Three modes, not two
| Mode | How the IP changes | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Rotating per request | How the IP changesA new IP for every request | Good forLarge crawls, search queries, price checks |
| Sticky session | How the IP changesOne IP held for a set time (minutes to hours), then rotated | Good forLogins, multi-step checks, paging through results |
| Static | How the IP changesOne IP for the whole rental term (days to months) | Good forAccounts, allow-listed access, long-lived identities |
Sticky sessions are where most real-world jobs live: a scraper that has to add to basket, choose a delivery address and read the final price needs one identity for a few minutes, not for a month. On SerpProxies residential, a sticky session can be held for 10 minutes, 60 minutes, 24 hours or a custom length, set in the proxy username.
Why rotation helps
Sites limit how many requests one IP can make before it is slowed, challenged or blocked. Rotation spreads a job across thousands of addresses so each stays well under those limits, and a blocked IP costs you one request instead of the whole run.
Rotation works best for stateless work, where each request stands alone: fetching product pages, running search queries, checking ad placements. It works against you when the site expects continuity — a session cookie tied to one IP will break if the IP changes mid-task.
Why static IPs help
Some jobs need the opposite: one address that never changes. Account management, social media scheduling, logged-in dashboards and services that allow-list specific IPs all treat a changing address as a warning sign.
Static ISP proxies are the usual answer: residential-registered addresses, hosted in datacenters for speed, rented to one customer for a fixed term. SerpProxies static ISP IPs are virgin — never used before they're assigned — and never rotate, on terms from 1 to 180 days.
Choosing in practice
- Scraping public pages at volume → rotating per request.
- Multi-step flows (search → page 2 → page 3, add to basket → price) → sticky session for the length of the flow.
- One account per identity, for weeks → static ISP.
- Highest trust on a single checkout → mobile, rotating on demand or by the carrier.
