Which proxy type is cheapest for my use case?

Datacenter is the lowest-cost type in two matched 10 GB pay-as-you-go panels observed on 2026-07-25. At ASocks, 10 GB computes to $6 for datacenter, $55 for residential and $60 for mobile. At Bright Data, 10 GB computes to $6 for datacenter, $40 for residential and $80 for ISP. These are price results from published rates, not performance results. ASocks rate evidence, retrieved 2026-07-25T17:34:28Z · Bright Data datacenter pricing, retrieved 2026-07-25T15:31:32Z · Bright Data residential pricing, retrieved 2026-07-25T15:31:32Z · Bright Data ISP pricing, retrieved 2026-07-25T15:31:32Z

The cheapest type is the lowest-priced type that still satisfies the workload’s origin and allocation requirements. Price data can answer the second half of that sentence. It cannot infer whether a target accepts datacenter traffic, whether an account requires mobile origin or whether a particular pool will produce more successful requests.

The matched panels above hold provider, billing model and traffic quantity constant. Each checkout is published pay-as-you-go rate × 10 GB. No subscription discount, larger tier or cross-provider product claim is mixed into the calculation.

The matched type panels

Inside the ASocks panel, residential costs $49 more than datacenter and mobile costs $54 more than datacenter for the computed 10 GB basket. Inside the Bright Data panel, residential costs $34 more and ISP costs $74 more than datacenter. Each difference comes from the matched rows and timestamps linked in the table.

Those premiums do not measure success rate, response quality or account safety. They only show what the provider charged for each traffic type at the observed rate.

If datacenter traffic is valid

When the workload’s requirements permit datacenter origin, datacenter is the price leader in both matched panels. That makes it the first type to price, not an automatic final choice. Validate the required locations, identity behavior and target acceptance before treating the lower bill as savings.

Traffic-priced rotating access is also different from buying fixed IPs. If the workload requires a known count of assigned datacenter addresses, compare per-IP rows at the same quantity and term instead. The 100-IP datacenter price comparison shows why shared and dedicated ranges must remain separate.

If residential origin is required

Once residential origin is a hard requirement, the datacenter rows leave the candidate set. The correct comparison is then residential against residential at the same traffic quantity, term and source state.

Do not keep the datacenter rate in the denominator and describe the residential result as overpriced. The two rows satisfy different stated requirements. The useful question becomes which residential row has the lowest exact checkout without changing expiry, location controls or pool scope.

If mobile origin is required

A mobile requirement also removes datacenter and residential substitutes unless the workload owner explicitly accepts them. In the ASocks panel, mobile is the highest of the three observed rates. That does not make it a bad purchase for a mobile-only requirement. It means the requirement selects a more expensive candidate set.

Mobile products can also be sold by traffic, device, port, thread or access duration. A per-GB mobile row cannot be ranked directly against a device-month row without measured usage and a common capacity assumption. If no honest normalization exists, keep the billing models in separate price panels.

If ISP origin is required

Bright Data’s matched panel includes an ISP pay-as-you-go row. The published price is higher than its residential and datacenter rows at the same traffic quantity. That is enough to describe the observed price order, but not enough to claim how the ISP row behaves on a target.

The data does not provide a universal equivalence between ISP, residential and datacenter traffic. Treat the required origin as a filter supplied by the use case, not as something the lowest price is allowed to override.

Do not turn unknown limits into permission

The expiry state is not published for all six rows in the matched panels. That does not mean the traffic never expires. It means the dataset cannot use expiry to break the tie.

Apply the same three-state rule to concurrency, threads, ports and address count. A real value can be compared. An explicitly unrestricted field can be described as unrestricted. A missing field stays null and the prose says “not published.” A cheap row with unknown required capacity has not yet won.

The practical decision order

Write down the non-negotiable origin: datacenter, residential, mobile or ISP. Then choose the allocation model, such as rotating traffic or assigned IPs. Fix the traffic quantity, address count, billing term and required capacity. Remove rows that change those inputs or have conflicting price evidence. Only then sort by exact checkout.

For a 10 GB pay-as-you-go workload that accepts datacenter origin, both matched provider panels put datacenter at $6. If the workload requires another origin, use that type’s candidate set and do not count an invalid datacenter substitute as savings. ASocks rate evidence, retrieved 2026-07-25T17:34:28Z · Bright Data datacenter pricing, retrieved 2026-07-25T15:31:32Z