How do I choose a US proxy provider?

Which IP type do I need: residential, mobile or datacenter?

Pick the IP type by what the target site checks. Residential suits local data, mobile suits account and app work, and datacenter suits sites that do not check.

• Residential: the IP of a US home line, such as Comcast or Spectrum. It fits local SEO, price monitoring and public-data scraping.
• Mobile: the IP of a T-Mobile, AT&T or Verizon SIM, shared by many subscribers. It fits app tests and managing your own or client accounts.
• Datacenter: fast and cheap, but the network reads as a server. Lodestate does not sell datacenter IPs.

The trade-offs are in should I buy residential or mobile proxies.

How precise does the location targeting need to be?

As precise as the data you collect. National search results need a US IP; a store price or a map ranking needs the right ZIP code.

ZIP targeting is the rare level. Proxyway's 2026 market research found city targeting at 13 of 13 providers, but ZIP targeting at only 5. SOAX sells ZIP and ASN on its Scale and Enterprise plans only, and DataImpulse charges an unpublished fee for them. Check the username syntax before you pay: see what ZIP code proxy targeting is.

How do I compare US proxy prices at my real volume?

Compare the price per GB at the size you will buy, not the headline "from" price. On 29 October 2026, the median shown price was $3.50/GB at 1 GB and 10 GB, $2.50/GB at 100 GB and $1.50/GB at 1 TB.

Three terms change the real cost:

• Expiry: Webshare and Shifter sell monthly subscriptions; DataImpulse traffic never expires.
• Minimum order: Oxylabs sells no residential plan below 5 GB, and Massive starts at 10 GB for $80.
• Add-ons: a targeting fee or a crypto surcharge raises the price per GB.

At Lodestate: Prepaid residential and rotating-mobile traffic never expires: unused GB stay on your account until you use them. Tiers are on how much US proxies cost.

Do I need to pass KYC, and can I pay in crypto?

It depends on the seller. According to Lodestate's check of 29 October 2026, 10 of the 12 providers that accepted crypto sold a standard plan with no KYC step. The other two were Thordata, which reviews every new user, and SOAX, which verifies anyone paying in crypto.

Four of 15 residential sellers verified every buyer: Bright Data (Residential), Oxylabs, Thordata and Massive. At Lodestate, no KYC means no ID, no selfie and no documents. It is about privacy and a fast start, under clear use rules.

Where do the provider's IPs come from?

Ask for a sourcing statement before you buy. Sourcing failures are public: NetNut's domains were seized by the FBI and IRS-CI on July 2, 2026. Google announced on January 28, 2026 that it had disrupted the IPIDEA residential proxy network.

A good statement says whether device owners opt in and can opt out. Lodestate's statement: We resell residential and mobile IPs from established upstream partner networks. Our upstream provider confirms that device owners opt in and can opt out, and that its supply does not come from seized or disrupted networks such as NetNut or IPIDEA. Read where Lodestate's IPs come from.

How do I test a US proxy before a large order?

Run your real job on a small plan, against the sites you plan to use, within their terms. Free trials help: Decodo gives 100 MB for 3 days, Thordata 3 free days, and Rayobyte a trial with no card. Proxy Tower gives a free mobile hour.

Lodestate has no free trial: test with the $1.50 1 GB plan or a $3.75 1-day port. Check the exit IP, the location, the speed on your target and the share of failed requests. Use rules apply from the first request: see which uses Lodestate allows.