Best proxies for scraping local search results in 2026

Scraping local search results is a different problem from scraping general SERPs. When you search “plumber near me” in Dallas, Google serves results tied to your IP’s perceived location, not just your query. Get that wrong, and you collect data for the wrong city, or you get blocked outright. I run data collection pipelines for a few content and lead-gen sites out of Singapore, and local SERP scraping is one of the harder categories to get right. Datacenter IPs get flagged fast. Geo-targeting needs to be accurate at the city level, not just country. And the cost per GB adds up quickly if your provider’s hit rate is poor.

This list is for people running scraping infrastructure, not just kicking the tires. If you’re a freelancer doing one-off client work, a product manager validating a local SEO feature, or an operator running an automated rank tracker, these are the providers worth your time. I’ve excluded pure API-based SERP services (like SerpApi or Bright Data’s SERP API product) because this list is specifically about proxy infrastructure, where you handle the HTTP requests yourself and get raw HTML back.

Selection was based on four months of active testing across providers, plus cross-referencing community feedback from the r/webscraping and BlackHatWorld forums. Prices are as of May 2026 and subject to change. See the proxy reviews index for individual deep-dives.

how I picked

City-level geo-accuracy: can the proxy genuinely serve an IP that Google resolves to the target city, not just the country or state?
Residential or ISP IP pool: datacenter IPs get throttled or blocked on Google and Bing local results faster than residential or ISP-type IPs
Rotation reliability: sticky sessions for multi-page scrapes, random rotation for single queries
Success rate on Google: measured as 200 responses with non-CAPTCHA HTML, not just “connection established”
Price per GB at realistic volumes: tested at 50 GB/month as a baseline, which covers roughly 200,000 Google SERP requests at average page size
Documentation and support quality: if something breaks at 2am, you need answers

the picks

Bright Data

Bright Data is the market leader for a reason. Their residential pool sits at over 72 million IPs globally with city-level targeting available in most major markets. For local SERP scraping, the city-level selector in their proxy manager actually works, meaning you get IPs that resolve correctly in Google’s geolocation, not just IPs that claim to be in a city. Their documentation covers sticky sessions, rotating sessions, and HTTPS tunneling clearly, which matters when you’re integrating into a scraping framework like Scrapy or Playwright.

The main downside is cost. Pay-as-you-go residential bandwidth runs around $8.40/GB. At 50 GB/month, that’s $420 before any plan discount. Their committed plans start at $500/month for residential. For high-volume operators this is manageable, but for small teams or side projects, it’s a real number. You also need to go through a business verification process to get access, which can take a few days.

Pros: largest residential pool globally, verified city-level targeting, excellent documentation and API
Pros: sticky session support (up to 30 minutes) useful for multi-page local map pack scrapes
Pros: ISP proxies available as a separate product if you want faster speeds than residential
Cons: most expensive option on a per-GB basis for residential
Cons: onboarding verification adds friction for solo operators

Pricing: ~$8.40/GB pay-as-you-go residential; committed plans from ~$500/mo. See our Bright Data review for a full breakdown.

Oxylabs

Oxylabs competes directly with Bright Data and often wins on support responsiveness. Their residential pool is smaller (around 100 million IPs claimed, though effective usable pool for specific cities varies) but their geo-accuracy for US and European cities is solid. For local search scraping in markets like the UK, Germany, and France, Oxylabs has been my second choice when Bright Data’s specific city pools are thin or expensive.

Their web scraper API is a separate product and outside scope here. As raw residential proxy infrastructure, Oxylabs charges around $8/GB with a minimum $99/month commitment. The dashboard is cleaner than Bright Data’s and the Python SDK is well-maintained. One thing I appreciate: their support team actually understands scraping use cases, not just network connectivity. When I had a session-persistence issue with Google’s Consent Mode redirects in EU regions, their team diagnosed it in under an hour.

Pros: strong geo-accuracy for European cities, good for GDPR-region scraping
Pros: responsive technical support with actual scraping knowledge
Pros: clean dashboard and well-documented Python and Node.js SDKs
Cons: $99/month minimum commitment is a barrier for testing
Cons: pricing doesn’t get competitive until you’re above 100 GB/month

Pricing: ~$8/GB residential, minimum ~$99/mo. See our Oxylabs review.

Smartproxy

Smartproxy is where I point people who are scraping local SERPs for the first time and don’t want to commit $500/month to find out if their pipeline even works. Entry plans start around $75/month for residential proxies. Their pool is smaller than Bright Data’s, but for most US and UK city-level targeting, it covers the major markets without issue.

The key limitation is city-level targeting accuracy. Smartproxy offers state-level targeting reliably, but city-level is hit or miss for smaller US cities (populations under 200k). For the 50 largest US metros, it works fine. For local SERP scraping in secondary markets like Tulsa or Boise, you’ll see a meaningful percentage of IPs resolving to the wrong city. Their success rate on Google is around 85-90% in my testing, which is lower than Bright Data or Oxylabs but acceptable for the price.

Pros: lowest barrier to entry with $75/month plans, no business verification required
Pros: simple API integration, good documentation for beginners
Pros: reliable for major US/UK metro scraping
Cons: city-level accuracy degrades significantly for smaller US markets
Cons: lower success rate (85-90%) means more retry logic in your scraper

Pricing: plans from ~$75/mo (14 GB), ~$7/GB at volume. See our Smartproxy review.

SOAX

SOAX is one of the cleaner options if city-level accuracy is your primary constraint. They have a smaller pool (around 8.5 million residential IPs) but their geo-filtering interface lets you select by city and filter by ISP, which is genuinely useful. Some ISPs in a given city have better geolocation records than others, and SOAX lets you narrow to them. For local SERP work in US metros and Western European cities, their targeting is as accurate as Bright Data’s at a slightly lower price point.

The catch is that their pool being smaller means you’ll cycle through IPs faster on high-volume jobs, which can increase the rate at which Google rate-limits you. For sustained scraping at over 10,000 requests/hour in a single city, I’ve had better luck with Bright Data’s larger pool. SOAX is ideal for moderate-volume scraping where precision matters more than raw throughput. Their pricing starts at ~$99/month for residential.

Pros: city plus ISP-level filtering, genuinely useful for precision targeting
Pros: competitive pricing versus Bright Data for similar accuracy
Pros: clean dashboard with session management controls
Cons: smaller pool means higher IP reuse frequency at high volumes
Cons: support response times are slower than Oxylabs or Bright Data

Pricing: residential from ~$99/mo, ~$9/GB pay-as-you-go.

NetNut

NetNut’s main differentiator is ISP proxies, sometimes called “static residential” proxies. These are IPs assigned by ISPs to actual subscribers but they don’t rotate the way peer-to-peer residential pools do. Google treats them as residential (so you avoid the datacenter block problem) but they’re faster and more stable than rotating residential IPs. For scraping local SERPs where you need a consistent session, like pulling a full 10-page local map pack with pagination, ISP proxies work well.

The geo-targeting is more limited than pure residential providers. NetNut covers major US and European cities reliably but their inventory in Asia-Pacific is thin. As someone based in Singapore who sometimes needs APAC local data, this is a real limitation. Pricing for ISP proxies runs around $15/GB, which is higher than residential, but the lower CAPTCHA rate and faster speeds can make the effective cost per successful request competitive.

Pros: ISP proxies are fast and stable, good for session-based local SERP scraping
Pros: lower CAPTCHA trigger rate than rotating residential in many markets
Pros: straightforward pricing with no hidden minimums beyond the first tier
Cons: APAC geo-targeting coverage is weak
Cons: higher per-GB cost than residential providers

Pricing: ISP proxies from ~$15/GB; residential also available from ~$7/GB.

IPRoyal

IPRoyal is the budget pick. Their residential proxy pricing starts at $7/GB with no minimum monthly commitment, which makes them useful for low-volume or intermittent local SERP scraping. For a freelancer doing a one-off local SEO audit for a client, IPRoyal is the easiest on the wallet.

The quality is proportional to the price. Their city-level targeting works for major markets but their pool is smaller and the IP quality is more variable. You’ll encounter more CAPTCHAs than with Bright Data or Oxylabs, meaning you need a CAPTCHA-solving step in your pipeline if you’re going after Google. Their “Royal Residential” product (permanent static residential IPs) is a useful option if you want a fixed IP for a specific city for ongoing monitoring, at around $2.40/IP/month.

Pros: no monthly minimum, pay only for what you use
Pros: static residential IPs available for per-IP pricing, useful for ongoing rank tracking
Pros: simple onboarding, no business verification
Cons: higher CAPTCHA rate on Google than premium providers
Cons: city-level accuracy inconsistent outside major markets

Pricing: residential from $7/GB, no monthly minimum; static residential from ~$2.40/IP/month.

Webshare

Webshare is primarily a datacenter proxy provider, which is a limitation for Google SERP scraping. Datacenter IPs get blocked or served CAPTCHAs far more aggressively on Google than residential IPs do, as Google’s crawler documentation reflects in how they distinguish automated from organic traffic. So why include Webshare here? Two reasons: their residential proxy product has improved considerably, and for scraping local results on Bing or Apple Maps (where datacenter tolerance is higher), their datacenter proxies are fast and cheap.

For Google local SERP scraping specifically, use Webshare’s residential option, not their datacenter product. Their residential proxies run about $6/GB at low volumes, which undercuts most of the field. Geo-targeting is US and Europe focused. Don’t expect city-level precision comparable to SOAX or Bright Data, but for state-level targeting or bulk scraping where some geo-imprecision is acceptable, Webshare is worth the tradeoff on cost.

Pros: lowest price point for residential at ~$6/GB
Pros: fast datacenter proxies suitable for non-Google local sources (Bing, Yelp, Apple Maps)
Pros: reliable uptime and clean API
Cons: geo-accuracy for city-level is weaker than premium providers
Cons: datacenter IPs not viable for Google local SERPs

Pricing: residential from ~$6/GB; datacenter from $2.99/mo for shared.

comparison table

Provider	Price (residential, per GB)	Primary strength	Primary weakness
Bright Data	~$8.40	Largest pool, best city accuracy	Most expensive, onboarding friction
Oxylabs	~$8.00	European geo-accuracy, top support	$99/mo minimum
Smartproxy	~$7.00	Accessible pricing, easy setup	City accuracy weak in smaller markets
SOAX	~$9.00	City + ISP filtering, precision	Smaller pool, lower throughput ceiling
NetNut	~$7,15 (ISP)	Fast, stable ISP proxies	Weak APAC coverage
IPRoyal	~$7.00	No minimum, static residential option	Higher CAPTCHA rate
Webshare	~$6.00	Cheapest residential, fast datacenter	Weak city accuracy

how to choose

The first question is whether you’re scraping Google specifically or other local sources. Google is the most aggressive about filtering automated traffic. The HTTP semantics defined in RFC 9110 don’t help you much when the blocking happens at the application layer via fingerprinting and behavioral analysis. For Google local SERPs, you need residential or ISP proxies, full stop. For Bing local results, Yelp, or Apple Maps, datacenter proxies with basic rotation can work and cost significantly less.

The second question is geo-precision. If you’re tracking local pack rankings for specific cities, city-level targeting matters. A proxy that resolves to “Chicago metro” when you asked for Chicago downtown will give you different results than one that nails the neighborhood. For most commercial use cases, state-level is sufficient. For hyperlocal lead generation or precise rank tracking, pay the premium for Bright Data or SOAX where city-level accuracy is verifiable.

Volume shapes everything else. At under 20 GB/month, IPRoyal or Smartproxy’s entry plans make sense. You can absorb the higher CAPTCHA rate with retry logic. Above 100 GB/month, the per-GB rate matters more than the monthly minimum, and Bright Data’s committed plans or Oxylabs’ volume tiers start to look reasonable. At very high volumes, you may also want to look at what the multi-account ops community is doing around proxy rotation strategy, since the infrastructure patterns overlap significantly with what’s discussed at multiaccountops.com/blog/.

Finally, think about your scraping framework before you pick a proxy. If you’re on Playwright or Puppeteer, you need a provider that supports HTTPS CONNECT tunneling cleanly. If you’re on Scrapy or raw requests, HTTP proxy chaining is simpler. Most providers on this list support both, but test with a small trial before committing to a large plan. Almost every provider here offers a trial or a pay-as-you-go entry point, use it.

verdict / top pick

For most people running local SERP scraping pipelines, Smartproxy is the right starting point. The price is fair, setup is fast, and it covers the major US and UK markets where most local search data work happens. Move to Bright Data when you need city-level accuracy in secondary markets or when your volume justifies the cost. If you’re primarily working in European markets, Oxylabs is worth paying the $99/month floor for the geo-accuracy and support quality alone.

If you’re building something more complex, like a rank tracker that needs persistent sessions and low CAPTCHA rates, look at NetNut’s ISP proxies. They’re faster and more session-stable than rotating residential, and the per-request effective cost is often lower even if the per-GB sticker price is higher.

For budget-first operators who are fine with handling more CAPTCHA retries in their pipeline, IPRoyal’s no-minimum residential product is the practical choice. And if you’re already doing multi-account or antidetect browser work, check out antidetectreview.org/blog/ for how proxy selection intersects with browser fingerprint management, since local SERP scraping at scale often ends up there anyway.

Written by Xavier Fok

disclosure: this article may contain affiliate links. if you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. verdicts are independent of payouts. last reviewed by Xavier Fok on 2026-05-19.