What is Residential Proxy?
A proxy that routes traffic through an IP address assigned by an ISP to a real home device, making requests appear to come from a genuine consumer.
Residential IPs are the addresses internet providers hand out to households. Because they are attached to real subscribers rather than to server infrastructure, websites treat them as ordinary visitors, which is why they get through defences that reject datacenter traffic outright.
They are normally sold by bandwidth rather than by IP, and billed per gigabyte, because you are drawing from a shared rotating pool rather than renting one fixed address. A single session might use a different IP on every request, or hold one for a set period if the task needs a stable identity.
The trade-off is speed and consistency. Traffic is relayed through a consumer connection, so latency is higher than a datacenter route and varies with the underlying line. For work where trust matters more than milliseconds — social platforms, retail, travel, anything with serious bot detection — that trade is usually worth making.
Related terms
Rotating Proxy
A proxy that assigns a new IP address on every request or at set intervals, distributing traffic across many IPs to avoid rate limits and bans.
ISP Proxy
A static proxy hosted in a data center but registered under a residential ISP, combining datacenter speed with residential trust and a zero fraud score. Also called a static residential proxy.
Mobile Proxy
A proxy that routes traffic through a real 4G or 5G connection on a mobile carrier network, so the exit IP belongs to a phone operator rather than a hosting provider or a home ISP. Also called a 4G, 5G or cellular proxy.
Bandwidth
The volume of data transferred through a proxy, usually measured in gigabytes. Residential proxies are typically billed by bandwidth.