A residential proxy is an intermediary server that routes your web requests through an IP address assigned by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to a real home — so the website you visit sees the request coming from an ordinary residential internet connection, not a datacenter. That single difference is why residential proxies get through where datacenter proxies get blocked.
When you send a request through a residential proxy, three things happen:
The target website has no easy way to tell the traffic apart from a genuine visitor, because the IP genuinely belongs to a residential ISP block. Anti-bot systems that block by ASN (the network operator behind an IP) can't flag it the way they flag hosting-provider ranges.
Datacenter proxies come from servers in data centers. They're fast and cheap, but their IPs belong to well-known hosting ASNs that anti-bot systems flag instantly. Residential proxies cost more per GB but pass checks that datacenter IPs fail.
| Residential | Datacenter | |
|---|---|---|
| Blends in as | A real home user | A server |
| Block rate on hard targets | Low | High |
| Typical price | ~$2/GB | ~$0.80/GB |
| Best for | Protected sites, accounts, geo content | Bulk, tolerant targets |
Reach for residential proxies when the target actively defends against automation or personalizes by location:
For high-volume jobs against tolerant targets, datacenter proxies are cheaper and fine.
Not all residential networks are equal. The things that matter:
Roam, for reference, is flat $2/GB pay-as-you-go across 190+ countries with rotating and sticky sessions and a balance that never expires.
Yes — using a residential proxy is legal in most jurisdictions. What matters is how you use it: scrape only public data, respect each site's terms and rate limits, and don't collect personal data unlawfully.
Pricing is usually per gigabyte of traffic. Rates range from about $2/GB (pay-as-you-go providers like Roam) to $7–8/GB at small volumes on subscription-first providers. Datacenter proxies are cheaper at roughly $0.80/GB.
There's a small latency cost because traffic takes an extra hop through a home connection, but for scraping, automation and research it's rarely a bottleneck. Sticky sessions help by reusing an established route.
Sign up in seconds, test your targets on real residential IPs, and only pay for what you use. $2/GB, forever-valid balance.