This is an independent, vendor-neutral snapshot of the residential-proxy market in 2026 — per-GB pricing, advertised pool sizes, free trials, and compliance policies across the four providers we track (Oxylabs, Bright Data, Decodo, IPRoyal), plus the wider market context. Every figure is a published rate or a dated third-party finding, sourced as of July 2026 (USD). It is a documented-facts reference, not a performance benchmark.
Key takeaways
- Published residential pay-as-you-go rates span roughly $2.00–$7.35/GB; they converge near $4.00/GB at the entry tier (Bright Data, Decodo +VAT), with IPRoyal higher and volume tiers falling to $2.00–$2.50/GB.
- Advertised pool sizes are vendor claims and ceilings: Bright Data 400M+, Oxylabs 175M+, Decodo 115M+, IPRoyal 64M+ — against a 54M-IP industry median advertised pool (Proxyway 2026).
- Free trials vary widely: Decodo has a 3-day trial + 14-day money-back; Bright Data a no-card trial (KYC for production); Oxylabs a once-per-client trial on request; IPRoyal none standard.
- Compliance is a real differentiator: all four run KYC; Bright Data's is the strictest (company-only), and Decodo actively blocks banking/financial, government, streaming, and app-store targets.
- Market context (Proxyway 2026): residential pricing stabilized after 2023–25 declines of up to 75%; grey-market entry pricing under $0.50/GB is a red flag; AI demand is the growth engine. This is a documented-facts reference — no independent benchmarks yet.
Residential proxy pricing (2026)
Published residential pricing has two axes: a per-GB pay-as-you-go rate (flexible, higher) and subscription tiers whose per-GB rate falls with commitment. Entry rates cluster near $4.00/GB; volume tiers reach $2.00–$2.50/GB. Prices are in USD; Decodo's exclude VAT.
| Provider | Pay-as-you-go | Entry subscription | Volume floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oxylabs | Not published | $30/mo — 5 GB ($6.00/GB) | $2.50/GB (1 TB) |
| Bright Data | $4.00/GB (50% off $8.00) | $499/mo — 141 GB ($3.50/GB) | $2.50/GB (798 GB) |
| Decodo | $4.00/GB (+VAT) | $11.25/mo — 3 GB ($3.75/GB) | $2.00/GB (enterprise) |
| IPRoyal | $7.35/GB (1 GB) | ~5% below pay-as-you-go | $5.15/GB (50 GB) |
For the full plan-by-plan breakdown see proxy pricing comparison and, for the cheapest routes, cheapest residential proxies. To convert a rate into a project budget, use how much web scraping costs.
Advertised pool sizes
Pool size is the industry's favourite marketing number and its least verifiable — all figures below are vendor claims and represent ceilings, not guaranteed concurrent IPs. Proxyway's 2026 research puts the median advertised residential pool at 54M IPs, which is a useful reality check against the headline claims.
| Provider | Claimed pool | Claimed coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | 400M+ | 195 countries |
| Oxylabs | 175M+ | Not stated |
| Decodo | 115M+ | 195+ locations |
| IPRoyal | 64M+ | 195+ countries |
Free trials and refunds
Trial terms are where the four diverge most, and they decide how cheaply you can validate fit before committing.
| Provider | Free trial | Refund |
|---|---|---|
| Decodo | 3-day trial | 14-day money-back (eligible plans) |
| Bright Data | Free trial, no card (KYC for production) | Not stated |
| Oxylabs | Once per client, on request | No money-back stated |
| IPRoyal | None standard (buy 1 GB minimum) | IPRoyal-side failures only, within 24h |
Compliance and KYC
Every provider now runs know-your-customer checks; the depth — and which target categories they refuse to serve — is a genuine differentiator, especially for regulated buyers. Our reasoning for favouring providers that can account for their IP origin is in ethical proxy sourcing.
| Provider | KYC / verification | Restricted targets (stated) |
|---|---|---|
| Bright Data | Strictest: company-only, human-reviewed | Residential access gated behind company KYC |
| Oxylabs | Signup KYC + risk-based escalation | Risk-based monitoring; EWDCI founding member |
| Decodo | KYC + third-party screening for all | Blocks banking/financial, government, streaming, app stores, ticketing |
| IPRoyal | iDenfy KYC (mandatory for static/ISP) | Monitoring limited to accessed targets |
Scraping API and unblocker pricing
Beyond raw bandwidth, each provider sells a managed scraping/unblocking product billed per request or per successful result — often cheaper than per-GB once pages carry real weight (see scraping API vs proxy).
| Provider | Product | Price | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oxylabs | Web Scraper API | from $0.25 / 1K results | 2K results, no card |
| Bright Data | Web Unlocker | $1.50 / 1K requests | 5K requests/mo, no card |
| Decodo | Web Scraping API | $0.50 / 1K (std); $1.50 / 1K (premium + JS) | 2K requests/mo |
| IPRoyal | Web Unblocker | $1.00 → $0.70 / 1K | Not stated |
Oxylabs (Web Scraper API), Bright Data (Web Unlocker) and IPRoyal (Web Unblocker) document success-only billing on these products; Decodo's prices exclude VAT.
Market context (2026)
Per Proxyway's Proxy Market Research 2026, residential pricing stabilized after declines of up to 75% across 2023–2025: Oxylabs and IPRoyal retired long-running discount codes in favour of permanent plans revised down about 25%, and the median advertised pool reached 54M IPs. Grey-market entry pricing under $0.50/GB is a red flag for non-consensual sourcing. The growth engine is AI: Bright Data is cited at roughly $300M annualized revenue growing ~50% year over year on AI-data demand.
Two structural notes. First, the rebrand: Smartproxy became Decodo on April 22, 2025 — accounts, subscriptions, pricing and endpoints carried over unchanged. Second, on the cheap end, never use free proxies: an academic NDSS MADWeb 2024 study of 640,600+ free proxies found only 34.5% ever active and 16,923 manipulating content in transit, with 1,755 allowing remote code execution. The full argument is in free vs paid proxies.
Methodology and sourcing
This is a documented-facts reference, not an independent benchmark — ProxyFacts has not yet run first-hand performance tests. Every price and term comes from the four providers' published pricing pages and documentation fetched July 17, 2026, or a dated third-party source (Proxyway's 2026 research; the NDSS MADWeb 2024 study). Every vendor performance or pool-size figure is labelled a vendor claim. Prices are in USD; Decodo's exclude VAT. ProxyFacts earns disclosed affiliate commissions through the review links in our articles, marked rel="sponsored"; commissions never change the figures we publish. We refresh this report as the underlying dataset is re-verified.