What’s an Instagram Proxy and Where to Get Them?

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What Is an Instagram Proxy?

An Instagram proxy is a proxy server optimized specifically for Instagram. Nowadays, that means two things:

1. The IPs are mobile, ISP or at least rotating residential. Datacenter Instagram proxies are long past their glory days, and you won’t accomplish much with them.
2. The IPs won’t be banned when you start using them. This part is much harder to ensure with peer-to-peer residential proxies, where all users share the same pool. Still, with networks spanning millions of residential IP addresses, the odds are pretty good for you.

Otherwise, Instagram proxies are the same as your regular proxy IPs. You can find them on most sites of proxy providers that offer proxies for sneaker copping, Youtube, Craigslist, and so on.

Why Use Proxies for Instagram

• Manage multiple Instagram accounts – if you or your business needs more than a few Instagram accounts, proxies are a must. Otherwise, Instagram will quickly flag your IP address, and you won’t be able to do much.
• Build a following – this will still include managing multiple Instagram accounts, though you won’t have to put in so much work. Honestly, it isn’t the fairest way to get famous or get some sweet brand deals, but you do you, right?
• Scrape Instagram – Instagram contains a lot of valuable information. You can scrape Instagram hashtags, photos, followers, or even whole profiles. Just keep in mind that Instagram is against this practice and will go out of its way to stop you.
• Unblock Instagram – if your school, workplace, or country are not big fans of Instagram use, you have an easily accessible solution. While there are other options, like VPNs, Instagram proxies do a great job, too.

Which Types of Proxies for Instagram Work Best

From best to worst:

• Mobile proxies (4G proxies) – Instagram trusts these IP addresses the most: first, because it’s a mobile app; and second, because hundreds of mobile devices share the same IP address. However, mobile proxies are very expensive and hardly sustainable if you need many accounts. 
• ISP proxies – these addresses are registered under internet service providers (ISPs), so they’re also very hard to detect. At the same time, ISP proxies are fast because they’re hosted on servers. Since this type doesn’t need to rotate, you can use it for managing multiple Instagram accounts.
• Residential proxies – rotating residential addresses come from real user devices: desktop, laptop computers, or smartphones. They’re cheaper than mobile and ISP proxies but slower. Rotating proxies are better for Instagram account creation or web scraping.
• Dedicated proxies – private datacenter proxies dedicated specifically for social media. Cheaper than both mobile or residential, more expensive than shared ones. Not the best choice for Instagram bots, but still useful for running scraper Instagram accounts. 
  Shared proxies – don’t use these IP addresses for Instagram. You’ll never be sure if the proxies haven’t been blocked already, and these are still datacenter IPs.

Tips and Tricks to Becoming an Instagram Proxy Master

• Consider your needs. If you only want to run two or three Instagram accounts with your Instagram bot, then maybe you don’t need proxies at all. The same goes for a virtual private server – they can help you run hundreds of accounts, but you don’t always need one.
• Choose your tools. There are many different Instagram bots out there. You can get bots like UseViral, Kicksta, or build your own one. Additionally, consider using an anti-detect browser for Instagram account creation and management.
• Start slow. If you’re growing Instagram accounts, let them “warm up” for a while before you do anything with them. Then, gradually start increasing the number of follows; you won’t be able to get 400-1000/day anymore, but one to two hundred is still possible.
• Mind your actions. Don’t run your Instagram account round the clock. Instead, use it within a certain timeframe, like 12 hours, because that’s what humans do. Run your accounts in shifts. In the same way, don’t follow, unfollow, or comment at the same time every day – it’s a sure way to get shut down.
• Try things out. Check if your Instagram proxies work with trial Instagram accounts and play around with the settings of your Instagram bot. Get used to the process.
• Don’t stop learning. If you’ve been running multiple Instagram accounts with no issues until now, it doesn’t mean things won’t change. The platform constantly updates its algorithms, and the game starts all over again. You can read forums like MPSocial and BHW to stay up to date with Instagram automation and Instagram bots.

And as always, never settle for bad service.

The Best Instagram Proxies of 2023

1. Smartproxy The best overall Instagram proxies.

Smartproxy is our editor’s choice, and for good reasons – its proxies are fast and highly scalable. During our latest Proxy Market Research, the mobile proxies reached an average success rate of 97.37%. These addresses come from a pool of 10 million IPs. You can target 130 locations and over 700 ASNs.

The provider also spans a huge – 55 million – residential proxy network with locations worldwide. During our tests, these IPs showed an almost perfect success rate and response time. 

Smartproxy’s ISP proxies come from a pool of around 20,000 static addresses in the US. They rotate with every request, but it’s possible to create static sessions that don’t expire. So, it’s a good choice for Instagram account management.

The provider offers great customer support and plenty of content on Instagram automation. The services are simple to use and don’t cost much for what you get. Additional perks include an anti-detect browser, which you can use free of charge with any of the proxy services.

But Smartproxy isn’t perfect for everything. With its mobile and residential proxies, you can create sticky sessions for up to 30 mins, which isn’t ideal for creating multiple accounts. And ISP proxies only support locations in the US.

Features:

• Locations: 130 (mobile), 195 (residential), US (ISP)
• Rotation: every request, 10, 30 minutes (mobile, residential), unlimited sticky sessions (ISP)
• Support: award-winning 24/7 support via chat or email 
• Extras: API, browser extension, anti-detect browser, extensive documentation
• Free trial: 14-day refund available

Pricing:

• Mobile: $21 for 1 GB 
• ISP: $28 for 2 GB ($14/GB)
• Residential: $8.5 for 1 GB

2. SOAX Mobile proxies with flexible filtering options.

SOAX’s mobile proxy pool has 3.5M IP addresses on 3G and 4G networks. These proxies showed great results – an average of a 98.22% success rate. 

The provider also controls around 5 million residential proxies in over 150 countries and 100,000 ISP addresses in the US. 

SOAX has very flexible filtering options for its mobile and residential proxies. It allows selecting country and region, city, and ASN. And that’s the touchstone for Instagram account management since most social media platforms only tolerate addresses with similar parameters. 

SOAX’s mobile and residential proxies rotate from 90 to 600 seconds, and you can specify custom duration. The ISP addresses can hold sessions for up to 24 hours.

There are a few drawbacks: you’ll have to whitelist your IP address, and you get a limited number of ports with each subscription. 

Features:

• Locations: 100+ (mobile), US (ISP), 150+ (residential)
• Rotation: Every request, 90-600 seconds with custom options (residential and mobile), sessions up to 24 hours (ISP),
• Support: 24/7 live chat and tickets
• Extras: API (limited), customer success manager
• Free trial: 3-day trial for $1.99 available

Pricing:

Starts from $99 for 15 GB ($6.6/GB) and 300 ports

3. Bright Data Instagram proxies with the most features.

Bright Data is one of the largest proxy providers, with a pool of 7 million mobile proxies. These addresses are rarely blocked (avg. success rate: 98.06%). The provider gives you enough freedom to select a mobile carrier and use as many IPs as you want at once.

Bright Data also controls a pool of 72 million rotating and 700,000 static residential proxies worldwide. The mobile and residential proxies cover any country and thousands of cities with carrier targeting. The ISP addresses include 50 locations up to the city level. 

With Bright Data, you’ll get flexible IP rotation options: rotation every request, as long as your IP is available, or further customize with its Proxy Manager. So, you can greatly manipulate your IPs to match your Instagram use case – from web scraping to account management.

The drawbacks? Well, Bright Data considers features like ASN targeting as premium and charges double, whereas other providers offer it for free. The whole user experience can be confusing at times. And its mobile proxies are pretty slow.

Features:

• Locations: Every country (mobile, residential), 50 countries (ISP)
• Rotation: customizable with Proxy Manager 
• Support: 24/7 via live chat, tickets, dedicated account manager
• Extras: API, browser extension, Proxy Manager, extensive documentation
• Free trial: 7-day free trial for businesses, 3-day refund for individuals.

Pricing:

• Mobile: $24 for 1 GB
• ISP: $15/GB + $0.50/IP
• Residential: $10.50 for 1 GB

4. Webshare Fast ISP proxies with complete self-service.

Even though Webshare doesn’t offer mobile IPs, it controls an impressive aggregate of 100,000 ISP proxies in 5 locations. Our tests showed that these proxies are fast and they reached an average success rate of 91.84%.

You can get shared, dedicated, and semi-dedicated proxies in lists of static addresses suitable for Instagram account management. If you want to scrape publicly available data, you can rotate these addresses for free with every connection request. 

The provider also has one of the cheaper residential proxies in the market, with 30 million addresses worldwide. 

Both services come with complete self-service and flexible plans. You can select the number of proxies you want, their bandwidth limit, and replace IPs automatically anywhere between several minutes and a month. 

However, the price won’t be that favorable if you want to add features like network priority, refresh or replace proxies. Additionally, the customer service is available only via email.

Features:

• Locations: 5 (ISP), 190+ (residential)
• Rotation: every request
• Support: Monday to Friday (6am-6pm PST) support via email
• Extras: API, basic documentation
• Free trial: –

Pricing:

• ISP: $6 for 20 shared IPs ($0.30/IP)
• Residential: $7 for 1 GB

5. Netnut ISP proxies with flexible targeting in the US.

NetNut advertises only one million mobile addresses, but our tests showed it has more unique IPs than some of the larger alternatives. The proxies reached a success rate of 95.68%.

These addresses rotate with every request, but you can hold sticky sessions. By paying extra, you can unlock features like state or city, and get the ability to whitelisted IPs. 

NetNut also sells both static and rotating residential proxies. The rotating residential IPs cover over 150 countries and have a pool of 52 million monthly IPs. The static proxies come from a network of 1 million addresses that you can filter up to the city level. NetNut allows keeping the same IP for as long as it remains available or, in the case of ISP proxies, indefinitely.

On the downside, three in four proxies in NetNut’s unfiltered pool weren’t mobile. Also, they’re very slow. 

Features:

• Locations: 150+ (ISP, residential)
• Rotation: every request , as long as the IP is available 
• Support: 24/7 via email, Skype (larger plans)
• Extras: API (for resellers), extensive documentation
• Free trial: 7-day free trial for companies.

Pricing starts from: 

• Mobile: $300 for 10 GBs ($30/GB)
• ISP: $350 for 20 GBs ($17.50/GB)
• Residential: $100 for 5 GBs ($20/GB)

Read the NetNut review for more information and performance tests.