Full definition
A mobile proxy uses an IP address assigned by a cellular carrier to a phone or modem. Because carriers route many subscribers through the same Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT) IP pool, blocking a single mobile IP would block hundreds of innocent phone users — so most websites simply don't.
This makes mobile proxies the highest-trust IP type, especially for social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook) which are designed primarily for mobile traffic. The catch: mobile proxies are the most expensive type ($8–$35 per GB depending on the provider), have higher latency than datacenter or residential, and bandwidth is genuinely limited by physical cellular network capacity.
Best for: managing multiple social media accounts, scraping mobile apps, app store research, ad verification on mobile networks. Often overkill for general web scraping where residential proxies are enough.