> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.reader.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Proxy Tiers

> Standard vs premium proxies: datacenter and residential, rotation, and when to use each.

Proxies are how Reader scrapes sites that would otherwise block or rate-limit a single IP. Reader supports **two tiers** with very different cost and capability profiles.

## The two tiers

### Standard (datacenter)

* **Fast** (\~50-100ms overhead per request)
* **Cheap** (pennies per GB)
* **Easily detected** by sophisticated anti-bot systems - the IP range is a known datacenter
* **Great for**: APIs, blogs, docs, news sites, anything without aggressive bot protection

### Premium (residential)

* **Slow** (300-800ms overhead per request)
* **Expensive** (dollars per GB)
* **Indistinguishable from a real user** - the IP is a real home ISP
* **Great for**: Amazon, LinkedIn, ticketing sites, anything that aggressively blocks datacenters

You'll use standard for the vast majority of requests and premium only when necessary.

## Configuring both tiers

```javascript theme={null}
const reader = new ReaderClient({
  proxyPools: {
    standard: [
      { url: "http://user:pass@dc1.example.com:8080" },
      { url: "http://user:pass@dc2.example.com:8080" },
    ],
    premium: [
      {
        type: "residential",
        host: "residential.proxy-provider.com",
        port: 12321,
        username: "customer-abc",
        password: "secret",
        country: "us",
      },
    ],
  },
});
```

Both pools can have any number of proxies. Rotation within a tier is round-robin by default (or `random` via `proxyRotation`).

## Tier selection per request

Two modes:

### Explicit standard

```javascript theme={null}
await reader.scrape({
  urls: ["https://news.example.com/article"],
  proxyTier: "standard",
});
```

Always pulls from the standard (datacenter) pool. Cheapest option - use when you know the target doesn't need residential.

### Explicit premium

```javascript theme={null}
await reader.scrape({
  urls: ["https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08N5WRWNW"],
  proxyTier: "premium",
});
```

Always pulls from the premium (residential) pool. Use when you know the target needs residential - don't waste resources trying standard first.

## Sticky sessions for premium

Premium (residential) proxies are typically billed per-request AND per-IP - cycling IPs on every request is wasteful and also tends to trigger anti-bot systems (real users don't jump IPs mid-session).

Reader handles this with **sticky sessions**: for premium proxies, Reader generates a unique session ID and passes it to the proxy provider in the URL:

```
http://customer-abc_session-reader_1234567_abc_country-us:secret@residential.proxy-provider.com:12321
```

The `session-reader_...` parameter tells the provider "keep this IP for this session." All requests in the same crawl session use the same IP, mimicking a real user.

## Flat proxy list (legacy)

If you only have one tier of proxies, use the flat `proxies` option instead of `proxyPools`:

```javascript theme={null}
const reader = new ReaderClient({
  proxies: [
    { host: "dc1.example.com", port: 8080, username: "u", password: "p" },
    { host: "dc2.example.com", port: 8080, username: "u", password: "p" },
  ],
  proxyRotation: "round-robin",
});
```

No tier selection - every request rotates through the flat pool. Simpler but less flexible than multi-tier pools.

## Per-crawl stickiness

During a `crawl()` session, Reader picks **one proxy at the start** and uses it for every request in that crawl. Rotating mid-crawl would trigger anti-bot systems on sites that track session continuity.

If you want different crawls to use different proxies, just call `crawl()` multiple times - each invocation picks a fresh proxy from the pool.

## Where to go next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Proxy Configuration guide" icon="network-wired" href="/self-hosted/guides/proxy-configuration">
    Practical setup for single proxies, pools, and tier selection.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Scraping Engine" icon="layer-group" href="/self-hosted/concepts/engine-waterfall">
    How the Playwright engine and proxy tiers work together.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>