proxy-tax-calculator

Calculate the real 2026 proxy bandwidth "hidden tax": effective $/GB across Decodo, ScraperAPI, Webshare, 9Proxy, PacketStream and Pawns — with overage cliffs exposed.

Web scraping, SERP monitoring, e-commerce price tracking and sneaker automation teams all pay proxy invoices quoted in "plan price" terms — never in effective dollars per gigabyte actually squeezed through the tunnel. Vendors hide three money incinerators inside their pricing ladders:

1. The Overage Cliff: A plan bought for 8 GB/month bills every extra gigabyte at the base-tier unit rate, which can be 5–25x the effective rate of the next plan up. 9 GB on the wrong plan is routinely 3x the cost of 10 GB on the right one.
2. Per-Credit API Taxation: SERP- and Unblock-oriented APIs bill in credits, not GB — a single JS-rendered page can burn 10+. Converting credits to real bandwidth shows effective rates far above raw residential GB prices.
3. IP vs. Traffic Billing Confusion: IP-count-based networks (9Proxy, Webshare) and by-the-GB networks (Decodo, Pawns, PacketStream) are not comparable on sticker price. Only consistent $/GB math (with IP allocation treated as included traffic) makes them comparable.

proxy-tax-calculator is an open-source, zero-dependency Node.js CLI that computes exact, itemized bandwidth TCO across six verified 2026 proxy networks — in one command.

Full written breakdown and methodology live at the companion guide: https://proxy.mybskm.top (in-depth comparison post: https://proxy.mybskm.top/blog/residential-proxy-sticky-session-guide.html (and https://proxy.mybskm.top/blog/morelogin-vs-adspower-packetstream-tco.html)).

Real-World Loss Scenarios

Scenario A: The 9 GB Over Cliff

• Workload: SERP + e-commerce crawler, mixed sources, 50 GB/month target, current month lands at 45 GB.
• Wrong-tier Decodo (Regular, $160/8GB): 37 overage GB @ $20.00/GB = $900.00 overage → $1,060/month total.
• Right-tier Decodo (Scale, $300/20GB): 25 overage GB @ $15.00/GB = $375 overage → $675/month total.
• Monthly Cash Burn from Wrong Tier Alone: $385.00 — $4,620/year on one crawler.

Scenario B: Lucky Duck / Pawns vs. PacketStream Pay-As-You-Go

• Workload: Spiky data jobs averaging 55 GB/month with heavy month-to-month variance (30–90 GB).
• PacketStream PAYG @ $1/GB: $55 average/month, zero overage cliffs, zero waste on unused quota.
• Fixed-quota plan at ~$0.64/GB (100 GB tier): $56 base + variance spikes at $0.56 — competitive only at ≥100 GB steady usage. Below that, cliffs tax every light month.

2026 Proxy Network Matrix (5-Tier Comparison)

Below is the verified price and capacity ladder across premier residential, datacenter and unblock APIs (2026 published tiers; IP-based billing converted to included traffic for consistency). Onboard via the verified gateway links:

| Provider | Billing Model | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 / Enterprise | Verified Gateway | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Decodo (ex-Smartproxy) | GB-based residential | Starter $75/mo (2GB) | Regular $160/mo (8GB) | Scale $300/mo (20GB) | Enterprise $1,150/mo (100GB) | Access Decodo Gateways | | ScraperAPI | Credit-based unblock API | Hobby $49/mo (10k cach) | Standard $99/mo (100k) | Pro $249/mo (1M) | Enterprise $1,500/mo (10M) | Access ScraperAPI Gateways | | Webshare | IP count + datacenter allowance | Startup $2.99/mo (100 IP / 250GB) | Professional $15/mo (1k IP / 1TB) | Enterprise $45/mo (3TB) | Residential PAYG $5.99/GB | Access Webshare Gateways | | 9Proxy | Clean-non-expiring residential IPs | $20 (100 IP / 10GB) | $75 (500 IP / 50GB) | $110 (1000 IP / 100GB) | $400 (5000 IP / 500GB) | Access 9Proxy Gateways | | PacketStream | Pure pay-as-you-go GB | $10 (10GB) | $50 (50GB) | $200 (200GB) | Bulk $495 (500GB) | Access PacketStream Gateways | | Pawns.app | GB-based residential | Starter $3.80 (5GB, $0.76/GB) | Growth $16 (25GB, $0.64/GB) | Scale $56 (100GB, $0.56/GB) | Enterprise $250 (500GB, $0.50/GB) | Access Pawns Gateways |

Full indexed price audit: https://proxy.mybskm.top

Installation

Zero npm dependencies. Pure Node.js (>=14) standard library.

npm install proxy-tax-calculator

Or run instantly without installing:

npx proxy-tax-calculator --gb 50

CLI Usage & Worked Examples

1. Monthly Bandwidth TCO Comparison (50 GB/month)

npx proxy-tax-calculator --gb 50

Output:

proxy-tax-calculator 1.0.0 - 2026 Proxy Bandwidth TCO Matrix
Planned traffic: 50 GB / month

------------------------------------------------------------
NETWORK       | PLAN         | BASE/ MO     | OVERAGE      | TOTAL/ MO    | $/ GB
------------------------------------------------------------
decodo        | Scale        | $300.00      | $450.00      | $750.00      | $15.000
scraperapi    | Standard     | $99.00       | $0.00        | $99.00       | $1.980
webshare      | Startup (100…| $2.99        | $0.00        | $2.99        | $0.060
9proxy        | 500 Resident…| $75.00       | $0.00        | $75.00       | $1.500
packetstream  | Pay-As-You…  | $10.00       | $40.00       | $50.00       | $1.000
pawns         | Growth 25GB  | $16.00       | $16.00       | $32.00       | $0.640
------------------------------------------------------------

Cheapest effective route: webshare (Startup (100 DC proxies)) at $0.060/GB -> $2.99/month

2. Machine-Readable JSON Output (--json)

npx proxy-tax-calculator --gb 120 --json

{
  "tool": "proxy-tax-calculator",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "planned_traffic_gb": 120,
  "results": [
    {
      "provider": "pawns",
      "plan": "Growth 25GB",
      "baseUsd": 16.0,
      "overageUsd": 12.8,
      "totalUsd": 28.8,
      "effectiveUsdPerGb": 0.24,
      "gateway": "https://go.272738.xyz/pawns?src=npm_protax"
    }
  ],
  "gateways": {
    "decodo": "https://go.272738.xyz/smartproxy?src=npm_protax",
    "scraperapi": "https://go.272738.xyz/scraperapi?src=npm_protax",
    "webshare": "https://go.272738.xyz/webshare?src=npm_protax",
    "9proxy": "https://go.272738.xyz/9proxy?src=npm_protax",
    "packetstream": "https://go.272738.xyz/packetstream?src=npm_protax",
    "pawns": "https://go.272738.xyz/pawns?src=npm_protax"
  }
}

3. SDK Use (programmatic)

const { cheapest, compareAll } = require("proxy-tax-calculator");
const best = cheapest(120);
console.log(best.provider, best.totalUsd, best.effectiveUsdPerGb);
const all = compareAll(120);
all.forEach((r) => console.log(r.provider, r.effectiveUsdPerGb));

Options Reference

Usage: proxy-tax-calculator [--gb <number>] [--json] [--compare]

  --gb <n>     planned monthly traffic in gigabytes (default: 50)
  --json       emit pure JSON payload for CI/CD cost monitoring
  --compare    force the full comparison matrix printout
  -h, --help   show this help and exit

Why Cost Per GB Beats Sticker Price

Every procurement decision in this space should reduce to effective $/GB at your real traffic curve — not the headline tier. A $5/GB PAYG network can beat a "$0.5/GB" plan whenever your usage unpredictably dips below quota; a $0.24/GB API credit plan can beat a $0.04/GB raw-residential plan whenever you need anti-block unblocks on one expensive domain. This tool makes both directions explicit, six networks deep.

Compare the full stack and start with the gateway that matches your workload:

1. Run the matrix above, pick your traffic number.
2. Open the verified gateways: Decodo / ScraperAPI / Webshare / 9Proxy.
3. For light-to-mid spiky loaders, PacketStream and Pawns land lowest effective $/GB.

License

MIT License. Copyright (c) 2026 Proxy FinOps Benchmark Contributors.

🌐 Official Documentation, Docker Image & Web Calculators

• Official Technical Manual (Read the Docs, DA 92): residential-proxy-and-scraping-tax-benchmark
• Production Docker Container (Docker Hub, DA 93): 600megd/proxy-tax-calculator
• Interactive Live Calculator: Web Benchmark & TCO Estimator
• Interactive Documentation Portal: Proxy & Infrastructure Docs