Residential proxy FAQ
Published: 19 July 2026 · 6 min read
The short version. Rotating residential is $2/GB, static residential is $4 per IP per month, and new accounts get 300MB to test with. A static IP stays yours for as long as you renew — we do not rotate it. You top up a dollar balance, not a traffic package, and the balance does not expire. Use SOCKS5 unless you have a reason not to.
Product
Are static residential IPs exclusive?
Each static IP is assigned to your account only. It is not shared with other Roam users, and it will not be reassigned to someone else during your rental period.
Can I keep the same IP long term, or does it change often?
You can keep it long term. Static residential IPs are rented by the month, and you stay on the same IP across renewals — we do not rotate it. With auto-renew on, we charge your wallet balance before expiry and extend the lease. If your balance is short, the lease pauses; top up and it resumes, and the IP is not taken back because of it.
Which regions are available?
Current regions include the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Africa. We do not offer IPs located inside mainland China.
Residential IPs or datacenter IPs — which should I pick?
Pick residential if you need to sign in to accounts, hold a session for a long time, or reach sites with strict risk controls. Pick datacenter if you are doing plain data collection against targets that do not check hard, and you care about speed and cost.
The reason is not IP count. A datacenter IP’s ASN belongs to a cloud provider, and many sites classify traffic as automated on the ASN alone — cycling through more datacenter IPs does not change that.
Which protocols are supported?
SOCKS5 and HTTP. We recommend SOCKS5, because DNS queries go through the proxy as well, which avoids a whole class of “the proxy connects but sites will not load” problems.
Use cases
Can I use it in front of AI services like Claude or ChatGPT?
Yes. Use a residential IP and keep the region fixed. Switching exit regions frequently is what tends to trigger account verification checks.
Can I use it from a restricted network?
Yes, but you need to chain it behind an upstream proxy. What we provide is an overseas exit IP — it changes the identity your traffic exits with, not whether your network can reach us. You need a working route out first, then place our proxy behind it. The chaining setup is covered in the Shadowrocket guide.
Can several devices share one account?
Yes, the same credentials work on multiple devices at once. Note that traffic from all of those devices counts against the same account.
Billing
How is it billed?
Rotating residential is billed by traffic at $2/GB. Static residential is billed per IP per month at $4. Datacenter IPs are also billed per IP per month.
Does traffic expire?
No. We do not sell traffic packages. What you top up is a US dollar balance, the balance does not expire, one wallet works across all products, and each product draws from it at its own rate.
Does testing consume traffic?
Yes. Metering starts as soon as a connection is established, including test requests you make while troubleshooting. Test with a small request such as curl -x socks5h://gw.roamproxy.com:41080 -U 'username:password' https://ip.sb rather than leaving a web page reloading.
Is there a trial?
New accounts can get 300MB to test with. That is enough to confirm the exit IP, the region, and that your client is configured correctly — it is not meant to cover a real workload.
Setup
On a Mac, does it only work inside the browser?
No, it can apply system-wide. Three ways to do that are covered in the macOS guide. On Apple silicon Macs, installing the iOS build of Shadowrocket is the least fiddly option.
The IP shows as changed, but sites will not load. Why?
Usually the client is set to HTTP, so DNS is not going through the proxy. Switch it to SOCKS5. Full diagnosis steps are in connected but not working.
Where do I buy Shadowrocket?
It is a paid App Store app, listed only outside mainland China. A mainland China Apple ID will not find it in search — you need an overseas account.
More questions
Are static residential IPs exclusive?
Each static IP is assigned to your account only. It is not shared with other Roam users, and it will not be reassigned to someone else during your rental period.
Residential IPs or datacenter IPs — which should I pick?
Pick residential if you need to sign in to accounts, hold a session for a long time, or reach sites with strict risk controls. Pick datacenter if you are doing plain data collection against targets that do not check hard, and you care about speed and cost.
Does traffic expire?
No. We do not sell traffic packages. What you top up is a US dollar balance, the balance does not expire, one wallet works across all products, and each product draws from it at its own rate.
Does testing consume traffic?
Yes. Metering starts as soon as a connection is established, including test requests you make while troubleshooting. Test with a small request rather than leaving a web page reloading.
Still deciding? Start with the 300MB trial and point one client at gw.roamproxy.com:41080 — you will know within a few requests whether the exit IP and region work for your target site.