Social media scraping · Residential · Mobile
Collect public social media data from every network and market
Social media scraping proxies from ProxyEmpire give your social media scraper a residential or 4G mobile IP per request, in the country or city you choose. Collect public posts, profiles, hashtags, comments and trends from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit and more, as users in each market see them, and manage your proxies through the ProxyEmpire API.
Residential from $1.50/GB, mobile from $2.00/GB. No concurrent session limit, and unused bandwidth rolls over.
Social Media Scraping API: coming soon. Our Social Media Scraping API, which will return structured social data in one call, isn’t available yet. Today, ProxyEmpire provides the proxies and proxy management API that social media scrapers run on. Contact us to hear when it launches.
What is social media scraping?
Public social data, collected at scale
Social media scraping is collecting publicly available data from social networks, such as posts, videos, profiles, hashtags, comments and engagement counts, with a scraper instead of by hand. Social media scraping proxies are the IP addresses that scraper sends its requests through, so each request comes from a different residential or mobile IP in the location you choose. ProxyEmpire’s network has residential IPs in 179 countries and territories and 4G mobile IPs in 174.
Social networks limit how many requests one IP can make, challenge server IPs quickly, and show different trends and content in different countries. A large pool of clean residential and mobile IPs spreads the load, and location targeting shows you what each market sees.
Where a network offers an official API for the data you need, it is usually the most reliable route for bulk collection. Proxies are what teams use for public web pages, location checks and the data official APIs don’t cover.
Social media scraping guides by network
Pick a network for a detailed guide
Running accounts rather than collecting data? See our social media proxies hub for every platform.
What teams use social media scraping proxies for
Public social data for marketing and research
Brand monitoring
Track public mentions of your brand, products and campaigns across networks and countries. More in brand mentions and feedback.
Trend & hashtag research
Follow which topics, sounds and hashtags rise in each market, for content planning and campaign timing.
Influencer discovery
Find creators by niche and country from their public profiles and engagement. More in tracking influencers.
Competitor analysis
Compare competitors’ public posting, engagement and campaigns across networks, market by market.
Social analytics & reporting
Feed dashboards and reports with public engagement data. More in social data analytics.
Academic & market research
Build datasets of public posts for studies of public opinion, news spread and consumer sentiment.
Best proxies for social media scraping: which type to choose
Residential and mobile for social networks
Rotating residential
Real home broadband IPs that rotate on every request. The standard choice for public social web pages, with city and ISP targeting for local trends.
- Country, region, city, ZIP, ISP and ASN targeting
- New IP per request, sticky or custom session length
- OS fingerprint targeting at no extra charge
- Residential IPs in 179 countries and territories
Rotating mobile (4G)
IPs on real mobile carrier networks, shared by many ordinary phone users. The most trusted IP type on app-first networks such as TikTok and Instagram.
- Country, region, city, ZIP, carrier and ASN targeting
- Rotate on demand or keep a sticky session
- OS fingerprint targeting at no extra charge
- Mobile IPs in 174 countries and territories
Rotating datacenter
Low-cost server IPs. Social networks challenge them quickly, so they suit only lightly protected pages, such as blogs and public article sites.
- Datacenter IPs in 61 countries
- New IP per request or sticky sessions
- Country-level targeting
- The lowest cost per GB
Manage it all by code: the ProxyEmpire API generates proxy lists with location targeting, rotates sessions and reports bandwidth. See the web scraping hub and the API documentation.
How to scrape social media responsibly and reliably
Five habits for clean data
Collect public data only. Stick to content anyone can see without logging in. Scraping behind logins, private accounts and direct messages is off limits.
Rotate for public pages. Use a new IP per request for public profiles, posts and search pages, so no single IP builds up a request history.
Target the market you study. Trends and recommended content differ by country. Set the proxy’s country or city to the audience you are researching.
Pace your requests. Spread collection over time and back off on errors. Social networks react fast to bursts.
Handle personal data carefully. Public profiles still contain personal data. Collect only what you need, keep it secure and respect deletion requests.
Follow each network’s terms and the privacy laws that apply to you, such as the GDPR and the CCPA. ProxyEmpire doesn’t support scraping private data, harassment, spam or any illegal activity.
Set up social media scraping proxies in three steps
From sign-up to your first request in minutes
- Open the dashboardStart the $1.97 trial, then choose rotating residential or mobile, or create an API token.
- Generate your proxiesPick the country or city, rotation and output format, in the dashboard or through the API.
- Plug them into your scraperAdd the proxies to your scraper, headless browser or social listening tool over HTTP(S) or SOCKS5.
Social media scraping proxy pricing
Rotating residential — all targeting included
Try the network for $1.97, pay as you go from a single GB at $3.50, or take a larger plan for as little as $1.50/GB. Video-heavy pages use more data, so collect metadata rather than media where you can. Plans are billed in US dollars (USD), targeting costs nothing extra, and unused bandwidth rolls over.
| Plan | Data | Price per GB | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay As You Go | 1 GB | $3.50 | Buy | |
| Starter | 7 GB | $20 | Buy | |
| Hobby | 28 GB | $75 | Buy | |
| Startup | 60 GB | $150 | Buy | |
| Business | 135 GB | $300 | Buy | |
| Company — best value | 315 GB | $625 | Buy | |
| Corporation | 500 GB | $875 | Buy | |
| Enterprise | 1,000 GB | $1,500 | Buy | |
| Custom | 5 TB+ | From $0.75 | — | Contact us |
Discounted prices use code EMPIRE50 (limited time, rotating residential and mobile only). Rotating mobile starts at $4.50 for 1 GB and goes down to $2.00/GB on larger plans. Static residential costs $3.50 for a single IP, down to $2.00 per IP a month on larger bundles. All mobile, static and datacenter plans are on the full pricing page.
Residential, mobile or datacenter: the right proxy for the job
Match the proxy to the target
| Rotating residential | Rotating mobile | Rotating datacenter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| IP source | Real home broadband | 4G mobile carrier networks | Server data centres |
| Block rate | Low on protected sites | Lowest | Higher on protected sites |
| Rotation | Per request, sticky or custom | On demand or sticky | Per request or sticky |
| Targeting | Country to ZIP, ISP, ASN | Country to ZIP, carrier, ASN | Country (61 countries) |
| Best for | Public profiles, posts and search | App-first networks | Blogs and article sites |
| Price from | $1.50/GB | $2.00/GB | $0.35/GB |
Social media scraping FAQ
Straight answers
Is the ProxyEmpire Social Media Scraping API available?
Not yet. It is coming soon. Today, ProxyEmpire provides social media scraping proxies and a proxy management API for running your own scraper. Contact us to hear when the API launches.
What are the best proxies for social media scraping?
Rotating residential proxies for most public social pages, and 4G mobile proxies for app-first networks such as TikTok and Instagram. Datacenter proxies only suit lightly protected sites.
Is social media scraping legal?
Collecting publicly available data is legal in many countries, but networks set their own terms and public profiles still contain personal data covered by laws such as the GDPR and the CCPA. Check with your legal adviser for your use case.
Should I use a network’s official API instead?
Where an official API covers the data you need at a volume and price that works, it is usually the most reliable route. Proxies are for public web pages, location checks and data the official APIs don’t provide.
Can I collect trends for a specific country?
Yes. Set the proxy to that country or city, and you collect the trends, search results and recommended content users there see.
Do you have proxies for managing social accounts, not scraping?
Yes. For running brand and client accounts, see our social media proxies hub and the platform guides linked from it.
How much do social media scraping proxies cost?
Rotating residential starts at $3.50 for 1 GB and goes down to $1.50/GB, and 4G mobile goes down to $2.00/GB. A $1.97 trial lets you test first.
Can I manage the proxies through an API?
Yes. The ProxyEmpire API v2 generates proxy lists, rotates sessions, lists locations and reports bandwidth. See the API documentation.
What is a social media scraper?
A program that collects public data from social networks, such as posts, profiles, hashtags and engagement counts. Proxies give it many residential or mobile IPs so its requests look like ordinary users in the locations you choose.
Which protocols and tools are supported?
HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS5. They work with headless browsers, scraping frameworks, social listening tools and any HTTP client, with no concurrent session limit.
More scraping categories
Proxies for every kind of data
Start collecting public social data today
Residential IPs in 179 countries and territories, 4G mobile IPs in 174, a new IP per request, a proxy management API, and 24/7 support from real people. Try it for $1.97.
