Residential proxy
Also called: residential IP, resi proxy
A residential proxy routes traffic through an IP address belonging to a real consumer internet connection, assigned by a home ISP. Because the address is registered to a broadband subscriber rather than a hosting company, it carries no datacenter signature.
Every IP address belongs to an autonomous system, and that system is registered to an organisation. An address registered to Comcast, Orange or Vodafone reads as somebody’s home connection. An address registered to a hosting provider reads as a server. That registration is public, instantly checkable, and it is the whole difference between a residential proxy and a datacenter one.
Where the addresses come from
Providers build residential pools by getting consumer devices to relay traffic — usually through SDKs bundled into free apps or VPNs, where the user consents in the terms. This is why residential pools are large but variable: an address is only usable while the underlying device is online, which is why providers advertise a pool size and a live count that never match.
What it costs and how it is billed
Residential proxies are usually billed per gigabyte rather than per IP, typically from around $2/GB. That model is efficient for traffic that is mostly text and API calls, and expensive for anything streaming video. A device warming a video feed all day can consume several gigabytes on its own, which is when a fixed-price ISP proxy or mobile proxy becomes cheaper despite the higher headline rate.
Matching the IP to the device
A residential IP only helps if the rest of the setup agrees with it. The device timezone, locale and language should match the proxy region, and the IP should stay stable for the duration of a session. An address in Brazil on a device set to Europe/Paris is a contradiction introduced by the operator, not by the provider.
For the full selection criteria — pool depth per country, session control, protocol support — see our guide to residential proxies for cloud phones.