Quality & errors · glossary

Latency and response time

Proxy latency is the additional time a request spends because it goes through the gateway and out of an exit before reaching the destination: the network distance to the gateway, the hop to the exit, and the exit's own connection quality. Datacenter and ISP exits on wired uplinks add tens of milliseconds; residential exits add a few hundred because of household lines; mobile exits vary with the cell. Latency matters for interactive flows and matters little for bulk collection.

1 min read Also called response time, round-trip time Updated

Compare proxy types All terms

Where the time goes#

  • Client to gateway: choose the gateway region nearest your servers when the provider offers several.
  • Gateway to exit: the exit's uplink, wired or wireless.
  • Exit to destination: geographic distance; a Tokyo exit fetching a European site pays the ocean twice.

Reducing it#

  • Keep connections alive when the job allows (same exit), instead of a new TLS handshake per request.
  • Place exits near the destination, not near you.
  • Use ISP or datacenter addresses for latency-sensitive work that does not need a residential score.

How it works at ProxShift#

ProxShift datacenter and ISP addresses sit on wired uplinks in facilities on major exchanges; residential and mobile exits add the latency of a household or cellular line. The comparison page rates all four on speed.

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