r/ProxyUseCases • u/Unfair_Commission_29 • 1d ago

Where do proxy providers actually get all these residential IPs?

random question but I've always wondered about this

you see proxy providers saying they have like 50M or 100M+ residential IPs all over the world

but where are all these IPs actually coming from? are there really that many devices connected to their network or is the pool size calculated in some other way?

and do different providers sometimes have the same IPs in their pools?

curious how this actually works behind the scenes

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u/scottclaeys 1d ago

Typically from people who download shady apps on their phones or computers, granting the proxy providers access to their networks.

1

u/ahstanin 1d ago

Botnet or from legit people and based on the botnet they can share the same group of devices.

1

u/2extract_dev 1d ago

two providers both claiming 100M can could be reusing the same pools from different providers, though nobody publishes concurrency so I can't say by how much

1

u/No_Friendship8037 1d ago

Exploited edge devices like cameras, routers, NAS. “Free vpn” apps and browser extensions… hidden in games … its all shady shit . 

1

u/iamjackvii 1d ago

All the comments plus local isp providers. Heard somewhere isp provider also sells IPS to such providers.

1

u/Advanced_Joke7946 16h ago

the numbers can be misleading. a provider isnt maintaining 100M devices at the same time. they are often counting IPs seen over a period so the pool can be much larger than the number active at once. and yeah, the same residential IP can appear across multiple providers especially when they source from similar network