Top 6 Residential Proxy Providers in 2026, Ranked

How We're Ranking These

Every "top proxy providers" list claims to be objective, so here's exactly what we scored: price per GB (both entry-level and at volume), the size and geographic spread of the IP pool, whether you can actually try the service before paying, session flexibility (rotating vs. sticky), and how easy it is to get from signup to a working connection string. Providers that hide pricing behind a sales call, or that only let you "trial" a product by talking to an account executive, lost points on accessibility even if their infrastructure is excellent.

We're only including providers where we could verify real numbers — no guessed pricing, no rounded-up pool sizes. Here's how the field stacks up going into 2026.

#1: BuyProxy — Best Overall Value

BuyProxy tops this list not because it's the single cheapest rate on paper, but because it's the only provider here that pairs a self-serve free trial with pricing that actually gets cheaper as you scale.

• Pool: 72.8M+ residential IPs across 195+ countries, with full city-level geo-targeting
• Pricing: Pay-as-you-go at $1.99/GB, or tiered plans starting at $30/mo (20GB) and dropping to roughly $1.00/GB on the Advanced plan (300GB for $300/mo)
• Sessions: Rotating and sticky (persists up to 30 minutes), full HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS5 support
• Trial: 5-day free trial on the Pro plan — self-serve, no sales call (card required, first charge lands after the trial ends)
• Credits: Never expire on PAYG, 5GB minimum top-up, 10% bonus on top-ups of 100GB or more
• Extras: Real-time analytics dashboard, REST API with SDKs for TypeScript, Python, Go, PHP, and Ruby, plus a reseller/white-label program on Business and above

The honest caveat: on raw pay-as-you-go price alone, IPRoyal undercuts BuyProxy by about $0.24/GB. What you get in exchange is a real self-serve trial and per-GB pricing that keeps falling as your usage grows — something IPRoyal's flat rate doesn't offer. See the full pricing breakdown.

Best for: Teams who want to test before committing, plan to scale past a few hundred GB a month, or want a partner program without an enterprise contract.

#2: IPRoyal — Cheapest Raw Rate

IPRoyal's biggest selling point is simple: at roughly $1.75/GB pay-as-you-go, it's genuinely the cheapest entry price on this list, BuyProxy included.

• Pricing: ~$1.75/GB PAYG
• Trial: No free trial — only small paid test packages

Best for: Budget-conscious buyers who know exactly what they need and don't mind paying upfront to find out if it works for their target sites.

#3: Smartproxy (Decodo) — Solid Mid-Market Pick

Smartproxy, now operating under the Decodo brand, sits in the middle of the market on price and features.

• Pricing: ~$3.50/GB PAYG
• Signup: Self-serve
• Pool: Smaller than the largest providers in this list
• Notable gaps: No reseller program, no event webhooks

Best for: Teams that want a self-serve mid-market provider and don't need a reseller program or webhook-driven integrations.

#4: Soax — ASN and ISP-Level Targeting

• Pricing: ~$4.60/GB PAYG
• Trial: 3-day trial for $1.99

Best for: Teams that specifically need to test a paid trial cheaply before a larger purchase.

#5: Oxylabs — Enterprise Scale

• Pricing: ~$8/GB PAYG
• Pool: Very large IP pool
• Trial: 7-day trial, but sales-assisted rather than self-serve
• Notable: AI-focused scraper APIs, no self-serve reseller program

Best for: Larger operations that want AI-focused scraping tooling bundled in and don't mind an onboarding call to get there.

#6: Bright Data — Deepest Tooling, Highest Price

• Pricing: ~$8.40/GB PAYG
• Pool: Very large IP pool
• Trial: 7-day trial, sales-assisted (not self-serve)
• Notable: Deep scraping-API tooling, no reseller program

Best for: Enterprises that need Bright Data's broader scraping-API ecosystem and have the budget and procurement process to match.

2026 Comparison Table

Frequently Asked Questions

Which provider is cheapest per GB in 2026?

On raw pay-as-you-go pricing, IPRoyal is the lowest at roughly $1.75/GB, edging out BuyProxy's $1.99/GB PAYG rate. Once you factor in BuyProxy's tiered plans, though, per-GB cost drops as low as $1.00/GB on the Advanced plan — cheaper than IPRoyal at meaningful volume.

Which provider actually lets you try before you buy?

BuyProxy is the only provider on this list with a genuinely self-serve free trial — 5 days on the Pro plan, no sales call. Oxylabs and Bright Data both offer 7-day trials, but they're sales-assisted, meaning you go through an onboarding conversation first. IPRoyal has no free trial, only small paid test packages.

Which provider has the biggest IP pool?

BuyProxy's residential network spans 72.8M+ IPs across 195+ countries with full city-level targeting. Oxylabs and Bright Data both advertise very large pools as well, though exact current figures vary by provider disclosure.

Which provider is best if I plan to resell proxy access?

BuyProxy is the only provider here with a documented reseller/white-label program, available starting on the Business plan. Smartproxy, Oxylabs, and Bright Data don't offer one.

What if I only need proxies for a month or two?

Pay-as-you-go pricing with non-expiring credits (BuyProxy, and reportedly IPRoyal) makes more sense than a subscription if your usage is irregular. You buy bandwidth once and use it whenever, instead of losing unused allocation at the end of a billing cycle.

The Bottom Line

If price per GB on day one is your only criterion, IPRoyal wins by a small margin. For nearly everyone else — anyone who wants to actually test a network before paying, anyone whose usage will grow past a few dozen GB a month, or anyone considering a reseller angle — BuyProxy is the stronger overall pick in 2026.

Start your 5-day free trial on BuyProxy →