Best Mobile Proxies In 2023 [3G/4G/5G/LTE, Cheap & Premium]

Generation: does 5G matter?

For most work, no. 4G/LTE already delivers more throughput than a scraping job needs, and both generations sit behind the same carrier NAT that gives mobile IPs their trust. 5G helps when you're moving heavy media or running many concurrent browser sessions on one exit. Pay for it when throughput is the bottleneck, not because the number is bigger.

What to actually compare

Carrier diversity. One carrier in one city is a fragile setup. Several carriers per country give you options when a target starts scrutinising a specific network.

Rotation control. On-demand rotation through an API is the feature that separates usable services from modem farms you have to babysit.

Session length. Can you hold an IP for thirty minutes to finish a login flow, or does it change under you mid-checkout?

Honest throughput. Ask for typical, not peak. A shared 4G line quoting "up to 100 Mbps" usually delivers a fraction of that with several users on it.

Concurrency limits. Some plans cap simultaneous connections per port; find out before you build around it.

Cheap vs premium

Cheap mobile proxies are usually oversubscribed ports on a small number of modems. They work until several customers run heavy jobs at once, then success rates fall off a cliff. Premium plans give you fewer users per exit, better carrier spread, and support that can swap a bad line the same day. For account work, the premium option is cheaper than losing accounts.

How to test before you commit

Buy the smallest plan. Run your real workload — not a speed test — for a day. Measure success rate, time to first byte, how often the IP changes on its own, and whether the country and carrier match what was sold. Any provider that refuses a small trial is telling you something useful.