A dynamic residential IP is a home internet address that is lent to you rather than fixed. The term has two everyday meanings. On your own connection, it is the public address your internet provider assigns through DHCP or PPPoE and can change when the lease renews or the router reconnects. In the proxy world, it means a dynamic residential proxy: traffic sent out through a pool of real home connections that changes IP per request or per session, better known as rotating residential proxies. This guide covers both: how ISPs hand out dynamic addresses, how to tell which kind you have, how dynamic and static residential proxies compare, and how to set one up.
The short version
A dynamic IP is leased to you for a limited time and can change; a static IP stays the same. Most home broadband and mobile connections get dynamic addresses, and a dynamic residential proxy uses a pool of those home addresses so your requests leave from a new IP each time, or keep one IP for a sticky session. Choose dynamic (rotating) residential proxies for data collection across many pages and locations, and static residential proxies when an account or login must always come from the same address.
What is a dynamic residential IP?
One phrase, two meaningsEvery device that talks to the internet does so from an IP address. A residential IP is one that an internet provider assigns to a home connection, as opposed to an address owned by a hosting company or cloud platform. “Dynamic” describes how long you keep it.
Meaning 1: the address on your home connection. Your provider doesn’t give most home customers a permanent address. It lends one from a pool for a set period, and the address can be different next time. AT&T’s support pages put it simply: a dynamic IP address changes from time to time, and it is how most ISP and corporate networks assign addresses to their customers. A static IP, by contrast, never changes, and on most home plans it is something you have to ask your provider for.
Meaning 2: a proxy that uses home addresses and changes them. Proxy providers use “dynamic residential proxy” or “dynamic residential IP” for a service that routes your traffic through many real home connections and hands you a different one per request, or holds one for a session. The same product is sold under the names rotating residential proxies, residential rotating IPs and backconnect residential proxies. The opposite is a static residential proxy (also called an ISP proxy), which keeps one fixed home-ISP address for as long as you rent it.
Key takeaways
- A dynamic IP is leased for a limited time and can change; a static IP is fixed.
- ISPs hand out dynamic addresses with DHCP (RFC 2131) or over a PPPoE session.
- Most home and mobile connections are dynamic by default; static is an extra.
- A dynamic residential proxy is a rotating residential proxy: a pool of home IPs that changes per request or per sticky session.
- Rotate for data collection at scale; stay static for accounts and logins.
How an ISP assigns a dynamic IP address
DHCP leases and PPPoE sessionsHome connections get their public address in one of two main ways, depending on how the provider built its network.
DHCP: an address on a lease
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, specified in RFC 2131, is the standard way to hand out addresses automatically. The RFC describes three ways a DHCP server can allocate an address: automatic (a permanent address), manual (an address the administrator picked, just delivered by DHCP) and dynamic, where the server assigns an address for a limited period of time, or until the client gives it up. That limited period is called a lease.
router starts up
DHCPDISCOVER --> "I need an address"
DHCPOFFER <-- "you can have 203.0.113.44 for 24 hours"
DHCPREQUEST --> "I'll take 203.0.113.44"
DHCPACK <-- "confirmed, lease starts now"
at 50% of the lease (T1) renew with the same server --> lease extended
at 87.5% of the lease (T2) rebind with any server --> lease extended
lease runs out start again from DISCOVER --> same or a new addressRFC 2131 sets the defaults shown above: the client tries to renew at T1, which defaults to half the lease, and falls back to asking any server at T2, which defaults to 0.875 of the lease. If the lease expires with no answer, the client has to stop using the address and start over. Your router does all of this in the background, so you never see it.
A dynamic address is not a random one. The RFC says the server attempts to return the same address each time the client asks, and when a client comes back it should get its current address, or failing that its previous address if that one is still free. That is why many “dynamic” home IPs stay the same for weeks: as long as the router keeps renewing, the lease keeps being extended. The address changes when the lease is allowed to lapse and someone else has taken it, or when the provider changes its pool.
PPPoE: an address per session
Many DSL and fibre providers use PPP over Ethernet instead. RFC 2516 describes how PPPoE builds a PPP session over an Ethernet link, which lets the provider keep a login, a session and per-customer control, much as dial-up did. The IP address is negotiated inside that session by IPCP: RFC 1332’s IP-Address option lets the router ask for a specific address or ask the provider to supply one.
Because the address belongs to the session, a new session can bring a new address. When the router reconnects after a power cut, a line drop or a reboot, it logs in again and the provider may assign a different address from its pool. Some providers also end sessions during maintenance or on a schedule, which has the same effect.
IPv6 works on similar lines
On IPv6, a provider usually delegates a whole prefix to your router with DHCPv6, and RFC 8415 gives each delegated prefix a preferred and a valid lifetime, just as a DHCPv4 lease has a duration. Your devices then build their own addresses inside that prefix, and many operating systems also create temporary addresses that change over time on purpose. RFC 8981 describes these temporary addresses as a way to limit how easily one address can be used to link your activity together.
Why ISPs use dynamic addressing
Scarce addresses and simpler networks- IPv4 addresses are scarce. The regional registries that hand out addresses have run dry: ARIN issued the final IPv4 addresses in its free pool on 24 September 2015, and the RIPE NCC announced on 25 November 2019 that it had run out. Providers now buy addresses on the transfer market, share them, or both.
- Not every customer is online at once. RFC 2131 notes that dynamic allocation is the only one of its three methods that allows automatic reuse of addresses, which makes it useful for sharing a limited pool among clients that don’t need permanent addresses.
- Less to manage. New customers, router swaps and moves between exchanges need no manual address changes. The pool handles them.
- Static is a product. Keeping a fixed address for one customer ties up an address permanently, so many providers offer static IPs only on request, on business plans or as an extra.
Some providers go further and share one public address among many customers with carrier-grade NAT, which the RIPE NCC mentions alongside the transfer market as one of the ways its region has responded to IPv4 run-out. If your router’s internet address starts with 100.64 to 100.127, that is what is happening; our guide to what CGNAT is explains how it works and what it breaks.
How to tell if your IP is dynamic or static
Four checks, easiest first- Check your contract. A static IP is normally listed on your plan or bill, often as an add-on. If it isn’t mentioned, assume dynamic.
- Look at the router. Log in to the router and open its internet, WAN or broadband status page. The connection type usually reads DHCP (or “automatic”), PPPoE, or static. DHCP connections often show the lease time, and PPPoE connections the session’s uptime.
- Watch your public address. Note what a “what is my IP” check shows, then check again after the router has been off for a while or over several days. A change means dynamic. No change doesn’t prove static, because DHCP tries to give you the same address back.
- Ask the provider. Support can tell you whether your line has a fixed address and whether one is available.
Your computer’s own settings answer a slightly different question. Behind a home router, a laptop’s address is a private one from the router’s own DHCP server, such as 192.168.1.20, not the public address websites see. Only when a computer connects straight to the provider’s modem, in bridge mode, do these commands show the provider’s lease.
# Windows: full adapter details, including "DHCP Enabled" and the lease times
ipconfig /all
# Windows: give the DHCP address back, then ask for one again
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
# Linux: addresses with their lifetimes (valid_lft forever = no expiry)
ip -4 address showMicrosoft’s documentation describes ipconfig /all as showing the full TCP/IP configuration for every adapter, and /release and /renew as sending the DHCP messages that give up and request an address. On Linux, the ip-address manual explains that each address has a valid lifetime that defaults to forever; an address set by hand keeps that default, while one from a DHCP client normally shows a countdown in seconds.
When does a dynamic IP change?
Less often than the name suggests| Event | What usually happens |
|---|---|
| Router stays online | DHCP renews the lease before it runs out, so the address normally stays the same. |
| Short reboot | On DHCP, the router asks again and usually gets its previous address. On PPPoE, a new session can bring a new one. |
| Long outage | If the lease expires and the address is given to someone else, you get a new one. |
| New router | The provider’s server sees a different client and may assign a different address. |
| Provider changes | Network maintenance, pool changes or a move to carrier-grade NAT can change your address without notice. |
| Mobile data | Reconnecting to the network, or switching airplane mode on and off, often brings a different carrier IP. |
A dynamic IP can still be traced to a subscriber. The provider assigned it, so it knows which customer held the address at a given time, for as long as it keeps those records. A changing address makes you harder to follow across websites over time; it doesn’t make you anonymous.
Dynamic residential proxies explained
Home connections, used as a changing exitA dynamic residential proxy turns the everyday home connection into a tool. Instead of one address, you connect to a provider’s gateway, and the gateway sends each request out through one of a very large pool of real home internet connections. The website sees an ordinary residential IP from a consumer provider, and on the next request, or the next session, a different one.
your script or browser
| one host, port, username and password
v
proxy gateway v2.proxyempire.io:5000
|
+--> request 1 --> home IP in Chicago (consumer ISP) --> website
+--> request 2 --> home IP in Denver (another ISP) --> website
+--> request 3 --> home IP in Atlanta (another ISP) --> websiteTwo things make these addresses useful. They sit in consumer providers’ ranges, so websites that check the network type see a home user rather than a server. And there are many of them, spread across countries, cities and providers, so traffic is spread out instead of piling up on one address. That is the core of the dynamic residential IP model: you rent access to the pool and pay for the traffic you send, usually per GB, rather than renting individual addresses.
Because the IPs are home connections, the ones in the pool come and go as those devices go on and offline. That is the trade-off behind the word “dynamic”: you get breadth and variety, but no promise that a given address will be available next week.
Dynamic vs static residential proxies
Many changing IPs, or one fixed one| Dynamic (rotating) residential | Static residential (ISP) | |
|---|---|---|
| IP address | A new IP per request, or one IP held for a sticky session | One fixed IP per proxy for the whole subscription |
| Pool | Millions of home connections | The addresses you bought |
| Billing | Per GB of traffic | Per IP per month |
| Targeting | Country down to region, city, ZIP, ISP and ASN | Usually country only |
| Locations | Wide coverage | A shorter list of countries |
| If an IP gets flagged | The next request uses another one | You need a replacement address |
| Best for | Scraping, price monitoring, SERP data, ad and geo checks | Accounts, logins, allowlisted access, long sessions |
With ProxyEmpire, rotating residential proxies draw on 30M+ residential IPs in 179 countries and territories, with targeting by country, region or state, city, ZIP, ISP, ASN and OS fingerprint included at no extra charge. Pricing starts at $3.50/GB pay-as-you-go and falls to $1.50/GB on larger plans, and unused bandwidth rolls over. Static residential proxies run from $3.50 down to $2.00 per IP a month, with country-level targeting, and are sold in 24 countries. For a deeper look at the fixed option, see what static residential proxies are.
When to use dynamic or static residential IPs
Match the IP to the jobMany teams use both. A price-monitoring job might run on rotating residential IPs, while the account that manages the store it sells through sits on one static IP in the store’s home country. The question to ask is whether the website should see one returning visitor or many different ones.
A rotating pool with sticky sessions sits between the two. It can hold one home IP long enough for a login and a checkout, but it isn’t a substitute for a static address when an account needs to look like the same household for months.
Rotation per request vs sticky sessions
Two ways to use a dynamic poolA dynamic residential proxy gives you a choice of how long each IP lasts.
- Per-request rotation. Every request leaves from a different IP. It spreads load as widely as possible, so no single address builds up a long history of visits. It suits stateless work: fetching many independent pages where each request stands alone.
- Sticky sessions. A run of requests keeps one IP. Use it when the website ties state to your address: a login followed by page views, a multi-step form, a cart and checkout, or paging through search results that expect one visitor. With ProxyEmpire, a sticky session has no fixed time limit: the IP stays until you rotate it or the device behind it goes offline.
- Timed rotation. The IP changes on a timer you choose. ProxyEmpire’s Custom TTL setting runs up to two hours.
A useful rule: rotate per request unless something breaks when the IP changes, then move that part of the job to a sticky session. Keep sessions short enough that one flagged IP doesn’t hold up the whole run, and start a new session when you start a new task. Our guide to sticky vs rotating proxies goes through more examples.
Setting up dynamic residential proxies with ProxyEmpire
One gateway, the session lives in the usernameProxyEmpire’s rotating residential and mobile proxies use one gateway: host v2.proxyempire.io, port 5000. HTTP and SOCKS5 both work on that host and port with the same username and password. Authentication is by username and password only, so there is no IP allowlist to maintain, which matters when your own connection has a dynamic address that could change under you.
- Create an account and add bandwidth, or start with the $1.97 trial, which includes 100 MB of residential and 50 MB of mobile traffic.
- Open the Proxy Manager in the dashboard and go to the Connection Builder. Choose the Residential tab.
- Pick a location: country, then Advanced settings for region, city and ISP. ZIP, ASN and OS fingerprint targeting are there too, all at no extra charge.
- Choose the rotation: Every request for a new IP each time, Same IP for a sticky session, or Custom TTL for a timer.
- Test and copy. Use “Test proxy settings”, then copy the full proxy string into your tool.
Your choices are built into the proxy username, so a different location or session is just a different username with the same host, port and password. Copy the string from the Connection Builder rather than typing it. In the example below, country-us selects the United States and sid-123456 holds a sticky session.
# rotating: use the string the Connection Builder gives you with "Every request" selected
for i in 1 2 3; do
curl -s -x "http://YOUR_ROTATING_USERNAME:YOUR_PASSWORD@v2.proxyempire.io:5000" https://ifconfig.me; echo
done
# sticky: the same session ID keeps the same exit IP
for i in 1 2 3; do
curl -s -x "http://YOUR_USERNAME-country-us-sid-123456:YOUR_PASSWORD@v2.proxyempire.io:5000" https://ifconfig.me; echo
done
# new session: change the session ID to get a different IP
curl -s -x "http://YOUR_USERNAME-country-us-sid-654321:YOUR_PASSWORD@v2.proxyempire.io:5000" https://ifconfig.me
# the same proxy over SOCKS5, with DNS resolved by the proxy
curl -s -x "socks5h://YOUR_USERNAME-country-us-sid-123456:YOUR_PASSWORD@v2.proxyempire.io:5000" https://ifconfig.meThe same proxy string works in Python, Node.js, Scrapy, Playwright, Puppeteer, anti-detect browsers and most scraping tools; the Connection Builder also shows ready-made code samples. Our curl with proxy guide covers authentication, environment variables and error codes in more detail.
If you would rather not paste proxy strings at all, ProxyEmpire has two free apps. The Chrome extension ProxyEmpire Proxy Manager connects Chrome to your proxies and signs in for you. The Android app of the same name, on Google Play, routes all apps or only the ones you pick through HTTP or SOCKS5 proxies, with no root; see our guide to setting up a proxy on Android.
Three limits to plan for: only target ports 80 and 443 are open by default; there is no UDP; and financial, government, crypto exchange, bank and payment sites are blocked on all proxy types, with unblocking only after KYC and a use-case review. Exit IPs are mostly IPv4, with some IPv6.
What a changing IP can’t do
Setting honest expectationsA dynamic residential IP is a strong starting point for automated work, but the address is only one of the things a website looks at.
- It isn’t invisible. Modern bot protection also checks the browser fingerprint, TLS and HTTP details, cookies, and how fast and in what order requests arrive. A clean residential IP with a script that behaves like a script still gets challenged. Send realistic headers, pace your requests, and use a real browser engine where a site expects one.
- It isn’t yours alone. Pool IPs are home connections that other traffic has used before, so an occasional address will already have a poor reputation. Rotation handles that by moving on; build retries into your code.
- It doesn’t encrypt anything by itself. Your HTTPS connection to the website is encrypted end to end whether or not you use a proxy. The proxy changes where the request comes from, not whether it is protected.
- It doesn’t change the rules. A changing IP changes where requests come from; the target site’s terms still apply. Collecting public data for price comparison, market research or brand protection is a common, legitimate use.
Dynamic residential IP FAQ
Short answersAre residential IP addresses dynamic?
Most are. Home broadband and mobile connections usually get a dynamic address by default, through DHCP or a PPPoE session. A static IP is normally listed on your plan, often as a paid extra or a business option.
How often does a dynamic IP change?
There is no fixed rule. DHCP tries to give a returning router its previous address, so a connection that stays online can keep the same IP for weeks. Reconnecting, long outages, a new router or provider changes can bring a new one.
Can a dynamic IP address be traced?
Yes, by the provider. It assigned the address, so it knows which customer held it at a given time, for as long as it keeps those records. A dynamic IP makes long-term tracking by websites harder; it doesn’t make you anonymous.
Is a dynamic residential proxy the same as a rotating residential proxy?
Yes. Both names describe traffic sent through a pool of home connections that changes IP per request or per session. Static residential or ISP proxies are the fixed alternative.
What is a dynamic IP proxy?
Any proxy whose exit IP changes, per request, per session or on a timer. Residential, mobile and datacenter proxies can all rotate. Residential and mobile IPs look like ordinary users to websites; datacenter IPs look like servers.
Should I choose dynamic or static residential proxies?
Dynamic for data collection across many pages, cities and countries, billed per GB. Static when an account or login should always come from the same address, billed per IP per month.
How long does a ProxyEmpire sticky session last?
There is no fixed time limit. The IP stays until you rotate it or the device behind it goes offline. If you want a timed change, Custom TTL runs up to two hours.
Do I need a static IP of my own to use a proxy?
No. ProxyEmpire authenticates with a username and password, not an IP allowlist, so a home connection whose address changes works fine.
References
Primary documentation- IETF — RFC 2131, “Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol” (1997). rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2131
- IETF — RFC 2516, “A Method for Transmitting PPP Over Ethernet (PPPoE)” (1999). rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2516
- IETF — RFC 1332, “The PPP Internet Protocol Control Protocol (IPCP)” (1992). rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1332
- IETF — RFC 8415, “Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)” (2018). rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8415
- IETF — RFC 8981, “Temporary Address Extensions for Stateless Address Autoconfiguration in IPv6” (2021). rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8981
- ARIN — “ARIN IPv4 Free Pool Reaches Zero” (24 September 2015). arin.net/vault/announcements/20150924
- RIPE NCC — “The RIPE NCC has run out of IPv4 Addresses” (25 November 2019). ripe.net/about-us/news
- AT&T Internet support — “About Static IP Addresses”. att.com/support/article/KM1002300
- Microsoft Learn — ipconfig command reference. learn.microsoft.com/…/ipconfig
- Linux man-pages — ip-address(8). man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/ip-address.8
Dynamic residential IPs, rotating or sticky
30M+ residential IPs in 179 countries and territories, targeting down to city, ZIP, ISP and ASN at no extra charge, sticky sessions with no fixed time limit, and 24/7 support from real people. The $1.97 trial includes 100 MB of residential and 50 MB of mobile traffic.
