If you need a no-cost trial, start with Webshare for a small managed proxy allocation or ProxyScrape for a public list. For paid targeting, compare IPRoyal and SOAX; for an API-led scraping workflow, consider ScraperAPI. Enterprise-scale managed options include Oxylabs and Bright Data, while Hide.me is aimed at casual browser privacy. These services are not interchangeable: check proxy type, location controls, session behavior, billing unit and usage terms before choosing.
Which proxy service fits your goal?
The right choice depends less on the word “free” than on what you need the connection to do. A public list, a managed proxy allocation and a scraping API are different products. The reported free quotas, prices and network sizes below come from provider comparisons and editorial reviews published in 2026; they are not independent performance test results. Availability and terms can change, so confirm the current offer with the provider before relying on it.
| Service | Free entry or cited price | Best fit | Proxy type or approach | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Webshare | TechRadar reported 10 free proxies with unlimited duration in 2026. Bright Data’s 2026 comparison listed an 80M+ network and a free starter plan. | First test of a no-cost managed proxy | Managed proxies; exact type depends on the current offer | The free allocation is an evaluation tier; country selection and capacity are limited. |
| IPRoyal | Residential proxies from $1.75/GB in Bright Data’s 2026 comparison. | Budget residential access, or comparing residential, datacenter, ISP and mobile options | Residential, datacenter, ISP and mobile options | The cited price is per GB, not a per-proxy subscription or flat monthly price. Confirm targeting and session terms for the product you select. |
| ProxyScrape | AI Multiple described a free public list refreshed every five minutes in 2026. | Experiments where a public list is sufficient | Public proxy list | Public proxies offer less control and reliability than a managed service; avoid accounts and sensitive traffic. |
| ScraperAPI | TechRadar reported 1,000 free API credits per month and up to five concurrent connections in 2026. | Small projects built around a scraping API | API-first scraping service | Credits and concurrency are finite; check how the current plan defines and consumes a credit. |
| SOAX | Residential pricing from $2/GB and a $1.99 trial, as reported in Bright Data’s 2026 comparison. | Geographic targeting and carrier-level selection | Residential network with geo- and carrier-level selection | The reported trial is not the same as a recurring plan, and the $2 figure is per GB. |
| Oxylabs | TechRadar reported five free, low-latency US proxy IPs for evaluation in 2026. Bright Data’s 2026 comparison listed 175M+ IPs. | Enterprise-scale network or managed scraping | Managed proxy and scraping offerings | The free evaluation mentioned is limited to five US IPs; the cited network-size figure does not establish performance for a particular task. |
| Bright Data | Bright Data’s 2026 comparison listed a managed free tier; no comparable entry price is stated here. | Managed proxy and web-data work where tooling and scale matter more than the lowest entry price | Managed proxy and web-data platform | The available figures do not establish a directly comparable paid entry cost. |
| Hide.me | TechRadar grouped it among free web-proxy services in 2026; a comparable quota or price is not stated. | Casual browser web-proxy use | Web proxy | It is not presented as a high-volume scraping network. |
Network-size figures are provider-comparison figures, not counts independently tested here: the 2026 Bright Data comparison reported 175M+ IPs for Oxylabs, 155M+ for SOAX, 34M+ for IPRoyal and 80M+ for Webshare. A larger stated pool alone does not tell you whether a service has the locations, session behavior, concurrency or reliability your task requires.
How to compare proxies before signing up
Write down what the job needs, then check the relevant product page and terms. These questions make unlike offers easier to compare:
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#1 Best Overall
- Proxy type: Is the offer datacenter, residential, ISP or mobile? Do not assume a free tier includes every type the provider sells.
- Location: Can you select the country or city you need? Does it provide carrier-level selection? A network-size figure does not establish which locations are selectable on a particular plan.
- Rotation and sessions: Does the service rotate addresses, allow a sticky session, or offer both? The cited comparisons do not establish these settings for every plan, so verify the product documentation.
- Usage and billing: Is the charge per GB, per proxy, by API credit, or a recurring subscription? Check whether a trial is a one-time allowance and what happens when a free quota is exhausted.
- Authentication and integration: Check whether the service supports the authentication method and API workflow your software needs. For a scraping API such as ScraperAPI, check the current credit definition and concurrency limit as well as the headline allowance.
- Acceptable use: Read the provider’s terms for permitted targets, automation and account use. Your task must also comply with the target site’s rules and applicable law.
What free proxies can—and cannot—do
A free tier can be useful for learning how proxy settings work, checking compatibility or running a small experiment. It is a weak basis for demanding, continuous work unless its limits suit the job. TechRadar’s 2026 editorial review cautions that free proxies can have slow speeds and frequent downtime, making them unreliable for demanding tasks such as streaming or large-scale scraping. No reproducible benchmark is established by the cited comparisons, so there is no sound basis here for ranking these providers by speed or success rate.
Managed free allocation versus a public list
Webshare is the concrete managed-free entry point in the cited material: TechRadar reported 10 free proxies with unlimited duration. The free allocation is described as limited in country selection and capacity, so treat it as a way to evaluate fit rather than proof that the free tier can support a larger workload.
Rank #2
- Used Book in Good Condition
ProxyScrape serves a different need: AI Multiple described its public list as refreshed every five minutes. A refresh schedule does not guarantee that an individual address will work when you need it, or that an address is suitable for a particular site. Public lists trade cost for control and reliability. Use them for low-stakes tests, not for sending credentials or sensitive personal data.
Free API credits are not the same as free proxy IPs
ScraperAPI’s cited 2026 free allowance is 1,000 API credits per month with a maximum of five concurrent connections, according to TechRadar. It is an API-led option, not simply a list of free proxy addresses. Before building around the allowance, check the provider’s current rules for how calls consume credits, which features consume them and what happens after the monthly limit.
Choosing a low-cost paid option
For residential access, the cited Bright Data comparison gives IPRoyal a starting price of $1.75 per GB and SOAX a starting price of $2 per GB. These are bandwidth prices, not equivalent flat monthly subscriptions. SOAX’s reported $1.99 trial is a separate trial figure, not a recurring price. Compare the amount of traffic you expect to use, the locations and carrier controls you require, and any plan minimums before treating either as the cheaper option.
IPRoyal is also listed with datacenter, ISP and mobile choices, so it may be useful when you want to compare proxy types under one provider. That does not mean all types share the same price, availability or session controls. For SOAX, the cited differentiator is geo-targeting and carrier-level selection; confirm that the required targeting is included in the current offer.
Rank #4
When a managed platform is a better fit
Oxylabs and Bright Data are the enterprise-oriented choices in this set. Bright Data’s 2026 comparison reports 175M+ IPs for Oxylabs and describes Bright Data as a large managed proxy and web-data platform with a free tier and premium positioning. TechRadar reported five free, low-latency US Oxylabs IPs for evaluation. These facts may help you decide which products to investigate, but they do not establish which will perform better for your targets or workload.
Choose based on the operational requirements you can verify: supported proxy types, locations, authentication, session controls, concurrency, available tooling and the cost at your expected usage. For an enterprise workflow, also confirm the current terms and support arrangements directly with the provider; those details are not established by the cited figures.
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Use proxies safely and within the rules
- Do not send passwords, payment data or sensitive personal information through a public proxy list.
- Use a public proxy only for a low-stakes experiment where intermittent failure is acceptable.
- Check both the proxy provider’s acceptable-use terms and the target site’s terms. Use only lawful, permitted traffic.
- Do not treat a rotating address or different location as permission to evade access controls, account restrictions or a site’s stated limits.
- Keep the proxy credentials you control private, and avoid embedding them in public code or logs.
- For a task that matters, validate the exact location, session behavior, concurrency and billing conditions before sending the full workload.
Decision guide
- Want to try a managed proxy without paying first? Start by checking Webshare’s currently available free allocation.
- Need a free public list for an experiment? ProxyScrape is the public-list option; do not use it for sensitive or important traffic.
- Want lower-cost residential access? Compare IPRoyal’s reported $1.75/GB starting price with SOAX’s reported $2/GB starting price and confirm trial, location and session terms.
- Building around a scraping API? Check ScraperAPI’s current credit rules and concurrency alongside its cited free allowance.
- Need managed enterprise-scale options? Investigate Oxylabs or Bright Data against your verified requirements rather than choosing by pool size alone.
- Only need casual browser web-proxy access? Hide.me is the casual-use option among these services, not a high-volume scraping substitute.
Or skip the browser setup
If your real objective is to capture a clean image of a webpage rather than route application traffic through a proxy, ScreenshotNeo is an alternative to try first. It is a website screenshot API and MCP server, not a proxy service. Make one GET request with a URL to receive a PNG, JPEG, WebP or PDF. Its capture flow accepts cookie or consent banners like a visitor and removes more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups and chat widgets; those cleanup steps can each be turned off. Bot checks or CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads and cache hits are not billed, and responses identify the page verdict and billing status in headers. Its MCP server includes tools for AI agents to take screenshots, get page information and capture PDFs.
Example cURL request (see the ScreenshotNeo API documentation):
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpScreenshotNeo’s free plan includes 1,000 screenshots per month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000. Learn about ScreenshotNeo or sign up for the free plan.
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