Choosing the Best Residential Proxies: ProxyEmpire, Oxylabs, Decodo, and Bright Data Residential Pricing From Official Sources

What does a residential gigabyte really cost once you need it in a particular city?

Headline rates rarely answer that, and for agencies billing clients by market, the gap between the headline and the real figure can decide whether a project is profitable. Every provider here publishes a per-GB figure, but the figure assumes different volumes, different commitments and, crucially, different rules for location targeting. A rate that looks low can climb once postcode or network filters are switched on, or once a promo period ends.

So this comparison starts with targeting, then lines up each provider's official residential pricing. Four names, one question: how much precision does the money buy, and on what terms? Prices come from each provider's own residential pricing pages.

What Each Official Price Sheet Says

Strip away the marketing and the four official price sheets tell different stories about commitment, flexibility and scale.

ProxyEmpire lists residential at seven dollars a gigabyte, cut in half by the EMPIRE50 code, which makes flexible buying $3.50. Its monthly ladder runs from a $20 plan for 7 GB to a $1,500 plan for 1,000 GB, and custom terabyte-plus orders open at 75 cents a gigabyte.

Oxylabs has no flexible tier on its pages, so every purchase starts with a subscription, and VAT may apply. Residential sits inside a shared subscription, Starter at $30 a month up to Enterprise from $2,500, with per-GB rates falling from six dollars on the smallest tier to two fifty at 1K GB and above.

Decodo's subscriptions begin at $11.25 for 3 GB and reach $275 for 100 GB, with enterprise terms down to two dollars a gigabyte at 1 TB. Its separate Wallet charges four dollars a gigabyte, though it cannot be used while a subscription is active, and VAT is added on top.

Bright Data's list price is eight dollars a gigabyte; the RESIGB50 code halves it for three months. Committed plans start at $499 for 141 GB, with larger tiers at $999 and $1,999 and custom pricing beyond a terabyte.

All four include their targeting in those prices, so precision does not add a surcharge here. The differences lie in commitment and expiry: ProxyEmpire keeps unused gigabytes indefinitely, Bright Data forfeits unused commitments, and Oxylabs and Decodo do not publish a rollover rule.

ProxyEmpire

ProxyEmpire offers the deepest free targeting of the four, and it applies from the very first gigabyte. Residential traffic can be pinned to a country, region, city, ZIP code, ISP or ASN, and also to an OS/TCP profile, which aligns the connection's technical signature with the device being presented. Mobile traffic can be narrowed to city and carrier, which brings the same precision to app and in-app campaign checks.

That depth costs nothing extra on the $3.50 coded rate or any monthly tier, and unused gigabytes never expire. For agencies running local SEO, regional pricing checks or carrier-level ad verification, the economics stay predictable however precise the job becomes. Session control follows the same logic: an IP can hold for a set time, last for a session or change with every request.

The company reports 30M+ residential and 4M+ mobile IPs across 170+ countries, and concurrent sessions are unlimited for approved use cases. The caveat is commercial: sales are final. A $1.97 trial, covering residential and mobile, is the way in, and it ends without enrolling the buyer in a plan. Mobile, static ISP and datacenter proxies share the account if a project widens.

Oxylabs

Oxylabs includes free geo targeting on residential and mobile, though its pages reviewed here don't itemize each level. Residential subscribers get unlimited concurrent sessions, sticky sessions and flexible rotation, and mobile IPs come from real devices in more than 140 countries.

The draw is consolidation: the same subscription pays for its Web API, unblocker and agent browser. For teams already scraping through APIs, that can simplify procurement, and the published sourcing handbook and KYC policy help with vendor reviews.

Entry is steeper, at six dollars a gigabyte on the first tier, and residential plans carry 3 proxy users. A five-dollar credit softens the first test, and the tiered rates reward teams that grow into larger plans.

Decodo (formerly Smartproxy)

Decodo matches the free-targeting promise from continent down to postcode and ASN, and every plan, however small, draws on the full pool of 115M+ residential IPs spread over 195+ locations.

It also offers a free residential trial with a stated allowance: three days, 100 MB. The trial rolls into a paid plan unless cancelled, so note the end date.

Rotating and sticky sessions are both available, with sticky sessions up to 30 minutes per its FAQ. Its Web Data API and MCP server suit teams feeding AI pipelines, and first purchases carry a conditional 14-day refund.

Bright Data

Bright Data brings free targeting at the largest scale here, covering country through postcode and ASN across a network it puts at 400M+ monthly IPs in 195 countries. Its services page also lists carrier targeting, and live IP counts per country show how deep coverage runs in each market.

Enterprise buyers gain compliance depth: ISO 27001, SOC 2, SOC 3 and CSA STAR Level 1, plus billing through AWS Marketplace and Azure and a free trial that needs no credit card.

Two conditions apply. Residential access follows a KYC process that can include a video call, and committed monthly volume that goes unused is forfeited. Buyers who prefer flexibility can stay on the coded pay-as-you-go rate instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do any of these providers charge extra for city or ZIP targeting?

No. ProxyEmpire, Decodo and Bright Data all include ZIP-level targeting in their rates, and Oxylabs includes geo targeting at no charge. That sets these four apart from providers that bill city or postcode filters as add-ons.

Which offers carrier targeting on mobile?

ProxyEmpire lists carrier targeting on its mobile proxies, alongside country and city, and Bright Data lists carrier on its proxy services page. Decodo and Oxylabs sell mobile proxies but do not itemize carrier filters on the pages reviewed.

What is OS/TCP targeting?

It lets you choose IPs whose network-level signals match a particular operating system, which helps keep a browser profile consistent with the connection behind it. ProxyEmpire lists it; the other three do not on the pages reviewed.

How do I compare official prices fairly?

Compare the plan you would actually buy, including any code, commitment and expiry rule, rather than the lowest rate on the page. Promo codes can expire, as Bright Data's three-month discount does, and expiring traffic raises the real cost of each gigabyte used.

Conclusion

Targeting is free at all four, so the real choice comes down to depth and billing. ProxyEmpire goes furthest on precision, adding OS/TCP and mobile carrier filters to the standard set, and pairs it with a coded $3.50 rate and gigabytes that never expire. Oxylabs suits teams consolidating tools, Decodo suits buyers who want a free trial, and Bright Data suits enterprises that need scale and certifications. For anyone whose work depends on exact locations, testing targeting accuracy on real targets before a larger purchase is the step that matters most.