The short answer
Rotating mobile proxies draw IPs from a shared pool and are billed per GB. They suit work that needs many different addresses. Dedicated mobile proxies give you one modem and SIM card of your own, billed per day or month. They suit steady work on a small number of accounts.
Side-by-side comparison
| Rotating (shared pool) | Dedicated (your own port) | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Access to a pool of mobile IPs | One modem with one SIM card |
| Who else uses it | Other customers of the seller | Only you |
| IP changes | Per request or per session | On a timer, or when you ask |
| Locations | Many countries from one account | Where that modem is |
| Billing | Per GB | Per day, week or month |
| Cost for light use | Low | High |
| Cost for heavy use | High | Low |
How rotating mobile proxies work
You connect to one address, called a gateway. The seller sends each request out through a mobile device from its pool. Depending on the settings, you get a new IP for every request, or you keep one for a few minutes with a "sticky session".
Because you only pay for data, a rotating pool is cheap to try and easy to scale up and down.
How dedicated mobile proxies work
The seller assigns you one modem. All its traffic is yours, so nobody else's behaviour affects the IP while you hold it. The IP still changes from time to time, because the carrier reassigns addresses, and most sellers let you force a change through a link or a timer.
Note that "dedicated" means a dedicated device. The public IP is still shared with other subscribers of that carrier. That is normal for mobile networks, and it is part of why mobile IPs are trusted.
Which one should you buy?
- Many requests, many places, changing workload: rotating.
- A handful of accounts used all day: dedicated.
- Lots of video or large downloads: dedicated, because per-GB billing gets expensive.
- Trying mobile proxies for the first time: rotating, with the smallest pack.
Not sure how much data you will use? Buy a small per-GB pack, run your real task for a day, and do the sum. The pricing guide has worked examples.
What about sticky sessions?
A sticky session is the middle ground: a rotating pool that holds the same IP for a set time, often a few minutes up to about half an hour. It is enough for logging in and finishing a task. It is not a replacement for a dedicated port, because the session ends when the device behind it goes offline.
Frequently asked questions
Do dedicated mobile proxies have a static IP?
Not truly. Carriers change the public IP of a mobile connection regularly. A dedicated port gives you a stable device and control over when the IP changes, not a permanent address. If you need the same IP for weeks, use an ISP proxy.
How often should a mobile proxy rotate?
For collecting data from many pages, rotate on every request. For anything with a login, keep one IP for the whole task and change it between tasks.
Is a shared mobile pool safe to use?
Other customers use the same pool, so an IP may have been used on your target site before you. On mobile networks that matters less than elsewhere, because websites already expect many users behind each IP.
Buy mobile proxies here
Real carrier IPs from IPRoyal, a well-known proxy provider. See current plans and prices on their site.