Best Residential Proxy Service for Web Scraping in 2026
Bright Data wins for residential proxies in 2026. 72M IP pool, 99.9% uptime, ZIP-level geotargeting. Decodo for value, Oxylabs for enterprise.
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Rankings reflect documented features, public pricing as of the "Last Updated" date, and category positioning analysis. We apply a Commercial Gate: only tools we can earn a commission from (now or in the next 12 months) enter the ranking pool. When a non-monetizable tool is the right answer, we name it with a caveat. How rankings work · Editorial policy
Bright Data
Bright Data wins for residential proxies in 2026. 72 million IP pool, 99.9 percent uptime, 195+ country coverage, and a built-in scraping browser that handles JavaScript-rendered pages. Decodo is the value pick for solo operators. Oxylabs is the enterprise runner-up. Skip free proxy lists; they are scraped and blocked within hours.
Try Bright DataAt a Glance
| Feature | Bright Data | Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) | Oxylabs | IPRoyal | Apify |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Pay as you go $8/GB list ($4 with promo); plans from $499/mo | $4/GB pay as you go; $3.75 at 3 GB to $2.75 at 100 GB | From $6/GB ($30/mo for 5 GB) | From $5.25/GB at 10 GB; traffic never expires | From $49/mo |
| Starting Price | - | - | - | - | - |
| IP Pool Size | - | - | - | - | - |
| Country Coverage | - | - | - | - | - |
| Best For | - | - | - | - | - |
Quick Comparison
Our Top Picks
Bright Data
Largest residential proxy network with 72M IPs.
- 72M residential IP pool (largest in category)
- 195+ country coverage
- ZIP-code-level geotargeting
- Built-in scraping browser for JS-rendered pages
- Pricing per GB stacks fast at high volume
- Setup requires technical knowledge
- Compliance reviews required for some use cases
Decodo (formerly Smartproxy)
Lowest published per-GB rates from 3 to 100 GB, self-serve, with a 3-day trial.
- Lowest published per-GB rates from 3 to 100 GB
- Self-serve plans from 3 GB
- 3-day free trial with 100 MB
- Cleaner self-serve onboarding
- Smaller IP pool than Bright Data
- Monthly plans, so size them to usage
- VAT is added to listed prices
Oxylabs
Enterprise-tier residential proxy with 100M+ IP pool. Best for high-volume corporate scraping.
- Published plans from $30 a month
- Dedicated account manager on every plan
- Per-GB rate falls to $2.50 at 1 TB
- Custom enterprise contracts
- $6 per GB at the smallest plan
- The larger plans need a monthly commitment of $500 or more
IPRoyal
Residential proxy traffic that never expires, bought by the GB. Lowest per-GB price only on custom plans from 10 TB.
- Purchased traffic never expires
- Self-serve from 1 GB
- Free trial button on its page (terms not stated)
- Per-GB rate at small and mid sizes is higher than Decodo ($5.25 at 10 GB against $3.50)
- $1.75 per GB needs a custom plan from 10 TB
- Smaller IP pool (8M against 72M on Bright Data)
Apify
Scraping platform with proxies built in. Best when you want managed scraping not just proxies.
- Pre-built scrapers for major sites
- Residential proxies included
- Zero engineering required
- Per-result fees stack at high volume
- Less flexibility than DIY proxy + scraper
How This Was Tested
Rankings reflect documented features and public pricing as of April 2026. Performance and quality judgements are editorial opinion based on vendor documentation, not measured results or independent benchmarks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Bright Data is the best residential proxy service in 2026. 72 million residential IPs, 195+ country coverage, ZIP-code-level geotargeting, 99.9% uptime SLA.
Residential proxies route through real consumer ISP IPs (Comcast, Verizon, etc.) so target sites see them as normal users. Datacenter proxies route through cloud provider IPs that target sites recognise and block. For scraping protected sites (Google, Amazon, social media), residential proxies are required. For scraping low-protection sites, datacenter proxies are cheaper.
Published residential proxy rates in 2026 run from about $2.50 to $8 per GB depending on plan size and promotions. Decodo is $4 pay as you go and $2.75 at 100 GB, Oxylabs is $6 at 5 GB and $2.50 at 1 TB, IPRoyal is $7 at 1 GB and $5.25 at 10 GB (with $1.75 only on custom plans from 10 TB), and Bright Data lists $8 pay as you go ($4 with its current promotional code) with plans from $499 a month. Bandwidth-based pricing means efficient scrapers cost less than wasteful ones.
Yes for accessing publicly available data. Bright Data, Decodo, and Oxylabs all enforce compliance reviews to ensure customers are scraping public data and not violating terms of service or copyright. For sensitive use cases (healthcare, financial services), check with the vendor compliance team before scaling.
Partially. Bright Data offers the Web Scraper IDE and Scraping Browser that handle most setup automatically. For complex use cases or custom scrapers, you need engineering knowledge. For pre-built scrapers, Apify might be a better fit than raw Bright Data.