Browser agent proxy costs: built-in vs custom proxy

An own proxy route lowers the network bill of a browser agent when the platform's built-in residential rate is higher than the external rate plus any platform egress fee. On the published rates checked on 2026-10-02, a 100 GB package at USD 3.90/GB is below the built-in rate on Browser Use, Browserbase, Browserless, Apify, and Steel. Scrapeless is the exception: its built-in residential rate starts at USD 1.80/GB.

The comparison covers network traffic only. Browser hours, model tokens, CAPTCHA solving, plan fees, and retries stay on the platform invoice under both routes. Confirm the result with one fixed workload and the actual invoice lines before moving production traffic.

Published rates per GB

The table lists the residential rate a platform charges for its own proxy network and the charge it publishes for traffic sent through a customer proxy. All values are USD per GB from the official pricing and proxy pages, checked on 2026-10-02.

Three rows need a note on how the value was derived:

• Browserless bills built-in residential traffic at 6 units per MB. The GB value multiplies 6,000 units by the plan's published overage price per unit: USD 0.0020 on Prototyping and USD 0.0015 on Scale. Traffic sent with externalProxyServer does not consume proxy units, according to the Browserless proxy documentation. Browser time still consumes units.
• Browserbase documents custom proxies for Developer plans and higher but does not publish a separate bandwidth charge for them. Treat the external-route charge as unknown until a test session appears on the invoice.
• Apify lists external data transfer at USD 0.20/GB on Starter and USD 0.18/GB on Business; the table shows it as a range because the docs do not say whether Actor proxy traffic counts as external transfer. The worked example adds it to the own-proxy route as a conservative upper bound; the run usage breakdown shows whether the Actor's proxy traffic is metered that way.

Network cost at 100, 500, and 1,000 GB

The own-proxy column uses ProxyLane package rates from the pricing page: USD 3.90/GB for 100 GB, USD 2.75/GB for 500 GB, and USD 2.50/GB for 1 TB. Each package is prepaid, so the figures hold when the whole package is used.

Formula: own-proxy route = GB × (proxy package rate + platform charge on own proxy). Built-in route = billable GB × built-in rate, after any GB included in the plan. Browserbase Startup subtracts its 5 included GB; the plan fee is the same under both routes and is excluded. Browserbase does not publish a charge for own-proxy traffic, so its rows show the difference before any such charge; a test session on the usage page settles it.

The difference grows with volume because the platform rate is flat while package rates fall. Browser Use is the narrowest case among the cheaper routes: its USD 0.20/GB egress charge applies to every own-proxy GB.

When an own proxy does not lower the bill

• Built-in rate below the external rate. Scrapeless lists built-in residential traffic from USD 1.80/GB, so an external package at USD 3.90/GB raises the network cost. Its custom proxy option can still serve routing or provider-control requirements; it does not serve a cost goal.
• Usage inside the included allowance. A Browserbase Developer plan includes 1 GB and Startup includes 5 GB. A workload that stays inside that allowance pays nothing extra for built-in traffic.
• Plan gates. Browserless rejects third-party proxies on its free plan, Browserbase requires the Developer plan, and Scrapeless limits custom proxies to subscribers. Add the required plan fee to the comparison when the current account is below it.
• Unused prepaid traffic. A 500 GB package used at 200 GB costs USD 6.88/GB in practice. Size the package from measured traffic, not from the lowest listed rate.
• Network is a small share of the task. When model tokens or browser hours dominate the bill, a lower GB rate changes little. Compare the network line with the full invoice before migrating.

Measure traffic before choosing a package

Billed proxy traffic includes TLS handshakes, headers, scripts, images, and requests the browser started but never used. Steel's proxy documentation notes that bandwidth is measured on the wire, so it exceeds the size of the response bodies a script reads. Estimate GB per completed task from a real sample: the proxy bandwidth estimation guide shows the measurement, and the Playwright bandwidth guide covers resource blocking that keeps required fields intact.

Run one fixed task set through both routes and record completed tasks, retries, GB, browser minutes, and invoice lines. The cost per successful request method turns those numbers into a cost per accepted result. A lower network rate with more failed tasks can still raise the total.

Connect an own proxy on each platform

The connection field differs by platform. Each guide below includes a route check that confirms the exit IP from the same browser session:

• Browser Use: customProxy in the V4 browser or run request. See the Browser Use proxy guide.
• Browserbase: an external entry in the session proxies array. See the Browserbase custom proxy guide.
• Browserless: the externalProxyServer query parameter. See the Browserless external proxy guide.
• Apify: proxy URLs in the Actor input or SDK ProxyConfiguration. See the Apify custom proxy guide.
• Steel and Scrapeless: a proxy server URL at session creation, as described in the Steel proxy documentation and the Scrapeless proxy documentation.

Rates and plan conditions change. Recheck each platform's pricing page on the day of the decision; the account billing page is authoritative for a specific purchase.

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