What Are the Best Mobile Proxies for AI Data Collection in 2026?

Why Use Mobile Proxies for AI Data Collection?

Mobile proxies reduce challenge rates for AI collection because carrier CGNAT shares each IP among thousands of real subscribers.

Mobile carriers use CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT), so hundreds or thousands of real subscribers share each public IP address. A website blocking a mobile IP risks affecting legitimate traffic from an entire carrier segment, so mobile IPs may see lower challenge rates when the use case is compliant and the request behavior is reasonable.

That structural advantage matters more than it used to. Challenge rates for datacenter and residential proxies keep rising. Cloudflare, Akamai, and DataDome now layer IP reputation, TLS fingerprinting, and behavioral analysis into a single decision. Datacenter IPs draw the most suspicion. Residential IPs still work for many targets, but they increasingly need cleaner request patterns and better session handling.

The trade-off is cost. Among the vendors checked here in June 2026, mobile entry rates run $2–$8/GB — typically above residential at the same vendor. At AI-scale volumes — hundreds of gigabytes to terabytes — the per-GB rate becomes the single biggest factor in your infrastructure bill. That's the lens this guide ranks through: reliable mobile carrier IPs at a price that fits a data collection budget.

In short: CGNAT makes mobile IPs structurally harder to block than datacenter or residential — a website that bans one risks cutting off thousands of real subscribers. For AI workloads on strictly defended targets, that access reliability is what the $2–$8/GB premium buys, and at pipeline volumes the rate you pick dominates the bill.

Which Mobile Proxies Work Best for Autonomous AI Agents?

Autonomous AI agents run best on IPRoyal's per-day unlimited plan or Proxidize's $59/month dedicated mobile proxy for long sessions.

For agents that run extended or multi-step sessions, the billing model and session controls matter as much as raw pool size. IPRoyal's per-day unlimited plan removes per-GB metering entirely, which suits autonomous browsing or continuous monitoring without accumulating usage surprises. Proxidize offers a per-proxy plan at $59/month for a dedicated mobile identity on real carrier hardware — useful when consistent exit behavior across pages matters more than rotation.

Typical agent patterns map cleanly onto those options. Continuous market or SERP monitoring suits IPRoyal's unmetered days. A research agent that must present one consistent identity across a long browsing session suits a dedicated Proxidize proxy. Shorter multi-page tasks on rotating pools just need a sticky window longer than the task itself.

For workflows that need to hold state on rotating pools, sticky-session length is the number to check: DataImpulse holds sessions up to 120 minutes and SOAX up to 60 minutes on mobile.

In short: agents that hold long sessions want IPRoyal's unmetered per-day plan or a dedicated Proxidize proxy for stable identity. Workflows that just hold state on shared pools need a sticky window longer than the task — DataImpulse offers up to 120 minutes and SOAX up to 60 on mobile. Billing model beats pool size here.

Proxidize vs Oxylabs vs DataImpulse vs Decodo vs SOAX: Which Wins Where?

Proxidize wins on volume cost in the US/UK/DE/Canada, Oxylabs on global coverage, DataImpulse on non-expiring traffic, Decodo on APIs, SOAX on mixed billing.

Proxidize is my value pick when the workload is bandwidth-heavy and concentrated in the US, UK, Germany, or Canada. Oxylabs is stronger for global coverage and enterprise controls. DataImpulse is stronger when non-expiring traffic matters. Decodo is stronger when the API bundle matters more than raw proxy bandwidth. SOAX is stronger when one account needs to cover mobile, residential, ISP, and datacenter strategies.

For a side-by-side at roughly 100GB mid-volume workloads, see the companion guide Best Mobile Proxy Providers in 2026; for the underlying pricing models and break-even math, see Mobile Proxy Pricing in 2026. This article focuses on the demands and economics of high-volume AI data collection.

In short: pick by constraint — Proxidize when the pipeline is bandwidth-heavy and concentrated in the US, UK, Germany, or Canada, Oxylabs when it spans many countries, DataImpulse when collection timelines are unpredictable, Decodo when you'd rather buy scrapers than build them, and SOAX when one bill has to cover several proxy types at once.

How Did I Evaluate These Mobile Proxy Providers?

Mobile proxy providers were evaluated on cost at volume, carrier-sourced pool quality, protocol and rotation support, and targeting.

The factors below follow the site's approach: verifying plans and pricing directly from providers (live rechecks in June 2026), assessing real carrier-sourced infrastructure, and focusing on characteristics that matter for production AI workloads rather than headline specs alone.

1. Cost at volume. AI workloads are bandwidth-hungry. A provider that looks affordable at 10GB can become ruinous at 500GB. I normalized everything to $/GB using published rates and checked how pricing scales at realistic pipeline sizes.
2. Pool quality and reliability. Emphasis on real carrier IPs from documented sourcing, not virtualized or recycled. IPs that frequently trigger challenges or classify poorly erase any pricing advantage.
3. Integration. Protocol support (HTTP, SOCKS5, UDP), auth options, and rotation/sticky controls matter when proxies are called from automated pipelines and agents.
4. Targeting and sessions. Granularity (country, city, carrier, ASN) and sticky durations matter when agents need stable identity across multiple pages or geo-specific collection.

I did not test every mobile proxy provider on the market. The comparison covers those with verifiable infrastructure and current pricing that could be confirmed for production consideration.

In short: the ranking rewards providers whose published pricing survives a live June 2026 recheck and whose pools come from documented carrier sourcing. Cost at realistic pipeline volumes counts most, because at AI scale a per-GB difference outweighs every dashboard feature. Headline IP counts, on their own, moved nothing.

When Should You Not Use Mobile Proxies?

Mobile proxies are unnecessary for static pages, APIs, feeds, and public datasets — residential, ISP, or datacenter is cheaper there.

Mobile proxies are not the default answer for every AI data collection job. If you're collecting general public web data from static pages, APIs, documentation sites, RSS feeds, public datasets, or sources that do not apply strict traffic controls, then residential, ISP, datacenter proxies, or a managed scraping API are often cheaper and simpler.

Start with mobile only when the target genuinely behaves differently for mobile carrier traffic, when geo/mobile realism matters, or when long-running agent sessions need a stable mobile identity. Otherwise, use the least expensive compliant route that returns reliable data.

The arithmetic is blunt. Residential traffic commonly sells for roughly half mobile's rate or less, and datacenter bandwidth for a fraction of that. Defaulting to mobile on soft targets can double or triple a collection bill with no gain in success rate.

In short: pay the mobile premium only for strictly defended targets, mobile-specific site behavior, or long-running agent identities. Static pages, APIs, feeds, and public datasets don't justify it — residential commonly costs half of mobile's rate or less, and datacenter a fraction of that, so defaulting to mobile on soft targets just multiplies the bill.

How Do the Six Providers Compare at a Glance?

Six providers split by strength: Proxidize and DataImpulse lead on price, Oxylabs on coverage, IPRoyal on unmetered sessions.

In short: two providers anchor the budget end at $2/GB (Proxidize in the US/UK/DE/Canada, DataImpulse global), three sit in the $5–$8 premium band, and IPRoyal prices by the day instead of the gigabyte. Match the billing model to the workload first, then compare raw rates within that model.

What Does AI-Scale Bandwidth Cost in June 2026?

AI-scale bandwidth costs spread nearly 3x by vendor: a 500GB crawl runs about $1,000 at Proxidize versus $2,700 at Oxylabs.

Examples calculated from the published per-GB rates above (Proxidize figures assume traffic within its US/UK/DE/Canada footprint):

At 100GB — a typical mid-size monthly pipeline — the same spread holds: about $200 at Proxidize or DataImpulse, roughly $275 at Decodo's promo rate, and near $500 at Oxylabs' 100GB tier or SOAX's Tier-1 entry. The gap widens with volume, because premium tiers discount more slowly than the budget floor drops.

Two planning notes beyond the rate itself. First, budget a retry overhead — a 1.3x multiplier on estimated bandwidth is a reasonable buffer for failed and repeated requests. Second, expiry policy matters as much as price at irregular volumes: Oxylabs allowances expire monthly, while DataImpulse traffic never does.

In short: at June 2026 rates, AI-scale bandwidth costs roughly $200–$500 per 100GB and $1,600–$5,000 per terabyte depending on vendor. Proxidize and DataImpulse hold the floor and Oxylabs the ceiling, and expiry terms — not just the per-GB rate — decide the real cost of an irregular pipeline.

Proxidize: Why Is It the Top Pick for AI Data Collection?

Proxidize is the cheapest mobile proxy for US/UK/DE/Canada AI data collection at $2/GB, on real 4G/5G carrier IPs with no contracts.

Best for: US/UK/DE/Canada, high-volume AI data collection at the lowest per-GB cost Pricing: $2/GB (per-GB plan) · $59/month (per-proxy plan) · Custom from $0.50/GB above 1TB Source: Proxidize mobile proxy pricing — verified June 2026

Proxidize is the cost pick when the job is concentrated in the US, UK, Germany, or Canada and bandwidth-heavy. At $2/GB with no contracts, a 500GB crawl job costs $1,000. The same workload through Oxylabs runs $2,700. When a training pipeline needs hundreds of gigabytes per month and doesn't need mobile exits beyond those four markets, that gap compounds quickly.

Proxidize's proxies run on real 5G/4G LTE carrier hardware across 50+ US locations plus UK, German, and Canadian coverage — not virtualized, not recycled. Rotation is configurable: per-request for broad scraping, sticky sessions for agent workflows that need to hold an identity. Both HTTP(S) and SOCKS5 are supported, plus UDP over SOCKS for protocols that need it.

The per-proxy model ($59/month) is worth noting for AI agent use cases. If your autonomous agent needs a stable mobile identity for extended browsing, a dedicated SIM-based exit is cleaner than rotating pool access.

The trade-off is coverage: Proxidize's mobile network spans the US, UK, Germany, and Canada. If your AI pipeline needs mobile exits elsewhere, Oxylabs and DataImpulse are stronger fits. If you need built-in scraping APIs, Decodo is stronger. If you need one plan across mobile, residential, ISP, and datacenter, SOAX is stronger. For collection concentrated in its four markets at high volume, Proxidize's pricing is hard to match.

In short: for AI pipelines in the US, UK, Germany, or Canada measured in hundreds of gigabytes, Proxidize is the cheapest verified option at $2/GB — a 500GB crawl runs about $1,000 versus $2,700 at Oxylabs. Real carrier hardware, configurable rotation, and the $59/month per-proxy plan cover the stable-identity agent case too. The only real limit is coverage outside those four markets.

Oxylabs: When Is the Global Premium Worth It?

Oxylabs offers the widest global mobile reach in this comparison — 20M+ IPs across 140+ countries — at a premium $7.50/GB entry rate.

Best for: Enterprise AI teams needing global coverage and precision targeting Pricing: $7.50/GB (4GB Starter) · $5/GB (100GB Advanced) · $3.50/GB (715GB Corporate) Source: Oxylabs mobile proxy pricing — verified June 2026

Oxylabs is the option for global work at scale. If your AI data collection spans multiple geographies — multilingual training sets, global price monitoring, cross-market SERP analysis — the coordinate-level targeting and 140+ country coverage support it. The Web Scraper API handles structured extraction for product, SERP, or social content. A 7-day free trial gives room to test.

The cost is the barrier. At $5/GB on the 100GB Advanced plan, a 1TB crawl costs $5,000 — about 2.5× what Proxidize or DataImpulse would charge. The 715GB Corporate plan brings it to $3.50/GB, but that's a $2,500/month commitment. Entry pricing is steeper still at $7.50/GB on the 4GB plan, and unused bandwidth expires monthly.

For well-funded AI teams that need global mobile IPs with coordinate-level precision and don't mind the premium, Oxylabs is the most capable option in the market. For cost-conscious teams focused on the US, UK, Germany, or Canada, it's hard to justify over the $2/GB alternatives from Proxidize and DataImpulse.

In short: buy Oxylabs when the workload is genuinely multi-country and the budget is enterprise-grade — 20M+ IPs, 140+ countries, coordinate-level targeting, and a mature Web Scraper API justify the premium there. At $5/GB mid-tier, a 1TB crawl costs $5,000, about 2.5x the $2/GB alternatives, so skip it for volume confined to Proxidize's four markets.

DataImpulse: What Does Non-Expiring Traffic Buy You?

DataImpulse sells non-expiring mobile traffic from $2/GB — $1.60/GB at 1TB — ideal for AI pipelines with irregular collection schedules.

Best for: AI teams that need flexible, non-expiring bandwidth Pricing: $2/GB (entry) · $1.60/GB (1TB) · No monthly fees Source: DataImpulse mobile proxies — verified June 2026

DataImpulse's main advantage for AI workloads is that traffic does not expire. Buy a terabyte at $1.60/GB and use it over months as needs dictate. There's no monthly commitment or expiration pressure, which is valuable for research teams and intermittent collection — a pipeline that crawls hard one month and idles the next wastes nothing.

The network is larger than the budget pricing suggests: 16M mobile IPs across 195 countries, pure pay-as-you-go with no subscription, and a low minimum that makes testing easy. Sticky sessions hold up to 120 minutes — the longest in this comparison — which covers most multi-page agent workflows.

The downsides are real: the dashboard is functional but not elegant, documentation is thinner than competitors, and support can lag. If you're building a production pipeline that needs responsive technical support, that matters. If you're a technical team that reads API docs and debugs independently, the pricing makes it an easy pick alongside Proxidize.

In short: DataImpulse is the strongest budget option for global or irregular AI collection: $2/GB entry, $1.60/GB at 1TB, non-expiring traffic, and 120-minute sticky sessions across a 16M-IP, 195-country pool. The dashboard, docs, and support all trail the premium tier — it's the right pick when your team can self-serve.

Decodo (Smartproxy): Do the Bundled APIs Justify the Price?

Decodo bundles SERP, eCommerce, and social scraping APIs with 10M+ mobile IPs; list is $8/GB, about $2.75/GB at 100GB on promo.

Best for: AI teams that want proxies and scraping tools in one platform Pricing: $8/GB list · ~$2.75/GB at 100GB (June 2026 promo) · 14-day money-back Source: Decodo mobile proxies — verified June 2026

Decodo is a scraping platform, not just a proxy provider. The pitch for AI teams is the bundled APIs: SERP scraping, eCommerce, Social Media collection, plus a Site Unblocker that handles CAPTCHAs and retries. If your pipeline needs structured data from search engines, listings, or social, these can save building custom scrapers.

Pay-as-you-go lists at $8/GB and drops to about $2.75/GB at 100GB volume — but note that the 100GB figure rides a 50%-off promo as of June 2026; budget for roughly double if you're planning past the promo window. Either way it sits above the $2/GB options, so the premium only makes sense if you actually use the APIs.

Decodo's pool itself is strong: 10M+ mobile IPs across 700+ carriers and 160+ locations, heavy in key markets (US, plus DE/UK/IN) with 3G/4G/5G available, and a 14-day money-back guarantee to test against your own targets.

In short: pick Decodo for the bundled SERP, eCommerce, and social scraping APIs plus the Site Unblocker, not for the bandwidth rate. At $8/GB list — about $2.75/GB at 100GB only while the June 2026 promo holds — it loses to the $2/GB options as a pure proxy buy. The 14-day guarantee makes testing cheap.

SOAX: Who Needs One Plan Across Every Proxy Type?

SOAX runs one geo-tiered subscription across mobile, residential, ISP, and datacenter — Tier-1 mobile starts near $5/GB entry.

Best for: AI teams running mixed proxy strategies from one account Pricing: Geo-tiered — Tier-1 (US/UK) from $5.00/GB entry to $0.85/GB Enterprise · Tier-3 from ~$2.00/GB · all +VAT Source: SOAX pricing — verified June 2026

SOAX's defining feature is the unified subscription: your data allowance works across residential, mobile, ISP, and datacenter proxies. For AI teams that use mobile IPs for stricter targets, residential for general public web data, and datacenter for high-speed bulk downloads, one account covers all of it.

Pricing is geo-tiered rather than flat, so ignore older "$3.60/GB" figures: as of June 2026, Tier-1 markets (US/UK) start at $5.00/GB entry and fall to $0.85/GB at Enterprise volume, while Tier-3 markets start near $2.00/GB — everything +VAT. The plan tiers rarely map cleanly to AI volumes, so you often over-buy.

The technical substance is real. SOAX's 33M+ mobile pool is the largest dedicated one in this comparison. HTTP/3 (QUIC) support on mobile is an edge for modern sites and CDNs. Sticky sessions hold up to 60 minutes on mobile (longer on other proxy types), with carrier-level targeting across 195 countries.

In short: SOAX is the right pick when one account must span mobile, residential, ISP, and datacenter collection — the unified geo-tiered plan and 33M-IP pool are genuinely useful there. On mobile-only economics, Tier-1 entry near $5.00/GB (+VAT) and awkward plan tiers mean the $2/GB providers beat it for pure bandwidth.

IPRoyal: When Does Per-Day Unlimited Beat Per-GB?

IPRoyal charges $10.11/day (about $117/month) per dedicated mobile proxy with unlimited bandwidth — you pay for time, not data.

Best for: AI agents that need sustained sessions without bandwidth metering Pricing: $10.11/day per proxy (unlimited bandwidth) · rotating per-GB from $5.20/GB Source: IPRoyal mobile proxy pricing — verified June 2026

IPRoyal uses a different pricing model: instead of paying per GB, you pay per day ($10.11) or per month (~$117) for a dedicated mobile proxy with unlimited data transfer.

For AI agent workloads — autonomous browsing, multi-hour research sessions, continuous monitoring — this removes per-GB cost pressure entirely. The agent can browse freely without accumulating bandwidth charges. The 4.5M+ pool runs on real carrier devices (not virtualized), with 5G, 4G, and 3G connections and auto-rotation every three minutes.

The math works when per-proxy data consumption is high. At $117/month per proxy, you'd need to transfer more than ~58GB through each proxy (vs. Proxidize's $2/GB) to break even. For high-throughput agent sessions, that's easy to clear. One caveat: a vendor snippet suggests a ~30GB/day fair-use ceiling despite the "unlimited" marketing, so verify at checkout before relying on true-unlimited throughput. IPRoyal also offers a rotating per-GB mobile plan ($5.20–$6.80/GB), but at those rates the dedicated unlimited model is the stronger draw.

In short: IPRoyal has the best economics in this list for long-running agents: $10.11/day unlimited beats $2/GB metering above roughly 5GB/day per proxy, and ~$117/month beats it above ~58GB. Verify the hinted ~30GB/day fair-use ceiling before planning heavy bursts, and skip the $5.20–$6.80/GB rotating plan for volume work.

Why Isn't NetNut in This Ranking Anymore?

NetNut was removed from this guide in July 2026 after the FBI seized its domains and parent Alarum paused network services during the disruption.

NetNut previously held the final slot here as the ISP-direct, latency-sensitive pick. That recommendation is withdrawn as of July 6, 2026.

On July 2, 2026, Google's Threat Intelligence Group announced a coordinated action with the FBI and Lumen against NetNut's residential proxy network, which Google tracks as "Popa" and estimates at over 2 million devices. KrebsOnSecurity reported FBI and IRS-CI seizures of NetNut-associated domains the same day. Parent company Alarum Technologies confirmed the seizures and on July 4 announced a temporary pause of NetNut network traffic with significantly reduced availability.

As of July 6, 2026, neither NetNut nor Alarum has been charged with any crime, and netnut.io remains reachable. For AI teams, though, the practical read is simple: a production data pipeline cannot sit on a provider whose domains are being seized and whose traffic is paused mid-incident. Teams that were considering NetNut for latency-sensitive collection should look at Oxylabs for enterprise coverage or Proxidize for US/UK/DE/Canada volume instead.

In short: NetNut lost its slot on July 6, 2026, after FBI domain seizures and a Google-coordinated disruption led Alarum to pause NetNut services. No charges have been filed, but pipeline continuity is the whole point of a proxy layer — until NetNut's availability and terms stabilize, it isn't a defensible choice for new AI workloads.

Which Provider Fits Which AI Workload?

Provider selection maps to workload: LLM training favors Proxidize or DataImpulse, agents favor IPRoyal, global collection Oxylabs.

Two rules of thumb sit behind that table. Bandwidth-dominant workloads — training corpora, RAG refreshes, bulk collection — should chase the lowest reliable per-GB rate, which is why the $2/GB providers keep winning those rows. Session-dominant workloads — agents, continuous monitoring — should chase billing and session models instead, where unmetered days or a dedicated identity beat a marginally cheaper rate.

In short: match the provider to the workload's dominant cost. Volume-heavy pipelines belong on Proxidize or DataImpulse at $2/GB; session-heavy agents belong on IPRoyal's per-day plan or a dedicated Proxidize proxy; global or API-dependent collection justifies Oxylabs and Decodo's premiums. SOAX covers the mixed-strategy case with a single subscription.

Which Mobile Proxy Should AI Teams Choose?

AI teams should default to Proxidize at $2/GB for US/UK/DE/Canada volume, DataImpulse for global budget traffic, and Oxylabs for enterprise scale.

• Proxidize is the best value for AI data collection in the US, UK, Germany, or Canada at $2/GB — 1TB runs about $2,000, or less on custom plans (June 2026 pricing).
• DataImpulse matches $2/GB and its traffic never expires — buy 1TB at $1.60/GB and draw it down across months.
• Oxylabs is the enterprise choice for global collection: 20M+ IPs in 140+ countries with coordinate-level targeting, from $7.50/GB entry.
• IPRoyal's $10.11/day unlimited proxies suit autonomous agents; the flat rate beats $2/GB above roughly 5GB/day per proxy.
• Decodo earns its premium only if you use its bundled SERP, eCommerce, and social scraping APIs.
• SOAX fits mixed strategies: one geo-tiered subscription spans mobile, residential, ISP, and datacenter pools.
• At AI-scale volumes the per-GB rate dominates the bill: the gap between $2/GB and $5/GB is thousands of dollars every month.

For AI data collection specifically, the per-GB rate is the number that matters most — price the pipeline before you pick the proxy.