Best Proxy Providers for AI Agents (2026)

An AI agent needs reliable website access to research products, compare prices, or fill out forms. Its proxy affects which IP the site sees, where the session appears to come from, and whether that IP changes mid-task.

We tested seven rotating residential proxy providers on browser-agent tasks, including product research, text extraction, form filling, and session continuity. In this article, we'll compare their results, entry prices, and trade-offs to help you choose a proxy for browser automation and AI agents.

You can jump to the benchmark results for the test setup and limitations.

TL;DR

∗ Entry prices in USD before tax, checked Nov 5, 2026. Offers vary; bulk rates are usually lower.
∗ Global IP totals are unverified provider claims. Features follow provider docs; available locations and session lengths vary.

Choosing Proxies for AI Agents

Residential proxies route traffic through IP addresses assigned to home internet connections. They can help your agent get past IP-based bot protection or access local prices and availability. Datacenter proxies can suit less restrictive sites, while static ISP proxies suit workflows that need a longer-lived address. This comparison focuses on rotating residential products.

Before choosing a provider, check these four things:

• Session continuity. For multi-step tasks, check how long a sticky session lasts and what happens after idle time or when an exit goes offline. Sticky sessions don't guarantee a reserved or exclusive IP. Keep the browser's cookies and storage too; the same IP alone won't preserve a login or unfinished form.
• Location coverage and restrictions. Confirm that the provider has available IPs in the countries or cities your workflow needs. Check blocked destinations and concurrency limits before committing, especially if your agent will open several browsers at once.
• Access to your actual target sites. Test the complete workflow, not just whether the homepage loads. Browser fingerprinting exposes signals beyond the IP address, so bot detection involves more than the proxy. Changing providers won't resolve every access failure.
• Cost per completed task. Account for images, scripts, retries, and failed pages that consume bandwidth. Compare minimum purchases, recurring charges, and traffic expiry alongside the per-GB rate; a cheap bulk package may be poor value if you can't use it before it expires.

Browser Use supports both custom proxies and a managed residential route, so you can compare providers while keeping your browser and agent setup consistent.

Built-in vs BYO Proxies

Browser platforms can provide residential proxies with the browser, so you don't need a separate proxy account. Bringing your own (BYO) lets you choose the provider, traffic package, and session settings.

With some providers, proxy traffic can cost more than the browser itself. That may not matter much for small workflows, but at scale it can become a major part of your bill.

I suggest you compare the built-in rates below with the standalone providers' prices, then account for browser time, plan fees, and any agent or model charges.

∗ Pre-tax prices checked Nov 6, 2026. Listed are average rates; Browserless uses estimated overages.
∗ Browser and plan fees are separate. Credits may be shared; BYO may require a paid plan and extra charges.

Best Proxy Providers for Browser Automation and AI Agents

The list is an editorial shortlist, with measured outcomes shown separately below.

1. Decodo

Best for: Granular location targeting.

Decodo combines residential proxies with granular location targeting. You can select a country, city, ZIP code, or network, giving a shopping agent more control over which market it visits than country selection alone. Geographic targeting is included with its residential plans.

It supports HTTP(S) and SOCKS5, with rotating sessions for separate requests and sticky sessions of up to 24 hours for multi-step workflows. The pay-as-you-go option also suits occasional research jobs: you can buy a small amount of traffic without keeping a monthly subscription running.

The session duration is an upper limit, not a guarantee that a residential exit will remain online. If your agent pauses for approval or needs to resume a checkout, it should verify the connection and application state before continuing.

Pricing

Pay $4 for 1 GB without a subscription, or from $11.25/month for 3 GB. The three-day, 100 MB trial requires a payment method and converts to your selected monthly plan unless canceled.

2. Oxylabs

Best for: Explicit control over IP changes.

Oxylabs offers residential proxies with geographic targeting and advertises unlimited concurrent sessions. Those features suit agents that research several markets or run multiple browser sessions at once, although each workflow still needs its own session configuration and traffic budget.

Its single-IP session binding gives you explicit control over what happens when an exit disappears. It can retain the same exit for up to 24 hours and return an error instead of switching to another IP if that exit goes offline. For workflows that require the same network identity, your application can decide whether to retry, restart, or escalate the task. Our benchmark covered ordinary sticky routing; strict binding remains untested.

That stricter behavior trades automatic recovery for control over IP changes. Also check Oxylabs' destination restrictions, particularly for agents working with financial, government, or other restricted sites.

Pricing

As of November 6, 2026, Starter costs $15/month in shared credits, with residential traffic at $6/GB; account-specific offers may differ. The $5 welcome credit covers about 0.8 GB. Starter renews monthly, unused credits expire each cycle, and request and response traffic is billed even for destination errors.

3. FloppyData

Best for: One balance across proxy types.

FloppyData lets you use one traffic balance across residential, mobile, and datacenter proxies. This is convenient if your agent handles several sites: you can choose a proxy type for each job without maintaining a separate traffic balance for each type.

Its residential product supports country, state, city, and network targeting, plus per-connection, timed, and sticky rotation. You can also choose between expiring and non-expiring traffic, depending on whether you're running a short project or keeping bandwidth available for occasional jobs.

Sticky sessions need particular attention if your agent waits for human input. FloppyData documents a ten-minute idle expiry and replacement when an exit goes offline, so a paused workflow should recover from an IP change. In one of our two controlled checks, the IP changed after five idle minutes while the saved draft was restored. The cause was not established.

Pricing

Residential traffic starts at $19 for 19 GB (30 days), or $28.50 without expiry. Both are one-off purchases; a $1 wallet top-up won't buy a package. No standard residential trial was verified, though promotions may be available.

4. Roundproxies

Best for: Non-expiring prepaid traffic.

Roundproxies combines country and city targeting with rotating and sticky residential sessions. City targeting helps agents compare local prices or availability, while sticky sessions let related browser actions use the same exit for a period of time.

Its prepaid traffic doesn't expire, and residential bandwidth is sold without a recurring subscription. The small entry package lets you test several representative tasks before buying more traffic, then keep any remaining balance for the next project.

Roundproxies advertises sticky sessions of up to 24 hours. Our tests covered five-minute idle periods, so they don't establish that longer duration; test the pauses your workflow actually needs before relying on an all-day session.

Pricing

The dashboard offer is $3.50 for 1 GB (50% off $7), paid once with no subscription or traffic expiry. A 500 MB, 24-hour trial is advertised; confirm availability with support.

5. Byteful

Best for: Bandwidth for irregular workloads.

Byteful is worth considering when your agent's workload is irregular. Purchased residential bandwidth doesn't expire, even after cancellation, so you can leave a research project idle without consuming the remaining traffic before the month ends.

Its plans include country, region, city, and ISP targeting. That gives you more control over the exit location than country-only selection, which can matter when your agent checks regional inventory or compares results across local markets.

Non-expiring bandwidth doesn't mean the plan stops charging when you stop using it. The plan we purchased renews monthly, so account for the recurring payment if you only need proxies for a short experiment.

Pricing

Our test plan cost $3.25/month for 1 GB and renews monthly. Byteful says bandwidth never expires, even after cancellation. Its advertised 1 GB trial requires identity verification but no card; the pricing FAQ contradicts it, so confirm eligibility.

6. DataImpulse

Best for: Low-cost prepaid experiments.

DataImpulse sells prepaid residential traffic without a subscription, and unused bandwidth doesn't expire. Its small introductory package suits a first experiment when you don't yet know how much traffic your agent will use or how often you'll run it.

Country targeting is included, and you can configure sticky sessions for up to two hours, subject to exit availability. This covers country-specific research and multi-step tasks, as long as your workflow can recover if a residential exit becomes unavailable.

The main purchasing catch comes after the introductory package: subsequent top-ups of the same proxy type require at least $50. Include that next purchase in your budget, especially if you're comparing providers for a small ongoing workload.

Pricing

Start with $5 for 5 GB; later top-ups of the same proxy type require at least $50. One-off payments are available, auto-recharge is optional, and traffic never expires. Accounts with a company email may qualify for free traffic; confirm the allowance and activation.

7. Webshare

Best for: A small residential starting plan.

Webshare provides residential endpoints with HTTP and SOCKS5 support. Its small residential entry plan suits developers who want to connect an existing browser agent and measure a few representative tasks before committing to a larger traffic allowance.

The endpoint generator exposes country, city, state, ZIP, and network targeting, with sticky sessions configurable up to 24 hours. These settings let you prepare an endpoint for the location and session behavior your agent needs before putting it into the browser configuration. In one of our two controlled sessions, a post-idle tunnel error left draft restoration unverified.

Webshare's free datacenter plan is a separate product. It can help you try a proxy connection, but it won't tell you whether the residential pool can access your target sites; that requires testing the paid residential product.

Pricing

Residential plans start at $3.50/month for 1 GB. No one-off option or residential free tier was verified; the free ten-proxy plan uses datacenter IPs, so it won't test residential access.

Custom Proxy Setup

Browser Use makes both options straightforward: hosted agents use a managed US residential proxy by default, or you can supply a custom provider's connection details.

Install the Python SDK with pip install --upgrade browser-use-sdk. Set BROWSER_USE_API_KEY to your Browser Use key and the four PROXY_* environment variables below to your provider's US sticky-session credentials. Use only the hostname for PROXY_HOST.

import os
 
from browser_use_sdk.v4 import BrowserUse
 
with BrowserUse() as client:
    run = client.runs.create(
        "Open https://ipinfo.io/json and report the browser's "
        "exit IP and country.",
        browser_settings={
            "customProxy": {
                "host": os.environ["PROXY_HOST"],
                "port": int(os.environ["PROXY_PORT"]),
                "protocol": "http",
                "username": os.environ["PROXY_USERNAME"],
                "password": os.environ["PROXY_PASSWORD"],
            }
        },
    )
    result = client.runs.wait_for_completion(run.id)
    print(result.result)

Save as proxy_check.py, run python proxy_check.py, and confirm the reported country is US. For a TLS proxy gateway, set protocol to "https".

Custom proxies override the managed location, so choose the country through your provider. Keep related steps in one run with the same sticky-session ID; pass customProxy again for new browsers. Proxy credentials don't restore browser state, so test both IP stability and workflow recovery.

Benchmark Summary

On November 3, 2026, we tested Browser Use's hosted browser with bu-fast, US residential exits, and fresh sessions. Cells show successful attempts out of total attempts, checked against source pages and submission receipts. Controlled sessions required an unchanged US IP and a correctly restored and submitted draft after five idle minutes.

Full-text failures were model refusals after page access. Byteful and FloppyData each completed a saved workflow after changing IP; Oxylabs and Webshare each had a post-idle probe failure, leaving restoration untested. Catalog scoring uses server receipts, including FloppyData's run with a mistyped receipt ID in its final answer.

The separate eBay continuity check failed initial access for every configuration and is excluded. These small, differently timed samples don't establish a universal reliability or speed ranking.

Conclusion

Test a few providers on your actual workflow with the same setup, including pauses and recovery. Compare cost per successful task, since retries can outweigh a lower price per GB.

If you'd prefer a browser and proxy together, Browser Use Infrastructure provides a managed browser you can control with your existing automation code.