Choosing a residential proxy plan is not simply a matter of finding the lowest advertised price. A discounted gigabyte rate can look attractive until you calculate the total traffic your project needs. An unlimited subscription can seem easier to budget for, but it may be poor value when your workload runs only occasionally.
With ProxyEmpire, the decision also involves product capabilities. Its GB-based rotating residential service offers more detailed location targeting, while its unlimited residential product combines country-level targeting with speed-based subscriptions. These are not identical products with different payment options.
The practical starting point is to choose pay-per-GB for smaller, irregular, or location-sensitive workloads, and consider unlimited for heavier workloads that can make good use of a fixed subscription period. Before deciding, compare the actual purchase price, required locations, project duration, and tested performance.
Pricing checked September 9, 2026. This comparison uses published product information, not hands-on performance benchmarks. Promotional prices and availability can change.
What Is the Difference Between Unlimited and Pay-per-GB Proxies?
Pay-per-GB: Buy a Traffic Allowance
A GB-based plan gives your project a purchased amount of data transfer. Rather than budgeting only around how long a project runs, you budget around how much traffic it consumes.
Importantly, “pay-per-GB” does not necessarily mean a bill calculated after use. ProxyEmpire offers subscriptions and prepaid top-up packages, including standalone purchases and add-ons. Its terms state that top-ups are charged when purchased. (
For planning purposes, think of this model as buying a traffic balance. The key question becomes:
How much purchased traffic will my project actually need?
Unlimited: Buy Time and a Speed Tier
ProxyEmpire’s unlimited residential product removes the GB allowance and charges for a selected speed tier over a daily, weekly, or monthly period. Published tiers range from 100 to 1,000 Mbit.
The budgeting question changes:
Can my project use enough of the subscription period—and finish within the available speed—to justify the fixed cost?
Removing a data cap does not remove the need to plan capacity. A subscription can offer more traffic than you need while still being too slow for a particularly tight deadline.
Compare the Features Before Comparing the Price
Location requirements can rule out a plan before any cost calculation becomes relevant.
| Feature | GB-based rotating residential | Unlimited residential |
| Advertised geographic coverage | 170+ countries | 41+ countries |
| Location targeting | Country, region, city, and ISP | Country |
| Rotation options | Per-request, sticky sessions, and timed rotation | Per-request and sticky sessions |
These are the product-specific capabilities listed by ProxyEmpire; availability should be checked for the locations your project requires.
Consider a hypothetical advertising audit that must inspect results from particular cities. An inexpensive country-level subscription would not meet that requirement simply because it includes more traffic.
Conversely, a project that only needs country-level observations may place more value on predictable spending than on finer geographic controls.
Define the required result first. Then compare the plans capable of producing it.
ProxyEmpire Pricing: GB-Based vs. Unlimited
ProxyEmpire currently advertises a limited-time EMPIRE50 promotion for eligible GB-based services. Unlimited bandwidth and other flat-rate plans are excluded. Treat the discounted prices as a current offer, not a guaranteed permanent rate.
GB-Based Residential Pricing
| Plan | Included traffic | Displayed regular total | Advertised promotional total | Effective promotional price per GB* |
| Pay As You Go | 1 GB | $7 | $3.50 | $3.50 |
| Starter | 7 GB | $40 | $20 | $2.86 |
| Hobby | 28 GB | $150 | $75 | $2.68 |
| Startup | 60 GB | $300 | $150 | $2.50 |
| Business | 135 GB | $600 | $300 | $2.22 |
| Company | 315 GB | $1,250 | $625 | $1.98 |
| Corporation | 500 GB | $1,750 | $875 | $1.75 |
| Enterprise | 1,000 GB | $3,000 | $1,500 | $1.50 |
Effective rates are calculated from the advertised package total divided by included traffic, rounded to two decimal places.
Larger purchases reduce the effective unit cost, but the amount you pay upfront still matters. Buying more traffic than a project needs is not automatically a saving.
ProxyEmpire also advertises custom residential packages from $0.75 per GB, with 5 TB+ shown on the product page. That is a quote-based, high-volume option—not a general rate available for every small purchase.
Unlimited Residential Pricing
| Speed tier | Daily | Weekly | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 Mbit | $200 | $650 | $1,500 |
| 200 Mbit | $275 | $900 | $2,400 |
| 500 Mbit | $575 | $1,750 | $3,800 |
| 1,000 Mbit | $800 | $2,400 | $5,400 |
These are the published flat-rate options for unlimited residential traffic.
The tables show why project duration matters. A short, intensive assignment should be compared with a daily or weekly subscription—not automatically with a monthly commitment.
Prices should also be checked at checkout: ProxyEmpire’s terms say listed prices exclude VAT or other taxes unless otherwise indicated.
Three Project Examples That Show the Difference
The following examples are planning comparisons, not measured performance results. They assume the advertised GB promotion applies and that either product can meet the project’s location and performance requirements.
Example 1: A Project Using 60 GB During a Month
At the advertised $2.50-per-GB rate for the 60 GB tier, the traffic purchase costs $150. The entry unlimited monthly subscription costs $1,500. The difference is $1,350.
For a workload that stays near this volume, the larger fixed commitment is difficult to justify on traffic cost alone.
The sensible approach would be to start with the smaller purchase, observe actual consumption, and reconsider only when the workload changes substantially.
Likely fit: GB-based residential proxies.
Example 2: A Seven-Day Project Using 500 GB
Using the advertised 500 GB rate of $1.75 per GB gives a purchase cost of $875. A 100 Mbit unlimited weekly subscription is $650, making its listed cost $225 lower.
Here, unlimited becomes more interesting because the workload is concentrated into a defined period.
However, the apparent saving is only useful when the selected speed tier can complete the work on time. A cheaper subscription that misses the deadline is not the better project choice.
Likely fit: unlimited weekly, after validating throughput and location coverage.
Example 3: A Monthly Project Using 1,000 GB
The advertised 1,000 GB tier costs $1,500, matching the entry unlimited monthly subscription.
At this point, price alone does not settle the decision.
A project expecting substantial additional traffic may value the fixed subscription. A project with strict targeting requirements or uncertain timing may prefer the purchased traffic allowance.
Likely fit: decide by required features, scheduling flexibility, and tested performance.
How to Calculate Your Break-Even Point
A useful first approximation is:
Break-even traffic = unlimited subscription cost ÷ applicable price per GB
For example, a $1,500 fixed subscription compared with a $1.50-per-GB rate produces a mathematical break-even point of 1,000 GB.
But this is a planning formula—not a universal purchasing rule.
It assumes that the stated GB rate applies to all the traffic being compared, that both products deliver an acceptable result, and that the time periods match. Package sizes, minimum purchases, unused balances, and negotiated quotes can all change the actual decision.
Avoid estimating a large project by multiplying its entire volume by an entry-level rate. Equally, do not assume that an advertised enterprise “from” price applies to your smaller project.
The better comparison is:
Actual GB purchase needed for the project versus the suitable unlimited subscription needed to finish it.
For an established operation, also distinguish between a new purchase and traffic already sitting in your account. An existing prepaid balance changes the immediate cash required, even though it does not make that traffic economically free.
Estimate Traffic Before Choosing a Plan
Request counts alone are not enough for a useful budget. Build your estimate around measured traffic per completed task.
For planning, use:
Estimated GB = task count × average traffic per task × planning allowance ÷ 1,000,000,000
Consider two hypothetical workloads, using decimal units:
| Planning assumption | Workload A | Workload B |
|---|---|---|
| Completed tasks | 100,000 | 100,000 |
| Average traffic per task | 200 KB | 2 MB |
| Additional planning allowance | 25% | 25% |
| Estimated total | 25 GB | 250 GB |
Both projects complete the same number of tasks, but the second needs ten times as much traffic under these assumptions.
This is why a statement such as “we need to collect 100,000 pages” is not yet a reliable proxy budget.
Run a representative sample and compare the provider’s recorded consumption with the number of useful results produced. Ask how request traffic, response traffic, failed attempts, and retries are counted rather than assuming a particular billing method.
The size of your final spreadsheet or database export should not be substituted for measured proxy consumption.
Do Not Confuse Unlimited Traffic With Unlimited Speed
A traffic allowance and a transfer rate measure different things.
As a unit conversion, 100 megabits per second equals 12.5 megabytes per second. That calculation is not a promise of application performance, a guaranteed rate for an individual connection, or a measured ProxyEmpire benchmark.
Before committing to a speed tier, ask how capacity is allocated across simultaneous connections and whether any minimum throughput is guaranteed.
Then test your actual workload. Useful questions include:
- Can the project complete within its required operating window?
- Does performance remain acceptable in every required location?
- How many valid, usable results are produced—not merely how many requests are attempted?
Running more jobs simultaneously does not create additional bandwidth. It may simply divide the available capacity among more active tasks.
A useful evaluation metric is:
Cost per 1,000 usable results = total project cost ÷ usable results × 1,000
For this calculation, define “usable” before testing. It might mean a complete product record, a correctly localized observation, or a successfully completed quality-assurance check.
That makes the comparison about the work accomplished rather than the attractiveness of the subscription label.
When Pay-per-GB Is the Better Starting Point
For a new project with uncertain demand, I would generally start with a small GB-based purchase and use the initial run to establish a baseline.
This limits the size of the first commitment while giving you evidence about traffic consumption and completion rates. Once those measurements exist, you can compare a larger package with a suitable fixed subscription.
Purchased traffic can also suit interrupted schedules. ProxyEmpire’s terms state that remaining GB bandwidth can be used after subscription cancellation until it is consumed or the account is deleted; top-up bandwidth follows a similar consumption-based availability rule.
For example, a research assignment that pauses for client approval may benefit more from a retained traffic balance than from a subscription period that continues passing.
The recommendation is not “small teams should always buy GB.” It is avoid committing to time-based capacity before you know when and how much you will use it.
When Unlimited Deserves Serious Consideration
Unlimited becomes a stronger candidate when your project has a substantial, well-understood workload and a clear operating schedule.
For example, imagine a validated monitoring process that runs throughout the week. You already know its traffic requirements, required locations, and approximate completion rate. At that stage, a fixed subscription can be evaluated against real evidence instead of optimistic forecasts.
The case for unlimited is strongest when the expected GB purchase costs more than the suitable subscription and the subscription passes the project’s functional tests.
For occasional bursts, compare shorter billing periods. For sustained operations, compare monthly capacity. Do not buy a faster tier merely because its theoretical capacity looks impressive: unused speed is not a business benefit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Pay-per-GB the Same as Paying Per Request?
No. The distinction is data volume rather than a fixed charge for each request. Two projects with identical request counts can have very different traffic requirements, as the planning example above demonstrates.
Does ProxyEmpire Offer a Trial?
The rotating residential page advertises a $1.97 trial. The unlimited page includes Request Trial options. Confirm the product covered, duration, allowance, and speed before treating a trial as representative of the subscription you plan to buy. (ProxyEmpire)
Should I Stop Monitoring Usage After Buying Unlimited?
No. Even without a GB allowance to protect, monitoring can reveal unnecessary downloads, repeated failures, and work that does not produce useful results.
Treat reduced traffic as an efficiency goal, not only a billing concern.
Could a Mixed Approach Make Sense?
Potentially. A project could evaluate fixed capacity for its main workload while retaining a separately budgeted GB-based service for specialized tasks.
Assess the combined cost carefully. Do not assume that traffic balances, endpoints, or subscription entitlements are interchangeable between products.
Final Verdict: Choose the Plan That Fits the Work
Pay-per-GB is the more cautious starting point for uncertain or intermittent demand. Unlimited is worth evaluating when a substantial workload can make productive use of a defined subscription period.
Neither model is automatically cheaper, faster, or better for every project.
Start by identifying the required locations and session behavior. Measure a representative workload. Compare the actual purchase costs over the same period. Finally, test whether the selected plan can deliver enough usable results before the deadline.
The best ProxyEmpire plan is not the one advertising the most traffic. It is the least expensive suitable plan that completes your project reliably.
