What is a backconnect proxy?

A backconnect proxy is one proxy address that stands in front of many. You connect to a single host and port; the provider’s servers pass each connection on through one of the many addresses in its pool, so the site you visit sees a different address on each request, or the same one for as long as you ask it to hold. It is what most providers now call a rotating proxy, or the gateway or endpoint of a residential or mobile plan: a way of reaching a pool, not a different kind of address. It is usually billed by the traffic you send through it.

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

How it differs from a list of proxies

With a proxy list, each address you are given is the address the site sees. Ten proxies means ten host and port pairs, and if you want to spread requests across them, your own software has to rotate through the list and drop the ones that stop working. This is how datacenter and static residential (ISP) addresses are usually sold, by the IP.

With a backconnect proxy, you are given one address, and the rotation happens on the provider’s side. Your software sends every request to the same host and port. The provider picks an exit address from its pool for each connection, and when an address drops out of the pool, it stops picking it. The pool can be thousands or millions of addresses, which no list could hand you.

Choosing what the site sees

The gateway takes its instructions from the login or the port:

• A new address on every request is the default on most gateways.
• The same address for a while (a sticky session) is usually asked for by adding a session name to the username, or by using a port the provider sets aside for it. The address is held for minutes or hours, up to a ceiling the plan sets; sticky sessions and rotation explains the limits.
• A country, city or carrier is usually chosen the same way, with a setting in the username or a dedicated port. Some plans charge more for narrower targeting; what country targeting costs prices it today.

Each provider names these settings differently, so its own setup page is the one to follow.

What it costs

A backconnect gateway in front of residential or mobile addresses is almost always billed by the gigabyte that passes through it, and that is how the box above prices it. A few sellers charge for the gateway itself instead: a monthly price for a number of connections at once, or for a number of ports, with traffic not metered. Those plans win when you move a lot of data through few connections, and lose when you need many connections for little data. Per IP versus per GB shows where the two kinds of bill cross.

One thing to know before you send traffic through it

On a residential or mobile gateway, your requests leave from someone’s home connection or phone, not a server the provider runs. A page loaded over HTTPS stays encrypted from your software to the site, so the exit device only relays bytes it cannot read. A plain http:// page does not have that protection, so send everything you can over HTTPS. Where the addresses come from is its own question; why residential proxies are expensive covers how networks enrol the devices.