Proxy pricing is one of the most confusing aspects of choosing a provider. Some charge per gigabyte of data, others per IP address, and some per request or API call. The right model for you depends entirely on your use case, volume, and the type of data you are collecting.
Choosing the wrong pricing model can cost you 3-5x more than necessary. A scraper that downloads lightweight text data wastes money on a per-IP plan with unused bandwidth. A multi-account manager running 100 accounts wastes money on a per-GB plan when each account generates minimal traffic.
This guide breaks down each pricing model with concrete examples, cost calculations, and recommendations so you can make an informed decision.
The Three Main Pricing Models
1. Per-GB (Bandwidth-Based)
How it works: You pay for the amount of data transferred through the proxy, measured in gigabytes. You can use as many IPs as the provider's pool offers, send as many requests as you want, and the only meter running is your bandwidth consumption.
Typical pricing range: $2-15/GB depending on proxy type and provider.
Hex Proxies residential pricing: Starting at $4.25/GB with volume discounts available for higher tiers.
Best for:
- Web scraping (especially text-heavy pages)
- SERP monitoring
- Price comparison data collection
- Any high-request-count, low-bandwidth task
Example cost calculation:
| Scenario | Pages | Avg Page Size | Total Data | Cost at $4.50/GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product scraping (text only) | 10,000 | 150 KB | 1.5 GB | $6.75 |
| Full page scraping (with images) | 10,000 | 2 MB | 20 GB | $90.00 |
| API data collection | 100,000 | 5 KB | 0.5 GB | $2.25 |
| SERP monitoring | 5,000 | 200 KB | 1 GB | $4.50 |
Use our proxy cost calculator to estimate costs for your specific workload.
2. Per-IP (Address-Based)
How it works: You pay a monthly fee for each IP address assigned to you. The IP is yours for the duration of the billing period, and bandwidth is typically unlimited. You get a fixed number of static IPs that do not change.
Typical pricing range: $1.50-5/IP/month for ISP proxies, $0.50-3/IP/month for datacenter proxies.
Best for:
- Account management (one IP per account)
- Sneaker botting and checkout automation
- Long-running sessions requiring consistent identity
- Tasks where unlimited bandwidth on a fixed IP is more valuable than IP diversity
Example cost calculation:
| Scenario | IPs Needed | Cost at $3/IP/mo | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 social media accounts | 10 | $3.00 | $30 |
| 50 marketplace accounts | 50 | $3.00 | $150 |
| 5 sneaker bot tasks | 5 | $3.00 | $15 |
| 200 account management | 200 | $3.00 | $600 |
Learn more about ISP proxy pricing and features on our ISP proxies page.
3. Per-Request (API-Based)
How it works: You pay a fixed price for each HTTP request routed through the proxy. The provider handles IP rotation, browser rendering, CAPTCHA solving, and retry logic. You send a URL, and get back the rendered content.
Typical pricing range: $0.50-5 per 1,000 requests (varies wildly by provider and target site difficulty).
Best for:
- Teams that want a managed scraping solution
- High-difficulty targets that require browser rendering
- Low-volume, high-value data extraction
- Companies without in-house scraping expertise
Example cost calculation:
| Scenario | Requests | Cost at $1/1,000 | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily price checks (100 products) | 3,000 | $1.00 | $3 |
| Weekly SERP monitoring (500 keywords) | 2,000 | $1.00 | $2 |
| Large-scale crawl (1M pages) | 1,000,000 | $1.00 | $1,000 |
| E-commerce monitoring (50K products daily) | 1,500,000 | $1.00 | $1,500 |
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Factor | Per-GB | Per-IP | Per-Request |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost predictability | Medium (depends on page size) | High (fixed monthly) | Medium (depends on volume) |
| Best volume level | Medium to high | Low to medium | Low to medium |
| IP rotation | Automatic, unlimited | None (static IPs) | Managed by provider |
| Bandwidth included | Metered | Unlimited | N/A (per request) |
| Scaling cost curve | Linear | Linear | Linear but expensive |
| Infrastructure needed | Your own scraper | Your own tools | Minimal (API calls) |
| Flexibility | Maximum | Good for specific use cases | Limited to provider's API |
How to Choose: Decision Framework
Step 1: Determine your primary use case
- Scraping public data at scale -> Per-GB
- Managing persistent accounts -> Per-IP
- Quick data extraction, no infrastructure -> Per-Request
Step 2: Estimate your volume
Calculate your expected monthly usage in all three dimensions:
- Bandwidth: Number of pages x average page size (in MB) = total GB
- IPs needed: Number of persistent identities needed simultaneously
- Request count: Total HTTP requests per month
Step 3: Calculate costs under each model
Use the tables above or our cost-per-request calculator to compare.
Step 4: Consider hidden costs
Per-GB hidden costs:
- Wasted bandwidth from retries and blocked requests
- No control over which IP you get (rotation is random)
Per-IP hidden costs:
- Replacement fees if IPs get banned
- Paying for IPs during downtime or off-peak periods
- Need to purchase more IPs to replace blocked ones
Per-Request hidden costs:
- Premium charges for difficult targets
- Rate limits that throttle your speed
- Vendor lock-in (your code depends on their API format)
Real-World Scenarios: Which Model Wins?
Scenario 1: Price monitoring for an e-commerce company
Task: Scrape 50,000 product pages daily, extracting price, title, and availability (text only).
- Average page: 150 KB of HTML (blocking images)
- Monthly data: 50,000 x 150 KB x 30 days = ~225 GB
| Model | Calculation | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Per-GB ($4.50/GB) | 225 GB x $4.50 | $1,012 |
| Per-Request ($1/1K) | 1.5M requests x $1 | $1,500 |
| Per-IP (N/A) | Would need 1000+ rotating IPs | Not applicable |
Scenario 2: Managing 200 social media accounts
Task: Each account posts once daily and checks messages. Minimal bandwidth per account.
- Bandwidth per account: ~50 MB/month
- Total bandwidth: 200 x 50 MB = 10 GB
- IPs needed: 200 (one per account, persistent)
| Model | Calculation | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Per-IP ($3/IP) | 200 IPs x $3 | $600 |
| Per-GB ($4.50/GB) | 10 GB x $4.50 | $45 |
Winner: Per-IP -- the use case requires IP persistence, which per-GB rotation cannot reliably provide.
Scenario 3: Occasional competitive research
Task: A marketing team checks competitor pricing weekly, scraping 500 pages each Monday.
- Monthly requests: 500 x 4 = 2,000
- Bandwidth: 2,000 x 200 KB = 400 MB
| Model | Calculation | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Per-GB ($4.50/GB) | 0.4 GB x $4.50 | $1.80 |
| Per-Request ($1/1K) | 2K requests x $1 | $2.00 |
Winner: Tie -- both are under $2/month at this volume.
Hex Proxies Pricing at a Glance
| Product | Model | Starting Price | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential Proxies | Per-GB | $4.25/GB | 10M+ IPs, 93+ countries, auto-rotation, sticky sessions |
| ISP Proxies | Per-IP | Per-IP/month | 250K+ IPs, unlimited bandwidth, static dedicated IPs |
- Full dashboard with usage analytics
- API access for programmatic management
- No minimum commitment
- 24/7 support
Common Pricing Mistakes to Avoid
1. Not blocking unnecessary resources
If you are scraping product data, you do not need images, CSS, or JavaScript. Loading these resources inflates your bandwidth bill by 5-10x on per-GB plans.
2. Choosing per-request for high volume
Per-request pricing includes a service margin on top of the raw proxy cost. At 100,000+ requests per month, per-GB is almost always cheaper because you are paying for infrastructure, not a managed service.
3. Over-provisioning IP addresses
On per-IP plans, only purchase the IPs you actively use. Ten idle IPs at $3/month is $30 wasted. Right-size your IP pool and scale up only when needed.
4. Ignoring bandwidth optimization
Simple techniques like gzip compression, HTML-only fetching, and response streaming can reduce bandwidth by 60-80%, directly cutting your per-GB costs.
5. Not accounting for retries
If your success rate is 80%, one in five requests is wasted bandwidth. Improving your scraping strategy (better headers, appropriate delays, right proxy type) reduces retries and saves money.
Calculate Your Costs
Use our free calculators to estimate your proxy costs:
- Proxy Cost Calculator -- estimate monthly costs based on page count and average size
- Cost-Per-Request Calculator -- compare per-request vs per-GB pricing for your workload
- ROI Calculator -- calculate the business value of your proxy investment
Choose the Right Plan for Your Use Case
Now that you understand the three pricing models, you can make an informed choice. Most scraping teams start with per-GB residential proxies and add per-IP ISP proxies for account management workflows.
View all Hex Proxies plans -- transparent pricing, no hidden fees, and volume discounts available for all plan types.