Best Cheap Proxies 2026: 7 Affordable Options for Every Need

"Cheap" doesn't always mean the lowest advertised price. A proxy that costs $1/GB can be expensive if it comes with a high minimum spend, monthly commitment, or traffic that expires before you use it. Proxy costs also vary by type, billing model, and traffic volume. A small scraping test may be cheapest with pay-as-you-go pricing, while larger workloads can benefit from volume discounts or per-IP plans. The right choice depends on how much traffic you need and what type of targets you're working with.

This guide compares 7 of the best cheap proxy providers by pricing, proxy type, and use case, with a focus on what you actually pay and what you get for the price.

Quick Price Snapshot: Find the Best Value at a Glance

Proxy pricing varies by proxy type, traffic volume, and billing model. The starting prices below provide a quick comparison of each provider's entry-level rates, while actual costs can vary depending on the plan and how much you use.

Top 1. IPcook: Cheapest Proxies for High-Volume Use

IPcook offers residential, unlimited residential, ISP, and datacenter proxies on one platform. Its Residential Proxies provide 55M+ real residential IPs across 185+ countries, with country and city targeting. Traffic never expires, and pricing can go as low as $0.30/GB. A one-line API call lets you allocate proxies for automation, while IP rotation supports per-request or sticky sessions up to 24 hours. It is ideal for large-scale web scraping, such as price monitoring, market research, and SEO monitoring.

For higher-volume traffic, IPcook Unlimited Proxies provide unlimited traffic at one fixed price, with no extra charges or usage tracking. With IPcook ISP Proxies and Datacenter Proxies, you can choose IPs from 8 major countries such as the U.S. and Japan and combine IPs from different countries in a single purchase. Global response times are under 0.5 seconds, with speeds as fast as 50ms in major regions. Both proxy types offer up to 99% stability and support username-and-password authentication with customizable credentials.

Here's an overview of IPcook's pricing and plans:

Top 2. Webshare: Affordable and Customizable Proxy Plans

Webshare is the second-cheapest proxy provider on the list, offering budget-friendly datacenter and residential plans. Rotating residential proxies offer access to 80M+ ethically sourced residential IPs in 195 countries, while location filters let you narrow your selection by country, city, state, ZIP code, or ASN. Proxy API documentation is also available for multiple programming languages, including Python and PHP, making integration easier. Pricing can go as low as $1.40/GB.

For static residential proxies, also known as ISP proxies, Webshare provides unlimited bandwidth and speeds of up to 1 Gbps, with IPs sourced from well-known ISPs such as AT&T, Sprint, and Lumen. Its Proxy Servers, essentially datacenter proxies, cover 50+ countries and offer more than 100 Gbps of bandwidth with 99.97% uptime. A free plan with 10 proxies is also available for testing before purchase.

Here's an overview of Webshare's pricing and plans:

Top 3. IPRoyal: Flexible Pricing Across Proxy Types

IPRoyal stands out for offering flexible pricing across its proxy products, with different plans and pricing models available for different usage needs. Its residential proxies combine 64M+ IPs across 195+ countries with country, state, and city-level targeting so that you can select locations at different levels of precision. Rotating and sticky sessions are available depending on how you want to manage IP changes, while response times average around 0.5 seconds.

Its ISP proxies include 500K+ unique IPs in 31+ countries, with dedicated IPs and unlimited sessions for longer-running connections. Datacenter proxies offer another option when you need a broader datacenter footprint, with coverage in 60+ locations. For mobile-specific requirements, Mobile proxies support 5G, 4G, 3G, and LTE, while both rotating and dedicated options are available. Per-GB plans also come with unlimited threads, and 24-hour test plans give you a way to evaluate the service before committing.

Here's an overview of IPRoyal's pricing and plans:

Top 4. SOAX: Precise Proxy Targeting and Location Options

SOAX is a budget-friendly option for users who need flexible proxy configurations without paying for enterprise-level plans. The residential proxy network includes 155M+ residential proxies worldwide and reaches more than 195 geos with city-level targeting. Response times are around 0.55 seconds, while unlimited concurrent sessions allow multiple connections to run at the same time. HTTP(S), SOCKS5, and UDP/QUIC protocols are supported.

On the mobile side, mobile proxies cover more than 195 geos with city-level targeting. Support for 5G, 4G, 3G, and LTE gives you access to multiple mobile network types across different locations.

Here's an overview of SOAX's pricing and plans:

Top 5. ProxySeller: Unlimited Bandwidth with Speeds up to 1 Gbps

If you want the best cheap DC proxies for fast, simple work, ProxySeller is a no-frills option for users who just need fast datacenter IPs without paying for extra features. The service offers private IPv4 and IPv6 addresses across 40+ countries, with flexible rental periods from short-term access to monthly plans. If your task runs fine on IPv4 or IPv6 and doesn't need residential-level anonymity, this is one of the most affordable ways to scale.

For users who need more than datacenter IPs, ProxySeller also offers residential, ISP, and mobile proxies. Its residential proxies cover 220+ locations, with city and ISP targeting for more specific location selection. The 47M+ IP pool and unlimited concurrent sessions make them suitable for larger-scale tasks. ISP proxies reach speeds of up to 1 Gbps, while mobile proxies use IPs from major global carriers and support 4G, 5G, and LTE connections.

Here's an overview of ProxySeller's pricing and plans:

Top 6: Bright Data: All-in-One Proxy and Data Tools

Bright Data is a well-known proxy provider with a large network. With 400M+ residential IPs across 195 countries, you can target locations by country, state, city, ZIP code, and ASN. HTTP/3 is supported for residential connections. Unlimited concurrent sessions are also available for users running multiple connections.

ISP and datacenter proxies come with shared, dedicated, and pay-per-GB options, giving users more flexibility in how they access the service. With response times of around 0.24 seconds, datacenter proxies are well-suited to speed-sensitive tasks.

Here's an overview of Bright Data's pricing and plans:

Top 7: Oxylabs: High-Performance Proxies for Large-Scale Use

Oxylabs is a well-known provider of proxy and data collection solutions. It is geared toward enterprise teams, so it is not positioned as a budget provider, although its ISP pricing can still be competitive. ISP proxies offer the anonymity of residential IPs while providing stable connections, making them suitable for long-running sessions. They are commonly used for tasks such as AI data collection, price intelligence, and e-commerce monitoring.

Beyond ISP proxies, Oxylabs also offers residential, datacenter, and mobile proxies for different data collection needs. Residential proxies provide 175M+ IPs with an average response time of 0.41 seconds. They support IPv4, IPv6, HTTP(S), HTTP/3, and SOCKS5 protocols for different connection requirements. Datacenter proxies deliver response times of around 0.222 seconds, while mobile proxies provide access to a pool of 20M+ IPs across 140+ countries.

Here's an overview of Oxylabs' pricing and plans:

How to Choose the Right Cheap Proxy Type

Choosing the right proxy type starts with understanding what your task requires. Different proxy types offer different levels of stability, IP reputation, speed, and traffic flexibility, so the cheapest option is not always the best fit. Use the guide below to quickly find the proxy type that fits your needs.

• Residential: Ideal for web scraping, account management, and location-sensitive tasks that benefit from residential IP reputation and broader IP diversity.

• ISP: Stable, long-term connections make this type suitable for social media accounts, account management, and other sessions where keeping the same IP is important.

• Datacenter: Speed and consistent performance make datacenter proxies useful for automation, high-volume requests, and workloads that do not require residential IPs.

• Unlimited Residential: A practical option for workloads that require large amounts of residential traffic, especially for continuous or data-intensive tasks.

Free vs. Cheap Proxies: Is Paying Worth It?

Free proxies are appealing because they cost nothing, but the lack of a managed service also means you have little control over the proxy itself. Publicly shared IPs can be used by many people, and their availability and performance may change at any time. As a result, you cannot reliably predict how well a free proxy will perform when you need it. That makes free proxies reasonable for occasional use, but less suitable when you need stable and consistent proxy access.

Cheap paid proxies give you more control over proxy access than free public proxies. Because the service is paid and managed, you can generally expect more consistent availability and performance instead of relying on shared public IPs that may change or stop working without notice. You also have a clearer idea of what you are paying for and what level of service to expect.

Final Thoughts

The providers reviewed above each have different strengths. Webshare and IPRoyal focus on affordable and flexible proxy access, while SOAX emphasizes precise targeting and ProxySeller focuses on cost-effective datacenter proxies. Bright Data and Oxylabs offer broader proxy and data solutions for more advanced use cases.

Among the providers reviewed, IPcook stands out with the lowest prices across its proxy lineup for high-volume use. Its range of proxy types and solid overall performance also make it a well-rounded option for different workloads.