PhantomPlanning
How Much Proxy Bandwidth Do I Need?
Estimate proxy bandwidth by multiplying the average transferred bytes per completed request by request count, then add room for retries and protocol overhead. Measure a real sample whenever possible: page weight varies far more than request count suggests.
A useful estimation formula
Count response bodies, request uploads, and supporting assets that actually travel through the proxy. Then account for failed attempts and repeated work.
estimated GB = average MB per request × requests × (1 + retry rate) ÷ 1,000Worked examples
These examples are planning estimates, not package guarantees.
| Workload | Assumption | Approximate traffic |
|---|---|---|
| API responses | 10,000 × 100KB | About 1GB before retries |
| HTML documents | 5,000 × 400KB | About 2GB before retries |
| Full pages | 1,000 × 3MB | About 3GB before retries |
| Image-heavy pages | 500 × 8MB | About 4GB before retries |
What makes usage rise
Browser automation can load images, fonts, video, analytics, and advertising that an API client never requests. Retries, redirect chains, downloads, and parallel duplicate work also add traffic.
- Record content-length or transferred bytes during a representative sample.
- Separate successful requests from retries and error pages.
- Decide whether images, fonts, and media are required for the task.
- Add 15–30% headroom when the target is variable.
Choose a package without overcommitting
Start with 2GB when validating configuration or measuring a new workflow. Move to 10GB or 25GB after the sample produces a stable cost per useful result. Because PhantomProxies bandwidth does not reset monthly, unused headroom remains available for later work.