Premium residential proxies let you monitor websites that block standard datacenter IP addresses. They use real residential internet connections from 200+ countries, making your monitoring checks appear as regular user traffic.
When Do You Need Residential Proxies?
Most websites work fine with the datacenter proxies already included in every PageCrawl plan. You only need residential proxies if:
- A website actively blocks datacenter IPs (you see 403 errors, timeouts, or blank pages after retries)
- You need to see content as it appears in a specific country, state, or city
- The site uses advanced bot detection that datacenter proxies cannot bypass
Before purchasing, try these free alternatives:
- Enable Stealth engine in your monitor settings. Stealth mode uses advanced techniques to bypass bot detection and works on most protected websites
- Reduce your check frequency. Many blocks are triggered by frequent requests. Switching from every 15 minutes to hourly or daily often resolves the issue
- Switch proxy location in your monitor settings (e.g., try London instead of New York)
- Contact support for help diagnosing the issue
How Residential Proxy Bandwidth Works
Residential proxies are priced at $10/GB of data transferred. Every page check consumes bandwidth based on the page size:
| Page Type | Approximate Size Per Check |
|---|---|
| Simple text page (blog, news article) | ~0.5 MB |
| Standard e-commerce or listing page | ~2 MB |
| Heavy page with images and scripts | ~5 MB |
Bandwidth never expires. You can purchase 1 GB today and use it over months.
Cost Impact of Check Frequency
Check frequency has a large impact on bandwidth consumption. The same 10 pages can cost very different amounts depending on how often you check:
| Frequency | 10 Pages Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| Daily | ~$10 (0.6 GB) |
| Hourly | ~$150 (14.4 GB) |
| Every 15 minutes | ~$570 (57.6 GB) |
For most monitoring use cases, daily or hourly checks are sufficient. Only use high-frequency residential proxy checks when near real-time monitoring is essential.
How to Set Up
- Go to Settings > Residential Proxies in your account
- Purchase bandwidth (minimum 1 GB)
- Open any monitor and change the Proxy Location to Premium Residential (Your Bandwidth)
- Optionally select a target country for geo-targeted monitoring
- Save and trigger a check to verify it works
Geo-Targeting
When using residential proxies, you must select a target country from 200+ supported countries. This is useful for monitoring localized pricing, regional content, or geo-restricted pages.
Monitoring Your Usage
- View your bandwidth balance and daily usage in Settings > Residential Proxies
- Usage statistics update every 15 minutes
- When your bandwidth reaches zero, monitors using residential proxies automatically fall back to datacenter proxies (your monitoring does not stop)
Availability
Premium residential proxy bandwidth is available for eligible accounts. Contact us if you are interested in this feature.
Related
- Using Custom Proxies for using your own proxy servers
- Cost Calculator for estimating your monthly bandwidth needs
- Bulk Edit for applying proxy settings to multiple pages