The choice between static and rotating proxies comes down to one question: does the job need to keep the same IP address, or does it need many of them?
- Choose a static proxy when the same address has to persist: a long session on one account, a service that only accepts known IPs, or anything where a changing address would look like a different visitor.
- Choose a rotating proxy when you're making many independent requests, especially across many countries or cities, and no request depends on the one before it.
- Use a sticky session on a rotating pool when you need the same IP for minutes rather than months: a multi-step flow, a checkout test, a short logged-in task.
The rest of this guide helps you decide which one your task is, and shows what each looks like in practice.
The short answer, by task
Task | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
Managing one account over weeks | Static | The account sees one consistent address |
Reaching a service that allowlists your IP | Static | The allowlist needs an address that doesn't change |
Long-running connections, remote access, streaming sessions | Static | A changing IP drops the connection |
Price or ad checks in many countries | Rotating | Many locations, each request independent |
Collecting public pages at volume | Rotating | Requests don't depend on each other, and the load doesn't sit on one IP |
Search result monitoring in many cities | Rotating | City targeting from a large pool |
A login followed by a few page views | Rotating with a sticky session | Same IP for the flow, a fresh one for the next |
QA of a geo-dependent checkout | Rotating with a sticky session | One visitor, one location, for the length of the test |
What "static" and "rotating" actually mean
A static proxy gives you an IP address that stays yours. Every request leaves from it, today and next month, until you give it up. With Evomi, these are ISP proxies, sold as Static Residential: fixed addresses registered to a residential internet provider but hosted on a server.
A rotating proxy gives you one gateway address and a pool behind it. The gateway decides which exit IP each request uses, by default a different one each time. With Evomi's residential proxies, that pool spans 195+ countries, and you choose the location with options added to the password. How the gateway assigns and reassigns IPs is a topic of its own, covered in our guide to how rotating residential proxies work.
"Static" and "rotating" describe how the IP behaves, not where it comes from. Residential, datacenter, ISP and mobile describe the source. For that axis, see residential, datacenter, mobile and ISP proxies compared.
Six questions that decide it
1. Does the target tie anything to your IP?
Logged-in sessions, carts, rate allowances and fraud checks often look at the IP address alongside cookies. If your task depends on the site treating a series of requests as one visitor, the IP needs to stay put for as long as that series lasts. Weeks or more points to static. Minutes points to a sticky session. If every request stands alone, as in fetching public product pages or checking a price, it doesn't matter, and rotation is simpler.
2. Does anything need to allowlist your address?
Some services accept connections only from known IPs: a partner's API, a corporate SaaS tenant, your own firewall or staging server. An allowlist needs an address that doesn't change, which only a static proxy gives you.
3. How many locations do you need?
A static IP sits in one place. To be present in 30 countries, you'd need at least 30 static IPs. A rotating pool lets you pick the country, and for residential also the region or city, on every request. Broad geographic coverage is the single clearest case for rotating proxies.
4. How long does one unit of work last?
A unit of work is whatever has to happen on one IP: one request, one five-step flow, one week-long account session. Match the proxy to it:
- one request: per-request rotation (the default)
- seconds to hours: a sticky session, up to 24 hours on Evomi
- days or longer: static
5. How does the billing fit your traffic?
The two are billed differently, and that often decides the question by itself. Evomi's Static Residential is billed per IP with unlimited bandwidth, so heavy traffic through a few addresses is predictable. Rotating residential, mobile and datacenter are billed by traffic, with a 512-byte minimum per request, so light traffic spread over many locations is efficient and a large transfer through one address is not. See Evomi's flexible pricing for the current plans.
6. What should happen when an IP becomes unavailable?
Residential exits are real devices, and any one of them can go offline. A rotating gateway handles that for you by assigning another IP, which is exactly what you want for independent requests and exactly what you don't want in the middle of a session. A static IP doesn't depend on someone's home connection, which is why it suits connections that must stay up. If you're on a rotating pool and an IP change would break your task, choose a session type that matches (see below).
Static vs rotating proxies side by side
Compared on | Static (Static Residential) | Rotating (Residential) |
|---|---|---|
IP over time | The same address until you release it | A new address per request, or per session |
Locations | Where the IPs you bought are | 195+ countries, chosen per request |
Choosing the exit | Pick the IP itself | Country, region, city, ISP or ASN options |
Billing | Per IP, unlimited bandwidth | Per GB of traffic |
Best for | Long sessions, allowlists, stable connections | Many locations, many independent requests |
Weak at | Broad geographic coverage | Long sessions on one identity |
Protocols | HTTP, SOCKS5, and UDP | HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS5 |
IP types | Shared, Private or Virgin | Pool of residential IPs |
The middle ground: sticky sessions
Most tasks that "need a static IP" really need the same IP for a while: a login and the pages after it, a form spread over several steps, a short test of a checkout from one country. A rotating pool covers those with a session. Add a session ID to the password, and every request with that ID uses the same exit:
Option | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Same IP for the session's lifetime (default 30 minutes), but may switch IP to keep the session working |
| Sets that lifetime, up to 1,440 minutes (24 hours) |
| Keeps the same IP for as long as possible |
| Never switches. If that IP goes offline, requests fail rather than move to another IP |
The session ID is 6 to 10 letters and digits. Choose _lockedsession when a silent IP change would be worse than a visible failure, and _session when completing the work matters more than which address it uses. A new ID gives you a new IP.
What each looks like in a request
A rotating residential request through Evomi's gateway, targeting the US. Run it twice and you'll typically see two different addresses:
curl -x http://rp.evomi.com:1000 -U 'your_username:your_password_country-US' https://ip.evomi.com/sThe same gateway with a sticky session, so repeated calls share one address for up to an hour (_session may still switch it if that IP stops working):
curl -x http://rp.evomi.com:1000 \
-U 'your_username:your_password_country-US_session-checkout1_lifetime-60' \
https://ip.evomi.com/sA static request names the IP you want by putting it in front of the password. Your gateway host is shown in the dashboard (the one below is an example), and port 12345 is HTTP, 12346 SOCKS5:
curl -x http://isp-2.evomi.com:12345 -U 'your_username:203.0.113.10_your_password' https://ip.evomi.com/sStatic Residential takes no country or session options. The location is wherever the IP you chose is registered, and it never rotates. UDP is available on Static Residential as well; see the Static Residential product page for details.
Common mistakes
- Buying static IPs for broad coverage. If the job is "see this page from 40 countries", one rotating pool beats 40 static IPs on cost and effort.
- Using per-request rotation for a session. A login on one IP and the next page on another can end the session. Add a session ID.
- Using a sticky session for weeks-long identity. Sessions are capped at 24 hours, and residential exits can go offline. That's the static use case.
- Treating rotation as a way around rate limits. If a site is slowing you down, the fix is fewer requests, caching and backoff, not more IPs. Our piece on the rotation fallacy explains why spreading load across more IPs doesn't fix an overloaded scraper.
- Mixing up rotation and source. A static IP can be residential-registered (ISP) or datacenter. A rotating pool can be residential, mobile or datacenter. Decide the two separately.
If your choice is really between ISP and residential proxies rather than static and rotating, our comparison of ISP vs residential proxies covers that decision.
FAQ
What does "static proxy" mean?
A proxy whose exit IP address stays the same for as long as you hold it. Every request you send through it reaches the site from that one address. Static proxies are often ISP proxies: addresses registered to residential internet providers but hosted on servers, so they stay online.
What is a rotating proxy?
A proxy gateway that sends your requests out through a pool of IP addresses, by default a different one for each request. You connect to one hostname and port, and the gateway picks the exit, optionally within a country, region or city you specify.
Are static or rotating proxies better?
Neither is better in general. Static proxies are better for anything that needs a persistent identity or a fixed address. Rotating proxies are better for many independent requests across many locations. A rotating proxy with sticky sessions covers most tasks in between.
Can a rotating proxy keep the same IP?
Yes, with a sticky session. On Evomi, add _session-<id> to the password, and requests with that ID use the same IP for up to the session lifetime, 30 minutes by default and up to 24 hours. For a fixed address beyond that, use a static proxy.
What are the two types of proxies?
People usually mean one of two splits. By IP behaviour, proxies are static or rotating, which is this article's subject. By source, they are residential, datacenter, ISP or mobile. Any combination of the two exists, so choose each one separately.
Is a static residential proxy the same as an ISP proxy?
In practice, yes. Both terms describe a fixed IP registered to a residential internet provider and hosted on server infrastructure. Evomi sells them as Static Residential, also called ISP proxies.
