Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred over a connection in a given time — and the most common way proxy and VPN usage is measured and billed.
Definition
Bandwidth is the maximum rate of data transfer across a network connection, usually measured in megabits per second (Mbps). In the proxy world the term is also used loosely to mean the volume of data you consume — gigabytes transferred — which is how many residential and mobile proxy plans are priced.
Why it matters
Data-heavy tasks like scraping image-rich pages or streaming burn bandwidth quickly. Because residential and mobile bandwidth is expensive, efficient scraping — requesting only what you need and blocking images — can dramatically cut costs.
Examples
A residential proxy plan billed at $8 per GB of traffic
Blocking images in a scraper to reduce bandwidth usage
Common Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Keep Learning
All termsResidential Proxy
A residential proxy routes your traffic through a real home internet connection, so websites see an ordinary ISP customer rather than a server in a data centre.
Read definitionRotating Proxy
A rotating proxy is a single gateway endpoint that hands you a different IP address from a shared pool — on every request, or on a timer — so a large job looks like many ordinary visitors instead of one persistent one.
Read definitionMobile Proxy
A mobile proxy routes traffic through a real 4G or 5G cellular connection. Because carriers share one IP among thousands of phone users, these are the hardest proxies for websites to block.
Read definition