Residential proxies for web scraping
Spread requests across millions of real residential IPs so your scrapers stop tripping rate limits and datacenter blocks. Pay per GB, rotate or stick, target by country or city.
Why web scraping needs the right proxies
Websites defend themselves against automated traffic with rate limits, IP reputation checks and bot challenges. A scraper that sends thousands of requests from one address, or from a hosting provider's address range, is usually the first thing those defences catch.
Residential proxies solve the IP half of that problem. Requests leave from IPs assigned to real home connections and are spread across a large pool, so no single address carries enough traffic to be rate limited and the traffic is not recognisable as hosting-range automation. The rest of the job, realistic headers, sensible pacing and clean parsing, is still yours.
The challenges
Per-IP rate limits
Many sites count requests per address, so a single IP hits the ceiling quickly.
Datacenter blocking
Hosting and cloud ranges are widely listed and often challenged or blocked outright.
Regional content
Prices, availability and layouts change by country and city, so a single exit location gives a partial picture.
Stateful flows
Pagination, filters and logins need the same IP across several requests.
How BuyProxy helps
Rotating sessions
A fresh IP for each request spreads load for independent page fetches.
Sticky sessions
Hold one IP for up to 30 minutes to walk through pagination or a logged-in flow.
Country and city targeting
Collect the version of a page a local visitor sees.
API and SDK access
Generate lines and check balances from your scraper's own code.
Recommended proxy types for web scraping
Core Residential
$0.99/GB
The default for scraping: passes hosting-range blocks at the lowest residential rate.
See residential proxies
Premium Residential
$2.99/GB
Promote only the targets that keep returning 403s or CAPTCHAs on Core.
See premium proxies
Datacenter IPv4
$0.99/GB
Cheaper for open targets that do not block hosting ranges; test first.
See ipv4 proxies
IPv6 Proxies
$0.29/GB
The lowest cost per GB for IPv6-friendly, unprotected targets at high volume.
See ipv6 proxies
A workflow that works
- 1
Test one target
Run a small batch through Core Residential and record status codes and body sizes.
- 2
Tune pacing and headers
Back off on 429 responses and send realistic browser headers.
- 3
Choose rotation per flow
Rotate for independent pages, stick for pagination and logins.
- 4
Scale and monitor
Track success rate and cost per successful page, not just price per GB.
Planning your bandwidth
Scraping cost is bandwidth, so measure your average page size first. Fetching HTML only, and skipping images, fonts and video, is far lighter than loading full pages in a browser.
Estimate monthly GB as pages multiplied by average page size, then add margin for retries. The cost-per-GB guide shows what each volume costs and where a monthly plan overtakes pay-as-you-go.
See how much residential proxies cost per GB and the pricing page.
Use it responsibly
- Collect public pages and respect each site's robots.txt and terms
- Keep request rates polite and honour Retry-After on 429 responses
- Avoid personal data you have no basis to hold
- Never use proxies for fraud or access you are not entitled to
This is general information, not legal advice. See our acceptable use policy.
Popular markets for web scraping
Web scraping: frequently asked questions
Which proxies are best for web scraping?
Rotating residential proxies are the default because they avoid the blocks that stop datacenter IPs. Use cheaper datacenter or IPv6 proxies only on targets that accept them.
How many proxies do I need for scraping?
With a rotating pool you do not manage individual IPs. Capacity is measured in bandwidth: pages times average page size, plus retries.
Should I use rotating or sticky sessions?
Rotating for independent page fetches, sticky for flows that need one identity, such as pagination or a login.
Why am I still getting blocked with proxies?
A clean IP does not fix a request that looks like a script. Check headers, TLS behaviour, pacing and retry logic. Our proxy error codes guide walks through the failure modes.
Is web scraping legal?
It depends on the data, the site's terms and your jurisdiction. This is general information, not legal advice, so get qualified advice for your use case.
How do I keep scraping costs down?
Skip heavy assets, request the lightest endpoint with your data, cache what you can and back off instead of retrying immediately.
