Oxylabs vs Decodo in 2026: One Shared Balance Against Per-Product Plans

Oxylabs and Decodo are the two names people weigh when they want an established provider without Bright Data's commitments. The comparisons in search answer with pool sizes and prices from whenever they were written. One of the two changed its whole billing model in late October, so most of those answers are now about a product that no longer exists in that form.

On 21 October 2026 Oxylabs moved to what it calls credits: "a single subscription with one shared balance that works across all Oxylabs products, replacing separate plans for each." Decodo still sells a separate plan per product. The prices below are from both sites on 2 November 2026, and the model difference matters more than any single number in them.

We sell proxies too, and say so at the end rather than pretending to be a neutral reviewer.

The short version

What changed at Oxylabs, and what it means

Until October Oxylabs worked like most providers: a residential plan, a datacenter plan, an ISP plan, each billed on its own. Now you buy one monthly balance and every product draws from it at a rate set by the size of the plan:

Two things follow.

The shared balance is genuinely useful if you use more than one product. A team that runs residential for scraping, a few ISP addresses for accounts and the occasional unblocker job used to need three plans at Oxylabs and still needs three at Decodo. At Oxylabs it is now one $100 balance spent wherever the work is that month.

The plan size now sets the rate for everything. On the $30 plan, residential costs $6 a gigabyte. The first plan that brings it to $5 is $100 a month, and $4 needs $500. So a buyer who needs 10 GB a month either tops up a $30 plan at $6, or commits $100 to get a better rate on 20 GB they may not use.

What Oxylabs' announcement does not say is what happens to paid balance left at the end of a month. It says unused free credits "do not roll into later cycles" and is silent on the rest. Ask before you size the plan, because the answer decides whether the $100 plan is a discount or a bet.

Residential, priced out

At the sizes a small buyer actually uses, Decodo is cheaper on residential:

Both add VAT where it applies. Decodo also sells residential pay as you go at $4 a gigabyte from 1 GB, which has no Oxylabs equivalent below the $30 plan except the $5 welcome credit.

On pool size, Oxylabs claims 175 million residential addresses against Decodo's 115 million across 195 or more locations. Neither number tells you how a given target treats the addresses; only a test does, and the checks worth running are in how to test a proxy before you buy. How much traffic a test or a job will actually burn depends far more on the method than on the provider, which is the subject of how much bandwidth web scraping uses.

Static addresses and datacenter

Both providers sell two kinds of static ISP address, and the names hide the difference.

Dedicated ISP, an address only you use: Oxylabs from $3, $2.78 on the $100 plan; Decodo from $3.33 at its minimum of three addresses, $2.90 at ten, $2.50 at two hundred, plus VAT.

Shared ISP, an address other customers also use: Oxylabs $1.50; Decodo from $0.27 an address or $1.30 a gigabyte. Shared addresses are fine for collection and wrong for accounts, where an address shared with strangers is a history you did not create.

On datacenter by the gigabyte the two start at exactly the same $0.60 and end close, $0.40 at Oxylabs and $0.38 at Decodo at the top tiers.

Who checks your identity

This is the sharpest difference between the two, and Oxylabs states it on its own page.

Oxylabs: "Every customer has to answer a KYC questionnaire to get access to our solutions." The same page adds that "at least quarter of all customer enquires are rejected", and that only 75 percent of customers are approved. That is not a formality; one prospective customer in four does not get in.

Decodo: no identity check by default. The procedure is triggered when an account looks risky or when you want access to restricted targets, and most buyers never see it.

If you run a legitimate business and can describe your use case in a sentence, Oxylabs' questionnaire is a short delay. If your use case is hard to describe, or you need to start today, Decodo is the one that lets you.

Refunds and payment

Oxylabs: "All purchases made through self-service are non-refundable." The $5 welcome credit is what Oxylabs offers instead of a refund window. It accepts cards, wire transfers in dollars and euros, AliPay and PayPal, and says plainly "We do not accept Bitcoins."

Decodo: a refund within 14 days of a first purchase of a service type, if you used under 20 percent of the plan's traffic or 1 GB, whichever comes first; not for free trials, not for enterprise plans, and not for cryptocurrency payments. It does accept crypto, so the practical rule is the one from our other comparisons: if you might want the refund, pay by card.

Who should pick which

Oxylabs if: you use two or more products and want one balance across them; your monthly spend is $100 or more, where the rates start to drop; you can pass a business questionnaire; you pay by card, PayPal or wire.

Decodo if: you need under about 25 GB of residential a month; you want to start today without a questionnaire; you want a refund window; you pay in crypto, or you want a single shared ISP address for cents.

Neither if:

• You need crypto and a refund. Oxylabs takes no crypto; Decodo refunds no crypto.
• You need one dedicated ISP address. Oxylabs sells one from its $30 plan; Decodo's minimum is three.
• You need the cheapest residential gigabyte at small volume. Then look wider, starting with the cheapest residential proxies.

For transparency, our place in this: residential from $1.00 per GB at volume with a $2.00 entry package, ISP addresses from one at $3.00 a month, crypto only, 34 coins from $1, no identity check to buy. If either of these two fits your shape of demand better, buy it.

The other pairs in this family are Bright Data vs Oxylabs, Decodo vs IPRoyal and Webshare vs Decodo, and the sizing question that comes before any of them is in how many proxies do I need.

FAQ

Is Oxylabs or Decodo cheaper?

Decodo, at small and medium volume, on prices from both sites on 2 November 2026: 10 GB of residential is $35 plus VAT at Decodo against $60 at Oxylabs' $6 entry rate. At about 1 TB the gap narrows to $2.00 against $2.50 a gigabyte. Oxylabs is the cheaper choice only when one shared balance replaces several separate plans.

What is the new Oxylabs pricing model?

Since 21 October 2026, one monthly balance of $30, $100, $500 or from $2,500 is spent across all Oxylabs products, and the plan size sets the per-unit rate: residential is $6 a gigabyte on the $30 plan, $5 on $100, $4 on $500 and $2.50 at enterprise level.

Does Oxylabs require KYC?

Yes. Every customer answers a KYC questionnaire before getting access, and Oxylabs says at least a quarter of enquiries are rejected. Decodo does not require KYC by default.

Can I get a refund from Oxylabs or Decodo?

Oxylabs: self-service purchases are non-refundable; the $5 welcome credit is the trial. Decodo: within 14 days of a first purchase, under 20 percent of the traffic or 1 GB used, and never for crypto payments.

Do Oxylabs and Decodo accept crypto?

Oxylabs does not. Decodo does, and excludes crypto payments from its refund policy.