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Residential & Mobile Proxy Aggregator FAQ

Welcome to the ScrapeOps Residential & Mobile Proxy Aggregator FAQ page. Here you will find answers to the most common questions users have when using the ScrapeOps Residential & Mobile Proxy Aggregator.

Frequently Asked Questions​

Overview​

Getting Started & Usage​

Proxy Features​

Proxy Performance & Errors​

Plans & Billing​

Overview​

What Is The Residential & Mobile Proxy Aggregator?​

The ScrapeOps Residential & Mobile Proxy Aggregator is a proxy service that gives you access to 20+ residential and mobile proxy providers (like Bright Data, Oxylabs, Smartproxy, and more) through a single proxy port.

You only pay for bandwidth consumed, and the system automatically selects the best-performing provider for your use case. Simply configure the proxy port in your scraper or bot, send your requests, and we handle the proxy selection and rotation for you.

How Is The Residential Proxy Aggregator Different To The Proxy API Aggregator?​

The key differences between the two products are:

FeatureResidential Proxy AggregatorProxy API Aggregator
PricingBandwidth-based (pay per GB)Request-based (pay per successful request)
IntegrationProxy port (standard HTTP proxy)API endpoint or Proxy port
Best ForHeadless browsers, bots, apps needing real residential IPsWeb scraping with built-in JS rendering
Built-in FeaturesRaw proxy connectionJavaScript rendering, auto-retry, and more

The Residential Proxy Aggregator charges per bandwidth used and provides direct proxy connections ideal for headless browsers, bots, and applications requiring real residential IPs. The Proxy API Aggregator charges per request and is optimized specifically for web scraping with built-in features like JavaScript rendering.

What Types Of Proxies Are Available?​

You get access to:

  • Residential proxies - Real home IPs from ISPs
  • Mobile proxies - 3G/4G/5G connections from mobile carriers
  • Different quality tiers - From various providers at different price points

You can select the proxy type that best fits your use case through the proxy string configuration.

Getting Started & Usage​

How To Use The Residential Proxy Aggregator?​

The Residential Proxy Aggregator is accessed via a standard proxy port. To use it, you need an API key that you can obtain by signing up for a free account here.

You then configure your HTTP client or headless browser to use the ScrapeOps proxy port:

  • Proxy: residential-proxy.scrapeops.io
  • Port: 8181
  • Username: scrapeops
  • Password: YOUR_API_KEY

Here is some example code showing you how to use the proxy port with Python Requests:


import requests

proxies = {
  "http": "http://scrapeops:YOUR_API_KEY@residential-proxy.scrapeops.io:8181",
  "https": "http://scrapeops:YOUR_API_KEY@residential-proxy.scrapeops.io:8181"
}
response = requests.get('https://httpbin.org/ip', proxies=proxies, verify=False)
print(response.text)

For more information, check out our Getting Started Guide.

What Programming Languages Can The Residential Proxy Aggregator Work With?​

The Residential Proxy Aggregator can work with all major programming languages, including Python, NodeJs, Golang, Java, PHP, Ruby, C#, R, and more. Since it uses a standard HTTP proxy port format, it's compatible with virtually any HTTP client or library.

Check out the Integration Examples section of our documentation for language-specific examples:

Can I Use Residential Proxies With Headless Browsers?​

Absolutely! Residential proxies work great with Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium, and other headless browser tools. The proxy configuration is standard HTTP/HTTPS proxy format compatible with virtually any tool or library.

Check out our integration guides for:

Do I Need To Disable SSL Certificate Verification?​

Yes. So that we can properly direct your requests through the proxy port, your code must be configured to not verify SSL certificates.

In Python Requests, this is done with verify=False. Scrapy skips SSL verification by default, so no changes are needed there.

Proxy Features​

Do You Support Sticky Sessions?​

Yes! Sticky proxy sessions allow you to maintain the same IP address across multiple requests. This is useful for:

  • Maintaining login sessions
  • Following pagination links
  • Multi-step form submissions
  • Shopping cart operations

To enable sticky sessions, add the sticky_session parameter to your proxy username. For example: scrapeops.sticky_session=7


import requests

proxy = {
    'http': 'http://scrapeops.sticky_session=7:YOUR_API_KEY@residential-proxy.scrapeops.io:8181',
    'https': 'http://scrapeops.sticky_session=7:YOUR_API_KEY@residential-proxy.scrapeops.io:8181'
}

# These requests will use the same IP address
response1 = requests.get('https://httpbin.org/ip', proxies=proxy, verify=False)
response2 = requests.get('https://httpbin.org/ip', proxies=proxy, verify=False)

For more details, see the Sticky Sessions documentation.

How Long Do Sticky Sessions Last?​

Sticky sessions remain active for 10 minutes from the last request. After this period of inactivity, a new IP address will be assigned even if using the same session ID.

There is no limit to how long you can keep a session active with regular requests - just make sure requests are sent within 10-minute intervals to maintain the same IP.

What Geotargeting Options Are Available?​

You can target proxies by:

  • Country - Specify a country code like country=us or country=uk
  • City - With some providers, target specific cities like city=dublin along with the country

To use geotargeting, add parameters to your proxy username:


# Country targeting
curl -x "http://scrapeops.country=us:YOUR_API_KEY@residential-proxy.scrapeops.io:8181" "https://httpbin.org/ip"

# City targeting
curl -x "http://scrapeops.country=ie.city=dublin:YOUR_API_KEY@residential-proxy.scrapeops.io:8181" "https://httpbin.org/ip"

For more details, see the Geotargeting documentation.

How Does Automatic Provider Switching Work?​

Our system continuously monitors proxy performance across all 20+ integrated providers. If a provider's success rate drops or it gets blocked on your target site, your traffic automatically routes to a better-performing provider, ensuring consistent results without manual intervention.

This means you never need to worry about a single provider going down or getting blocked - we automatically find one that works for your use case.

Proxy Performance & Errors​

Dealing With 500 Errors​

When encountering a 500 error, this typically implies either a server-side error or the underlying proxy providers were not able to get the page data. This is generally not a problem with your request but with the server responding.

In such cases, you should wait for a moment and then retry, as these errors might be transient. Note that you are not charged for requests that result in a 500 error message.

You may also check the Residential Proxy Aggregator dashboard to see if there are any ongoing issues or contact support for more assistance.

How To Fix Slow Responses​

If you are experiencing slow responses, consider the following strategies:

  • Check Target Website Speed: The response time depends largely on the target website's own response time.
  • Try Different Geotargeting: Using proxies closer to your target website's servers may improve speed.
  • Use Sticky Sessions Wisely: While sticky sessions are useful, they may route through slower IPs. Consider using rotating IPs for speed-critical operations.

For most use cases, residential proxies are slightly slower than datacenter proxies due to the nature of routing through real residential connections.

What Is The Request Timeout?​

The ScrapeOps proxy keeps retrying a request for up to 2 minutes before returning a failed response to you.

To use the Proxy correctly, you should set the timeout on your request to at least 2 minutes to avoid getting charged for any successful request that you timed out on your end before the Proxy Port responded.

Plans & Billing​

How Is Usage Measured?​

The Residential Proxy Aggregator uses bandwidth-based pricing where you pay per GB of data transferred. This includes both the request and response data.

This is different from the Proxy API Aggregator which uses request-based pricing.

Free Trial​

ScrapeOps offers a free trial with 100MB of free bandwidth to test the Residential Proxy Aggregator on your specific use case. No credit card required.

What Happens If I Run Out Of Bandwidth Before The End Of My Current Subscription?​

If you run out of bandwidth before your plan's renewal date, one of three things can happen depending on your settings:

  • Auto-Renew: If you enable the auto-renew setting, your plan will be automatically renewed when you consume all your bandwidth. Your used bandwidth will be reset to zero and the renewal date will be reset to that date plus 1 month.
  • Auto-Upgrade: If you enable the auto-upgrade setting, your plan will be upgraded to the next plan up when you consume all your bandwidth. Your bandwidth limit will be increased to the new limit.
  • Blocked Account: If you enable the do-nothing setting, your account will be blocked when you consume all your bandwidth and will return 401 error codes until your plan is renewed or upgraded.

Canceling A Plan​

You can cancel your subscription at any time in your dashboard by going to the settings tab.

Getting A Refund​

We offer a 7-day refund policy. If you are unhappy with the service, contact support and we will refund you right away.

Change Credit Card Details​

You can change your card details anytime on the Billing page in your dashboard, located within the settings tab.