How Much Proxy Data Does a Drop Use?

Residential proxies are usually sold by the gigabyte, so every task you run during a drop costs money. How much data a drop uses depends on the store, how many tasks you run, how long they run and how much of each page your bot loads. Nobody publishes a measured "per drop" figure, so this guide explains what uses data, the rule of thumb one bot maker gives, a simple way to estimate your own usage and cost, and how to use less.

What uses proxy data#

Every request your bot sends through a proxy, and every response it gets back, counts toward your data:

• Monitoring: checking a product page or feed over and over before stock appears. Over a long wait, this adds up.
• Tasks: loading the product, adding to cart, queues and checkout steps, repeated for every task and every retry.
• Captcha harvesters and browser-based steps, which load full pages, images and scripts. These are much heavier than a bot's lightweight requests, and harvesters need proxies too.
• Logins and account checks on stores that require accounts.
• Bot protection. Stores with heavier anti-bot protection make each request do more work: extra scripts, checks and challenges all travel through your proxy and add to your usage. The same task count can use much more data on a heavily protected site than on a lightly protected one.

A full web page is heavy: the HTTP Archive puts the median desktop inner page at about 2 MB. Bots usually request only the data they need, which can be a small fraction of that, while anything loaded in a browser costs closer to the full page.

The rule of thumb#

The clearest figure from a bot maker comes from Stellar: 2 to 5 GB of residential data can support dozens of checkout tasks, or hundreds of short-lived tasks if they're tuned well. Stellar also advises watching your usage closely. Treat it as a rough starting point, not a promise: a long wait, a busy queue or a captcha-heavy store can use much more.

Estimating your own usage#

A simple formula, suggested by one proxy provider, is:

data ≈ number of requests × average size per request × 1.1 to 1.3

The extra 10–30% covers connection overhead and retries. Typical sizes vary by request type: a small data (API) response can be 5–50 KB, a page's HTML 100–500 KB, and a full page loaded in a browser 1–5 MB or more, according to Shifter's estimates.

A worked example, using made-up but plausible numbers:

The same drop can use twenty times more data depending on how the bot and store work. The best way to know your real number is to check your proxy provider's dashboard before and after a drop.

What it costs#

Residential data prices vary widely. As listed in October 2026:

At $4 per GB, Stellar's 2–5 GB works out to about $8–$20 for the dozens of checkout tasks it describes. To work out your own monthly cost from your task count and provider's price, use the proxy cost calculator. Check whether a provider's data expires before buying a big package; IPRoyal, for example, says its traffic doesn't expire.

ISP proxies work differently. They're usually sold per IP, not per gigabyte: Stella Proxies, for example, sells sneaker proxy plans by IP count, from $36.95 a month for 25 IPs with unlimited bandwidth. Our guide to residential, ISP and datacenter proxies explains when each type fits.

How to use less data#

• Monitor with ISP proxies or server-side monitors. Stellar suggests ISP proxies for monitoring to save residential data, and bots with server-side monitoring watch products on the bot maker's servers instead of your proxies. Our guide to sneaker monitors explains how that works.
• Start tasks closer to the drop, so they spend less time waiting.
• Run fewer, better-targeted tasks instead of the maximum.
• Set sensible monitor and retry delays. Very short delays multiply requests.
• Track usage after every drop, so your next estimate is based on your own numbers.

Proxies are one part of the monthly bill; our guide to what a bot setup costs adds up the rest, and our guide to servers covers whether you need one.

Which stores you run matters too; our guide to sneaker sites explains how they differ.

Proxies on OOSClub#

OOSClub lists residential and ISP proxy providers on the proxies hub, with their plans and per-unit prices worked out from the seller's prices, and the date we last checked them.