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Cheapest residential proxies
Here is the honest version most comparison pages will not give you: the cheapest residential proxies on the market are not the big names. The genuine price floor is Geonode (from about $0.79/GB), Evomi (about $0.49/GB pay-as-you-go) and DataImpulse (a flat $1/GB). None of those is a provider we earn a commission from, and you should know that up front.
Among the major, affiliate-grade providers we cover, Webshare is the cheapest credible option. Below is where our set lands, and then the caveat that matters more than the sticker price.
1. Webshare Cheapest of the major providers
Webshare residential starts around $3.50/GB on its standing 50% promo and falls toward $1.40/GB at very high volume, plus a free tier to test. It is the cheapest entry among the major networks, with the known trade-off that it is the slowest of the reliable ones.
2. Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) Cheapest with top-tier performance
Decodo runs about $3.75/GB at entry and down to roughly $2/GB at volume, and it was the fastest residential network in 2026 testing. If you want cheap without sacrificing success rate or speed, it is the best value in the set.
3. Bright Data Cheap on promo, true pay-as-you-go
Bright Data is $4/GB for three months on the RESIGB50 promo, reverting to about $8/GB, billed pay-as-you-go with no commitment. Cheap to start while the promo holds, premium after.
The real price floor, outside our set
If absolute cost per gigabyte is all you care about, the leaders are Geonode (about $0.79/GB entry, down to $0.27 at extreme volume), Evomi (about $0.49/GB pay-as-you-go on its entry tier) and DataImpulse (a flat $1/GB, no subscription, traffic that does not expire). All verified on their live pricing pages in June 2026. We do not list them as picks because we have no affiliate program with them, but a page about the cheapest proxies that hid them would not be worth reading.
Cheapest is not the same as cheapest per success
A cheap pool that fails a quarter of your requests is not cheap, because every retry burns more gigabytes. Sub-$1 residential is also often mislabeled datacenter. The credible fair range in 2026 is about $1 to $8 per gigabyte, and headline rates like Geonode's $0.27 only appear at huge volume commitments. Test success rate on your own targets before you chase the lowest number.
One myth to drop
IPRoyal has a budget reputation, but its real pay-as-you-go entry is about $7.35/GB, among the most expensive starts in this comparison. It only gets cheap at large volume. Do not assume the budget-branded name is the cheap one.
The call
If you want the genuine floor and can accept the trade-offs, Geonode, Evomi and DataImpulse are the cheapest, and we are telling you that even though we do not earn from them.
If you want the cheapest provider we can stand behind and support, Webshare is the entry pick and Decodo is the best value once you weigh in speed and success rate.
FAQ
What is the cheapest residential proxy?
By entry price, Evomi (about $0.49/GB pay-as-you-go), then Geonode (about $0.79/GB) and DataImpulse ($1/GB flat). All are outside the major-brand set. Among the big providers, Webshare is cheapest at about $3.50/GB.
Is the cheapest proxy the best deal?
Not always. A cheap pool with a low success rate forces retries that burn bandwidth, so the effective cost rises. Test success on your targets; the fair range is about $1 to $8 per GB.
Is IPRoyal cheap?
Not at entry. Its pay-as-you-go rate is about $7.35/GB, one of the most expensive starts here. It only becomes competitive at large volume.