Best proxy setup for 60 mobile devices? Need advice

Hey everyone,

Looking for some advice on the best way to handle proxies for a project I'm working on.

The setup:
I've got 60 mobile devices that I need to run with US-based IPs (probably splitting between 2-3 different cities). Each device will have 2-3 social media accounts, Gmail, and some other regular accounts. Just normal daily usage - browsing, posting, that kind of stuff.

The goal:
I need these to look like real people using their phones in specific locations. The actual devices are real phones doing normal human activity, so that part is covered. The ONLY thing that could potentially get me flagged is the proxy/IP side of things. That's what I'm trying to get right.

Basically I want Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc. to see these as legitimate mobile devices with real people behind them in consistent locations. No IP hopping around, no datacenter fingerprints, nothing that screams "proxy" or "bot."

The problem:
I started looking at 5G mobile proxies since they seem like the most "legit" option and closest to what a real mobile carrier would show, but holy crap the pricing. We're talking $6-7k+ per month if I go one proxy per device, which is way out of budget.

My questions:

• Can I use fewer 5g proxies and somehow assign different IPs to each device? Some providers mention "unlimited IPs" but I'm not clear on how that actually works
• Would residential or ISP proxies work just as well as mobile for this, or would platforms detect them easier since these are actual mobile devices?
• What about IP rotation - should I keep the same IP per device or is rotating okay as long as it stays in the same city?
• Are there specific proxy features I should look for that make detection harder? (like sticky sessions, mobile carrier IPs, etc.)
• Anyone done something similar? What worked for you?

The devices themselves will behave 100% human - random activity patterns, normal browsing times, realistic usage. I just need the network/IP layer to match that so there's nothing for the platforms to flag.

Any suggestions or experiences would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance

You don't need to spend thousands. Since you are using real phones, your hardware fingerprints are already flawless.

Instead of buying 60 individual proxies, share 5 to 10 devices per high-quality, dedicated 5G mobile proxy channel. Real cellular towers naturally route thousands of legitimate humans through the exact same IP, so sharing an IP looks entirely natural.

Just ensure you use sticky sessions to prevent unnatural IP hopping mid-use. Avoid residential or ISP proxies; platforms like Instagram can see your hardware is a phone, and a home Wi-Fi IP mismatch will eventually trigger security checkpoints.

I'm working on something similar. Still trying to bang out the details but here's what i got.

I think you need mobiles (at least to start). As far as your questions, unlimited IP's means you can switch IP at any time. For sticky proxies this is done via the {SessionID}. Just change that depending on the provider and you have a new proxy/new IP. If you don't include a {SessionID} in your requests then you don't have a sticky proxy and thus you are rotating proxies every actual request anyway. For example, if you have sessID XXXX then change it to XYXX you have a new IP. Sticky sessions length depends on the providers. I generally see 60 minutes-120 minutes for mobile proxies. If you don't include a sessionID then you rotate per request. For example, you request login page to instagram - 1 IP, you sign in and page changes - new IP, you click someones profile and page changes - new IP, etc.

You don't want rotating IP's if you're doing social medias. It needs to look like a consistent session not someone thats in one city for one page then next page you are in a different city/country.

Now, between sessions, I think it's personally okay if the IP rotates a little bit but stays within the same city/general area. My reasoning is - my own personal IP rotates between different cities. What i mean is, one day I can check an IP tracking website and my IP is located in City 1, next day I can check and its located in City 2, third day I can check its located in City 3. All these cities are around my house though, so they are still in the general area. I think it's just something with the way my ISP routes traffic? I don't know. Either way, it doesn't ban my personal accounts so I think a little movement of the IP is fine.

As per your questions, I'm not sure how many you accounts you can actually link per IP (I'm still figuring this out), I think it's okay to switch to residentials after you establish trust factors (Still figuring this out myself), IP rotation - you want sticky sessions within the same session but it's okay to rotate between sessions.

Don’t forget the phones being real doesn’t mean everything looks real… if 60 phones sit in one place doing repeated automated patterns, platforms can still detect that.

Mobile proxies are usually considered the most natural option but in practice a lot depends on how stable the connection and location signals are over time

For 60 mobile devices, use 4G/5G mobile proxies with a 1:1 device-to-IP ratio (or small groups per IP) and rotating residential backups to maximize stability and minimize account flags.

ill worry less about unlimited ips and more about consistency between network signals. in my own setups, the big mess was when ip city timezone gps and usage hours didnt line up properly. the mismatch can get ugly fast even if the ip itself looks fine.
shared mobile ip isnt alwas bad because carrier pools are crowded by nature under cgnat. what matters more is not forcing frequent swaps on warm accounts. rotate only when you need to recover or replace a dirty route

cchinta said:

Hey everyone,

Looking for some advice on the best way to handle proxies for a project I'm working on.

The setup:
I've got 60 mobile devices that I need to run with US-based IPs (probably splitting between 2-3 different cities). Each device will have 2-3 social media accounts, Gmail, and some other regular accounts. Just normal daily usage - browsing, posting, that kind of stuff.

The goal:
I need these to look like real people using their phones in specific locations. The actual devices are real phones doing normal human activity, so that part is covered. The ONLY thing that could potentially get me flagged is the proxy/IP side of things. That's what I'm trying to get right.

Basically I want Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc. to see these as legitimate mobile devices with real people behind them in consistent locations. No IP hopping around, no datacenter fingerprints, nothing that screams "proxy" or "bot."

The problem:
I started looking at 5G mobile proxies since they seem like the most "legit" option and closest to what a real mobile carrier would show, but holy crap the pricing. We're talking $6-7k+ per month if I go one proxy per device, which is way out of budget.

My questions:

• Can I use fewer 5g proxies and somehow assign different IPs to each device? Some providers mention "unlimited IPs" but I'm not clear on how that actually works
• Would residential or ISP proxies work just as well as mobile for this, or would platforms detect them easier since these are actual mobile devices?
• What about IP rotation - should I keep the same IP per device or is rotating okay as long as it stays in the same city?
• Are there specific proxy features I should look for that make detection harder? (like sticky sessions, mobile carrier IPs, etc.)
• Anyone done something similar? What worked for you?

The devices themselves will behave 100% human - random activity patterns, normal browsing times, realistic usage. I just need the network/IP layer to match that so there's nothing for the platforms to flag.

Any suggestions or experiences would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Been running something similar. Few things from experience:5G proxies at 1:1 ratio is overkill for what you're describing. Most providers rotate IPs on the same pool anyway so you're paying for the label more than actual isolation.Residential works fine for this use case honestly. The key isn't mobile vs residential — it's whether each device has consistent IP behavior. Platforms flag inconsistency, not proxy type.For 60 devices I'd split into groups of 10-15 per city, sticky sessions minimum 24h, same subnet per group. Costs way less than 1:1 mobile.The real question is how you're routing the proxy to each device. If you're going through a shared WiFi then all 60 devices look like they're behind the same connection regardless of proxy. That's where most people mess up.

For that kind of setup, I'd probably look at ISP proxies before mobile. If the devices are real and the behavior is natural, stable ISP IPs are often enough and much more cost-effective than assigning a dedicated mobile proxy to every device. I'd also keep IPs consistent per device rather than rotating them frequently. In my experience, stability usually matters more than constant IP changes.

One thing I'd add is that proxies are only one part of the equation.

Even with clean mobile IPs, inconsistent browser fingerprints or aggressive automation patterns can still get accounts flagged.

You are trying to build an enterprise-level device farm on a retail budget, which is exactly why your math isn't working. You absolutely do not need a dedicated 5G modem for every single device. That is an incredible waste of capital. When operating large physical matrices, the assumption that mobile phones must use mobile data to look authentic to risk engines is completely false. Meta and Google do not penalize a mobile device for being connected to a home Wi-Fi network. Instead of hunting for cheap mobile proxies, you should be acquiring premium, dedicated Static ISP residential proxies.

Invictus said:

Mobile proxies

Click to expand...

excellent, the 2 word post killer - saying little - offering nothing .

If 1:1 mobile proxies are out of budget, just use static ISP proxies. They're way cheaper and give you the stable location social accounts need. Don't let 60 devices share just a few mobile IPs, or Instagram will flag you as a bot farm instantly.

cchinta said:

Can I use fewer 5g proxies and somehow assign different IPs to each device? Some providers mention "unlimited IPs" but I'm not clear on how that actually works

Click to expand...

1 mobile proxy gives you access to practically unlimited IPs. When a SIM reconnects to a cellular tower (for example by toggling airplane mode), it gets assigned a new IP. That's how IP rotation works, count is limited only by the carrier's pool in that location.

As a result you can save like this: connect 10 phones to 1 mobile proxy and work with each one SEQUENTIALLY through rotation.
[activity on phone 1] -> [IP rotation] -> [activity on phone 2] -> [IP rotation] -> ...

For reliability I recommend verifying that after rotation you got a new IP that wasn't in previous iterations (with some providers this feature is called Unique IP).

--
Beyond sequential phone activity on 1 proxy, you can also save through parallel activity. BUT only if each phone at any single moment is working on DIFFERENT platforms.
For example, you have 2 phones working at the same time through 1 proxy, but:
Imho, you gotta be very careful here.

People above said you can put 5-10 phones on 1 IP at the same time, but it is highway to ban. At any single moment activity on one ecosystem from 1 IP must come strictly from 1 device.

cchinta said:

Would residential or ISP proxies work just as well as mobile for this, or would platforms detect them easier since these are actual mobile devices?

Click to expand...

Residential will work, however:
The complications come from this: a normal real person with their own phone constantly changes IPs as they move around the city and so on.
But the IPs of home and work WiFi which a person connects to from their phone, those are much more stable. And if the phone went through a bunch of residential IPs in a week -- that's a red flag.

cchinta said:

What about IP rotation — should I keep the same IP per device or is rotating okay as long as it stays in the same city?

Click to expand...

100% okay if same city, but what's critically more important: ON THE SAME CARRIER.

Guaranteed safe option: buy a mobile proxy from a seller who holds a real phone with a real SIM as the proxy source. And sells you a specific port from that one phone. Then all your IPs come from that one real phone. And purely technically the risk of inconsistent rotation drops to 0.

Otherwise sometimes the city of an IP can vary even within one country (and in rare cases even the country), that's 100% okay, that's how real mobile IPs behave.

cchinta said:

Are there specific proxy features I should look for that make detection harder? (like sticky sessions, mobile carrier IPs, etc.)

Click to expand...

Again, I recommend buying from sellers offering one real phone per proxy. Big proxy aggregators give you a combined pool from a bunch of phones and there can be hiccups.

cchinta said:

Anyone done something similar? What worked for you?

Click to expand...

People really do work this way

Why do I frequently encounter human verification on Instagram? Is there any good way to resolve this?

If your goal is long-term account stability, I'd prioritize IP consistency over chasing the "perfect" proxy type. A residential or mobile IP that's assigned to one device and kept stable for weeks usually performs better than constantly rotating IPs. Frequent location or ASN changes tend to create more trust issues than simply using a non-mobile IP.

When providers say "unlimited IPs" they usually mean you get access to a pool and can pull a new IP whenever you want, not that you can run unlimited devices simultaneously on one proxy. for your setup, you need dedicated IP that stick.

You can test with several residential proxies and run them for a couple weeks on real devices with normal behaviors. See if you hit any flags. If residential gets you flagged, then maybe upgrade the flagged accounts to mobile and keep the rest on residential.

IP quality isn’t about being more “advanced” — it’s about being more stable, consistent, and human-like. Many failures happen due to over-rotation or inconsistent IP behavior.

For best quality try mobile proxies should work without issue for what you need