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Cheap Proxies That Actually Work (2026 Test Results)

Last updated: August 05, 2026 · Tested with paid plans

Cheap proxies are a minefield. Some budget providers run genuinely good infrastructure with low margins; others resell burned pools that fail half your requests. The price difference between "cheap" and "mid-range" is often $0.50 per IP - and the failure-rate difference is 40%.

We tested 5 providers under $2/IP (or under $3/GB residential) with the same 50,000-request workload as our main rankings. Here is what budget money actually buys in 2026.

What cheap should cost in 2026

## What cheap should cost in 2026

• Shared datacenter: $0.60 - $1.20 per IP/month

- Shared datacenter: $0.60 - $1.20 per IP/month

• Dedicated datacenter: $1.50 - $2.50 per IP/month

- Dedicated datacenter: $1.50 - $2.50 per IP/month

• Rotating residential: $2.00 - $4.00 per GB

- Rotating residential: $2.00 - $4.00 per GB

Anything dramatically below these ranges is either a short-term promo or a pool you do not want.

Red flags when buying cheap proxies

## Red flags when buying cheap proxies

No trial or refund. Legitimate budget providers let you test with a small package or offer 24-72 hour refunds. "No refunds ever" on a cheap pool means they know what they are selling.

Anonymous bandwidth resellers. If the website does not say where IPs come from, assume they are resold from a larger provider at markup - you can buy the same pool cheaper at the source.

Unrealistic claims. "Unlimited residential bandwidth" does not exist. Residential proxies are metered by nature; unlimited claims mean datacenter IPs marketed as residential.

Where to save and where not to

## Where to save and where not to

Save on datacenter proxies for search-engine scraping - the quality ceiling is similar across providers. Do not cheap out on residential proxies for protected targets: the success-rate difference between a $2/GB and a $6/GB pool routinely exceeds the price difference.