Most common question from new Sndwich clients: which proxies to buy. I have been through this for three years, from hell with $2 datacenter SOCKS5 to overspending on $50/mo residentials. Here is what actually works, what it costs, and where people get scammed.
Three proxy types, what they are
Datacenter (DC)
Proxies from data centers. AWS, Hetzner, DigitalOcean, OVH. Cheapest, $1-5 per proxy per month. Speed is great. ASN is easy to identify (it is the data center ASN, not Verizon).
Residential
Proxies routed through real residential IPs. The provider partners with some «free VPN» app, then sells traffic through its users. Price is $5-15 per GB of traffic, or $20-50 per static IP per month.
Mobile (4G/5G)
Proxies through mobile carriers. A real phone with a SIM card shares internet through a USB modem or similar dongle. ASN reads as T-Mobile, Verizon, MTS, Vodafone. You can rotate IP on demand (request to provider = new IP). Most expensive: $15-60 per port per month, plus traffic caps.
How Telegram, X and Instagram see this
All three platforms know how to classify IPs. They have internal ASN reputation databases. When a request comes in, they check:
- Provider ASN (Hetzner / AWS / Verizon)
- Geo location (Russia / US / VPN exit)
- IP reputation (was it on abuse lists, how many accounts came from it)
- TLS fingerprint vs the typical device for this ASN
That score does not instantly ban, but raises the chance the account falls under stricter monitoring. After 2-3 actions from such an IP an account can get blocked for things that would never trigger on residential or mobile.
What actually works
Telegram
Telegram was relatively lenient before 2023, but tightened in 2024. Today:
- Datacenter: works for 2-3 days, then restrictions kick in. Do not recommend.
- Residential: works well. Residential IP in the same country as the account's implied language, ideal.
- Mobile: works best. US T-Mobile SIM = you look like a real US Telegram user.
X (Twitter)
X tightened a lot after the 2023 acquisition:
- Datacenter: almost impossible. X cuts API access right away.
- Residential: works, but rotate IPs every 100-200 actions.
- Mobile: the gold standard. Especially US mobile carriers if your accounts pretend to be from the US.
Most aggressive of the three. Meta uses device fingerprint + IP + behavior + an ML classifier:
- Datacenter: 100% does not work. Account survival = 0%.
- Residential: works with care. Ideally one IP = one account, no pooling.
- Mobile: the only reliable option for any real volume.
What it actually costs
Simple math for 10 accounts, one working month:
Budget under $30/mo (testing only)
- Datacenter SOCKS5 from RemoteProxy and similar: $1.5 × 10 = $15
- Realistically: you burn everything in a week, lose the accounts
Budget $50-100/mo (decent solo)
- Residential pay-per-traffic, e.g. IPRoyal: $5/GB × 10 GB = $50
- Or Bright Data (ex Luminati): $5-8/GB plus $50/mo minimum
- Fine for X and Telegram, risky for Instagram
Budget $150-300/mo (agency)
- Mobile ports from iProxy.online: $15-30 per port. 3 ports = $45-90.
- One port usually covers 3-5 accounts (with IP rotation) = 10 accounts on 3 ports.
- Plus residential pool for X parsing: $50-100
- This is the real budget for serious work
Where to buy (from my experience)
- iProxy.online — Russian-based mobile proxy provider. $15-30 per port. Good uptime, API for IP rotation. 80% of our clients run their Telegram on this.
- Bright Data — global residential. Pricey but A+ quality. Good when you need US / EU.
- SmartProxy — cheaper than Bright Data, residential pool. Acceptable.
- IPRoyal — even cheaper. Acceptable for non-Instagram.
What you must NOT buy: forum deals from Telegram channels «found a seller, 5x cheaper». Those are either stolen IPs or the same residential pool sold to 50 clients in parallel. A week later it is all banned.
One account = one IP, or can you rotate
Ideal setup: every account on a fixed IP all the time. That gives a stable pattern across device fingerprint + IP + behavior.
But it is expensive. A working compromise: one mobile port serves 3-5 accounts with IP rotation between them. IP changes every 30 minutes but it is still one real carrier. Telegram and Instagram accept this if rotation is not too frequent.
Bottom line
Proxy budget is part of the cost of running this. If you are doing real mass DM or auto-commenting, $5/proxy datacenter is not savings, it is losing accounts in two weeks.
- Up to 5 accounts, $30-50/mo budget = residential
- 5-20 accounts, $100-200/mo = mobile
- 20+ accounts = mobile, no compromise
Sndwich does not sell proxies. All proxy config is on your side, we just use what you provide. That is intentional: we do not want to take responsibility for someone else's infrastructure. It also means proxy savings are on your side too.
For how to actually warm bought accounts, see the warmup guide.