# Datacenter proxy

A datacenter proxy uses an IP address hosted in a commercial facility and registered to a hosting company rather than to a consumer ISP. It is the fastest and cheapest proxy type, with wired uplinks and predictable latency, and the easiest for websites to recognise as non-residential. Datacenter proxies are sold as dedicated (one customer) or shared addresses, per IP and per term.


## Dedicated versus shared

A **dedicated** datacenter IP belongs to one customer for the whole term, so its reputation is only what that customer makes of it. A **shared** IP is used by several customers at once; it is cheaper and its reputation is unpredictable. Providers that sell "private proxies" mean dedicated ones.


## Where it shines and where it fails

- Shines: bulk collection from open sources and APIs, monitoring your own properties from many cities, QA and load generation, SEO tooling that needs speed more than a residential score.
- Fails: targets that fingerprint hosting ranges (large marketplaces, social platforms, ticketing, sneaker drops). Those answer hosting ranges with challenges or blocks regardless of how polite the crawler is.


## Traffic policy

Because bandwidth in a facility is cheap, datacenter proxies come with unlimited or generously pooled traffic. Some providers meter per GB; ProxShift attaches a monthly allowance to each IP and pools it across the order, so an idle address funds a busy one.


## How it works at ProxShift

ProxShift datacenter proxies are dedicated IPs from an inventory of 550K+ addresses in 60+ cities across 37 countries, from $0.70 per IP per month on a 90-day term in North America, each bringing 100 GB a month into the order's pool. When the pool is exhausted, speed is reduced until the next cycle; nothing is cut off and nothing is billed on top.

## Questions

**Why is a datacenter proxy cheaper than a residential one?**

Addresses and bandwidth in a facility cost a fraction of household bandwidth, and one address can serve unlimited traffic. You pay for the address, not for gigabytes.

**Will datacenter IPs work on Google or Amazon?**

Often not for long: both score hosting ranges aggressively. Use residential or mobile exits for those and keep datacenter IPs for sources that do not fingerprint hosting.

Source: https://proxshift.com/glossary/datacenter-proxy