Home / Terms / Datacenter proxy
What is a datacenter proxy?
A datacenter proxy is a route that sends a request through an IP address operated from hosting infrastructure rather than a household internet connection. Scraping vendors often use it as the standard route, then charge differently for residential routing, browser rendering, or larger payloads. (Scrape.do request costs and Scrapfly billing rules, checked 2026-07-26; Browserless unit consumption, checked 2026-07-25.)
Datacenter proxy across the APIs we track
| API | Mode | Published rate | Compared with a plain request | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HasData | Residential proxy request | 5 credits per request | 5 × a plain request | Oct 8, 2026 |
| Scrape.do | Mobile proxy request | 10 credits per request | 10 × a plain request | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Scrape.do | Residential proxy request | 10 credits per request | 10 × a plain request | Oct 9, 2026 |
| ScrapeOwl | Residential proxy request | 10 credits per request | 10 × a plain request | Oct 9, 2026 |
| ScrapingAnt | Residential proxy request | 25 credits per request | 25 × a plain request | Oct 9, 2026 |
| SOAX Web Data API | Residential proxy request | 1 request, unit not published | not comparable to its plain rate | Sep 2, 2026 |
| WebScraping.AI | Residential proxy request | 10 credits per request | 10 × a plain request | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Anchor Browser | Residential bandwidth | $8.00 per GB | per GB, not per request | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Browser Use Cloud | Residential bandwidth | $5.00 per GB | per GB, not per request | Oct 8, 2026 |
| BrowserCloud | Residential bandwidth | 80 credits per mb | per GB, not per request | Oct 9, 2026 |
| BrowserCloud | Datacenter bandwidth | 12 credits per mb | per GB, not per request | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Nimble | Residential bandwidth | $5.30 per GB | per GB, not per request | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Scrapeless | Residential bandwidth | $1.80 per GB | per GB, not per request | Oct 9, 2026 |
| ZenRows | Residential bandwidth | 25,000 credits per GB | per GB, not per request | Oct 9, 2026 |
Bandwidth-priced pools are billed per GB transferred, so their cost depends on page size.
In more detail
The vendor examples below were read on the dates given in the text; the table above holds each vendor's current figure.
The route matters to a bill because “one page” can consume a request credit, a proxy-bandwidth meter, a rendering add-on, or several of those at once. A low base for datacenter traffic is not the full cost when the workload also requires JavaScript or transfers a large response. Conversely, paying a residential rate for every target can overstate the needed route. (Scrape.do request costs and Scrapfly billing rules, checked 2026-07-26; BrowserCloud pricing, checked 2026-07-25.)
Scrape.do publishes a one-credit datacenter request without rendering and a five-credit datacenter-plus-rendering bundle. Residential or mobile routing uses larger replacement bundles. Its per-domain defaults can select a stricter route, and its response header is the documented way to inspect the cost actually applied. (Scrape.do request costs, checked 2026-07-26.)
Scrapfly also starts datacenter requests at one credit, but treats JavaScript as an additive five-credit charge. Residential routing replaces the one-credit base with twenty-five credits. Response data above the included size can add credits in increments, with different datacenter and residential bandwidth charges. (Scrapfly billing rules, checked 2026-07-26.)
Browserless does not bill a datacenter proxy as a request bundle. Its shared Unit balance pays for browser time in started thirty-second increments, datacenter proxy data at two Units per megabyte, residential data at six Units per megabyte, and CAPTCHA attempts separately. The proxy charge is additive to open-browser time. (Browserless unit consumption, checked 2026-07-25.)
BrowserCloud also publishes separate datacenter and residential bandwidth meters, alongside browser-hour, page, screenshot, and PDF credit meters. Its public pricing page does not state how those meters combine inside one workflow, so an exact total remains unverified until the debit can be observed. (BrowserCloud pricing, checked 2026-07-25.)
Before signing up, check which route is the default, whether the vendor may upgrade it automatically, and whether rendering replaces or adds to proxy cost. For bandwidth billing, record compressed and uncompressed transfer treatment, included megabytes, rounding, and whether browser assets count. Run representative targets through both routes and retain the vendor’s per-request cost evidence. (Scrape.do request costs and Scrapfly billing rules, checked 2026-07-26; Browserless unit consumption, checked 2026-07-25.)