Premium residential proxies are home IPs sold with the extras that decide whether a job works on a strict website: clean, ethically sourced addresses, targeting down to city, ZIP and ISP, full session control, published uptime and support that answers around the clock. Budget plans sell the same kind of IP but leave most of that out. We compared 13 premium proxy providers on what they publish about IP quality, targeting depth, sessions and support, then on price. To start straight away, see ProxyEmpire’s rotating residential proxies.
Quick answer
ProxyEmpire is the best premium residential proxy provider in 2026. It pairs 30M+ clean, ethically sourced residential IPs in 170+ countries with ZIP, ISP, ASN and OS targeting at no extra cost, sticky sessions with no fixed time limit, 99.9% uptime on a public status page and 24/7 support from real people, from $3.50/GB down to $1.50/GB, with a $1.97 trial. Oxylabs and NodeMaven stand out for automated IP filtering, and Bright Data for audited sourcing.
Best premium residential proxies compared
Quality, targeting, sessions and support side by side| # | Provider | IP quality controls | Deepest targeting | Sessions | Support | Price per GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ProxyEmpire | IP type checks (residential, mobile, datacenter); ethically sourced; live status page | ZIP, ISP, ASN, OS | Rotating, timed or sticky with no fixed limit | 24/7, real people | $3.50 → $1.50 |
| 2 | Oxylabs | Filtering algorithm; OS and IP-version filters | ZIP, ASN, coordinates | Sticky, 24 h max | 24/7 + account manager | $6.00 → $2.50 |
| 3 | NodeMaven | Risky IPs filtered before assignment | City, ISP | Sticky, 24 h max | Personal proxy expert | $5.31 → $2.75 |
| 4 | Proxy-Seller | ISO 27001; signed user agreements | City, ISP | TTL per list, by time or request | Account manager on enterprise plans | $3.50 → $1.45 |
| 5 | Byteful | Ethically sourced; EWDCI member | City, ISP | Sticky, 24 h max | Email and chat | $3.25 → $1.95 |
| 6 | ResiProx | Ethically sourced IPs | City, ISP | Rotating or sticky | 24/7 expert support | $3.50 → $1.75 |
| 7 | Bright Data | Opt-in peers, verified customers, audited | ZIP, ASN, carrier | Rotating or sticky | 24/7 engineers | $4.00 → $2.50 |
| 8 | Decodo | Ethically sourced; ISO 27001 | ZIP, ASN | Sticky, 24 h max | 24/7 technical | $4.00 → $2.00 |
| 9 | SOAX | Voluntarily shared IPs | City, ISP, ASN | Custom length per session | Hours not stated | $5.00 → $1.50 |
| 10 | IPRoyal | Network monitoring; proxy tester | City | Sticky, 7 days max | Help centre and team | $7.00 → $3.36 |
| 11 | Rayobyte | Full end-user consent | City, ASN | Rotating or sticky | 24/7 live + account management | $3.50 → $0.70 |
| 12 | Infatica | Ethically sourced | City, ISP | Adjustable rotation time | 24/7 | $4.00 → $2.60 |
| 13 | ProxyRack | Not stated | City, ISP | Rotating or sticky | Hours not stated | $1.10 → $0.85 |
IP quality controls are what each provider publishes about sourcing and screening; we did not score IP quality ourselves. “Not stated” means the provider’s own pages do not say. Price per GB is the regular price on the smallest residential plan, then the lowest regular rate published at 1 TB or less; Bright Data is shown at its current 50% discount, other promotions are in the reviews, and ProxyRack’s smallest bundle is 100 GB. Everything was read from the providers’ own pages on 26–29 September 2026. DataImpulse, Webshare and MarsProxies are not ranked here because this page compares quality features rather than the lowest price.
How we judged premium residential proxy providers
Four tests, price secondEvery provider here sells rotating residential IPs. What makes one premium is how much control and assurance comes with each IP, so we ranked on four points and used price only to separate close calls.
The 13 best premium residential proxies in 2026
Premium proxy providers, reviewed
ProxyEmpire
Best overallProxyEmpire covers every premium point at a mid-market price: 30M+ clean, ethically sourced residential IPs in 170+ countries, targeting down to ZIP, ISP, ASN and OS fingerprint at no extra cost, and sticky sessions that keep an IP until you rotate it or the device goes offline.
- IPs are checked so they are correctly classified as residential, mobile or datacenter, with 24/7 support from real people and uptime you can check on status.proxyempire.io
- Per-request, timed or sticky rotation from one endpoint, bandwidth that rolls over, and 4M+ mobile IPs on the same account
- Banks, payment, crypto and government sites are blocked, and Proxy-Seller is slightly cheaper at 1 TB
Oxylabs
Enterprise-grade IP filteringOxylabs lists 175M+ ethically sourced residential IPs and hands them out through an algorithm that weighs latency, bandwidth and quality and adapts to each IP’s scraping history.
- Optional filters for IP version (IPv4 or IPv6) and device OS
- Sticky sessions for up to 24 hours, plus scraper APIs from the same vendor
- The advanced filters may require KYC, and there is no pay as you go or residential trial: the entry plan is 5 GB for $30
NodeMaven
Pre-screened IPsNodeMaven builds its product around IP quality: risky IPs are filtered out before your session starts, and it publishes a 95% IP clean rate across 30M+ residential IPs. Its plans currently show 20% off, at $4.25 falling to $2.20/GB.
- Quality and speed filters, with a personal proxy expert for setup
- Unused traffic rolls over, and used GBs earn cashback as proxy credits
- Targeting stops at country, region, city and ISP, and there are no datacenter proxies
Proxy-Seller
Compliance paperworkProxy-Seller lists 47M+ residential IPs in 220+ locations, says each one is backed by an official residential user agreement, and holds ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 9001 certification, with DPA and SCC documents on request.
- Session TTL set per proxy list: rotate by time or request, or hold one IP for a whole task
- Enterprise plans add a premium SLA and a dedicated account manager
- Traffic expires 30 days after purchase, and targeting stops at city and ISP
Byteful
Ethical sourcing, no expiryByteful, formerly Ping Proxies, lists 35M+ ethically sourced residential IPs, has joined the Ethical Web Data Collection Initiative and never expires residential bandwidth.
- Country, region, city and ISP targeting
- Residential, mobile, static residential and datacenter in one dashboard
- The smallest plan is 10 GB, and support runs by email and chat
ResiProx
Premium targeting for lessResiProx sells ethically sourced rotating residential and mobile IPs with country, region, city and ISP targeting on every plan, backed by 24/7 expert support.
- HTTPS and SOCKS5, with rotating or sticky sessions
- A single $3.97 trial covers residential and mobile traffic
- Rotating proxies only — no static, ISP or datacenter IPs
Bright Data
Audited sourcingBright Data lists 400M+ monthly residential IPs in 195 countries and states that every IP opts in, every customer is verified and the network is independently audited. Residential traffic is half price for now: $4.00/GB, down to $2.50/GB on the 798 GB plan.
- ZIP, carrier and ASN targeting, with GDPR and CCPA compliance documented
- Its SLA promises 15-minute priority responses and Slack access
- New users go through KYC, and monthly commitments do not roll over
Decodo (formerly Smartproxy)
Certified and easy to startDecodo lists 115M+ ethically sourced residential IPs, holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification and publishes a 99.92% success rate for its residential network.
- Geo-targeting down to ZIP and ASN at no extra charge
- 24/7 technical support and a 14-day money-back option
- Sticky sessions default to 10 minutes (up to 24 hours if you set it)
SOAX
Custom session lengthsSOAX lists 155M+ residential IPs that it says are voluntarily shared by their owners, and lets you set an exact session length in the connection string rather than choose from presets.
- Region, city and ISP or ASN targeting, with an IP allowlist option
- SOAX publishes 99.9% network uptime and a 99.95% success rate
- Credits expire after 60 days, and $1.50/GB needs the $1,500 Scale plan
IPRoyal
Week-long sessionsIPRoyal lists 64M+ residential IPs in 195+ countries, publishes a 99.4% success rate and 99.9% uptime, and lets one sticky session last as long as seven days.
- A free proxy tester for checking IPs against your own target
- No contracts, and purchased traffic never expires
- Targeting stops at city level, and its entry price is the highest here
Rayobyte
Consent-based sourcingRayobyte lists 40M+ residential IPs in 163+ countries, sourced with full end-user consent, and includes dedicated account management and 24/7 live support.
- Free country, state and city targeting, plus ASN
- Pay-as-you-go bandwidth does not expire
- No ZIP, ISP or carrier targeting, and $0.70/GB starts at the 1 TB tier
Infatica
IPv6 and annual plansInfatica describes its residential proxies as 100% ethically sourced, lists 40M+ IPs with 99.9% uptime and lets you choose the rotation time yourself.
- IPv6 residential traffic and scraper APIs on the same account
- 24/7 support, and annual billing cuts 1 TB to $2.08/GB
- Its monthly 1 TB rate is one of the higher ones in this list
ProxyRack
Bulk premium bundlesProxyRack sells a plan it calls Premium Residential in monthly bundles, from 100 GB at $1.10/GB down to $0.85/GB, and lists 35M+ monthly IPs in 140+ countries.
- UDP alongside HTTP and SOCKS
- Unmetered plans priced per thread for very high volumes
- No plan below 100 GB, and its residential pages do not say how IPs are sourced or screened
What makes residential proxies premium?
Six things budget plans often leave out“Premium” is a sales word, not a standard, so judge it by what a provider documents. These are the six features that separate a premium residential proxy from a cheap one:
- Clean IPs. Some networks screen addresses before you get them. NodeMaven filters out risky IPs before each session, and Oxylabs picks IPs by latency, bandwidth and quality.
- Ethical sourcing. The IP owner agreed to share the connection, and the provider can show it: Bright Data says its network is audited, and Proxy-Seller cites signed user agreements.
- Targeting depth. City, ZIP, ISP and ASN included in the price, not sold as add-ons.
- Session control. New IP per request, timed rotation, or a sticky IP that holds through a login.
- Published reliability. An uptime figure you can check, ideally on a live status page like status.proxyempire.io.
- Support that answers. 24/7 help from real people, and an account manager as you grow.
Premium vs budget residential proxies
Same kind of IP, different package| Premium residential | Budget residential | |
|---|---|---|
| IP checks | Sourcing and screening documented | Often not published |
| Targeting | City, ZIP, ISP or ASN included | Country free, the rest often extra |
| Sessions | Rotating, timed and long sticky | Rotating, short sticky |
| Support | 24/7, often an account manager | Varies, often tickets only |
| Best for | Logins, strict targets, local data | Bulk scraping of lenient sites |
Budget plans make sense when a target rarely blocks and country-level data is enough. Once you manage accounts, check local prices or scrape sites with strong bot protection, a failed request costs more than the gigabyte it used. For the full price comparison, see our best residential proxies guide.
How to test a premium proxy before you buy
Your targets, not their benchmarksProviders publish success rates between 99.4% (IPRoyal) and 99.95% (Bright Data and SOAX), measured on their own tests. Your number depends on your target, so test it:
- Buy the smallest trial: ProxyEmpire $1.97, SOAX $1.99, NodeMaven $3.50, or Byteful’s free 1 GB.
- Send real requests to the site you care about, not a speed-test page.
- Check a sample of IPs in any IP lookup: the ISP, city and blocklist status should match what you ordered.
- Hold one sticky session through a full login or checkout flow and note whether the IP changes.
- Ask support a real setup question outside office hours and time the reply.
Free premium proxies: do they exist?
Why there’s no list hereSearches for “fresh premium proxies” or a free premium proxy list lead to public servers that thousands of people share. They are mostly datacenter IPs, already flagged by the sites you want, and whoever runs them can see your traffic. Free web proxy sites that open pages in a browser tab are a different tool again, not residential proxies. A free list cannot be premium by definition, so we don’t publish one. Use a low-cost trial on a clean network instead. Each site’s terms and your local laws apply whichever proxy you use.
Premium residential proxy FAQ
Short answersWhat are premium residential proxies?
Residential IPs from real home connections, sold with documented sourcing, deep targeting, session control, published uptime and round-the-clock support. The IPs are the same kind budget plans sell; the package around them is not.
Which is the best premium proxy provider?
ProxyEmpire, in our 2026 comparison: 30M+ clean residential IPs, ZIP, ISP, ASN and OS targeting included, 99.9% uptime, 24/7 human support and a $1.97 trial.
How much do premium residential proxies cost?
Across these 13 providers, regular prices start between $3.25 and $7.00 per GB on small plans and fall to about $1.45–$3.36 at 1 TB. ProxyRack’s and Rayobyte’s bulk tiers go lower.
Which providers filter IPs for quality?
NodeMaven filters out risky IPs before assignment, and Oxylabs selects IPs by latency, bandwidth and quality. Other providers focus on documented sourcing instead.
Are premium proxies worth it?
They are for logins, local data and sites with strong bot protection, where a blocked request wastes more than it saves. For bulk scraping of easy sites, a budget plan is often enough.
What is the difference between premium and private residential proxies?
Premium describes the quality of the network; private means an IP or pool that no other customer shares. We compare those separately in our guide to the best private residential proxies.
Can I buy a premium proxy list?
Premium providers give you an endpoint and credentials rather than a fixed public list. You choose the country, city, ISP and session type, and the network supplies fresh IPs behind that endpoint.
Do premium proxies work for managing accounts?
Yes. Use a sticky session or a static residential IP so each account keeps the same address.
Is there a premium proxy trial?
Yes. ProxyEmpire’s costs $1.97, Decodo offers three days free, Byteful 1 GB free, SOAX $1.99 for 400 MB and NodeMaven $3.50 for 750 MB.
Are premium residential proxies legal?
Using them is legal in most countries. What you do through them must follow the law and the terms of the sites you visit.
Premium residential proxies without the enterprise contract
30M+ clean, ethically sourced IPs, ZIP, ISP and ASN targeting included, sticky sessions with no fixed time limit, 99.9% uptime and 24/7 support from real people. From $3.50/GB, down to $1.50/GB at 1 TB. Try ProxyEmpire for $1.97.
