Datacenter Proxy
A datacenter proxy uses an IP address from a cloud hosting or colocation provider rather than a residential ISP. They are fast and inexpensive but easier to detect than residential proxies.
What Is a Datacenter Proxy?
A datacenter proxy routes traffic through an IP address owned by a hosting provider, cloud platform, or colocation facility. Unlike residential proxies, these IPs are not associated with an ISP or a physical home address. Datacenter proxies are popular because they are inexpensive, fast, and available in bulk, with some providers offering thousands of IPs from a single subnet.
Common Uses of Datacenter Proxies
Legitimate uses include corporate web research, ad verification, and SEO monitoring. However, datacenter proxies are also heavily used for malicious automation: web scraping, credential stuffing, sneaker botting, and DDoS attacks. Their low cost makes them ideal for high-volume operations where the operator expects a significant portion of IPs to be blocked quickly.
Why They Are Easier to Detect
Datacenter IPs are registered under commercial ASNs (Autonomous System Numbers) belonging to hosting companies like AWS, DigitalOcean, or OVH. Security systems can query IP-to-ASN databases and immediately determine that a connection originates from a datacenter rather than a home network. When combined with IP reputation scoring and rate limiting, this classification allows platforms to flag or challenge suspicious traffic efficiently.
AntiProxies Datacenter Detection
AntiProxies maintains a comprehensive mapping of datacenter IP ranges across thousands of hosting providers worldwide. A simple lookup classifies whether an IP belongs to a datacenter, a residential ISP, a VPN provider, or the Tor network, giving your application the intelligence it needs to apply the right level of scrutiny to each connection. See our features page for the full list of databases included, or download free samples to evaluate the data.