Guide
What Is the Cost Comparison Between Residential and ISP Proxies?
Residential proxies are billed per gigabyte and ISP proxies per IP per period, so which is cheaper depends on traffic per identity. Published 2026 prices, a worked break-even calculation, and when each wins.
Residential and ISP proxies are billed on different units, so neither is simply cheaper: residential proxies charge per gigabyte, ISP proxies charge per IP per period — usually with unlimited bandwidth. At FlameProxies' published rates, residential costs $0.50/GB and a dedicated ISP proxy starts at $0.70 per day, about $21 for 30 days. That puts the break-even at roughly 42GB per identity per month: move less than that through one identity and residential is cheaper; move more and an ISP proxy is.
The more important point is that they are rarely true substitutes. Cost only decides the choice when both would do the job.
How each is billed
| Residential | ISP (static residential) | |
|---|---|---|
| Unit | Per gigabyte | Per IP per period |
| Bandwidth | Metered | Often unlimited |
| IPs you get | Access to a rotating pool | A fixed number of dedicated addresses |
| Cost scales with | Traffic volume | Number of identities and time |
| Cheapest when | Light traffic, many IPs | Heavy traffic, few identities |
Published prices, September 2026
| Provider | Residential | ISP / static |
|---|---|---|
| FlameProxies | $0.50/GB; $0.45/GB above 1TB | From $0.70/day, unlimited bandwidth |
| Evomi | $0.49/GB on a 100GB plan; $0.99/GB pay as you go | From $1.00/IP |
| IPRoyal | — | From $2.00/IP, KYC required |
Billing periods and bandwidth terms differ between providers, so compare the exact plan you would buy rather than the headline figure.
The break-even calculation
For a single identity held for 30 days, using FlameProxies' published rates:
- ISP proxy: $0.70 × 30 days = $21.00, bandwidth unlimited
- Residential: $21.00 ÷ $0.50/GB = 42GB for the same money
| Traffic per identity, per month | Residential at $0.50/GB | ISP at ~$21/month | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5GB | $2.50 | $21.00 | Residential |
| 20GB | $10.00 | $21.00 | Residential |
| 42GB | $21.00 | $21.00 | Break-even |
| 100GB | $50.00 | $21.00 | ISP |
| 500GB | $250.00 | $21.00 | ISP |
The $0.70/day figure is the entry rate; plug in your own quote and plan length. The shape of the answer does not change: low-traffic identities favour residential, high-traffic identities favour ISP.
Why cost is usually not the deciding factor
The two products do different jobs.
Residential proxies give you a pool. Every request can leave from a different IP drawn from millions. That is what broad scraping, price monitoring and SERP collection need.
ISP proxies give you a fixed identity. One address, dedicated to you, that does not change. That is what account management, logged-in sessions and long automation runs need.
So the real decision tree is:
- Do you need many rotating IPs? Residential — ISP proxies cannot provide a pool.
- Do you need one stable identity? ISP — rotating residential IPs look like account takeover on logged-in sessions.
- Would either work? Then compare cost using the break-even above.
Other costs to factor in
- Retries. Failed residential requests still consume billed gigabytes. A low success rate raises effective cost per result.
- Rendering. Browser automation that loads full pages moves far more data than HTML-only scraping, pushing residential costs up quickly — sometimes past the break-even.
- Bandwidth expiry. Residential plans whose traffic expires monthly waste money on uneven workloads. FlameProxies' residential bandwidth does not expire.
- Speed. ISP proxies are faster, which can reduce the infrastructure time a job needs.
A common mixed setup
Many teams run both: ISP proxies for the handful of identities that must stay fixed and move lots of traffic, and rotating residential for broad collection. That typically costs less than forcing either type to do both jobs.
For the non-cost differences, see how ISP dedicated proxies differ from standard proxies and speed differences between residential and ISP dedicated proxies. FlameProxies' static residential ISP proxies and residential proxies are both on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the cost comparison between residential and ISP proxies?
- They are billed differently, so the cheaper option depends on how much traffic each identity moves. Residential proxies are billed per gigabyte — FlameProxies charges $0.50/GB. ISP proxies are billed per IP per period, usually with unlimited bandwidth — FlameProxies' start at $0.70 per day, about $21 for 30 days. At those rates the break-even is roughly 42GB per identity per month: below it residential is cheaper, above it an ISP proxy is.
- Are ISP proxies cheaper than residential proxies?
- For heavy traffic on one identity, usually yes, because ISP proxies commonly include unlimited bandwidth. For light traffic, or when you need many different IPs, residential is cheaper, since you only pay for the gigabytes you use and get access to a whole rotating pool.
- Why are ISP proxies billed per IP instead of per GB?
- Because each ISP proxy is a dedicated address hosted on datacenter infrastructure with fixed capacity, so the provider's cost is per address rather than per unit of traffic. Residential proxies route through third-party consumer connections, where bandwidth is the scarce resource.
- Can I replace residential proxies with ISP proxies to save money?
- Only if your work suits a small number of fixed IPs. ISP proxies are poor for broad rotation, because you hold a handful of static addresses rather than a pool of millions. They win on cost for long sessions and heavy traffic per identity, not for spreading requests across many IPs.
- How much do ISP proxies cost?
- As published in September 2026, FlameProxies' dedicated ISP proxies start at $0.70 per day with unlimited bandwidth; other providers list static residential or ISP proxies from around $1 to $2 per IP. Billing periods and bandwidth terms vary, so compare like for like.