+ > Webshare 80M+ > IPRoyal 32M+ > GProxy 10M+ residential IPs	Network size (residential)

How we ranked

Sorted by entry price for residential proxies (PAYG where available, smallest paid plan otherwise). All prices from public 2026-05-16 fetches.

Quick guide

Cheapest absolutely — GProxy at $0.85/GB PAYG, no monthly minimum.
Cheapest 'real network' (large pool) — IPRoyal at $1.75/GB with 32M+ residential IPs.
Cheapest at 100 GB volume — GProxy $49-85 vs others $175-275.
Cheapest at 1 TB — Webshare $1.50/GB ($1,500) or GProxy at volume.

Methodology

For each provider we visited their public product/pricing page on 2026-05-16, recorded the lowest published price, the disclosed network size (with the caveat that "number of IPs" claims are vendor-self-reported), and noted unique product offerings. We did NOT include affiliate codes, kickbacks, or per-conversion sponsorship in this ranking. GProxy is the publisher; we rank ourselves where the data supports it and concede other providers' wins where the data supports them.

FAQ

Are 'free residential proxies' real? +

Mostly no. Free residential proxy lists are usually expired honeypots, malware-infected nodes, or low-quality datacenter IPs mislabeled. For real residential infrastructure, expect to pay at least $0.85/GB.

Why is GProxy cheaper than the others? +

Two reasons: smaller network (lower operating cost) and self-serve model with no enterprise sales overhead. We target SMB and developers, not Fortune 500. For large pools and enterprise SLAs, other providers are still better — pay for what you actually need.

What's the cheapest residential proxy at 1 TB volume? +

Webshare at $1.50/GB ($1,500 for 1 TB) or GProxy at volume tier $0.49/GB ($490 for 1 TB). Pick GProxy for the lower price, Webshare for the larger pool.

How current are prices? +

All prices verified from public product pages on 2026-05-16. We update this page when we notice meaningful changes.

Total

Cheapest paid residential proxy in 2026: GProxy at $0.85/GB PAYG. If you need a larger pool (32M+ IPs), IPRoyal at $1.75/GB is the next-cheapest. If you need 100M+ IPs in 195 countries, Smartproxy/Decodo at $2/GB on the 1 TB tier is the floor.

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