ISP proxies: how they work
Updated 2 min read
An ISP proxy is a static IP address registered to a consumer internet provider and hosted in a data centre. A website that looks up who owns the address sees a home internet provider, not a hosting company. The address stays the same for the whole term you rent it.
Who it is for
- You sign in to the same accounts every day, and a new address each time would trigger a security check.
- The address must be in a certain country, region or city, or belong to a certain provider.
- A site trusts home networks, but residential rotation keeps breaking your sessions.
- You want to add one fixed address to an allowlist, such as your own API or firewall.
If your requests never need the same address twice, residential is usually the better fit once it opens. It is coming soon, and not on sale yet. If the site accepts server traffic and the provider does not matter, datacenter costs less. See Which proxy should you buy?.
What you choose when you order
- Location: country, region and city. ISP is the only line where you can also choose the internet provider.
- Plan: shared, dedicated or premium. A shared IP is used by up to 3 customers. Dedicated and premium IPs are used by you alone. Plans also differ in how much bandwidth they include.
- Term: 1, 3 or 12 months. Longer terms cost less per month.
- Quantity: how many IPs. The price per IP goes down as one order gets bigger.
The order form shows the total before you pay, and the whole term is paid when you order. Prices are on the ISP pricing page.
How it behaves
- No rotation. One fixed IP for the term. Session settings for rotating proxies do not apply.
- Protocol: HTTP or SOCKS5. You can change it on the proxy's page. See Using SOCKS5 instead of HTTP.
- When the term ends, the IP stops working unless you renew it. See Renewing ISP and datacenter IPs.