Bandwidth expiry: you are buying time as well as traffic

Bandwidth expiry is the last day unused traffic remains usable. A shorter window can reduce the checkout price, but traffic left after that window has no value to the buyer. A plan with 100 GB for 30 days is therefore not the same product as 100 GB that never expires, even when the proxy network and traffic amount are the same. Dataset snapshot, evidence retrieved 2026-07-25

The plan where expiry changes the price

ProxyScrape makes the effect unusually easy to see. Its residential traffic appears in four separate plan rows with the same 100 GB purchase quantity. The expiry window is the variable that changes. ProxyScrape API, retrieved 2026-07-25T16:33:08.221Z

A buyer who can consume the full 100 GB inside 30 days pays $220. A buyer who needs the balance to remain available indefinitely pays $295 for the same quantity, a $75 difference caused by the lifetime of the traffic rather than by the number of gigabytes. ProxyScrape API, retrieved 2026-07-25T16:33:08.221Z

The cheapest row is not automatically the cheapest purchase. If a buyer uses only 60 GB before the 30-day balance expires, the remaining 40 GB cannot be treated as future inventory. The correct comparison starts with how much traffic can actually be used before expiry, then selects the cheapest checkout tier that covers that usable amount. The plan does not become a better deal merely because its advertised price per GB is lower. ProxyScrape API, retrieved 2026-07-25T16:33:08.221Z

When the expiry is not published

In the current 710-row dataset, bandwidth_expiry_days is not published on 505 rows. Another 77 rows explicitly say traffic never expires, while the remaining 128 publish a numeric window. Those are three different states. A null value cannot be rendered as “never expires,” because the provider did not make that promise in the evidence collected. Dataset snapshot, all evidence retrieved 2026-07-25

Before comparing traffic-priced plans, check the plan ID, the purchased quantity, the expiry window, whether renewal changes the window, and what happens to the unused balance. If any of those terms is missing, the honest result is “Not published,” not an assumption that makes the cheaper row look more permissive than it is. Dataset methodology and plan evidence, retrieved 2026-07-25