ISP vs residential proxies: the difference and the cost

Both use addresses that belong to home internet providers, so websites see a household connection rather than a server. A residential proxy routes you through real people’s devices and rotates through a large pool; an ISP proxy, also sold as a static residential proxy, is an address a home internet provider registered but a server hosts, so it is usually faster, does not go offline with someone’s home device, and stays yours. ISP proxies are rented per IP each month; residential proxies are bought per GB of traffic.

Answer · The live comparison uses prices checked up to Oct 24, 2026; every figure in the text keeps the date it was checked.

Where the address comes from

A residential address is the one a broadband or cable provider gave to a home. Residential proxy networks reach those homes through apps and devices whose owners, the providers say, agreed to share their connection, so your request leaves from a real household somewhere in the world. The pool is large and spread across most countries, but each exit depends on someone’s home connection: it can be slow, and it can disappear mid-session.

An ISP address is also registered to a home internet provider, but it is announced from a server in a data center. Nobody’s living room is involved. You get the reputation of a consumer network with the speed and uptime of a server. HypeProxies, for example, sells ISP addresses on AT&T and Verizon at a separate price (its price list).

How the two are sold

The box above prices 100 IPs of ISP proxies for a month against 100 GB of residential traffic. They are not the same amount of anything, so compare them on your own job: how many fixed addresses you need, against how much traffic you will move.

Which one costs less for your job

An ISP plan wins when a few addresses carry a lot of traffic, because the IP price does not grow with the gigabytes. Ten ISP IPs that each move 50 GB a month cost the same as ten that move 1 GB, on plans whose traffic is unlimited. A residential plan wins when you need many addresses but little traffic through each, or locations an ISP provider does not sell.

Check two things on an ISP plan before you compare: whether the IPs are dedicated or shared with other customers (the workbench’s “Refine” can require either on the ISP comparison), and whether traffic is unlimited or capped per IP. On a residential plan, check when the traffic expires (bandwidth expiry): a package that lapses after 30 days can cost more than a dearer one that never does.

When to choose each

Choose ISP for work that needs the same address every time and a connection that does not drop: managing accounts, long sessions, an allowlisted address, or heavy steady traffic. If the target accepts server addresses, plain datacenter IPs cost less still (datacenter vs ISP).

Choose residential for breadth: many requests across many sites, many cities or countries, and addresses that change as you go. Static vs rotating proxies covers the session side of the same choice.