Start with the usage logs, not the pricing tab
Comparing $0.89 per GB against $2.00 per IP as raw numbers does not answer which is cheaper for a specific route. The number that answers it is uglier: provider-billed bytes divided by the useful IP count that actually carried the route.
Pull the dashboard network logs first. Not the app export, not accepted-row counts, not the summary chart after the parser discards bad pages. Retries, redirects, blocked responses, image loads, and failed TLS attempts all transferred bytes. If the app reports 1.2 GB and the dashboard logs show 1.7 GB, the buying decision uses 1.7 GB. The logs export as CSV; the columns are host, outcome, latency, and byte totals.
The crossover numbers
Volume Residential is $0.89 per GB. Premium Residential is $5.00 per GB. Static ISP proxies are priced per IP with unlimited bandwidth — a fixed monthly rent regardless of bytes transferred.
The crossover point is the bandwidth at which the IP rent equals the per-GB cost. At a $2.00 static ISP rate: a route that transfers more than roughly 2.2 GB per billing period is cheaper on a static IP than on Volume Residential. Against Premium Residential at $5.00 per GB, the break-even drops to about 0.4 GB — but Premium and Static ISP are not interchangeable products. Rotating residential versus a fixed ISP address is a functional difference, not just a cost one.
| Plan | Rate | GB to break even on a $2.00 static IP |
|---|---|---|
| Volume Residential | $0.89/GB | ~2.2 GB |
| Premium Residential | $5.00/GB | ~0.4 GB |
Reference: RFC 791 — IPv4.
Make the call on a route slice, not the whole account
Twenty static ISP IPs each carrying 8 GB per month is a clear static case: roughly $40 at the starting tier instead of about $142 on Volume Residential. Twenty IPs carrying 200 MB each is the opposite: the per-GB bill stays small, and the static rent still costs about $40.
The awkward middle is where money gets wasted. A catalog check might hammer hard every Monday and barely move on the other six days. A monitor might hit the same public pages every few minutes and quietly become a bandwidth hose. Those are different jobs even when the crawler code sits in the same repo. Tag traffic by route for a week, divide provider bytes by useful IP count per route, and check whether any slice crosses the break-even line.
Pricing model does not change what the route is authorized to access
Fixed IP pricing does not expand the scope of what a route is permitted to touch. Paywalls, authorization-gated API paths, and endpoints the operator has not sanctioned are out of bounds under either model. The crossover math answers cost per byte. It does not answer what the job is allowed to do.
Proxy pricing FAQ
Which number do I use for the crossover calculation? Use provider bytes from the dashboard network logs, not accepted-row counts or app exports. Retries, redirects, and blocked pages all transfer bytes.
At what bandwidth does a static ISP IP beat Volume Residential? At $2.00 per IP and $0.89 per GB, a static IP covers its cost once a route pushes more than roughly 2.2 GB through it per billing period.
When does per-GB pricing win? Per-GB wins when traffic is sparse, unpredictable, or spread across many targets — you only pay for bytes transferred rather than renting capacity you may not fill.
Why do app-level byte counts differ from dashboard logs? Apps count useful responses. The proxy meters every byte transferred, including retries, redirected responses, error pages, and assets the parser discarded.
Should I run the whole account on one plan? No. Tag traffic by route first. Heavy-bandwidth stable routes may cross the per-IP break-even; sparse or rotating routes usually do not.
Decision checklist
- Pull provider bytes from dashboard logs, not the app export.
- Tag a week of traffic by route.
- Calculate bytes per route divided by useful IP count.
- Run the crossover math at the static IP tier you qualify for.
- Move stable high-bandwidth routes to Static ISP; leave the rest on rotating per-GB.
- Re-check when traffic patterns change.