I’ve been running automated tasks for client accounts for 18 months, and what I learned shocked me. You can have perfect code, everything set up cleanly, and still get blocked in 47 minutes flat.
What changed everything? Understanding why platforms block requests to begin with. Most people get this completely wrong.
The Trust Problem Nobody Talks About
I used to think blocking was about volume. You send too many requests, boom—you’re banned. But then I watched three datacenter IPs get flagged in under 2 hours each and realized volume wasn’t the real issue.
Platforms don’t just count requests. They’re evaluating trust.
When you send a request from a datacenter IP, the target site sees exactly what you are: a server in a warehouse. Same with most residential proxies once they’ve been recycled through enough users. Platforms have seen these IPs before, categorized them, and don’t trust them anymore.
I’ve found that mobile proxies solve this differently. Sites see real carrier traffic—Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile—and can’t distinguish it from an actual person scrolling on their phone during lunch.
Where This Matters Most
Social platforms are scary good at fingerprinting now. I had a client managing 12 legitimate business accounts. We tried residential IPs first.
Got flagged on account number 4.
Switched to carrier-grade mobile IPs. All 12 accounts stayed clean for 8 months and still running. Sneaker drops? Forget trying without mobile IPs. I watched a drop where datacenter users got carts jacked within seconds. Mobile users made it through checkout. Same bot code, just different IP type.
Testing mobile ads? You can’t fake that with a datacenter IP pretending to be a phone. You need actual 5G or 4G traffic or your data means nothing.
What Actually Changed My Results
I used to rotate IPs aggressively—every single request, grab a new IP. Completely wrong approach.
Carriers already rotate mobile IPs naturally—that’s how cellular networks work. One IP might represent 30+ real subscribers at any moment. When you hold a mobile IP for an entire session, you’re not suspicious. You’re blending into actual carrier behavior.
I tested this with a major ticketing platform. Held the same mobile IP for 23 minutes straight across multiple requests. Zero flags. Tried the exact same pattern with residential IPs?
Blocked at minute 6.
The Cost Question
Mobile costs more than residential—usually 3x to 5x depending on volume. But here’s the math: if residential gets blocked 70% of the time, you’re burning money on retries, buying new IPs constantly, and wasting time debugging. Mobile might cost $8.30/GB instead of $2/GB, but if it works on the first attempt, you’re actually spending less overall.
I ran these numbers last month. We spent $340 on mobile bandwidth and completed everything in one pass. Previous attempt using residential? Cost $180 in proxies, plus 14 hours troubleshooting blocks and retries.
Your requirements come down to one question: can your target tell you’re not a regular mobile user? If that answer matters to your project, you already know what type of IP you need.